Paper Mosaic Picture Frame

When I first saw Mari’s kit, Thrifty Finds, I was in love! I was so drawn to those gorgeous papers! I had the perfect project in mind – a great vintage-inspired frame. I think it’s so much fun to bring my favorite digi designs out of the computer and into my home where I can ooh and aah over them every day So, grab your favorite papers & join me for this easy, fun project!

What you’ll need first is a frame. Let’s talk about that for a moment, shall we? Your frame can be old, new, or anywhere in between, but what it must be is flat (i.e. the frame needs to have a flat front for you to decorate). My frame is an old one that I had in my stash. It was covered in a crackle finish and in desperate need of an upgrade.

You’ll want to first prepare your frame. If you’re dealing with a lovely canvas such as my “distressed” frame here, you’ll want to sand it a bit and ~~perhaps~~ definitely repaint. If you’re starting with a brand new frame, you may still want to sand the surface just a wee bit so that the Mod Podge adheres easily later on. If you have raw wood, you’re probably good to go…unless you want it painted.

In short, get a flat frame and get it ready to play.

To continue on this beautiful adventure, you’ll need:

Mod Podge
Digi papers that you can’t live without
Triple Thick (or other gloss sealer)
small paint brush
a ruler. Yep, this is a craft with math.

1) Measure your frame. You need the length and width of each side. Once you have the length for each side, decide how many “tiles” you’ll want on each section of the frame. I went with three, so I divided the length of each side by 3. That’s my length for each tile and the width is the width of the frame. (My tiles were 1.5″ x 2.2″ and 1.5″ x 2.6″.)

2) Next, create a blank canvas for yourself in Photoshop and use the shape tool to create boxes in the size that your tiles will be. You can see below that I created my boxes and then arranged them as they would appear on my frame. This really helped me in the next step.

3) Begin clipping your papers to your boxes. You’ll likely want to decrease the size of some of your papers. Some designs have a scale that lend themselves to larger areas. Play around with your paper choices and their position here where it’s nice & easy to hit Cntrl+z!

Here’s Mari’s awesome kit that I’m using for this project

4) Print your papers & cut out. (I used Canon Matte Photo Paper.)

5) Lay your tiles down on your frame and make and adjustments necessary before you start to glue. (I ended up having to trim down a couple pieces. Stinkin’ math.)

6) Paint a thin coat of Mod Podge on the back side of each tile and adhere it to the frame. Be certain that there are no air bubbles in your papers. Let dry, then cover the entire frame with a thin coat of Mod Podge.

7) Paint a coat of Triple Thick (or your choice of gloss sealer) on the frame. Work slowly, one section at a time. Triple Thick is just that. Really thick. It gives your project a nice glassy finish, but it does take some getting used to. You can see in the picture here how thick it is. Just brush it on and smooth as you go. Other options for finishing this off would be Diamond Glaze, Dimensional Magic, Mod Podge Gloss, or even resin.