Frame Your Scrapbook!

As a Scrapbook Evangalist, one of my passions is finding new ways to present scrapbook layouts as valid works of art. And as I was decorating my new house, I decided to take that concept and create a scrapbook gallery in the circulation hall. I wanted to make the scrapbook layouts blend in architecturally with the rest of the elements in our rambler cottage style house.

So, I went to my local Michael's, and found unfinished shadow box style memory frames, and got to work creating my gallery. I painted the inside panels black to create depth, and because Black is the New Black, as I have discussed before! And then I painted the frames white, using the same Super Hide white that all of the trim and baseboards are painted throughout the house.

Once the frames were dry and ready, I mounted a piece of store bought 12 x 12 scrapbook paper into each frame. I used the same background paper in each frame to give the gallery a consistent feel. And then I took some of my favorite digital scrapbook layouts, and had them printed at 11 x 11 at a local Kinko's type print shop. If you have your digital layouts printed at your local print shop, ask them to use a cardstock, and to print it on a Fiery or better printer. I prefer non-glossy. But that's a personal choice. The prints you'll get will look darker than they do on your computer monitor, so choose layouts that naturally have high contrast to print at a local printer. If you want prints that look EXACTLY like your layouts on your screen, then order from a PHOTO printer, such as Printroom.com.

I cut the 11 x 11 layouts so that there were no white borders, and then mounted them into the memory frames on top of the 12 x 12 background paper. Then, I measured, and hung the frames on the wall, gallery style.

I think it looks great, and it was an easy and inexpensive way to instantly increase my art collection!