Thrifty Finds Thursday - Bird Frame and a Surprise for Me!

During one of my Goodwill sprees, I found this 8x10 of a sweet little bird.  What's special about this piece is that the picture is painted, yes painted on the inside of the glass.  The background is burlap (puke).  It was only $2.99 So I thought I could give it a new home! Bonus: the frame was in really good shape.

First I turned it over to take off the back.  Dun dun dunnnnnn. Staples from Hell. And obviously improvised (read: too thick) cardboard backing.

I pulled and yanked and yelled at the staples to no avail.  I broke three fingernails.  And not the fake kind; the kind attached to my fingers.  That hurt.  

I tried to pry them up with the edge of my scissors. The evil staples bent my scissors. Seriously.  So I resorted to needle-nosed pliers.  

Alas, it seemed I could not even bend them all up without breaking two of them off.  

Finally, with one side missing staples entirely, and the rest of them loosened enough, I tried to pry out the cardboard.  I have no idea how the person who did this got it in there, but DAMN. Cue fingernails four and five. Crack!  I resorted to less usual measures.

Now I was sweating.  All this for a thrifty Goodwill find? But I would not let it defeat me! (Cue superhero music)

It only budged an inch.  This is a joke, right?

Weeeell, after 38 hours of yanking on the cardboard and swearing like a sailor, I finally got the back off.  Look at the lovely little surprise that waited for me:  

Squeee! Looks like the sun had bleached the burlap, thereby making a negative print from the painting.  I had to frame this.

Isn't it divine? Sigh :).  Ok. Back to the original project.  I had originally intended to make this scrapbook paper the new background:

...but I really liked how it looked all clear with no back.  So I bent down the horrible staples to hold in the glass.

I windex-ed the front, and carefully dabbed the back (as I didn't know what kind of paint it was).  I tried hanging it in several locations, including in front of windows or mirrors, but I decided my bedroom was the perfect place.  

I know you can see the staples and the hanging wire, but I was sweaty and tired, so don't judge me.  I took the above picture with the flash so you could see all the pretty colors.  But the best part was the shadows it cast on the wall behind it.  Here I tried a photo with no flash to show you just how it looks.

Awesome.  And here's the new home for my other little birdy - right by the front door.

All in all, it was a good thrifty find.  Two awesome creations for $2.99.  And a pair of broken scissors. And five broken fingernails.  Oh well.  All in the name of Crafting!