Ever wonder how to display a mini piece of art? Well here’s an idea: on a Paint Dipped Mini Easel.

We recently met up with a friend who travels a lot for business. He had been to France since the last time we saw him and he brought us back a souvenir. This adorable tiny watercolor of lavender fields sandwiched between two pieces of glass and ready to hang.

I was initially going to hang it up on the wall, but it’s so small that I was afraid it will would get completely lost. Plus I wanted to showcase it in a more significant and fun way.

I went to Joann’s and got a mini easel to display it on. The plain wood is ok but I wanted to jazz it up  a bit. The main color in the piece is lavender so I decided to match that color.

Oh my gosh, I love this little thing, it is so cute!

I went to Michael’s and got a purple paint (Folk Art brand acrylic paint in 636 Red Violet). I gave the whole thing three thin coats of paint but found it was still a little boring and the purple was a bit overwhelming.

Paint Dipped Mini Easel

A little gold would look great with it and hide a bit of the purple. I loved how my paint dipped wooden spoons turned out, so I thought I’d give it a go. I used painter’s tape to tape off where the gold was going to go. Then used one of the best painting tips I’ve ever come across in order to get flawless paint lines:

You place the tape and press it down well making sure there aren’t any gaps.  Then you take the base color (in this case the purple) and give it a coat over the object and the tape. This forms a seal and doesn’t allow the second color to bleed through. Paint it with the second paint color (in this case the gold), giving it as many coats as it needs.  Then carefully remove the tape before the paint dries completely. It works great on walls too!

In order to not get gold paint anywhere other than where I wanted it to go. I wrapped the little guy up in plastic. Looks like a scene from CSI, doesn’t it? In order to get a tight seal, I took a plastic bag and open three small holes for the legs and slipped them thru.

It only took a couple of light coats of the gold paint (Rust-oleum Metallic spray paint in metallic brass).

There you go, nearly razor sharp lines (except for one tiny dot, that I later went over with the purple).

I am in love with my paint dipped mini easel, I think it’s probably the cutest diy I’ve ever done!

BTW: You don’t need to have a mini piece of art to do this project. Just take an interesting stamp, small postcard or anything else that’s small and cute and stick it to a piece of cardstock (leaving a border so it looks like it has a mat.  And you don’t even need the glass to display it on the easel.

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