Scrapbook Frame Tutorial

My husband and I celebrated our anniversary this month. While wrapping his present I needed a little scrap of paper to make a gift tag. I pulled out my scrap box and started digging to find something that would fit and came across the paper I used to make our wedding invitations.

I used some for the gift tag- my husband appreciated the sentiment (he recognized it, wonderful man that he is) but I hated the idea of putting this paper back into the box to be forgotten again. I loved it when I originally bought it and it really reminds me of our wedding but it was so small I really had no idea what I could do with it.

Then I noticed a few empty frames (I was planning to use for another project but they've been hanging around the craft studio for a while now) and realized that the paper was just big enough to fill a couple of blocks in this frame.

That got me thinking about using other mementos to create a sort of scrapbook style display.

I dug up some other things that remind me of our wedding. My favorite picture of the park we were married in, a leaf I pressed from our wedding day, and our initial that we used on a lot of things for the wedding.

To make one of your own start by getting a multi window frame and collecting a few items to fill each window.

Select a nice paper for the background (I chose a plain cream paper).

Then make a digital print or a color copy of whatever photos you want to use and crop them with a craft knife so they fit inside one of the windows in your frame (you want to measure the space so that the pictures edges will be behind the border of the window it's in). I suggest making prints or copies instead of using real photos incase you make a mistake cutting. I printed mine of glossy photo paper and it looked great.

Now position your other items into the different windows and glue them down with acid free glue. You don't need to cover them with a lot of glue- just a drop is enough to hold them in place. And you're done!

You could make these for any occasion. I have a nephew due in a few days and I'm already planning one for my sister. I'll put his name, birthday and weight in one window, a picture of him in another and a copy of his hand and foot prints.

Haunted by the forgotten impulse buy

You know when you buy something totally random at the craft store that you've got no plan for and hardly ever craft with- but somehow it makes it into your cart anyway. For me those little oddities often end up forgotten in some corner of the craft studio.

I can't remember the last time I painted on one of these unfinished wood items in every chain craft store but last October I bought half a dozen or so of both Halloween and Christmas ones. I've got snowflakes, pumpkins, gingerbread men and a haunted house, maybe a snowman or two. It was that weird time in the store when both holidays run into each other. You know- when you can find skeletons, cauldrons and witches in aisle five or go one aisle over and get snowmen, Santa and a box of tree ornaments. Maybe it was the disorientation of mixing holidays, perhaps a sale on wooden craft supplies but I was suddenly taken with unfinished wood and into the cart they went!

A few days later I put a partial coat on the house, realized how much work it was going to be to paint it inside and out, I also realized how close Halloween was and promptly lost interest.

Last week while poking around the depths of the craft studio I found it.

Remembering how excited I was about the purchase and what grand plans I had for it made me feel a little guilty so I decided to start painting it again.

It was a lot of work- I even had to put a coat on the inside since you can see it through the windows. Multiple coats, lots and lots of drying in between, and a ton of touch-ups later it's done!

Halloween is coming up quick and I still have a lot of decorating to do but I hope to have the project I planned around this finished soon- stay tuned!