Novel Homemade Picture Frames
Pictures can be mounted cheaply and artistically on stiff paper, to make them serviceable for decorating the summer home or camp cottage, without having them placed in a wooden frame. For this purpose a “natural-surface” drawing paper should be used, each sheet being sufficiently large to allow a border all around. With the picture properly centered and marked off, the frame can be fixed. Sets of parallel slots can be cut all around in the border, and a suitable ribbon drawn through so that it is held in place only by the narrow strips of paper. On each of the four corners, a rosette, or similar decoration, can be placed. Ribbons harmonizing with the subject of the picture should be used; for example, a marine scene could have a blue ribbon; fields and brooks, some shade of green; while flowers would probably be best set off by some delicate pink shade.
The Edges of Cardboard Extending Out from a Picture Made to Represent a Frame
Another means of decorating the border is to choose some appropriate illustration from a newspaper, or magazine, and carefully trace this outline with carbon paper all around the frame. These figures could then be colored as desired. Profile pictures are best for such work, as they are most easily traced. To be in harmony with the picture, cuts such as captains, sailors, or ships would be suitable for marine scenes; soldiers and guns, for war scenes; and trees or flowers, for landscapes.—Contributed by J. B. Murphy, Plainfield, N. J.