Anthro-Inspired Mirror Tutorial

You'll need:

Old phone book pages
Several colors of acrylic paint
Glue
Paintbrush
Sharpie

And of course,
A mirror

I thought I should probably have a 'before' picture, so you can see how bad it looked beforehand:


First, rip up a page or two of phone book paper. (I used up the Zs, because it's a fun letter for a last name...) Make sure you have a tidy pile, so you don't have to go back and rip more later. I used two or three pages for my small mirror.




Ok, now, take your paintbrush and start to apply glue onto the mirror. I found it easiest to start with the big places and work down to the smaller ones, so I would have the hang of it before starting the harder parts. And right now, you want to put it on in a really thin layer, otherwise it will get messy. Then lay on the first piece.



Continue gluing and laying on pieces until you've covered the whole mirror. Overlap them, making sure to put glue on the piece you're overlapping. And it's totally fine to go over the edges - you can cut that off later.
I used a small nail scissors to cut around it for more control:



Here's how it should look:



Yeah. It probably looks pretty bad at this point (if it's anything like mine), but before you fling your work in the trash, let me tell you that it really will look good in the end.

OK. Now, take your first color of paint (I used a sky blue to match my room), and using a dry brush, just slap it on kinda haphazard, and really just have fun with it. Go over the whole thing for a splatter look.



Now you can use the rubber stamp to stamp randomly across the mirror. I got it nice and inky, then stamped until it was dry. It makes for an interesting distressed look.

And I guess I don't have a picture for that step. =) Pretty self-explanatory, though. Just be creative with it.

Now, take your second color (I used a gold), and go over the blue and stampings.
Here's how that turned out -



And..I also took a black pen and drew a thick cross on the back. It's kinda silly, since no one will even see it, buuuut...I like it. =) I also wrote John 3:16 in the corners.

If there's any part that needs touched up, now's the time to do that. I used a black sharpie around the edges to disguise the peeling...sometimes adding more makes it look deliberate and adds more to the look. It kinda looks burnt, I think.

Almost done!! Now, take your paintbrush, and go over the whole thing with glue. Every thing. And this time, don't skimp. Slop the glue on. You want everything to stay in place. If anything is peeling, use your paintbrush to glue it down.

I recommend doing at least two coats.

Finally, you're finished! Clean up your mirror's surface and find a lovely place to set it.