Picture Frame Wall Hanging

Hello again!!  Today I am going to share with you a project that I created using picture frames.

I had purchased  3 1/2" x 4 1/2" picture frames that were in a sale bin for only 50 cents each.  Well, guess what I did.  Since I can't turn down a good deal, I purchased several of them.  Of course I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but being a craft person, I figured I would use them someday.  So I created a wall hanging by gluing 4 of the frames together.  My inspiration for this project came from a workshop with Vicki Boutin at the Prima Art Venture.  We used wood boxes.  I decided to use the frames instead.

Here is the completed project.

These are the frames below.

The first thing I did was to remove the stand and the white clasps from the back.  I kept the actual backs of the frames.  I then painted the entire frames with white gesso as well as the backings.   2 coats was necessary because of the colours of the frames.  I wanted lots of texture on the surface of the frames so I applied a coat of white crackle medium from Prima.  Let this dry completely and watch the cracks form.

Next, I selected two spray colours "tea stain" and "glistening waves" from Prima.  I did the tea stain first, and then the glistening waves next.

After everything was dry, I decided on my frame placement and then glued them together with a strong glue.  You can use a heat gun, but make sure that the glue is very hot.  My final placement is different then shown above.  I changed my mind when I went to glue them together which you can see with the completed project.   Next, I selected patterned papers and adhered them to the backing piece of each frame.  I then glued the backings into the frames from the back.

Then I went to my many containers of "stuff" and decorated the inside of the frames.  I used wood embellishments, metal, flowers, and ephemera pieces which I layered several into the bottom left frame.  I added a flower vine onto the left side as you can see.  I also added some glass beads here and there in each frame.  When completely done, I inked the outer edges of the frames with a brown archival ink and added some dots of dimensional pearls. You could also place a very small picture in one of the frames.

Here is a closeup of the inside of the frames.

I am going to do this again but I plan on using  frames in different sizes and more of them.  I will let you know how it works out.  I hope you will give this a try.

Until next time,

This is Donna wishing you a happy and safe week.

"Happy crafting"

"I'm not going to vacuum until they make a model that you can ride on."