Hello everyone.
Michelle here from Adelaide, South Australia.
Back to share with you a little something different this time around.
I have started to work on decorating my new house with some of my scrapbooking work and decided that I needed some photos of my children to adorn the walls.
Now I didn't want to hang up ordinary frames I wanted something just a little different.
So.. I found this frame at my local discount shop and set to work with a little help from some of my favourite Helmar products.
Here is what I ended up with ..
So.. Here's how I made it.
Step 1 # Start with a plain coloured frame
and remove all the individual backings and glass pieces. Set aside somewhere
safe till the end.
Step 2 # lightly sand to give a distressed look
to the frame. I have taken parts of it right back to the bare wood. Once happy
with what you have exposed make sure you remove all traces of sanding dust. I
used a large paint brush.
Step 3 # Next I have mixed some acrylic paint I
had selected for my top colour on the frame and mixed it with a little water
and Helmar Decoupage Paste. I add the Helmar Decoupage Paste because it helps
the paint to adhere to the painted surface and because of this I have only had
to paint one coat of paint.
Step 4 # Once the frame is completely dry I
have removed two of the ply’s from a 3 ply napkin (the white unprinted layers).
I have then randomly ripped the patterned ply into random pieces small enough
to fit the individual frames. I have then randomly adhered pieces of napkin as
desired to the frame using a wash of thinned out Helmar Decoupage Paste carefully
using a paint brush (1 part Helmar Decoupage Paste to 2 parts water).
Step 5 # Once dry the frame should look like
this. I have then used a craft knife to carefully remove the excess napkin that
was hanging off the edges of the individual frames.
Step6 # Now this is where the fun begins. At
this stage I have grabbed an emery board and randomly sanded the individual
frames to expose the sanding I had done earlier and the base colour of the
frame. I then grabbed a background stamp and randomly stamped the individual
frames to give the base of the frames a bit of depth. Once I was happy with
this I gave the whole frame a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Fixative to seal the ink
then a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Finish to seal the frame base and
remove any excess shine from the adhesives.
Step 7 # This was where I grabbed myself some
patterned paper, recycled card, mixed paper and hessian flowers, mini glass bottles, a wooden leaf
template, some beads and some gardening twine.
Step 8 # Next I started to create the leaf
sprigs I was going to use on the frame. I wanted to make then to match the
frame in colours and finding bought items to match proved to be costly and
difficult so I set to work creating my own. Using some of the left over patterned
napkin from the frame I used the same Helmar Decoupage Glue wash to adhere
pieces of napkin to some recycled card.
Step 9 # Once the napkin layer had dried, I
then gave the whole piece a coat of a light wash of the paint I had used as the
top coat of the frame. I then allowed the whole thing to dry completely.
Step 10 # Next I used my wooden leaf template to
draw and then cut out the leaf sprigs that I wanted. I varied the length of the
sprigs to suit my needs. I then gave the sprigs a light wash with some metallic
gold paint to make them shimmer slightly. Once they had dried I sealed the
sprigs with some Helmar Krystal Kote Fixative.
Step 11 # Then the decorating began. I played
around for a bit with positioning and mixes of flowers till I was happy. I added in the sprigs where I thought they
fit the best. THEN I used a mix of Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots and Helmar 450Quick Dry to adhere the flowers and leaf sprigs. I then added some seed beads
to the little glass bottles and adhered then to the frame base using Helmar 450Quick Dry.
Step 12 # Once the flowers and sprigs were
almost dry I then began to add in some gardening twine. I just twisted and
turned it around the flowers and bottle as I liked to add another layer to the
frame using some Helmar 450 Quick Dry.
Step 13 # Once all the main elements were
dry, I then stamped onto some contrasting paper two different size butterflies.
I then hand cut then and adhered then where I desired using Helmar 450 QuickDry. I then added some gold kindy glitz to the butterflies and some beads using
Helmar Gemstone Glue to the larger butterflies.
Step 14 # I had already decided at the start
that I was going to use two of the photo frames for my title. So I cut some
patterned paper to 4” x 6. I then inked it randomly and lightly stamped the
paper using a script stamp and some Staz On. I decided to leave the glass out
of these two so I popped the patterned paper in where the photo would normally
be and replaced the backing pieces. I then added my title and the frame was
complete.
The finished frame with sepia photos.
Why not think outside the box a little and jazz up a frame yourself.
TFL, Michelle Wallace x
