Sunday, December 27, 2009

Wrapping Paper Frame


Before the holidays I had a few ideas for recycled and reuse gift wrapping- but because I know almost all of us (me included) still use conventional wrapping paper (which can't be recycled) I thought I'd try a few ideas to reuse some of our paper from this year.

Idea number 1 is this frame. I saved a piece of this pretty silver snowflake paper ( I just love this pattern).


And I found a plain wooden frame at the craft store (for only 1 dollar).


First thing I did was trace the frame and all the edges. After I traced the basic frame I turned it onto each side so I could trace those then I estimated the depth of the inner edge and drew that onto the paper.

Sorry for the darkness in these photos- it was so gray outside there was no getting good light no matter how many lamps I turned on. And the reverse side of this wrapping paper is very beige!




I did trace this a little more accurately than it looks- the pen I used didn't like the waxy surface of the paper very much and half the time it only made an impression in the paper instead of actually inking it. It was fine for tracing... just didn't show up on camera.


You'll see here I labeled each of the areas.


Next I cut a 45 degree angle at the each corner of both the outer and inner edge.


Then I coated the entire front of frame with Mod Podge.


I realized that when I this the inner edge would have a bit of wood exposed on each corner. To fix that I put a small strip on wrapping paper on each of the corners before I placed the frame onto the large sheet of paper. Sorry but I forgot to take a picture of that- It was an on the fly adjustment.

After that little adjustment I placed the entire frame onto the large piece of wrapping paper. Lining it up to my tracing as best as I could. I found putting the frame onto the paper was easier than trying to place the paper onto the frame. For one reason the paper wants to curl up and having the paper weighted down flat produced less wrinkles overall.

Then I coated and wrapped the edges one at a time. First I did the short sides of the outer edge, then the long sides. Don't be afraid to pull the paper tight to get a nice smooth corner.

After the entire outer edge was covered I did the inner edge working in the same order- short sides to long sides.


The last step was to seal the entire thing with another coat of Mod Podge. Let it dry for about a half hour and you've got a beautiful frame.


You could do the same thing with paper for other occasions. I think a birthday frame with pictures from the party would be adorable. And one done with paper leftover from a wedding gift would probably be lovely.

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