Easy DIY Picture Frames

H is for Handmade is having it's very first guest blogger today! I am so happy to introduce my friend Lyndsey to you all! I am glad that she was able to take a little time away from her day job with American Craft's and lend a hand in a tutorial! Let's give a round of applause to this talented and gracious woman!

Lyndsey Wells is the paper fiend behind the stationery place, showcasing a daily dose of beautiful stationery, DIY paper crafts and inspirational designers — but in real life, her day job is working in marketing for a scrapbook company and supporting her grad-student husband. she loves dessert, all things social media [follow her on twitter here] and curling up with a good book or movie.

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hello, h is for handmade readers! i'm lyndsey, and i'm here to share a fun and easy picture frame project with you. amy's craft room is currently undergoing a bit of a makeover, so she invited me to share one of my own crafty ideas in the meantime -- and i was more than happy to help! i LOVE the inexpensive and creative ideas shared on this blog, and hopefully mine will partially measure up to all the cute goodness going on around here.

i write a blog called the stationery place, where i post about all things related to beautiful paper products. so, i knew i wanted to share a paper-friendly project with you. i'm currently pregnant with my first baby, a boy, and i'm always on the lookout for fun ways to decorate his future nursery. so, with all this in mind, i give you my project:

the paper dino frame

first, gather up your supplies.

here's what you'll need:

- any size of wooden frame [i bought mine at michael's...they have multiple sizes of raw wood frames for $0.99]

- decorative paper

- mod podge craft glue + foam brush for application

- ribbon or other preferred embellishments

- the typical craft supplies...scissors or a paper cutter, a pencil for tracing, etc.

arrange the frame on top of the patterned paper in the place you want it, and trace the shape of your frame on the backside of the paper. you'll also need to pop out the center card to be able to cut out the inside of your frame.

when you're done, you should have a paper frame to match your wooden frame, like this:

now's the fun sticky part! get your mod podge ready. i like to start by painting a nice thick layer of mod podge on the bottom side of the paper -- the side that will stick to the frame. place the paper onto the frame and apply pressure so it sticks. then, get crazy with your glue! i paint all the edges and even on top of the paper, just to make sure everything sticks. once the mod podge dries, it also gives your frame a nice shiny look for an added touch.

by applying pressure as you mod podge, you can squeeze out any air bubbles that might pop up.when you're done with this step, feel free to place some heavy books on top of the frame to press the paper down while it dries. just make sure you put some wax paper over the frame so it doesn't stick!

when your frame is dry, feel free to embellish however you'd like. i put a piece of colored paper inside my frame as a place holder until i have a picture of my baby to stick inside -- and i tied a piece of ribbon along the bottom for a little extra flair. there are tons of possibilities for additional decorations; i just wanted to keep this frame simple for my little man. if i were having a girl, i'm sure i'd go nuts with crochet flowers or beads or something ;)

these michael's frames come with small dowels to stick in the back to help them stand up. here's what the back of my finished frame looks like:

there you have it! my finished paper frame. this project took less than an hour to complete [not counting dry time] -- easy and fun, with so many different creative possibilities! feel free to try your hand at different embellishments or paper; you could even mod podge a bunch of different coordinating papers all together. i like projects like these because you can modify it in a million different ways -- whatever suits your taste!

hope you liked my little project! thanks for reading...and thanks to amy for inviting me to say hello!