Pinterest Challenge: Skeleton Key Art

I'm super excited to be participating in my first Pinterest Challenge! Every season, Katie Bower, Sherry Petersik, and two other crafty bloggers host the Pinterest Challenge where the goal is to take something we've pinned on Pinterest, put our own spin on it and blog about it. I decided to create some Skeleton Key art since I already had some lying around. I also had a spare frame, along with all of the other materials I needed. This project literally cost me $0.00...Woo-hoo for free things!

Here's how my finished project turned out:

Not bad for my first Pinterest Challenge, huh? I love it!

Here are a few examples of projects I found on Pinterest that served as my inspiration:

From here

From here

From here

To make my skeleton key art, I used the following materials (All things I had lying around):

- Some old skeleton keys

- A frame

- Hot glue gun

- Scissors

- A brown paper bag

- Some house paint

- A small paint brush

- Painter's tape

And here are the steps I took to make it:

First I gathered up all the old skeleton keys I had. They were all in a small plastic bag I had found at my grandparents' house when we were cleaning it out to sell it. It was quite the collection! I counted 45 keys in there, all shapes and sizes:

There was even one labeled with the name O'Melia, which was my grandmother's mother's maiden name. 

Then I grabbed a frame to put them in. I don't have a huge frame collection lying around and I wanted to use what I already had, so this one was the winner:

This also came from my grandparents' house when we were going through things / cleaning it out. It had never been opened and was still in the plastic wrap. Not the most attractive frame, but I could see potential in there. It has three slots for 5x7 photos and the frame color was an ugly whitish-beige. A little ornate for my taste too, but it was nothing a little paint couldn't fix.

I chose some keys that worked and arranged them in the frame until I found an arrangement I liked.

You can see I took the paper that was inside the frame out and arranged the keys against the cardboard back. I tried some scrapbook paper I had behind the keys, but didn't really like how it looked. I did like the brown color of the cardboard behind it, but you could tell it was cardboard by the corrugation lines. So I decided to do my own take on what Allison at House of Hepworths did, and I used a brown paper grocery bag for the background.

Only instead of cutting it into small pieces and sticking them onto the cardboard using a paper maché technique, I did the following:

1. I cut a few larger rectangles out of the bag (a little larger than the 5x7 cut-outs in the mat):

2. I crumpled them each into a ball:

3. I flattened then out and set them behind each of the openings in the frame mat:

I thought it gave it a very worn, antiquey look.

Then I just used a hot glue gun to glue the crumpled paper onto the cardboard, and the keys onto the paper. And I had the start of some vintage looking key art:

Since the frame I used is not meant to be a shadowbox, just a photo frame, I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to use the glass to protect it, but I set the keys with the mat, paper and cardboard inside the frame with the glass, and luckily, it all fit inside.

After seeing it all together, I still definitely wanted to paint the frame for a more contemporary look. It just looked a little too old fashioned to me the way it was. I liked the old fashioned look of the keys, but I wanted to balance out the antiquey-ness of the keys on the paper with a more modern, contemporary look.....So I decided to paint white and gray stripes onto the frame to make it a little more "my style." I just love the look of gray and white stripes together.

I just grabbed a few cans of interior paint we had around the house in shades of white and gray.

Then I taped off my frame with Frog Tape to paint some gray stripes. I didn't measure at all, just went by eye. I didn't really care if it was completely perfect..it is homemade after all. Any imperfections add to the character. ;)

For the gray color, I wanted a shade a little bit lighter than what we had on hand, so I actually mixed the darker gray Satin paint with white semi-gloss to create a lighter shade of gray.

Here it is with the light gray stripes painted:

Two coats later, I started peeling off the tape and painting the white stripes. I freehanded the white sections, just trying my best to stay between the lines created by the painter's tape.

 And here is the frame after two coats of the shiny white paint:

It was a tedious process, but I was glad to be done painting stripes! Finally, once it was all dry, I put the glass and the keys/cardboard back into the frame.

I really like how it turned out! The striped frame is my favorite part, but of course I love the keys, too! I think it's the perfect mix of old/new and it will look great in our home...as soon as I find a place to hang it. :) I'm thinking the bedroom or my office...but who knows!

All in all, this was a fun but surprisingly time-consuming project. It took me about 3 afternoons of work. I think it was worth it though :) Hope you like it! 

And don't forget to check out the projects made by the Pinterest Challenge hosts: Young House Love, Bower Power, The Remodeled Life, and Decor & the Dog! I'm linked up at all these lovely blogs, as well as the awesome ones below!