How-to:Shelf into Hodgepodge Picture Frame

Please forgive me for my absence. I have had the stuff for this item for a while, but of course life gets so crazy hectic being a mom, going to college, and working full-time in a job in Atlanta. I barely have been able to sleep the last two weeks. For my delay, I have a treat for today's blog, I am not posting one how-to but two how-to's. As soon as I get done with this posts I am posting a second one. It is soo adorable, cannot wait for you to this item and the next one!

A couple of weeks ago I bought the cake platter supplies and this awesome shelf you'll see below from the local Goodwill. I already loved the color, the minty green, and the shabby chic appeal. I also loved the price. I got this amazing shelf for $3.95! Yeah you read right. It was a great find. I knew exactly what easy way I was going to transform it into a chic household item. I transformed this dated shelf into a hodgepodge picture frame. Enjoy as I show you step by step how I made this adorable creation with around the house items!

Step 1: Gather supplies

Here is the incredibly ridiculously cute shelf! I would post the other supplies, but I literally just played this creation by ear, adding items to it as I went. I used a power drill, 5x7 pictures, a square cork board, tape, hot glue gun, a staple gun, thumb tacks, and fabric from my sewing box. Most all of it besides the power drill can be found at Hobby Lobby (you'll quickly learn I love that store.)

Step 2: Using the power drill on reverse, take the three screws out that hold the top part of the shelf together with the bottom. I am too chicken to use power tools so my dad helped me out with a lot of this project haha!

Step 3: Once the screws holding the top and bottom of the shelf are all out, it should easily come apart. Toss the top part of the shelf.

Step 4: Now with just the bottom of the shelf, on the back tape down 5 different 5x7 pictures in the holes that are just roughly smaller than 5x7 inches. You better believe I used pictures of Leighton!

Here is the back of the shelf with the five taped down pictures for you to see where each picture goes.

Step 5: I found this fabric in my fabric box. It was left over from a tote I made a while back. It fit perfect to make a backdrop for the shadow box area of the shelf. I used, well my dad did haha, a staple gun to put nails all around the fabric to make it tight. Trim the edges of unneeded fabric when it is all stapled down. 

Step 6: I repeated step 4 on the other side, mirrored to where the other fabric shadow box is. As you can see our plan went awry with the staple gun, it got jammed. With quick thinking, I thought of another solution! I used thumb tacks to put in the rest of the fabric. Trim unneeded fabric.

Step : With a glue gun you are now going to be gluing the square cork board onto the last open square hole. Line the outside square with glue and then place the cork board on top of it. It is okay if it does not fit the square perfectly. It works better if its too big.

Step 7: And you are finished! Step 7 is to turn that sucker over. Is this not adorable!?!!?!!? I am crazy about it. 

The finished product was used as the back drop to my craft desk, by propping it up. It has hooks on the back, so it can be hung up as well. I put some tickets where the cork board is using thumb tacks of course (they saved the day.) The fabric parts make a great shadow box for other little memoir items. Look how adorable my princess looks in those pictures, and you can also put small trinkets in those picture shadow boxes too. It is just one big giant memory board! I cannot wait to get my own place in about six months or so, so that I can prop this on the mantle or hang it up some where!