My Dollar Store Challenge!!

As I mentioned a few days ago I am participating in a themed challenge going on over at Dollar Store Crafts.  I love making stuff from Dollar Store finds because everything is only a dollar (when I went last time they come on the loud speaker to remind us...), need I say more? So this week the challenge item was placemats. On Friday I headed out to the Dollar Tree and got two different placemats, I wasn't very impressed with the colors or the styles but I grabbed up this blue one.  I guess the real question is, what did I decide to make with it? 

A picture frame! I take an extreme amount of pictures and often I buy prints at street fair that are in non-standard sizes. Custom made frames are expensive so a dollar store revamp is a great money saver. 

Materials

• Placemat
• Matching needle and thread
• Hot glue
• Ribbon
• Add on's like sequins, beads, or thread for embroidery

First decide on the picture you want to use. You will want the opening on the inside of the frame to be slightly smaller than your picture, or you can make the opening bigger and create a mat for your picture. Since my placemat already had a border going on, I used that as my frame and chose a picture to fit. 

I cut a half inch border around the outside of three sides, the bottom and the two vertical sides. On the top I cut right along the pattern.  On the three edges, I folded the half inch over and sewed along the fold. Make sure you sew along the fold, it creates a pocket that you can slip the back into. Ironing might help create a sharp fold.

Once you sew all three sides you will have a a slot to slide the back of your frame into. Now, fold you frame in half and cut out the middle section, try and cut it out in a single piece, you can use the middle to create a mini frame, two for the price of one, dollar!

See the pocket?

For the back I used a cereal box that I cut open.  Trace the outside of the frame and then trim it down from there. Start big and slowly trim it down to the correct size. 

On the inside edges I bound the raw edges with ribbon.  Since I had no ribbon and thread that matched, and I was feeling super lazy, so I hot glued it. Measure inside edge to inside edge and cut some ribbon. Fray check the ends with a lighter really quickly.  Start with a short bead of hot glue near the edge and place the top half of the ribbon on in a straight line.  I placed the ribbon on top to check placement first then ran a thin bead of glue on the front and held the ribbon taught to ensure a straight line.  Flip the mat over and repeat on the backside, to encase the raw edge. Repeat for all four inside edges.  Once you are done it will look like this.

I added some table confetti I got a Pier One a couple years ago for the corners. For the top I added some yellow grosgrain ribbon tied in knots. Sadly I could not print the 8X10 I wanted to fill this frame but here is my finished frame.