Little Black Dress Frame | Tammy Tutterow

The secret to a fast frame project is using a frame that is already painted and ready to embellish.  Using a frame that coordinates with your pattern paper is also a great time saver.  When I want to make a frame and already have my paper selected, I usually go through my stash to find one that is painted in a complimentary color.  Not having to repaint or cover the sides with paper is a huge time saver.

If you are going for quick and don’t want to deal with wet decoupage glues, adhesive sheets are a great option for adhering your paper to your frame.  To use an adhesive sheet, simply remove one of the two backing papers and lay your frame onto the sheet face down.  Trim around the inner and outer frame openings with a craft knife.

Peel away the remaining backing sheet from the frame.  A super thin layer of adhesive film will be left on the front of the frame.

Place the frame face down onto the back of your pattern paper.  Line up the edge of the frame with at least one edge of the paper to help you get the paper straight.  With adhesive sheets, most are super strong and once they are stuck, they are stuck.  Try to be sure of your placement before placing the paper to the frame.  If you make a mistake, you can peel the paper and film off of the surface of the frame.  They won’t be reusable though so you will have to start again from the beginning.  Use a craft knife along the inner and outer frame edges to trim away the excess paper.

Use a sanding stick to sand the inner and outer edges of the frame.  Sanding will help blend the paper edges into the frame making them smooth and nearly seamless.

Place the large die cut frame from the Designer Chipboard Sticker set around the outside opening of the frame.  The piece is about 4×6 and should match the opening of most 4×6 photo frames.  I love how adding this piece around the frame’s photo opening adds a shadowbox effect with the leaves and vines at the bottom.

Place the “so very lucky” Designer Chipboard Sticker onto the frame below the right corner of the chip frame.

A simple tip for applying intricate clusters of bling gems is to cut out sections of already assembled clusters from Bling It designs.  On this frame, I cut four clusters from the Sky Bling flower and used them to embellish the leaves on the chipboard frame.  I used a craft knife to cut the cluster from the larger design.  Because the pieces were very delicate, I used my knife to pick them up off of the backing sheet and to place them onto the frame.

By cutting out the portions of the bling that I wanted to use, I was able to leave the remaining part of the design intact on the backing and still usable for another project.

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This project is so quick you could easily make one for yourself and another for a holiday gift!  How’s that for a win/win situation?