Love Frames

These were designed for Tracy over at Craft Junkie Too.  This time she challenged her designers to do the following "Make a gift bag, party favor, treat bag, box, (for a valentine party or gift) and incorporate the word LOVE in it."  

These aren't a traditional party favors, but I think they would be adorable to give out at a little Valentine shin-dig as a favor.  I kept them really simple without embellishments and all those extra touches that add additional time and cost to a project, which helps keep them fitting for such an occasion.  

In my particular case I made 3 frames, one for my hubby and one for each of my 2 kids to help decorate the dining room table for Valentine's Day.  You could also do a lot more work and make them nicer to be an individual gift or display piece instead of keeping them simple for larger scale production. 

I got my frame shape from Ashlyn's Alphabet.  I liked the oval shape to show the photo, and the interesting shape of the corners, but you could easily use something else, or use a Gypsy or Design Studio to create your own frame with basic shapes.  I manipulated the shape to be 5.34 by 8 WITH the actual size button on!  I found that I liked this size when I took a rectangle sized at 4 by 6 and placed it over the shape to see how much of the photo would show through the oval.  I figured the proportions would be right if I used a piece the size of the photos I planned to use. My estimate seemed to work pretty well.  Only a small amount of the photos are covered by the oval edges.

For each frame I cut the word "Love" from Sweethears at 1.75 inches tall.  What a gorgeous word!  I just love the loops in the L.  The heart is from Plantin SchoolBook at 2 inches.  Many other cartridges have hearts!

For the silhouettes I cut the couple for my husband's frame from Sweethearts at 3.5 inches.  The boy and girl were both from A Child's Year and also at 3.5 inches.  There is a wide variety of silhouettes on A Child's Year, so if you are making these for a party or a class you can find some other ones to use.  I chose the 2 that reminded me most of my own children. 

To have a place to slip the photos I cut pieces of white cardstock at 4.25 by 6.25 inches.  Then I taped them behind the frames on the sides and bottom, leaving the top open to slide my photos inside.  I bent some cardstock in the back to create stands.  Mine work so-so, but I imagine I could have done a much better job. 

Super quick and easy!  They will take a fair amount of cardstock cut for photos this large, but if you have plenty on hand this will be affordable and fun to make for favors!  Definitely something different than the usual candies and Valentine cards everyone is used to exchanging. 

Like I said, you can easily modify this idea to suite your needs.  To fit different sizes of photos or different people.  I am going to love using these on our table, and because they were simple I'll be OK with throwing them away after wards. 

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure and visit Tracy to see what she's been up to, and today you will be able to see the other designers fun projects to fit this challenge as well :)