Home decorations: personalizing your picture frames
Add your own touch to ordinary picture frames and perk up your photos or give as the creations as gifts. Some ideas of the types of pictures you might want to personalize are weddings, births, graduation, friendship, birthdays or even joining the Armed Forces. Picture frames that have a wide margin around the picture are the easiest to personalize.
Paint small wooden letters and glue them across the top or down the side of a frame containing a baby's picture. Then use wooden numbers to write the birth date across the bottom of the frame. Or, name on one side of the picture and date on the other side. Putting a name on a frame can work for any picture, not just a baby's. Family pictures can have the family name spelled out across the top, bottom or side of the frame. Besides names and birthdays, you can spell out "FRIENDS", "SISTER", "MOTHER" or "GRANDMA", or event names like "REUNION" or "EASTER".
Instead of wood shapes you can use velvet stickers to spell out your message or brass letters, foam shapes and even beads. Personalizing doesn't have to mean spelling and numbers. If a friend loves the beach, glue shells and starfish around a picture frame as a gift. A wedding picture can have small champagne glasses glued around it, or a garter hanging over one corner. Or, glue little "X's", "O's" and hearts around the frame. Kids school pictures can have pencils, erasers and a large "A+" glued to them. Or, glue "ABC" or "123" in painted letters onto the frame.
Use a permanent marker and stencils to write directly on the frame. Write "LOVE" in one color, "HAPPINESS" in another color, then "JOY" in a third color, around a picture frame containing a picture of your children or your mate. A frame for a favored pet can just list attributes of the dog, in black marker, like "LOYAL", "CUTE", "LOVEABLE", "FURRY", "FRIEND", and other appropriate words. Write most of the words one size, then an occasional word very large or italicized.
Purchase a frame that can be written on, like a fabric-covered frame, and let guests sign the picture at a wedding or anniversary. It's a great gift to give a teacher who might like one with her students' signatures.
While visiting a famous location, have a picture taken of you and others standing in front of the entry or a scenic location. Purchase a key ring or another novelty with the name of the place on it. Place the photo in the frame and glue the key chain to corner of the picture frame and let it dangle with the name displaying.
Put a picture in a frame much larger, then place items around the photo, inside the frame, of things that remind you of that day. A picture of you winning a sport event can include the blue ribbon, tickets to the event, the headline from the newspaper, or other memorabilia. Add finishing touches to the frame, like little metal footballs or a tiny trophy on each corner.