It's Been a While - A Couple of Photo Frames Today

Hello everyone. I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted to this blog. I have been very busy with other priorities so haven't spent much time in my crafting room.

I do have a couple of photo frames to show you today, that I donated to a craft sale earlier this month. I picked up these wood frames at Michaels for $1 each. They suited the purpose, but I wasn't very happy with the stand (a small dowel to be placed in a small hole at the back), so I didn't make as many as I had originally intended. These would make a great gift, but I would invest in a better quality frame if I was to make them again.

The first two frames are the same, just different shades of steel blue cardstock were used.

I painted the backs and sides of the frame first with black acrylic paint. I traced the inside opening of the frame unto my cardstock and marked the outer edges of the frame on the cardstock with pencil. I cut out the inside opening (I found it easier to do this before gluing to the frame rather than after) and stamped the image 'Live, Laugh, Love' from the stamp set "Love Life" around the outside. Then I covered the front of the wood frame with 2 way glue, glued the cardstock to the front of the frame making sure to center the opening on the cardstock with the opening of the frame and then trimming the outside of the frame using a craft knife. I then sprayed the whole thing with a matt finish spray sealer.

The frame below is a result of:
a) not cutting out the center opening before gluing the cardstock to the frame. I trimmed the center opening after the paper was already glued to the frame and had a difficult time getting a clean cut (hence I had to add the additional black paper cardstock frame to cover the rough edges)
b) touching the front of the frame with paint on my fingers. I had a couple of spots to touch up with the black paint on the back of the frame and accidentally got paint on the front of the cardstock. This frame was suppposed to be the same as the blue frames above, but I had to change it to cover the unwanted paint. The stamp set used was a retired set called 'Make It Count'

For this final frame I used paper from the retired paper pack 'Miracle' to cover the frame and paper from the retired paper pack 'Perfect Day' for the rose. The letter stickers are from retired 'Silhouette' My Stickease.