Chrysanthemum Mirror

 Isn't it cute?   I love the texture and dimension of this new mirror.  It took me about an hour of hands on time to put together if that. 

I started with a 14" circle cut out of thin plywood.  You'll notice that the circle isn't perfect.  In fact, it's kind of badly done, but that doesn't matter because I'm covering the whole thing with rose petals.

I painted it red with basic acrylic paint.  Let that dry, and then traced three circles in graduated size on the wood.   (Luckily for me I had a platter, plate, and salad plate from a dish set that were just perfect for this.  If your dinner ware isn't quite so perfect you can make a compass by tying a string to a pencil.)

 For my rose petals, I bought the box of Wilton brand petals in the "wedding craft" section of my craft store.  These had organdy petals and silks so I was able to add even more texture and interest to my project.

I sorted the petals, pulling out the ones that were the best shape.  Some from the box were flat or were stamped crooked and didn't look great.  Then I glued the petals down to my plywood starting at the outside ring of petals.  The edge of the plywood is completely covered with the rose petals.  The bottoms of the petals did not line up perfectly with the penciled in rings on the plywood, but that didn't matter.  I just used the rings as a reference and eyeballed where the petals should go.   The organdy petals were glued on over a silk petal in random places.

 I continued around the mirror making four rings of rose petals.

 Then I glued down an 8" round mirror.  I used lots and lots of glue.  You can use either the hot glue like I did or a mirror mastic from the hardware store.  If your mirror is small and lightweight the hot glue will hold just fine. I had this custom cut for me at a local glass store.  It took them about 15 minutes to cut it for me and I got exactly what I wanted.  Totally worth it.

 This is a sawtooth picture hanger.   You can buy a package with several in it at the hardware store for a couple of dollars.   I already had these on hand.

 I just hammered the picture hanger into the back of the mirror a couple of inches from the edge.

 Put a picture nail in the wall and hung up my new decorative mirror.   The bright red rose petals look great with my red couch and red accents I have in the room.  I've got a small silk rose topiary on my piano, so the flower theme is already working for me. 

Cost wise, this is a very inexpensive project.  If you have to buy your plywood and paint, it will probably end up costing about $20 to make.  I had the plywood, paint, and picture hanger on hand, the mirror cost me $6, and the rose petals I bought for $7.50 (using a 40% off coupon.)  I have about half of the rose petals left so I could have made a much larger mirror without having to buy another box of the petals.   This size is about as big as I could make with the left over plywood I had.

It was fun to get out the glue gun again.  I'll have to do that more often. 

(by the way, yes I did immediately go back in the living room and straighten my lamp shade just as soon as I got my post up.  Please forgive my lackadaisical home decor.)