Picture frames with magnetic inserts

Here's another item I would love to have shown you before Christmas, but they were gifts for my family and I didn't want to spoil the surprise!

But today, I can share them with you.

I bought three frames, one each for my mom, sister and dad. I also purchased magnetic paint, purple spray paint, and slate blue spray paint.

The blue matches the grey and blue granite countertop in my mom's kitchen.

The purple is pretty close to my sister's favorite color.

And the magnetic primer is what I planned to use to paint the glass.

I sprayed each of the frames, and I put on two coats.

Then I painted the glass inserts with a paint brush. I did three light coats, which is what the instructions on the can recommended.

The thing you have to be careful about with that paint is that you can't just shake the can to mix the ingredients within. I had to use a big paint stirrer and really go at it. The magnetic particles sank to the bottom, and my first coat was weak because I hadn't mixed it well enough.

I can't believe I did this, but I wrapped up their gifts before I took pictures of the finished product. BUT, I had also done one for myself, so here it is in its final form:

I've really enjoyed using it to hold my recipes while I cook ... it's nice to have it propped up rather than craning my neck to read the recipe laying on the counter.

The whole thing took about three hours, including drying time for each coat of paint. I will say this: I originally wanted to have thin sheets of metal cut at Home Depot to replace the glass in the frames. However, they didn't have the tools to cut the metal with, and I didn't have shears at home that would work. So, Plan B ... the magnetic paint.

It works pretty well, but it would probably be less trouble to do the metal insert if you have shears that will cut it!