Frames with Customized Mats

 Hello!  I hope you had a fabulous weekend.  We did a bunch around the house and I barely had a chance to sit down.  I posted a couple weeks back about our {new chairs} that I am still obsessed with.  After buying the chairs, I really started thinking how we could decorate our entry room.  The room is so open/awkward with bigish walls, and I couldn't decide if I wanted a gallery wall or just a big picture.  The other day I was doing my usual...trying not to eat everything in the pantry and catching up on some of my blog reading when I finally found my inspiration.  The Beautiful Mess is one of my favorite blogs and {this post} about Patterned Photo Mats from wrapping paper was totally awesome!   The ONLY thing I did not love about their tutorial was that the frames cost more than I wanted to spend.  I went to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joanne's looking for a good deal, but could not find the size or price I wanted.  After my craft store defeat I headed over to Ikea to get 1000 more steps in, and check out their poster sized frames.  I ended up getting three of these frames:

Via

Now if you can afford other frames I would highly recommend it because the Nyttja frames were not meant to be painted.  I ended up having to paint them first with an oil based primer just so the paint would stick.   I did not have any spray paint primer at home so I just used a sponge brush.  After the primer dried I painted the frames with a plain white paint I had in my craft supplies.  

Up next I went on a wrapping paper search.  I was pretty excited at Target when I...

a.  discovered they have a new craft aisle

b.  the craft aisle had a 3 pack of paper that was almost the perfect size

c.   and a bunch of other things I really NEEDED!

:)

I had to cut 1 inch off the width of the paper so the proportions looked right. 

1.   Now make sure when you are painting the frames that the paper that came inside doesn't get bent.  Flip that paper over and use that for the backdrop.  

2.  With a ruler and double stick tape, center and attach the patterned paper to the white backdrop. 

3.  Center a 12 by 18 inch photo on patterned paper and attach with double stick tape. {I ordered my photos at Walmart}

I think they turned out pretty!  It is definitely the unique and not too busy look I was going for.  Our total cost was only $43!!!  We already had 2 of the pictures, and the white paint.  Alright, I am back to scraping liquid nails off of brick.  Aka the most fun that could ever be had. 

{Leslie}

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