Frame Crafting Tutorial

You may recall back in the midst of the December Daily swirl, I mentioned a craft project at the Christmas Tea. This year's craft project was "Christmas Present Frames" from Craftily Ever After.  The Craftily Ever After version is, in very short, decorating an inexpensive wooden frame with craft paint, wrapping paper and glue.  I liked my resulting frame, but as often happens was convinced I could do better.  The problems I had were largely due to wrinkling of the paper as the glue dried.  The fault, I surmised, was largely that the paper was thin and I did not do a careful enough job when I set it on the glue.  Being somewhat of a paper addict, I decided to try again with some much nicer paper from my scrapbook stash.  I pulled some of my favorite pages from the Studio Calico (Napa Valley) and Cocoa Daisy (Poker Face) November Kits.  This is a great project for paper you really love as it will be out where you (or your recipient) can see it all the time rather than in a book where you won't see it as much.

Below is the adaptation I came up with which I used to make presents for Bill, Marilyn, my brother and Brent's Granddaddy (who got a special advanced version I'll explain below).  My apologies to Jamie who asked for this a week ago.  Hope this gets to you in time!

Paper + Frames + Photos = Beautiful Presents

Supplies:

• 12x 12 or 8.5 x 11 Quality Scrapbooking paper --
• Look for brands that use somewhat thicker paper.  Examples include: Basic Grey, Sassafras Lass, Studio Calico, Making Memories, Crate Paper, etc... Basically, just feel the paper and reach for something that feels thicker than your normal copier paper or the thin house brand paper (Hobby Lobby's house brand is Paper Studio--- the designs can be wonderful, but often less thick paper than some of these other companies)
• You need one sheet per frame you plan to make.  It may be easier to use 12x12 so you have more space to work with.  
• Consider somewhat small to medium repeating patterns so you don't lose a bit pattern when trimming the paper off. 
• Let me know if you want the name of the exact papers here and I'll gladly look it up for you.
• Wooden unfinished frame -- available at Craft stores  - I used ones with a 5x7 opening and surface closer to 8x10
• These vary greatly as well.  In her tutorial, she uses ones with a squared off edge.  This would be much easier to work with than the ones I chose which have a slight bevel.
• I chose the bevel/extra edge initial because the square ones weren't available at my store, but I ended up liking it as more of the paint showed for better contrast. 
• Modge Podge - I use the "matte" version, but either would probably work.
• Coarse Sandpaper (Sarah provided mine so I don't recall the specific number, but think it was over 100 whatever that means)
• Scissors
• Small/Medium foam paint brushes (2 - one for paint and one for glue --- or you could just wash them out).
• Craft paint -- A very small bottle of any acrylic paint will do.  It should coordinate with your paper selection. I used what I had on hand--- usually red or brown.

Optional extras -- Distressing ink, flowers, buttons, GlueDots

Instructions:

• Assemble supplies as this moves very quickly.  You may want to cover your work surface with newspaper or something so the paint doesn't get everywhere. 
• Paint the interior and exterior edges of the frame.  The interior edge is the small lip that is between the paper and the photo.  The exterior edge, in my case went from the edge of the paper out over the beveled edge and I painted slightly onto the back so no edge would be showing the underling color.  Let dry--- probably only take 10 minutes or so.  Check and see if there are any spots remaining and touch up as necessary.

• Apply a thin layer of ModgePodge to the frame an gently lay your paper on top starting at one edge and smoothing outwards towards the opposing edge, trying to eliminate any air bubbles.  Let this dry slightly (maybe 5 minutes).  Check on the paper and see if there are any edges coming up or bubbles under the paper.  If so, press gently to smooth them out and add some bits of glue to the edge to help it stick.

• Cut out the center piece of the paper approximately where the photo will go, leaving about an inch or so on each side.  You will remove this by sanding the paper around the edges as shown in the Craftily Ever After demo.  This requires slightly more pressure or strokes with thicker paper, but it is also less prone to ripping unexpectedly. 
• Repeat with the exterior edges.  If you have a beveled frame, it is slightly more difficult as you don't have a straight 90 degree angle to work with.  You may find that you sand the paint a bit in the process.  If so, you can either leave it for a distressed finish look or touch up the paint very VERY carefully before finishing your project.

 

• Once all the paper is trimmed.  Apply a generous coat of ModgePodge all over the paper (and if you want to, the beveled sides as well).  It will dry clear, I promise.  Here is where I typically panic and think I've ruined it, but it all works out.   (See Tracie's above for an example of the ModgePodge step and Sarah's for the finished project-- worked perfectly)

That's it!  A fun, easy, cheap frame that can be very beautifully made with the paper of your choice and supplies many of you have around already.

For the slightly upgraded version I did for Granddaddy, I simply added three small to medium flowers at the lower left corner with GlueDots and created centers for them with buttons and more GlueDots.  I added one more flower at the upper right in the same manner.  (Sadly, no photos of the finished version.  It is below at the top-right pre-flowers, but was wrapped pretty much immediately after the flowers were attached.)

I also did a bit of an extra treatment to the pink frame.  It is hard to see here, but it was a bit to "white" in a collection of frames with a vintage look.  I simply ran my Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad Vintage Photo  over the edges of the paper and smudged it here and there across the surface by gently swiping across the paper.  I did this BEFORE the final layer of Modge Podge so it was sealed in.  If you don't use ink pads to distress things normally you may want to try this out on scrap paper first so you can see what it looks like.  I'm glad to help if you'd like to learn more about this fun technique.

Enjoy and I'd love to see pictures of what you create!

Ps. Thanks to Tracie, Sarah and B for their crafting assistance as always!