DIY Tennis Racquet Mirror

This project is old.....REAL old.   Like I made this for my nieces' 13th birthday and she just turned 14 a few weeks ago old.

Better late than never right?  Or so they say

So my Katie is quite the little tennis star.  She's been taking lessons for maybe 4 years I think?.....somewhere around there

She was 13 and playing against 17 year old boys.  She was kicking ass and taking names like a champ....that's my girl!

I wanted to give her a tennis themed birthday gift and I came across this picture on Pinterest that gave me the idea

So I made my trip to Goodwill to hunt down an old racquet and found this (beware of crappy pictures to come)

I spray painted the whole thing a light blue

I don't seem to have any pictures, but then I put a few coats of  blue glitter acrylic on it

Then comes the mirror portion. I didn't have the time, patience, or ability to cut the mirror to the exact shape of the racquet like the inspiration photo.  I just went to Michael's Craft Store and bought a round mirror that would fit in the middle.  I kind of like the exposed strings because I feel like she could use it to hang earrings or something if she wanted to

I used the best glue in the world....E-6000 Glue

What I did was glue the mirror to the strings as best as possible, and then took a piece of cardboard cut to the same size as the mirror and glued it to the backside.  This way the strings of the racquet were sort of sandwiched in the middle and the mirror had something to stick to (the cardboard)


I decorated the mirror by gluing on some gems I had.

Get this.....those gems were from a kit I got from my older sister Heather for Christmas in the 3rd grade.  Katie was born when I was in 3rd grade.....so those gems are literally as old as her.  I've had them for over 13 years

But hey.....my theory is that it's not hoarding if you eventually use it......right?


Now I'm already a bad photographer....terrible.....no good

But damn it's hard to take a picture of s mirror! I honestly have no clue how to do it and make it look even remotely ok looking.  So they're pretty bad




Baaaadddd.......

Still bad

And you guessed it......bad

And while I was on this tennis kick I also made this sign for her bedroom

I hope that when she makes it as a big tennis star she remembers how her favorite auntie was so supportive of her tennis career.....remember that Katie! ;)


So now you know what to give the tennis player in your life.....I know how often people are on the hunt for a good tennis gift.....all the time I assume