Winter Deer Mirror

I’ve had this idea rolling around in my head to make photo mats with Krylon Looking Glass spray paint since last winter, I even bought the spray paint I just never quite figured out what I wanted to do.

When I was looking around the Silhouette Design Store and I found this stunning deer and snowflake silhouette. The stubborn wheels in my head started turning and I came up with this idea!

Winter Deer Mirror Supplies:

❄️  11×13 picture frame with a mat for an 8×10

❄️  Vinyl Cutter + mat

❄️  Vinyl + scraps/painters tape

❄️  Transfer tape

❄️  Krylon Looking Glass Mirror Paint

❄️  Metallic silver paint

❄️  Sewing pin or Weeding tool

❄️  Paint brush

❄️  Scrapbook paper that matched your holiday decor

Instructions:

1. Open up a new window in Silhouette Studio. Draw an 8×10 inch box, then draw another box about 1/8 inch bigger on all sides around it (this is optional but I think it helps with weeding)

2. Go to your library and find the deer shape (or whatever you’re using) and double click to open it . Move it into the boxes you drew. Drag a box around the shapes to select everything. Center it all by clicking ‘center’ under the align tab, align it horizontally and vertically.

You might need to adjust your shape a litte bit from true center. The snowflakes on the side of the deer throw things off a bit so I moved it to the side so the deer head was centered.

3. Cut the deer/box combo on your vinyl, it’s only going to be a stencil so this is a good time to use that odd lime-ish green color you aren’t sure why you have. I actually used vinyl and transfer paper for this one, not contact paper and contact paper.

4. Weed the stencil, removing the section in between the two boxes and the deer head (be careful about the snowflake in the center).

5. Apply the transfer tape to the vinyl.

6. Take the frame apart, removing the back, the mat and the glass along with any filler. Using the photo mat as a guide place your stencil on the glass. Keep the whole deer inside the hole from the mat. Press down evenly and carefully remove the transfer tape

7. Carefully place the glass stencil side up on a sheet of scrap cardboard or newspaper. Mask off the sides of the frame with painters tape or scraps of vinyl/contact paper

8. Shake up your can of Looking Glass paint, then shake it some more. Do several light coats of paint over the stencil. There must be alcohol or something in this paint because it dries almost instantly. You can watch it go from wet to cloudy to dry in a few seconds.

9. CAREFULLY remove the stencil, even when completely dry the paint scratches if you look at it wrong. I had to scrape the paint off and start over because I was a little bit careless removing the original stencil. After the vinyl is removed set it aside

10. Paint the mat from the frame with one or two coats of silver paint and let it dry

11. Lay the frame down on a table, place the mat in first then the glass. Make sure the painted side of the glass in facing up. Add the piece of scrapbook paper, I went with a subtle red on red chevron to go with all the red I’ve got going on this year. Place any cardboard or paper that came with the frame on and then add the back.

If you’ve put it together right you should be able to see your face in the mirrored silhouette, as long as you don’t have to photograph it you should be golden.

Check out my Christmas Page for more ideas or start here: