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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Quick & Easy DIY Frame Ideas

Hello friends! How have you all been? Hot and sweaty with frizzy hair like I have been in this crazy humid weather?! And I have a cold... in the middle of July. What is wrong with this picture? I'm going on day 7 of being sick here people! I thought that being a nurse was supposed to guarantee me some sort of super immune system or something. I was very wrong. Apparently I have to earn that. However, I think I might be well on my way to earning it after being sick 3 times within the past 6 months. At least I can hope, right? ;)

Well, despite being sick I have been up to a few things that I wanted to share with you all! First, because I just can't help but share, here's a picture of the progress on our house :)


We have roof! And it actually looks like a real house now that the sides are up! We got to walk through it yesterday after the builders had gone home for the day, and it's so awesome to finally be able to walk through each of the rooms and visualize what everything will be like when it's all finished. It was really difficult sometimes to imagine what size certain things were going to end up being when everything was just an idea on paper. Now I can actually stand in my walk-in-closet and know that it's going to be big enough to fit all my clothes in... at least most of them ;)

I can't wait until we finally get to start moving in and making it our own. I can guarantee that the blog will be a little more exciting when I can actually share our home with you all. That's the reason why I started this blog, after all :)

One more thing before I get to the main reason for this blog post - I just want to quick share with you my most recent pallet sign. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw my picture of this beauty yesterday already, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet, here ya go!


I really love how it turned out, especially with the bird detail. For those of you who know me, I'm a little bird obsessed so it's not surprising that this is probably my favorite sign so far ;)

Alright now, onward and forward with the "Quick & Easy DIY Frame Ideas" as promised in the title of this post :) I actually have 2 really great DIY frame projects to share with you tonight. This first one requires a little more work than the other, but is still really easy and very inexpensive as well!

Materials you will need:
-unfinished wood frame from Michaels
-1 sheet scrapbook paper
-acrylic paint in coordinating color
-Mod Podge
-paint brush/foam brush
-scissors/razor blade/Exacto knife
-embellishments (optional)


I purchased this frame from Michaels in the unfinished wood section - it was only $1! I believe there are similar ones at Hobby Lobby as well, but I liked the look of this one with the rounded edges and the price was definitely right so I didn't search any further!

And here is what I turned it into! :)


Here are the simple steps to create a frame like this:

1. Paint the wood frame with acrylic paint of your choice. I used grey for mine. Make sure to get all the sides, as well as the back.

2. Trace the outline of the outside AND the inside of the frame onto a piece of scrapbook paper. Then, using either a scissors, razor blade, or Exacto knife cut the shape out until it fits as perfectly as possible onto the front of the frame.

3. Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the front of the frame. This will act as an adhesive to attach the paper.

4. Lay the cut-out scrapbook paper onto the Mod Podge and use a flat object such as a credit card to smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles under the paper.

5. Once dried, apply another thin coat of Mod Podge on top of the paper as a sealer.

6. Apply embellishments if desired.

And that's it! Really easy, really quick, and really inexpensive. I have a feeling I will be making a lot more of these... I have a problem with buying cute scrapbook paper even when I don't have a plan for it so this is the perfect solution!


And there are so many options for embellishments! I glued grey striped bakers twine around the inside edge of my frame and added a little bow in the corner to give it a little extra character but you could also add flowers, ribbon, buttons etc. The possibilities are endless :)


Pretty cute huh?

Now, for the 2nd DIY frame project of the night, I want to share with you how to make this super simple pair of frames featuring a line from one of my favorite hymns. You're really going to love how easy this one is :)


Materials you will need:
-two 4x6 wood wall frames (mine are from Hobby Lobby)
-scrapbook paper
-paper trimmer/scissors
-acrylic paint
-paintbrush
-sandpaper
-letter stickers



And here again are the simple steps needed to make this set of frames:

1. Paint your wooden frames with acrylic paint and allow to dry. With this project, it doesn't matter if you paint the back of the frame because it's going to hang on the wall anyways. It's up to you.

2. Once the frames are dry, use sandpaper to rough up the paint in the corners and on the ridges to give it that shabby chic look that we all know I love ;) You can obviously skip this part if you don't like that look and would rather have a cleanly painted frame.

3. Cut your scrapbook paper into two 4x6 rectangles with either a scissors or a paper trimmer. You can measure for this part, or just trace the backing that comes with the frame. I traced the backings onto the scrapbook paper and then used a paper trimmer so that my cuts would be straight.

Depending on the design on your scrapbook paper, you may or may not need to worry about this, but as you can see my scrapbook paper looks like wooden slats. It was really important that I kept the lines of the wooden slats in mind when cutting out my 4x6 pieces because I didn't want them to end up looking crooked once they were in the frame. With some designs this will matter and with others it won't. Just something to keep in mind :)

4. Using your alphabet stickers, spell out the words of the song, splitting the lyrics between the two frames. For the song I used, I spelled out "IT IS WELL" in one frame and "WITH MY SOUL" in another. You could adapt this project by using other song lyrics as well, depending on your taste.

You can also vary the placement of the words to give it a different look. For mine, I lined my words up with the inner sides of the frames and worked from the top down in one frame and from the bottom up in the other. I think this really makes the frames look like they are meant to go together and gives them that cohesive feel I was going for.


These will be going up for sale in my booth for now, but I think I will make another set to put in our home when I actually have a place in mind to put them. I really love how they turned out and I think the paint and scrapbook paper I chose is just perfect with the words. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it all just looks very calm, quiet, and authentic - just like the words of the hymn. "It is well with my soul." Don't you just love those words and the meaning behind them? I know I do.

So what do you think of my two quick and easy DIY frame ideas? Which one do you like best? And have I sparked any inspiration for your next DIY project? Leave a comment and let me know!

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7 comments:

  1. I love your projects! All three are fantastic! Looks like they will be great decorations for your new house.
    KC

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  2. Really like all your projects. Think the plank looking paper is great for the words you used. Enjoy your summer

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  3. Hey Lauren! I'm visting from Inspiration Gallery. I love the DIY Wall Art with the scrap book pages that look like pallet wood. How neat is that, I totally thought it was real wood at first glance. So pretty!

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  4. Thank you all for stopping by and for the awesome comments! I'm glad you liked the projects and I hope that you'll be back to check out some of the future blog posts as well! :)

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  5. Love these frames. I just bought some modge podge to try, haven't used it yet. Yours turned out so cute! I am definitely going to give it a try. You should come share, I am hosting my first blog party this week. I would love to see you there.
    Shawna
    http://dakotacreekchic.com/weekend-beautiful-blog-party/
    PS I am a nurse too :-)

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  6. My favorite is definitely the second one. I would love the pair in my home, anywhere! I do love the floral print on the first one too though. I love versatile DIYs!

    XO

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