After hours, days and weeks of trying to find home furnishing in Cyprus I'm beat. Everything is all sleek and modern and as I've got older I'm definitely not sleek and modern. So what is a girl to do? . . . the answer is to spend hours on Pinterest looking for inspiration.
Back in the UK I have a wonderful Starburst mirror from Laura Ashley which takes pride of place in my livingroom. Sadly it was took big to fit in our air freight boxes so was left behind.
I struck gold on Pinterest and found this as an alternative. Who would have thought you could make a mirror surround from paper?
I did bring with me a cheap white mirror I purchased from The Range for less that £5.00 that I was going to use in the master bedroom. So this was going to be perfect to build onto.
I started by using the mirror as a template and on thick cardboard I drew round the mirror. This is what I would attach the starburst to.
I needed to find something suitable to make the starburst and I knew Crafters companion Centura Pearl card would be perfect. I played about for a while deciding on the length, width and angle of the points for the starburst and decided on three different shapes that I would use.
Once all measured and drawn onto the Centura Pearl, I cut out, scored and attached to the cardboard circle with Collal Tacky Glue.
Adding a layer at a time.
To be completely honest I was blown away with how it looked, I never imagined it would look so good.
Although I loved it in the basic white, and the mirror surround was white, I wants to add some colour. The room that it is going in is very large, bright and airy with loads of Cyprus sunlight flooding in. I was afraid it might just disappear once on the wall.
The colour scheme of the room is going to be grey and white with hints of heather. So grey was the obvious colour. Before spray painting it grey I thought best to give the card starbursts a light coat of mod Podge. I done this as I thought the wetness of the spray paint might soak into then Centura Pearl and warp.
Once Mod Podge was dry I have it a couple of light coats along with the white mirror and left to dry over night.
I attached the mirror to the surround with a very strong bonding agent and left for at least 24 hours.
Once hung on the wall above the fireplace I left it for a few days. I wasn't sure if I liked it in flat grey or if it needed some definition, in the way of paint effects.
After a fee days of living with it and seeing it in different lighting I decided it definitely needed to be "attacked" with some paints and inks. So I set about attacking it firstly with some dry brushing of white acrylic paint on the purchased mirror surround.
Then with my Pebeo Prism paints, Moonstone and Eggshell White I added paint to the pointed ends of the starbursts and to the purchased mirror. I also dry brushed some Tim Hotlz Vintage Photo for some depth and it was finished...
I'm so delighted with how it has worked out and will defiantly make a great substitute for the real thing...well until we move all our stuff over that is.
Hope you like x
