Smokey Says

Since I'm trying to focus on the last of the kids' room updates, I decided to tackle a little project that I've been putting off: matting and framing a great poster we found at the thrift store last month:

Yep, that's Smokey the Bear. We snagged him - in that yucky fame - for $3.99. Aside from not being able to resist Smokey, I thought the colors of the birds were beautiful and the message was sweet. But the frame was obviously not usable as is, and there was no mat. I thought about grabbing a new frame from Ikea, which would only set me back about $25, but since I'm trying to reduce and reuse, I decided to freshen up the existing frame and make a mat myself.

I grabbed a large piece of poster board from the art store for $6 and cut it down to size. Then I traced the size of the poster on the board and cut the opening of the mat just slightly smaller than the poster dimensions.

Once that part was complete, I did a quick prime and paint of the frame. I had a can of taupe Valspa satin finish spray paint that I had tried out for my chair redo but opted against, and that seemed like it would work well with the cream mat and poster image.

Here's the finished product, ready to be hung just as soon as I decide on a spot in the kids room.