Knock and the door will be opened

Well blogger friends, these are our materials for the project today. Gold frames bought at a garage sale for $2, burlap leftover from a previous project, postcards from San Juan Puerto Rico, and parchment paper.


I've had the postcards since our trip to San Juan a couple of years ago and I just haven't known what to do with them. I didn't like the idea of just putting them in a frame; that's way to simple. (wink)

I began by cutting the burlap the size of my frame opening.

Then I glued the burlap pieces to cardboard which I also cut the size of the frame openings. I used spray adhesive for this.

The postcards were too white and crisp for my taste so I aged them by brushing coffee
on the postcards with a sponge stick. You can see the difference it makes in the photo above.
My frame was too bright gold for my project so I used a sponge stick to apply stain and then wiped the excess stain off. This toned down the bright gold and gave me the desired finish.

I used the parchment paper to back my postcards and I also printed a verse to go along with my door theme. (You might have noticed all my postcards have a unique door found off the streets of San Juan. They all have such character. I was really drawn to the colorful old houses with ornate doors.) So back to the project, I also tore the edges of the parchment paper and inked them by rubbing the edges across a brown ink pad to give them an even more aged look.

You can see the finished project in the photo above and below. (Sorry about the glare of the glass.) The verse in the first photo reads, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find..." The verse, found in Matthew 7:7, is continued in the second frame, knock and the door will be opened to you."

I had another postcard from a visit to Paris several years ago of yet another door. I guess I really am drawn to doors! (I usually pick up painting, drawings, etc. on postcards when I travel since after spending the moolah for the trip who can afford anything but a postcard.) HA! I decided to add it to my other postcards so I aged it also like the others and framed it with parchment paper and burlap.

Since I have a grouping of doors, I thought some vintage keys and an old porcelain door knob would compliment them so I placed them in a vintage bowl edged with brown transferware and put them on my old desk below the frames.

One end of my table needed a little height so I found this reddish candle holder around the house. Reddish didn't work, so there was nothing to do but paint it brown and rub it down with a gold glaze.

And here is the final view of my old desk in my foyer including frames, candle holder, and an old dish filled with keys and a door knob. What do you think?

More work than if I went out and bought a couple of prints somewhere, but much more rewarding and I have an one of a kind display in my home. This project was also very thrifty and I knew Rhoda at Today's Thrifty Treasures and Susan at Metamorphosis Monday would be proud of me for that!