This is the Name Frame I made for myself. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you should probably remember this frame I made as a gift. Well, I had a couple requests for a class on this, so I decided to go ahead and make myself one and hold a class. My husband said I should take step by step pictures and do a tutorial, so I'm taking his advice. Here is my first tutorial.

First, you will need to collect some supplies. You'll need the following items:

1. Picture frame with (3) openings for 4 x 6 photos


2. Designer Series Paper of you choice. I used Le Jardin


3. coordinating card stock


4. vellum


5. vellum runner


6. Snail


7. temporary adhesive


8. foam mounting tape


9. craft knife


10. paper trimmer


11. assorted embellishments of your choice

The first step is to take out the matting of your frame and cut out the dividers with your craft knife. This will make one large opening for your name.

I sponged ink around the inside edges of my mat, but that is up to you. The opening is now wider than 12", so you must cut a 12 x 12 paper in 1/2 and match up the pattern to hide the seam.

Stripes work best for this because you can match up the stripes. They'll be camaflouged and therefore hide the seam better. Make sure you cut your paper so the stripes will run up and down.

Adhere your 12 x 12 strips together, matching up the stripes. Now your paper is wider than your opening.

Trim off the paper so it's about 1" wider than your opening.

Next, print your name onto vellum paper. I used the Monotype Corsiva font with italics. The size was about 80. If your going to put the first names or anything else, print that onto a neutral card stock.

Cut out each individual letter, and cut out different patterns of DSP the same size to put behind the vellum. Now your beautiful DSP shows through the vellum.

To attach your vellum to the DSP, use Vellum Runner. It's the only adhesive I've found that doesn't show through the vellum. Put the adhesive onto the DSP then attach your vellum letter.

Layer those squares onto coordinating card stock. I made each layer 1/4" bigger than the last.

Now, to get your letters on there straight, lay your paper on grid paper nice and square. Lay a ruler on a line, and and bump all your letters up to the bottom of the ruler. To make sure they're centered, find the center of the paper, and lay down your middle letter first. Make sense?

Now you want to start to embellish it. I chose a coordinating card stock, and used my new eyelet edge punch. Now remember, your opening is wider than 12". So you'll have to cut another piece of card stock and match up the punches to make a seam. Make a note that the card stock is about one inch lower than your bottom edge, to make extra room to attach it at top and bottom of the mat.

You can barely see the seam in the Always Artichoke. Make sure your seam is on the right hand side, because we're going to hide it later.

I chose these flowers from the Pretties Kit to embellish with. I colored the big one with my Bashful Blue marker on the petals and left the center white.

I used my So Saffron marker on the medium flower. I didn't end up using the smallest one, but it was Always Arthichoke. Sorry this picture is so blurry.

I used my blender pen to soften and blur the lines, adding and removing color until I liked how they looked. It was very easy and I love the results on the flowers. I then layered them and added a halfback pearl to the center of my flower.
I used my *gasp* Creative Memories cutter to cut out the oval for the first names and Bible verse. I really like how this tool works, and I haven't ever bought the Coluzzle. I layered Very Vanilla onto Bashful Blue, then onto Always Arthichoke. Once I had all my main pieces, I just started laying stuff out and moving it around until I like how it looked. I used the ovals to cover up the seam in the Always Arthichoke.

Once you know the placement of all the "Stuff", it's time to attach it to your mat. I used Foam Mounting Tape, folded in half to make it thicker. Attach it all the way around the inside of your mat. Then just attach your finished piece, making sure it's straight.

The Pretties Kit flowers were attached with glue dots after my main panel was attached to the mat. So were my ovals. I put Snail on the area where the ovals came in contact with the mat, and I put some mounting tape where they were supposed to be raised off the main image. Then you just pop the whole thing into your frame and you have a beautiful work of art.

If you decide to try one, let me know!! Send me a link and I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!!