Enter the world of journaling or scrapbooking and you may be surprised by the sheer number of embellishments available. The styles, the decor, and the imagination behind some of the creativity that goes into these nifty pieces of decor.
You can find these items readily available in most arts and crafts stores, and online. The purpose they serve is mostly for scrapbooking, card making, or journaling, but if that doesn’t strike a chord with you, decorating your picture frames with embellishments may have you exploring new and fascinating territory.
Types of embellishments that can go into picture frames
Card stock
Among the varieties of embellishments, card stock will be the simplest to decorate within a frame, simply because they are flat embellishments.
3D decorative embellishments
3D decor almost always looks impressive. The intended purpose is mostly for card making, but given that they are flat embellishments, they may be just the thing to add into a framed drawing or painting to add another element of interest.
Acid and lignin free borders
Similar to washi tape, adhesive borders can be used to decorate any type of art that is printed on paper. These are ideal for transforming a bland looking framed piece of word art into a colourful decorative print.
For longevity though, anything going inside a frame ought to be acid-free to prevent deterioration.
Framing with die cuts
For those unfamiliar with crafting, die cutting refers to cutting shapes out of paper or card stock using “dies”. It does not involve dyes, as in colouring the card stock. The dies are metal shapes sharpened to cut out the design, similar to how a cookie cutter works to cut dough.
You can get die cuts of nearly anything imaginable. From elephants to rabbits, to rainbows, and unicorns. As they are card, they can be used to add a touch of decor to any print, or even combine to make your own art to frame at home.
One idea for die cuts is to use a multi-aperture frame to combine letters with an object such as A and an apple in one aperture, B and a bumblebee in another, C and a cat in another and so on.
Exterior embellishments for picture frames
Ribbons
Christmas is when ribbons are most in demand to add to the festivities of the Christmas decor. Given the wide range of colours, sizes, and designs available, they can make good embellishments to decorate a picture frame at any time of the year. You could even change them up with the seasons. These can be applied to picture frames using glue dots.
Floral embellishments
Floral embellishments can be flat designs, pop up, or buttons in the shape of a flower. Depending on how creative you feel, you could apply them directly to a photo frame with glue dots, but given the number and small sizes of these, you may want to go easy on the number of sticky dots that get applied to the frame directly. An alternative could be using decorative string, such as twine, attaching the flower embellishments to those, then sticking the string to the frame for a decorative finish.
Fascinator accessories
Fascinators are formal ladies wear, and an extremely lightweight alternative to a hat. The accessories used on these range from feathers, flowers, ribbons and lace. Given the lightness and small size of most fascinator accessories, these can take minimal effort to add a touch of class to any picture frame.