Yesterday I went to Michael's to do a little price investigation and thought I found this great deal. They had cork board squares on sale, 6 for $3.99. Seriously, there was a 3 in front of the price...I bought them. I came home thinking this will be great, I'll paint the chevron using the craft paints Ed has and it will look amazing.............................
BUZZER
Ok, the first fail was actually the last one I discovered. Of course these cork board pieces were only $3.99, they were as thin as a piece of paper. What good does that do me??? This fact didn't actually hit me until the very end when I wanted to tack something up. I couldn't. It would have gone through the wall.
Second mishap, painting the chevron wasn't as easy as I thought. The actual painting part was to be expected since I didn't paint the whole thing first then go back over with one color and painters tape. I actually traced my design onto the cork board with a pencil. Using the pencil started tearing the cork apart since it was about as thick as a stick of gum and every time I put my pencil in the same spot twice it did what I would expect a cork board to do, made a hole. Also, I didn't have a ruler so I wound up using my name plate from when I volunteered at Michigan. It was the closest thing to a straight edge I could find.
I also didn't like the colors I was using. I had the white which looks very crisp on the cork but my only other neutral option was silver and I wasn't really wanting the shine of the paint, I was hoping for something more muted. So I wound up with a shiny and white, uneven chevron on a thin piece of cork.
What to do about the thinnest cork in the world? I stacked a few of the thin sheets together and framed them. Now, when I say "framed them" this includes:
1) using a frame (with a boring painting) from the Salvation Army I bought for $5 a year ago
2) tearing off the back of the frame since it was sealed and I didn't look at this before I bought it
3) doing my best to take out the matting without ripping since it wasn't designed to come out
4) setting the glass next to me
5) caefully picking up and vacuuming little glass pieces after Ed stepped on said glass (his foot was fine)
6) deciding to paint the back of the matting since my cork board doesn't reach the edges of the frame.
Pictures will come later when I have good light, but now I have a shiny silver and white chevron cork board, tacked to matting I painted purple and then framed...did I mention the frame is gold? I think the word gaudy is appropriate.
Oh the joys of round 1 of cork board / chevron.
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