Merry Christmas Eve to those of you celebrating! Vivian here today with a quick and fun collage frame tutorial, perfect for a quick holiday layout or home decor piece (just pop your finished product into a shadowbox frame!). Let's start with the inspiration piece, a collage picture frame I pinned recently from ModCloth:
I loved the combination of round and square edges, the gaps in between framed elements, and the white borders around every element. I used this insipration piece to create a layout, using products from Silent Night, Daily Flash Eggnog and the Very Merry December kit:
Several elements are raised on foam adhesive, with gold twine and colored paper clips added for extra dimension. Here's a closer look at one of those elements, which uses two Sew Fun Banner elements from Silent Night:
Okay, I know, I know, you want to know how to create a frame like the one I used. The directions below explain how to do this using a Silhouette die cutting machine. I'll give you an idea at the end for how to do this if you don't have a Silhouette or similar machine.
Step #1: Draw Your Shapes
I started my layout by deciding what elements I wanted to use. I knew I wanted to use a 4" x 6" photo I'd edited using the "frost" feature at PicMonkey, a 3" X 4" card, a 2" X 2" embellishment, a 1" circular embellishment, a 3" x 3" square of patterned paper, and a small tag. Next, I drew six elements in Silhouette Studio that roughly mimicked the shapes of these six objects, deciding to feature the 3" x 3" patterned paper square and the tag in circular frames. The screenshot below shows where the drawing tools are located in Silhouette Studio and shows the six shapes I drew:
Step #2: Size Your Shapes
Use the scale tool (top arrow in the screenshot below) to open up the scale window. Select a shape and enter the dimensions for it in the scale window (bottom arrow), then click apply. Repeat for each shape until all are sized appropriately. Be sure to size each shape larger than the element it will house so that you get a nice frame around each element. For example, I sized the large rectangle for my 4" X 6" photo 5" X 7" to allow for a half-inch-wide frame all around.
Step #3: Collage Your Shapes
This is the fun part! Now that your shapes are all sized appropriately, move them around the screen until you have them overlapping in the arrangement you want them to be in:
Step #4: Weld Your Collage
Once you are sure you have each object placed where you want it, select all of the shapes ("select all" under the "edit" menu at the top) and then hit the weld button to join them (see arrow in screenshot below):
Step #5: Create Interior Cutouts
I knew that I wanted to place some of my elements on top of the frame, for example, the two journaling cards, the tag, and the "love" circle. I knew, however, that it would be easier to just tuck my photo and the bit of patterned paper behind openings so that I wouldn't have to cut the paper into a perfect circle or round the corners of the photo. My next step, then, involved adding interior cutouts to those two spaces. I did this by repeating steps #1 and #2 above:
Step #6: Group Interior and Exterior Cutouts
Select all objects (top arrow in the screenshot below shows all objects selected) and group them using the button shown by the bottom arrow. This step makes the whole element one object. You can then move it as a whole if you need to do so.
Step #7: Cut!
Load your cardstock onto the Silhouette mat and into the Silhouette and hit "cut!"
It's that simple! Now you can go and create infinite combinations of shapes for your own multiphoto/multi-element framed collages! Of course, if you want to use the same combination I did, feel free to download the cut file I've created here: Download Multiphoto Frame
If you don't have a Silhouette or similar die cutting machine, you can still create this same look by tracing household objects or shape templates of varying sizes and shapes in an overlapping pattern on the reverse side of a piece of cardstock. Cut out using scissors or a craft knife.
So...if you use the cut file available above, or create your own using either the Silhouette or non-Silhouette methods I've described, please share your work with us in the October Afternoon Flickr gallery!
Thank you!