Here is the latest in my “Crafting with Cabinet Doors” series.  (Did that make it sound official, or what?!)  My sister picked up this door from the “As Is” section of Ikea for $4.

Give the center section a light sanding to rough it up – allowing the paint to stick to it’s smooth surface.  Then paint it in the color of your choice.  I taped off the beveled edge and kept the paint only on the flat surface.  I wanted the black bevel to look like a mat on the finished project.  You can see how I painted the center part in this post here.

Now to make the “frame”.  I chose a couple of different coordinating scrapbook papers and cut them into squares and rectangles the exact width of the “frame” part around the door.  I laid them out to get a feel for arrangement.  Once I had them the way I wanted them, I moved them off-being careful to keep them in the same position-onto the table.  If you have spots where the papers overlap or leave small gaps, don’t worry about that at this stage.  We’ll fix it later.

Now begin Mod Podging the paper pieces in place.   Dry fit each piece before you paint on the Mod Podge to make sure the width is right.  If your papers are all different sizes around either the outside or inside edge, it won’t look nice; you want nice crisp, even edges.  Cut any pieces to fit; you want the papers to butt right up against each other, but not overlap.

When you’re finished, you may find that you have a few spots where you have small gaps.  Once everything else is secured, then you can easily cut small pieces exactly the right size to fit in those spots.

Now, leave it as it is, or go around the edges with a piece of fine sandpaper.  I also lightly sanded right on top of the paper to rough it up, but BE CAREFUL.  Use a very light hand, or you will find that the paper can tear off in strips.

Finish the whole piece with another coat of Mod Podge to protect it, and install screw-in hangers on the back.