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Christmas Photo Frame

By Mary Shoebridge
Magic Stampin’ Bus
Beginners Stampin Team Designer

This frame project is beautifully decorated and incorporates techniques from both rubber stamping and scrapbooking.

Supplies:
Joy of Christmas Stamp Set (TAC)
Flourishes Stamp Set (TAC)
Acrylic Mounts (TAC)
Pinetree Green Memories Ink Pad (Stewart Superior, Corp.)
Palette Hybrid Inkpads (Stewart Superior, Corp.)
    Moulin Rouge
    Cognac
    Raw Sienna
    Burnt Sienna
7” by 9” Picture Frame with Picture Opening (Michael’s)
4” by 6” Holiday Photo
8 ½” by 11” Tan Cardstock (Kelly Paper)
12” x 12” Striped design by Amelia Decorative Paper Size (TAC)
Watercolor Markers (Tombow)
    Dark Green 346
    Red 847
    Gold 993
Folk Art Acrylic Paint (Plaid Enterprises, Inc.)
    Camel
    Tapioca
Sponge Brush for painting the frame
Paper Towels
Transcendence Embossing Powder for dye based inks (Faith Company)
Heat Gun (Milwaukee)
Tools Needed:
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
X-Acto Knife
Cutting Mat
Pieces of sponge
Plastic lid for mixing paint
Scotch Glue Stick (3M)

Instructions: 

1.  The first step to creating this Holiday Picture Frame is to paint the frame.  Remove the picture frame backing.  Place the frame on your work surface.  Mix enough paint to cover the front, back, and frame backing.  Mix the Camel and Tapioca colors together in the plastic lid using the lighter color to lighten the tan.  Paint the front first and let it dry.  Next, paint the frame back and, also, the frame easel stand.  Do one side at a time and let dry in between steps.  Mix additional paint as you need it.  Let everything dry well.  Set it aside while you do the stamping for this project. 

2.  When the frame is dry, apply some of the Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna and Cognac Inks to the frame front with a piece of sponge.  The objective is to match the goldish brown color used in the Decorative Paper for a background color.

3.  Stamp the Swirl Stamp Design with the Pine Tree Green Memories Ink randomly on the frame.  Stamp with a light touch so the stamping does not become too dark.  Stamp the Holly image around the frame by coloring the rubber images with markers, huffing your breath over the rubber, and then promptly stamping the frame with the image.  Color the berries with the red marker and the holly leaves with the dark green marker.  Repeat the design as needed so there will be holly leaves and berries in the background.  Use the sample for a suggestion of where to place the stamping.  There should be holly around the frame edges as well. 

4.  Cut the 8½” by 11” sheet of tan cardstock in half and mark off spaces for stamping the images with the ruler and pencil.  First mark a section 2½” by 4” for the tree; a 2” by 4” space for the two ornaments; and the remaining paper can be used for the saying and the strip with the medallion embellishments.  The strip for stamping should be 1 1/2” by 5 1/4”.  These measurements will allow you to trim the excess paper around the images. 

5.  Color the tan cardstock to match closely to the background color of the frame.  Apply the Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, and Cognac Inks using the sponge.  Next, stamp the tree design with the Memories Pinetree Ink.  Color the tree trunk with a brown Tombow Marker and the tree top with a Gold Marker.  After the image is stamped, promptly sprinkle the Transcendence embossing powder over the design, tap off any excess powder, and emboss with the heat gun.  When the tree design has cooled, color the line designs lightly with the fine tip of the corresponding colored markers.  Trim around the tree image to a rectangle 2” by 3 5/8”. 

Designer’s Tip: It is important that once you stamp the images, quickly color and use the embossing powder immediately afterwards so it will adhere to the ink. Then, you can apply the heat gun. This technique is outstanding for dye based inks. 

6.  Next stamp the two ornament images in the 2” by 4” space allotted for this stamping using the Moulin Rouge Ink.   Color the circle part of the ornament first with the Moulin Rouge Ink, and then color the ornament top with the gold marker.  The trick of this process is to work fast.  After stamping and coloring the image, sprinkle on the Transcendence powder, tap off the excess, and emboss with the heat gun.  Color the outline images with the fine tip of the markers omitting the hanger.  Trim around the ornament and set aside.  

7.  Using the 1½” x 5¼” strip of paper, stamp the decorative medallions and holly images.  First, stamp the swirls and holly on the strip to match the frame background.  To stamp the medallions, stamp the Pinetree ink first and proceed to wipe off the green ink.  Next, stamp the image with the Moulin Rouge Ink.   Dust both stamped images with the Transcendence Powder, tap off any excess, and emboss with the heat gun.  Trim the image to 1 1/8” by 5”. In this step, also, stamp the saying on the remaining paper.  Stamp on the swirls, holly, and “Christmas” saying images following the instructions in the previous steps.   

8.  Assemble the picture frame referring to photo.  Cut a 2¼” by 7” strip of the striped patterned paper from the Amelia Collection.  Glue this strip to the frame 3/4” in from the left side.  Glue on the remaining decorative elements with the glue stick.  Trim any paper pieces if necessary to fit the frame. 

9.  Insert a favorite Holiday Photo.  The photo used is a sepia print.  The print was done at CVS Pharmacy from a colored photo.  Place the easel back on the frame and close with the clips provided.

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