Shopping in the local retail stores I always admire the fancy embellished frames but the prices are usually a little expensive.  In this craft post, I will show you how to take a simple and inexpensive plain frame and with a few simple steps you can have great looking embellished frame at very little cost.  Here is a list of some items that are needed:

Embellished Photo Frame – supplies

• An inexpensive plain frame
• 1 or 2 simple small items (these are determined by the subject of the photos)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Paint or stain (optional)

Embellished Photo Frame – insturctions

1. Select a simple plain frame, size is determined by the photo you will be using.
2. Remove the backing and glass from the frame.
3. (Optional) If you are using an unfinished wood frame, now is the time to paint or stain the frame.
4. Determine placement of the embellishment items on the front of the frame.
5. Once you have decided on the position of the item, attach it with hot glue.
6. Add glass, photo and backing to frame.

Here are some examples of frames that I have done for our home:

This first embellished frame is one of my favorites.  The silver painted frame with bronze trim has a picture of my mother-in-law holding a picture of my husband when he was a baby.  In the small bronze oval frame attached is the baby photo of my husband.  This is a fun way to highlight the photo she is holding.

The next embellished frame started out as a plain white frame.  Using painter’s tape, I taped off sections and painted three colors, blue, green and purple on the frame edge. Then I added a wooden prepainted “friends” to a photo taken at our daughter’s recent backlight party.  The colors go great in her colorful bedroom and sits on her desk.

In another embellished frame, I added a silver metal crown to the top of a silver frame.  The photo I used was our daughter wearing her princess costume from Halloween a couple of years ago.  I thought it was a cute way to match the photo with the embellishment.

The next embellishment is a simple wooden frame with a palm tree embellishment, the photo of our daughter was taken in Hawaii and I thought the palm tree was a good idea.

The next two embellished photos hang in our upstairs hallway.  The first is a large frame with a photo of our daughter and in the corner is attached cut-out hand print that she did in kindergarten.  The second is another large frame with her First Communion photo and in the corner I attached the silver cross that my mother had bought for her when she was born.

The final two embellished photos are a little more complicated.  The first one is a wooden photo frame that resembles driftwood and I glued several seashells that we collected on the beach in North Carolina.  Inside the frame is a photo of our daughter at the lifeguard station at the same beach.  The second one is another wooden frame and at the four corners of the frame I glue more of the seashells.  Inside the frame I created a heart shape with several fragments of seashells collected from the same trip.

I hope this gives you some ideas for creating some of your own embellished photo frames!