Altered art - Wooden star mirror plaque

I have had a project in my head for quite a while now, to make for my friend who helped me out so much during my move.
The project went through a lot of modifications in my head due to not having the right tools or finding the right pieces to put it together, but finally, it came together a couple weeks ago!

I found a star shaped "tray" thing at Hobby Lobby. I forgot to take a picture of it before I added the paper and accents.  It was in the wood section and it was about 12" wide and had a white washed finish on it.  It has a frame around it so it looks like the inside is recessed in like a shadow box.  A nice feature to be able to transform it into something useable.
I decided to make the inside a mirror.

Here are the final pictures of it.

I mod podged paper all over.  Just various rustic styles of papers, like wood and old maps.

I had to find a way to fashion a mirror on the inside.  I was looking around at those cuttable mirrors, but felt those just probably wouldn't be reflective enough. I wanted a real looking mirror.  So I found this lightweight plastic reflective material on ebay, but it was sold as a square.  I asked if they could laser cut it for me to a specific pattern of a star.  They said they could for a nice cheap price for me, so I measured and drew up the star shape that would fit inside the wood frame, and sent them the Illustrator file for their laser cutter machine, and then a week later, I got the mirror star in the mail!  I was so happy it was a perfect fit.

Then I need to make behind the mirror a magnet... I tried those cuttable magnet sheets, but those weren't strong enough to hold a magnet on the outside.  So I used the really thin and strong eco magnets from Sun and Moon crafts underneath the mirror. I used one under each star point and then one in the middle where I wanted to be able to magnet a mustache on. This just made the whole star stay at the same level.  I used the strong glass adhesive from Sun and Moon to hold the magnets inside down and the glass star on top, had to let it dry for a day.

I used some mustache die cuts and also some mustache SVG cut shapes and made paper mustaches. I doubled up the mustaches, gluing 2 cardstock pieces together to make them stronger, and then a magnet on the back.  I made her 4 different mustaches so she can change them out and look in the mirror to "mustache herself".  Haha, just for something fun!

She can hang it up too.  I went to my hoard of SU Hodge Podge pieces and grabbed a couple hangers and found some tiny screws somewhere (that was a miracle I found them in the house!  I didn't have to go shopping to buy any) and managed to get those little buggers screwed into the back.

For accenting, I used the little rope (I think that was from SU a couple years ago) and some rusty florist wire (that I've had for about 15 years!  I knew that stuff might come in handy one day, so glad I didn't throw it out) to secure each point of rope.  Then I screwed in the metal hangers on the bottom for her to hang keys or something on.  That was a little hard due to the angle of the star, but I managed to get them pretty straight.

So on her gift, I used 6 of her favorite things on the star mirror (rope, wire, wood, old map, mustaches and star shape), and then I bought her a 150 yard roll of linen thread to add to her gift, since she also uses linen thread on almost everything.
In all, 7 of her favorite things used for her present.  She said she liked it, so it made it all worth it.  It was a lot of fun making this!  A long process, with all the inbetween drying times and waiting for mail order, but I just love how it turned out.
I may need to get some more supplies and make one for myself!

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I'll actually have some cards to share the next time I post on December 1.
Thanks for stopping by and visiting!