Vintage Frame Re-done

I'll be honest, our budget has been a little tight since we moved a few months ago.  We are usually fairly thrifty people anyway but not quite to the extent that we are now.  This Valentines Day we decided to give each other a $15 budget for gifts which can be a little tricky.

I found this awesome vintage picture frame at a local thrift shop and decided to spend my $15 wisely and do something both inexpensive and sentimental.  I ended up spending $2.50 on the frame, $8.00 to get a piece of glass cut for the frame, $1.50 to print the photos, and I used materials I already owned to make a boarder insert around the photos. The total cost came to about $11.00 and more importantly my husband loved it!

Click below to get the "how-to" for this project.

Materials needed:

*frame
*glass insert
*matte board or cold press illustration board
*fabric of your choice (I used a heavyweight canvas fabric, but any type will do)
*fabric scissors
*exacto knife
*ruler
*hot glue gun

Here is what I did:
First I cut a piece of matte board according to the inner width of my frame.  Then I measured out the size of my photos and where I wanted them to sit within the frame.  Using an exacto knife and the straight edge of a ruler, I cut openings in the matte board for my 3 photos, one 5x7 opening in the middle and two 4x6 openings on each side. After the matte board was cut, I used a hot glue gun to covered it with fabric making sure to pull the fabric tight around the matte. Then I applied my photos, pretty simple!

Here is a picture of the back of my photo insert, I lightly taped the pictures to the back so I could easily remove them if I ever want to switch out the photos

Note: If the frame you have chosen is missing the glass insert, you will need to purchase a piece and have it cut. You can do this at most local hardware stores, I bought my glass at Ace for around $8.00 and they cut it for me for free.