Alright, so I had this idea kicking around in my head for a bit. I’ve got a bunch of old baseball stuff – you know, cards, a few signed balls, photos that were just sitting in a box. And I also had these plain, boring picture frames collecting dust. Seemed like a waste, right? So, I figured, why not combine ’em? Make something a bit unique for the den.
Getting Started – The Plan (Sort Of)
My initial thought was pretty simple: paint the frames, stick some baseball-themed pictures in. Easy peasy. But then, as I started looking at the frames, they were just… blah. Even painted, they’d still be just frames. I wanted something with a bit more oomph, something that screamed ‘baseball’ without being tacky. That’s where things got a little more involved than I first figured.
First things first, I gathered what I thought I’d need:
- The old wooden picture frames (various sizes)
- Sandpaper (because some of these frames were rough)
- Paint – I was thinking classic baseball colors, maybe some reds, whites, and blues.
- Baseball cards, old ticket stubs, bits of photos.
- Strong glue. Definitely strong glue.
I laid everything out on some old newspapers in the garage. Looked like a proper little workshop, I tell ya. My wife poked her head in, gave me that look – the one that says, “What hare-brained scheme are you up to now?” But hey, gotta try things, right?
The Actual Doing Part – And Some Head Scratching
So, I started by sanding down the frames. Some were those cheap pine ones, others were a bit better. Got rid of the old varnish, smoothed out the dings. Dust everywhere, of course. Standard procedure.
Then came the painting. I went with a nice off-white for a couple, kind of like a baseball. For another, I tried a deep blue. The painting part was straightforward enough, though waiting for coats to dry always tests my patience. I’m more of a “get it done now” kind of guy.
Now, the tricky bit. How to make them really baseball frames? I didn’t want to just slap a sticker on. I had some old, really beat-up baseballs. The leather was peeling on one of them. Lightbulb moment! I carefully cut some strips of that worn leather. My plan was to glue these onto parts of the frame, give it some real texture.
Getting that leather to stick neatly, especially around the corners, was a mission. Took a bit of fiddling, some choice words muttered under my breath, and a lot of clamping. But it started to look pretty cool, actually. Rough, but in a good way.
For the backing, instead of just plain card, I used some old baseball almanac pages for one frame. For another, I decoupaged some classic baseball card images onto the frame itself, around the edges, before sealing it. That took some patience, cutting out all those little pictures.
The Big Reveal (To Myself, Mostly)
Once everything was dry and assembled, I stepped back. You know what? They didn’t look half bad. One frame, the off-white one with the leather strips, I put a great action shot of my kid hitting a home run in little league. Another, the blue one, got a collection of vintage-looking baseball cards arranged inside.
It wasn’t a quick job, that’s for sure. More steps than I first thought. And yeah, there were moments I almost binned the whole idea, especially when the glue wasn’t holding or the paint dripped. But seeing them done, holding actual memories and looking like they belong together, that was pretty satisfying.
They’re not professional, by any means. You can see the “hand-made” aspect pretty clearly. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Something I put a bit of myself into. And they definitely don’t look like those dusty old frames anymore. Plus, it cleared out a box of stuff from the attic. Bonus.
