Frame It Up!

I am participating in something a little bit new today. New to me anyway. A group of my fellow creative types and I are having a little Make It Monday Link Party.

You may have come here from my friend Karen Fitting  who is showing us how to use Panstoria Artisan to make a 3D frame from your pictures. What did you think? Be sure to make your way through all the links today as there are some seriously talented ladies you really have to check out!

For my very first Make It Monday I thought I’d share a few of my favourite ways to take your layouts from ‘meh’ to ‘Marvellous’!

Adding a frame around a recent layout got me thinking. It’s something I do quite frequently, and today I’ll show you several examples, but I don’t think I’ve ever shared why adding a frame to your layout can be just the thing to make it sing.

There are many different ways to add frames but they all serve basically the same purpose. If the layout you are working on looks unfinished or as if your elements are floating on it, you  might need a frame. You will find it instantly grounds your page. All your photos, embellishments and pretty details are highlighted in a pleasing way by this simple addition. It corrals everything, emphasizes your focal point photo and gives the whole project extra visual weight.

Let’s look at some of the most simple yet effective ways of achieving this.

1. Full Paper Border Frame

This is one of my favourite methods and I could show you dozens of examples (like this one and this one and … you get the idea)!

Needless to say, this is the quickest and easiest method. All it requires is for you to trim your inner layer by whatever dimension you want. For this one I trimmed a 1/2″ off two sides to give a frame size of 1/4″. Changing the width and colour of the matte changes it from formal to informal. In my second example the paler and wider matte gives a more relaxed feeling to the layout in comparison to the one above with its darker and narrower frame. A frame doesn’t have to be perfectly square either. In my third example I used the pattern already on the paper to give the corners a different shape.

2. Sketch a Frame

What if you think your layout needs a frame but you don’t want to trim off any of your paper? Add a pen drawn border!

Another favourite technique and one that is easy to play with. For the one above I wanted nice straight lines to play up on the grid design I was creating with all my squares and rectangles. For layouts with a more playful or artistic feeling to them I usually draw my lines free form. This one and this one show this pretty well.

I don’t have an operational sewing machine (which is another fantastic way of getting a sweet looking frame on your page by the way) but love the look so sometimes fake it. This layout here shows that pretty well.  I also used a white pen against a darker back ground paper for something a little different.

3. Journal Around Your Page

My last framing tip today also takes care of another problem we can run into as scrapbookers – where to put our journaling.

In this example I felt the layout needed a border around it after I’d completed it, but I didn’t want to trim the paper down. My photo was too close to the bottom edge and the wording and arrow on the right side didn’t really leave enough room to cut off much. My solution was to use what edge remained as a place to write my journaling as well as hand draw a dashed border line.

And last but certainly not least, in this next example I have actually combined two frames. A patterned paper one with a journaled one. Go and check it out and then try framing up one of your own layouts and see what a difference it makes.

Okay, that’s all from me today! Now head on over to my friend Alice Boll and learn how to use your artwork on a scrapbook layout.

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