Not really a distressed frame - just kinda sorta

This was the last thing I had to do to get done with presents ... one of my girls is in the habit of giving me framed pictures of her family each Christmas, so this year I figured I'd turn the tables on her. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I read a bit online about distressing frames but they all go for the french country look and I didn't want that. The big round frame is for myself - it was solid black too and the design didn't show up at all (click on the pic for a closer look). I used the same technique on this as I did on the little frame. I think the sepia pictures will look much nicer in these new old frames!

So here's what I did .. I took the plain black frame out to the belt sander and scratched it all up. Kind of fun but scary at the same time - I mean, I paid good money for this thing! (Well, it would have been good money but thanks to the Black Friday coupons at JoAnns it was actually pretty cheap.) Anyhow - I hit all the edges and just tried to make it look kind of beat up. I didn't follow the rules for wear and tear, I just did this pretty randomly.

Then I hit it with some paint. I used some brown and some buff, painted it on and then wiped it off.

Then I remembered that I had some gold rub-n-buff creme. Never really used that before and it's pretty cool. I kind of wiped it all over the whole thing. Tada ... easy peasy!