No-Sand Distressed Photo Holder + Giveaway

I love finding new techniques to finish wood projects and I am absolutely in LOVE my newest technique that I came up with the other day!  It is a no-sand distressing technique that provides a beautiful, rustic finish to any piece of painted furniture without the difficulty of sanding.  I created a really beautiful new photo holder and used this technique to finish the wood and I just love how it turned out!

Here is my pretty new No-Sand Distressed Photo Holder!

As I have mentioned before, sanding is actually one of my least favorite parts of refinishing furniture or finishing new projects.  I don't know why, but I just don't love sanding.  So I was really excited to discover a way to get a similar look, without the mess or frustration of sanding.

Here is what you will need to create your photo holder:

• Wood Plaque, unfinished
• Minwax Dark Walnut Stain (or other)
• Latex Paint
• Rag for Staining
• Foam Brush for Painting
• Gloves to protect hands
• HomeRight Heat Pro Deluxe II Heat Gun
• Binder Clip
• E6000 Glue
• Hot Glue

First I want to take just one moment to tell you about this awesome new tool I just received from HomeRight!  Heat guns have so many purposes such as removing paint, shrink wrapping, embossing and may more uses!  And this little tool packs a huge punch, with two fan settings and multiple heat settings, you can really use it for many purposes.

Because I knew you could use this to strip paint, I wanted to see if I could use it to systematically remove paint to create a distressed look, and I was so happy to find out that it works!

First I stained my wood plaque with a rag and then I let it dry completely.

Next I painted my plaque with yellow latex paint.  I used one thick coat and painted it on very quickly.  As soon as my plaque was painted I grabbed my heat gun and got to work.

I carefully began to heat my paint up in various places on my plaque.  After only a few seconds, my paint began to bubble.  Once it bubbled in an area, I moved on to heat a new area on my plaque until I had several places on my plaque that were bubbly.  At this point, because of the added heat the rest of my plaque was dry too!

Then I took a scrapper tool and began scraping the paint off of the bubbly areas on my plaque.  The harder you scrape, the more paint will come off.

After a few minutes of scraping I had a really pretty distressed board!

After I was done, I placed a little bit of E6000 Glue and Hot Glue on the back on my binder clip.  No you don't need both types of glue, however, I wanted to strength and durability that E6000 Glue would give me, but I didn't have the patience to wait overnight or longer for it to fully dry.  So I added a touch of hot glue to create a strong bond instantly, and allowed the E6000 glue time to dry while the hot glue held the binder clip in place.

Then I simply added a bit of colored paper and a photo to my photo holder and in not a lot of time, without a lot of work, and without a single bit of sanding, I had a really fun and cute Distressed Photo Holder!

I love my new HomeRight Heat Gun and can't wait to show you other used for it too!

But first, I am really excited to be able to GIVEAWAY a HomeRight Heat Pro Deluxe II Heat Gun to one lucky winner!

Please wait until Rafflecopter fully loads and then enter to win:

Follow via | Email | Facebook | Pinterest | Google+ | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube

This post appeared first on Simply Designing.  All blog posts, text and images are subject to my Privacy and Use Policy here.