One of my favorite parts of traveling is buying souvenirs.
My husband and I bought this little (6″ x 8″) tile painting when we were on vacation in Mexico in the spring. (I blogged about our trip here, if you’re interested.)
We were walking after dinner one night when we happened upon a small arts and crafts market where there was a man painting these tiles with his fingers. The guy could do a painting start to finish in about 5 minutes. Did I mention he was using just his fingers? It was amazing.
We watched him work for quite a while and eventually bought this piece. The paint was still wet when we carried the tile off.
When we got back home, I wasn’t sure where — or how — I was going to hang our new memento. As you can see, there’s no hanger on the back. And I was a little leery about using adhesive strips. It is a tile, after all. If the adhesive doesn’t hold, the tile would shatter when it hit the ground.
Last week I finally dug through the pile of half-done (and never-started) projects in my basement on the off chance that I had a shadow box or frame there that would be (close to) the right size for the tile. Here’s what I found:
I bought this picture for next to nothing at a garage sale a while ago, intending to paint over it and make it into a sign of some kind. Luckily I never got around to it because, look:
The frame was the exact right width for my tile. Even the color matched.
All I had to do was mark where the tile ended …
… pry off the end of the frame …
… and cut along the line I had marked.
Unfortunately, I don’t always cut straight, so I had to sand off the unevenness.
Then I re-attached the end of the frame …
… and glued the tile inside with some e6000.
The tile fits perfectly inside the frame — and the frame has a hanger on the back.
So I am one step closer to getting some art up on my empty wall.