i {HEART} u Rosette Frame

With a little over a week left before Valentine's Day, I decided to give it another go and make one more decor item...besides, my little Ruffle Heart Burlap Pillow looked all lonely.  I had recently made a frame for a friend's birthday and it was really easy and turned out cute, so that's what I decided to make...and i {HEART} the way it turned out...please excuse my cheesy-ness.  Anyway, here's what I came up with and what I used...

12x12 unfinished frame (got mine at Michael's)

craft paint

scrapbook paper

Mod Podge (I prefer matte finish)

sand paper or block

fabric

felt

piece of cardboard (cereal or frozen pizza box works)

hot glue gun

adhesive vinyl

First, I put a base coat of black craft paint on the frame (no need to paint the front since it will be covered with paper).

Once the paint dries lay the frame face down on the scrapbook paper and trace the opening and any edges that need to be trimmed...doesn't have to be exact because the edges get sanded down later.  Trim the paper with scissors or blade..

Flip the frame so that the front faces up and apply a thin coat of Mod Podge.  Place your scrapbook paper on the front and smooth it out as much as you can to reduce bubbling.  I like to let mine dry for a bit before putting on the topcoat.

After it dries, do one topcoat all over, let dry, and then sand the edges to give it a distressed look and to get rid of any excess paper hanging over the edges.  I applied one more coat of Mod Podge after sanding in case any of the paper edges lifted while sanding. *Note* when you Mod Podge on top of paper it normally bubbles, but in my experience, the bubbling shrinks back down when it dries.

Okay, now onto the heart rosettes...my frame opening is 4" x 4" so I wanted the heart to be big enough so it doesn't block the frame.  My cardboard heart form measures 7.5" wide by 6.5" tall...with the heart being about 3/8" thick.  I basically just took my piece of pizza box, folded it in half, marked off 6.5" and then another mark at 3.75" (half of 7.5") and cut my heart the old school way within my lines.  

I forgot to take a picture of this step on the pizza box but here's it drawn out on paper.  OR you can cut a 6.5 inch heart on a die cutting machine.

I used my favorite rosette tutorial from Shanty2Chic and made a bunch of mini rosettes using 1" x 8" strips of fabric, felt and hot glue.  My heart took 18 rosettes.  (Excuse the bad lighting...for some reason Picasa wouldn't save my edits on these next few photos)

Arrange the rosettes onto the heart form and hot glue them down, and then hot glue the heart to the frame. 

Finally, I cut 'i' and 'u' out of vinyl using the Cricut and stuck them on the frame.  I don't think that the frame will endure a ton of wear and tear so I chose not to put Mod Podge over the vinyl.  And there you have it...i {HEART} u.

I think I'll put a picture of my perfectly behaved children in it :).

And here's the frame I made for a friend's birthday...