Darn it! Another brush ruined by an over-zealous kiddo or a stressed-out adult who decided to scrub paint onto their canvas. After many agonizing years of “hoarding” bad brushes while my husband asked me sincerely, “Honey, what could you possibly use those stiff, old brushes for?” I finally have an answer!  In this tutorial you will learn how to up-cycle re-used old paint brushes and paints to make a wonderful paint brush mirror. I’m using an entire bagful of bad brushes to create an artistic mirror with brushes surrounding it with wonderful bright colors. I’ll be honest, you’re going to need alot, I mean ALOT of bad brushes….at least 60 assorted or 90 small guys.

Items needed:

• 60-90 re-used old paint brushes
• Sawtooth picture hanger
• Acrylic paint and paintbrush
• Small mirror (around 5 to 6 inches in diameter)
• Glass glue or E6000 Glue
• Gloves to protect your hands from glue
• Room with adequate ventilation (due to glue fumes)
• Paper towels
• Something round to use as your mirror center.

Yes, my re-used old paint brushes were old and crackly but I always go for “extra credit” on these types of projects and I actually painted some colorful acrylic paint globs on them. You will have to wait a day after you paint the brush portion of the paintbrushes for them to dry.

Also, because of my extreme love of making projects more cumbersome than necessary, I decided to make the plain mirror a bit more snazzy! How? I upcycled acrylic paint left over from one of my paint classes and painted the entire edge of the mirror with globs of various paint colors. This not only added more of an “art” feel, but it also helped me cover up the the plain sharp edge the mirror had beforehand.

As the photo shows, I used Glass bond glue since this worked with alot of different surfaces such as plastic, glass, etc.

I again recycled some of my art “trash” by using a cap I took off a half-gallon of old paint. This white cap will be glued onto the back of the mirror so that all brushes now have a central point from which to be glued.

I didn’t have enough of the small brushes alone so I improvised and threw in some of the larger brushes as well. Let’s begin with the large brushes. I placed them where they are equally set apart and I began glueing them onto the BACK of the mirror.

Once the big brushes are glued underneath and in place, I began glueing the smaller brushes in between these spaces.

Important: This glue (and most stronger glues such as E6000) will emit dangerous fumes. Remember to either take breaks and/or keep the room you’re working in very ventilated.

You will see the brushes have folded paper towels underneath. I did this because the brushes needed to be propped up with something to support the weight of the brush just a bit so that they sat flush to the mirror while drying.

Once all the brushes are glued to the back of the mirror, I will let them dry overnight.

Once dried, I again went “green” and recycled an old aluminum paint can lid which will be placed and glued over the messy back side to “cover/hide” the white center. This also helps with glueing some type of sawtooth picture hanger so that you can hang your finished project.

Let’s take a look at our finished re-used old paint brushes creation! Repurposed brushes, paints, bottle cap and aluminum paint can top…Yay for the budget-conscious crafter!