DIY Brooch & Hair Flower Display

First of all, I cannot take credit for this idea. I stole this idea from a lady on Instagram. She took an ikea frame, painted it gold, put foam and cardboard in the center, and stuck all her brooches on it. Erstwilder shared her image, I discovered this cool pin-up lady in Germany existed, and promptly followed her.

As luck would have it, the next day I was in Lost & Found Thrift in Bountiful, UT again and in the midst of their Halloween display, there was a cheap black plastic hollow picture frame. A trip to Joanne's for some silver paint and felt, and I was ready. My husband bought sheets of foam at Lowe's--more like insulation foam, but it did the trick and a HUGE sheet was only 14 bucks.

The little black frame was simple to turn into a brooch display. I painted it, let it dry, placed it on top of the foam, traced a perfect circle, cut it with a knife, wrapped the oval with felt, and stuffed it snuggly within the frame. I used a little hot glue to ensure it stays but I'm not terribly worried. The felt made it fit very well.

The result:

Now I just look at my brooches on the wall, pick one, pull it off, wear it, poke it back in end of the day.

But this is small and I have so many brooches and I had so much paint and foam leftover..and as luck would have it again, I was in the base thrift shop and found this huge elaborate frame for 5 dollars!!!

See how big that is??? Way bigger than I needed, but these frames aren't easy to find so cheap. But then I got to thinking...I have so many hair flowers and they too have pins on the back...

I also found wall sconces for a mere 3 dollars.

I could have left them gold, but then they wouldn't match the little one up above. So I painted them. I had just enough paint left to cover it all.

Once I painted them, I measured the opening of the frame...16 x 20...and cut my foam. This time I used pretty duck tape to cover my foam as it was actually cheaper than buying felt by the yard.

I covered the foam neatly with strips of duck tape, placed it in the frame in the same location you would a piece of glass, and this time reinforced it with more duck tape on the back as well as glue. OH, I also painted the sconces at the same time so it all matches.

back

front

Then I put all my brooches and some scarves on it all!

The entire project was around 30 dollars and the tape was also used for some clutches and I have plenty of leftover foam.

Much thanks to that lady in Germany for the idea!