What to do with a thrifted picture frame, #1 - Embellish!

Stampington & Company, how I love thee...

So after getting the Winter Issue of Create with Me Magazine, I was inspired to do my own version of the room plaques in the "A Room of My Own" article by Lori Oles.



In the article, Oles does the artwork with her children (I'm assuming by their faces, they're older than my kiddo), but for my version, I did all the artwork and frame mods. I wanted to post pics mainly to show you what a bit of glue, trim, buttons, and fabric flowers could do to a $0.50 picture frame from the thrift store.

Here's what I came up with (sorry, no step-by-step photos...I'm working on that):



Yeah, the picture stinks...I took it with my phone to post on Facebook. But you get the idea, right!?! Here's what I did:

1. Choose the frame - Mine was a silver colored metal one with little tiny rhinestones (some were missing). I got it for $0.50 at the Thrift Store. I took the guts and glass out, cleaned it all, then let it dry.


2. Adding the ruffle - I had some leftover ruffle trim from a shirt I recycled for something else, and it was just the right amount. I used hot glue to affix the base of the trim to the frame, going around the rhinestone border (the trim wasn't wide enough to cover the whole frame).


3. Securing the ruffle - After I hot-glues the ruffle in place, I used Crafter's Choice adhesive (CC from now on) to glue the bias-tape part of the trim shut and to further affix it to the frame.


4. Adding the flowers and buttons - I have a bag of fabric flowers that I keep around...they're easy to make while watching TV in the evening, so I have lots. I pulled three "vintage" looking ones out of the bag and CC'd them to the trim.Then I picked out three matching buttons from my stash and covered the mitered joint in the trim corners.


5. BLING! - The little rhinestones in the frame weren't big enough for my liking (they were pin-head sized), and some were missing, so I got out some flat sparklies and the CC and went to town. I also glued some sparklies to the corner buttons to cover the button holes.


6. Adding the ribbon hanger - Once everything on the front was dry, I turned the frame over and glued some ribbon with the CC to the back to form a hanger. DONE!

The artwork inside was a different project, and I may go into detail a bit more about that in a later project, but I wanted to show you the frame redo first. There are several other things you can do with frames, but this was a cute, easy project that could be done as a gift for a little girl or new mom or as a project with a child age 7 and up (more help needed for the younger kids, but it would still be fun to pick out all the stuff!).

Now go make something!