I have two projects for today's post. One is this wooden photo frame that I altered with the 'Nightfall' collection by Authentique. The second is a throwback project made with the 'Harvest' collection also by Authentique.
The frame holds a 4" x 6" inch photo. The photo frame was unfinished raw wood. I painted it, adhered the designer paper to it, sanded it down & embellished it turning the frame into a super decorated Halloween frame.
The picture is of my son from 2015. He was a scarecrow that year & it was a year that I actually made his costume instead of purchasing it. A personal accomplishment. :-)
The 'Nightfall One' paper from the collection provided the perfect background to my frame. It was a quick way to transform a plain frame & I only had to add a couple of more embellishments to finalize the project.
I added three 'streamers' tucked in within the Halloween spray. They are 12" inch strips cut from the coordinating solids measuring approximately 1/4" of an inch in width. I simply curled them with my scissors & hot glued them within the Halloween spray.
The frame is sealed with a glittered specialty finish by Martha Stewart. I've had this type of medium in my stash for a long time & have used it to seal on various projects. I like the fact that it seals but also provides a shimmery effect to your project which you can see in the photo above.
The orange glittered border seen around the photo opening was created by adhering double sided tape (1/8" inch). Once the tape was applied, I sprinkled the orange glitter on top & pressed down. The glitter adheres to the tape creating an even border along the edge.
Here are the steps I took to create my photo frame.
I painted the entire back & sides of the frame (not shown here) as well as the front border of the frame with black acrylic paint. Once the paint dried I traced the design of the frame (including the oval opening where my photo will be placed) onto my designer paper with a pencil. Then with scissors I cut the design out.
Next I adhered the designer paper to my frame with Decoupage adhesive & ensured the paper thoroughly adhered to my frame--especially the edges.
Next comes the sanding. I sand all the edges of my frame to give the edges a nice finished look. For this process I use a couple of sanding tools shown here. You can probably use nail files for this process if you don't have craft ones on hand--I don't see why these wouldn't do the job as well.
This is probably what takes the longest when creating this sort of project since you have to go around all the edges--including the photo opening--with the sanding tools & remove any & all excess paper as you sand.
Once the sanding was done, I applied the specialty finish shown here. I let that dry & the last step I did prior to embellishing the frame was to ink all along the edges of my frame with black distress ink in order to make the edges stand out.
My second project is this owl shaped mini album made with the 'Harvest' collection. This collection came out a few years back for Autumn. I created this mini many moons ago but had simply never shared it. I decided it was time to share. :-)
The base of the mini was made with the use of a Sizzix Owl Bigz die (Item# A10165). Mini measures approximately 4 3/8" x 3 1/2" inches which is what the owl design measures once cut.
The album consists of 6 pages & the pages are adhered to the spine with hinges. This mini can stand on it's own & be displayed on any shelf, table or desk.
Mini is held closed with a piece of jute string.
I have not yet embellished the pages. I did leave about a 1/4" inch gusset in between each page which will allow for some dimension to be added to the pages of the mini. Even though this mini is small, you can still do a lot with it. It depends on how creative you want to get. You can add pockets, mini frames, belly bands, tuck spots, envelopes & other bits & bobs in addition to the small photos in order to embellish the pages. It's a work in progress. :-) Mini album will eventually be available for sale in my Etsy shop, The Midnight Kraft Desk. Feel free to subscribe to my shop's FB page in order to stay up to date on the latest items added to my shop.
I hope this project inspires some of you to use your dies in new ways.
Supplies: Paper - Authentique, Embellishments - Authentique, Dies - Sizzix, Flowers - The Midnight Kraft Desk, Other - Mulberry Paper Flowers, Mini Pine Cone, Fabric Flowers, Jute String
Thanks for stopping by!
