"Distressing" a Picture Frame in Under 10 Minutes!

Now that the Holiday's are over and all of my festive decor is put away, I find myself wishing for a more nicely decorated house.

Lucky for me I'm pretty darn crafty, so I have been a busy little beaver so far this week.

The hardest part about decorating is not being able to make any major changes to the house (we rent) but I a having a ton of fun sprucing up the place!

So, consider this a sneak preview of what's to come over the next couple weeks, as I redecorate, organize and share some awesome (and easy) DIY projects!

"Distressing" a picture frame the quick and easy way!

My goal when i redo any part of my house, is to do it without having to buy anything, and this time is no different! 

I love to reuse things, paint them, change them in whatever way I need to make it into what I want.

This time, it was  a plain black picture frame. 

(Imagine before picture here)

Seriously, I didn't think to take a picture before I got started, plus my camera died so it'll be phone photos for the time being.  

But, it was a plain black picture frame with a plain picture in it.

I can't giveaway my new kitchen theme, but let's just say, I wanted it to look a little different to go nicely with the room.

Here is what you will need:

• Frame
• Cream colored acrylic paint
• paper towel

That's it!

First, put a few drops of paint on your paper towel.

Next, rub it lengthwise on your frame.

It should look something like this:

Do this all the way around your frame.  I did the top only, not pressing paint into the smaller crevices or on the sides of the frame.  Give it a little dimension.

Last step, dab a very small amount of paint on your paper towel, and make an "S" shape down one side of your frame, on top of the paint that should be almost dry by now.  After that, take your paper towel (don't add any more paint) and buff the "S" shape until it looks more like random grain than and "S".

Repeat on each side.

Once it dries, and it shouldn't take long, add your picture and you're done!

Shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes for the whole thing!

I used a piece of an old rice bag for my backing, and a great picture from an old canning book. 

Total cost of this project, $0.00, because I used what I already had!

Recipe: Gluten Free Fruit & Oat Bars

The last two weeks has been crazy to say the least!  Between Christmas, New Year, family visiting, and every body's schedule being generally screwed up, it was exhausting!

Now that we are finally getting back to our normal routine, I played around with a new recipe, and it is YUM!

This is a great, not too sweet, east to customize recipe.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Fruit & Oat Bars

Crust
1 Cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Oats or Oatmeal
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Stick Butter, melted
1 Egg

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix well.  Mixture should be wet but crumbly.  Press onto bottom of greased pan, until about 1/8 inch thick.

Filling
This is totally up to you!  I used jelly because I have way too much of it hanging around the house.  You can use any kind of jam/jelly/preserve, or you can puree fresh or frozen fruit for your filling. 

Spread on top of crust, leaving a small space at the edge.

Top
1 Cup Oats or Oatmeal
1/2 C Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 Stick Butter, melted
1 Egg

Mix well.  This will be stickier than the bottom crust.  You can either roll this out between 2 pieces of wax paper and piece on top, or you can cheat like I did.  I flattened small pieces of dough between my hands and pieced them onto the top of the jelly.  Don't worry about gaps between your pieces, that's to be expected.

Now that you have it put together, bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.  There will be some jelly leakage, so don't freak out!

Let it cool completely before cutting and removing from the pan.

Now eat up!

Quick Tips:

• You can substitute applesauce in place of the butter and sugar, just be sure that your textures are right.
• Try adding some extras to the top crust!  I added large flake coconut to mine.  Some other ideas are nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, raisins.
• These will fall apart easily until they are cool, so try to let them rest for a while before transferring off the pan.
• Use a pizza cutter to cut them, super easy!
• For a quick dessert, heat your bars for a few seconds and top with whipped cream and fresh berries!