One man's trash, is another man's treasure!

So this past Christmas, my husband and I went to a Christmas party where they had a white elephant gift exchange. Each couple was to bring a good gift (under $5) and a crappy gift. Ben and I weren't so lucky and were one of the couples that went home with 2 crappy gifts. So after wondering around Hobby Lobby tonight looking for some ideas of how to decorate my house after I take all the Christmas decorations down, I came across an idea! Here is what I came up with...

So this was the lovely picture frame that I received as a white elephant gift... Now I know that someone worked really hard on this cross stitch gift (great job and props to you) , but the colors and theme of the pic just wasn't gonna work out in my house, so I decided to craft it up a bit with some things that I had laying around my house. :) 

I went downstairs to my husbands stash of spray paint and found some Primer, Red Gloss, and some Chalk  Board paint (the chalk board paint is mine:) ) 

STEP 1: Take the glass out of the frame. Place the frame on some newspaper (that way you don't have a lovely design on your counter when you are done) haha. And spray the Primer on your picture frame. Let it dry and if needed apply a second coat. 

Here is what your frame will look like after the primer is on...

STEP 2: While the primer was drying I decided to spray paint the glass. Take the chalk board spray paint (or even the chalk board paint you get in a can) and apply it to the glass. I made sure to clean the glass with window cleaner before applying the spray paint that way it gets all the dirt, and dust off of it for a smooth clean surface. 

Here is what it looked like after I spray painted the glass. 

 Once the Primer is dry (which only took a few minutes..ok maybe 5 or 10 min but I was doing laundry in the middle of my craft time so it didn't seem like that long ) haha. 

STEP 3: Apply the colored spray paint. Now you can use whatever color or finish you would like. I used a Red Gloss because I have red accent colors in my house and gloss was the kind that we had in our basement. But either Matte or Gloss finish will work. 

This is what your frame will look like after you spray paint it the color you want. Now this one took a bit longer to dry. I actually put a fan on both the chalk board glass paint, and the frame to speed up the drying process. 

And Ta-Da now you have a nice chalk board with a cute frame. :) 

Here is what I did with mine :) I saw a sign like this in Hobby Lobby and thought it was super cute, and figured why buy it when I can make it :) 

 a more head on view

And there ya have it, a super easy and quick project that you can do in between loads of laundry to pass the time by :)