Rescuing Glass Mirror Panels

What a fine looking piece of glass! I graciously accepted several pieces of square mirror from a family member who is in the process of renovating a house. He has a gift for seeing the potential in less-than-desirable homes while I often have a gift for seeing the beauty in, well, junk.

When I asked what he would charge per piece for these mirrors as he was prying them from the wall, he said "Nothing , they're going in the dumpster, but what in the world do you want to do with them?!" Oh, my mind shifted into overdrive immediately as I considered the possibilities. I could use them for wedding centerpieces, I could etch them, they could be framed, or I might possibly do that egg carton rose thing that I saw on Facebook just the other day. But instead I went my own way for the first one.

Because they had been affixed to a living room wall for who knows how long with some sort of adhesive strip, the first order of business was removing said adhesive. For this task, I called in the giant bottle of Goo Gone and a Pampered Chef scraper. Once that mess was wiped up, the mirror was flipped over and I got down to the business of hot gluing on velvet ribbon around the perimeter of the mirror. In one corner, I placed a bow with a flower in the center. Each of the other three corners holds one to two flowers made from ribbon. Some are simply rolled up ribbon while others involved pulling the wire from one side of the ribbon and bunching up the ribbon to create a different floral shape.

To embellish this much smaller piece of glass, I decided to cut out letters that spell the word "beauty" from scrapbook paper. Using a patterned paper and Mod Podge, I bordered the top and bottom of the mirror, wrapping the paper around the edges to soften their harshness.

To finish any of these projects, the mirrors could either be mounted on an MDF framework or have a picture hanger permanently glued to the back. Either would make the finished product secure for hanging on a wall.