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Picture Puzzle Frames – Confused Yet?
April 24th, 2006
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A friend of mine is in the process of buying house in California. This will be her “landing” home – a home she picked after testing the waters in California for years by renting, while owning a house in the Mid-West. Time for her to sell that mid-west house, move out of that rental, and move IN to her West Coast “home”.
Her favorite relaxing past-time is making jigsaw puzzles. From what I hear, there aren’t too many people who are still “in to” jigsaw puzzles, but I don’t put a lot of stock into that particular bit of trivia. LOTS of jigsaw puzzles are still being designed and sold.
When thinking about a housewarming gift for her, I came upon the idea of combining her favorite pastime with a special photo, and thus creating a truly unique, personalized gift for her. These are what I started with:
* A 550 piece puzzle, although only about 60 puzzle pieces were needed. You can make several of these frames from the same puzzle. Maybe a collection of matching frames would be a nice gift for someone you care about?
* A frame – mine would hold a 5×7 mat
* That 5×7 mat
* Your photo
* Hot glue and glue sticks
* Brown craft paper
* Picture hanger
Alrighty, time to put these parts together. You’ll start by using the glue gun to glue the puzzle pieces on your frame. My design used three rows of puzzle pieces. The first row was glued straight around the frame – parallel to the frame sides.
The second row was glued at a 45 degree angle, facing right. The third row over-lapped that row, at a 45 degree angle, facing left. Click on the picture to see what I mean.
Now, you just drop your mat in, followed by your picture – centered in your mat’s opening. Once you like how this all looks, it’s time to glue on your brown craft paper to the back of your frame.
Cut the craft paper so that it fits on the back of your frame, but does not overlap the edges. I used hot glue to glue mine down. I applied glue to one short edge and smoothed it down. I then applied glue to both long sides at even increments – if I applied glue for 2 inches on one side, I did the same on the other.
There’s a good reason for this. You are more likely to have a smooth finish if you apply your glue this way.
Once the frame is all dry, put a picture hanger on the back, wrap your frame, and give it to the puzzle-lover in your life. Mine goes in the mail next week.
Your Frugal Decorating Diva,
Nancy
