Frame Solutions

A few months ago, I took my friend's family pictures.

I hadn't gotten around to editing all of them (we took them right before the holidays - that's my excuse!) and this week my friend's birthday rolled around.

I thought, perfect!  I can edit, print and frame one of the pics for her birthday present!

I get almost all of my frames at the thrift store.

You can get high-quality frames that are solid wood for SO CHEAP!

And most of them just need a little coat of paint to look great.

So I found a frame (it was a pinkish/peachy color) and spray painted it.

It was FREEZING outside when I painted it.  Needless to say, the paint wasn't drying right.  But you know what?  I like how it turned out!  It looks like I distressed it, and I didn't have to do any of the distressing myself - score!  You can see it in the pics below.

Here's a pic to show the "before" color - I forgot to take a pic of the frame and the beautiful pic that was in it before :)  But here's a pic of the mat.  It matched the frame almost exactly:

I bought a white mat at the store.  When I put the mat and picture together in the frame, the frame was too big!  It was supposed to be an 11x14, but it was more like a 12x14.  There was an extra 1/2 inch on either side of the mat that you could see through the glass.

 {It's kind of hard to see in the pic above . . .}

{but you can totally see it here}

I was ready to go buy a new frame.  Then I thought there had to be something I could do so that I could use that frame!

I opened my ribbon cabinet and saw the perfect ribbon to line the mat with!

So I cut the ribbon to fit down the mat:

I wrapped the ends around the mat and hot glued it:

And here's what it looked like:

After putting it in the frame, I thought it turned out great!  It added a little bit of style to the picture.  

Here's a close-up:

And the whole frame again:

It solved my problem and made the picture even better!

When you're in a crafting dilemma, use your creativity to solve your problem!  I saved myself money by not having to buy another frame {plus the time I spent spray-painting}.

Happy crafting!