A Girl With A Glue Gun!

Emma and I have been crafting away the last few weeks and hopefully I will get to share many more projects that are fun to do! This week I am sharing decorative frames. I love frames and the one thing I have around my house is extra  everything! So we decided to take our "extras" and glue it to a frame. Back in May I went to a few garage sales and found 8x10 frames for $.25 each. I painted them and used them for Brody's party. But now I wanted to dress them up. Add some memories to them and our extras.

What we used:
hot glue gun
fabric
straight razor
shells
frames

The first frame we worked on was our memory frame from Emma's vacation. This was the easiest project. We started with cracked shells and flat shells. Gluing them side by side. We finished it off with taking the nice shells and gluing them in the cracks. Sadly we ran out of shells but we can add more next time!

Final Result with one of my senior models as the example.

Ok for the last project we covered our frames with fabric. I have so much fabric left from sewing projects and thought it would be great to use the "extra" to jazz up the frame. First I hot glue all around the front of the frame. Then I wrap the fabric around the front opening and stretching it around to the back. Fold in the sides of the fabric and glue along the edges. (you could cut the outside edges and then fold in as a different option). Next I take a straight edge razor and cut the opening where the picture shows. Finally I cut small slits and glue the inside edges in the frame. Set to dry for 24 hours.

So you don't want to use it as a frame.....then do not cut the opening and make several of them to hang on the wall. I will show my final results once I get mine up!

Do it yourself Flower Mat

As a photographer you know that your business is a big investment. I am constantly finding new things to spend my money on. However, it looks easy to make then I go for it. The flower mat is popular among some photographer's. I use mine maily for backdrops.

Here are the instructions on how to make one!
Everything can be picked up at Michaels.

1 package of FELT (46"x44") $2.99
1 bottle of spray adhesive ($7.99)
2 flower vines ($3.99 ea.) or 12 fluffy flowers by the stem ($2.50 ea)
Wire cutters

Step 1
Take the flowers off the vine your purchase and cut the stubs off with wire cutters. This will allow for a flat surface and will stick better to the felt.

Step 2
Spray adhesive starting with one row and pushing flowers in place. I prefer to work front to back but it does not matter. Keep doing this until your felt is completely covered. If you are using fluffy flowers I suggest keeping a small middle spot open for your subject to lay. Then also hold back a few spare flowers to place on top of baby if needed.

Step 3
Lay flat to dry 24 hours

Here is Brody with my flower mat being used at a backdrop. Just something different to try out especially because I don't normally put boys laying on the mat.