Vintage Secret Letter Photo Frame Card

I originally thought of creating this with one of Graphic 45s' romance lines, the idea of a secret letter in a lover's card.  However, I wanted to give the idea a test run with this amazing paper that I've had for a little while and have not yet be able to use.  This paper line is from Melissa Francis' "Old World," collection.  I love the grungy/vintage look of the paper.  Melissa Francis creates quite a few decorative type products, her papers and scrapbook supplies are only a small part of what she produces.

Directions on Creating Your Own

Note: I used a Cricut to make this.  You could easily make a square version of this with just a standard manual paper cutter.  If you are particularly talented you could even get the fancier edges.  If you are going to make a fancier card by hand, I would highly recommend making a template that you can trace on chipboard and the paper you are going to use.

Circuit users: If you want it to be large enough for a 4x6" photo and you don't have an extra long Cricut mat then you will need to do some file editing.  I used Frame Card M36C5D.  If you make the card large enough to comfortably fit a larger photo it will extend beyond 12".  I made mine 7" high.  Since I didn't have the 24" mat I used the slice tool to cut the whole thing in half.  In order to slice I had to unattach the score marks and then reattach them once I was done.  I also ended up slices the three parts right down the middle (delete the score lines) so I could cut the different frames.  Be careful when you do this.  The middle and end piece are not identical.

With the cricut I cut halved frame card out of Silhouette chipboard.  I then cut the card cut into thirds out out of the Melissa Frances paper.  You will need two of each if you want to cover the entire thing.

The Front 

The two flowers in the bottom corner are from Prima Flowers "Debutante" set.  The stamp is a Bo Bunny Heritage stamp sticker.  The sticker originally had a large white border which I wasn't a big fan of.  I ended up cutting it down with my scissors.  The clock at the top right is from a ephemera pack.  Unfortunately I did not keep the pack, however if you look around a few bags you should be able to find a clock easily enough.  They are popular in paper crafting.  For the wire I twisted green jeweler's wire with gold.  My wire is just from a beading wire multipack that I found at Michaels, nothing too fancy.  It works well.  If you want smoother curves you will want to twist it around a pen or something similar.  You can carefully make the loops larger as you see fit.  It's good to get a good smooth base though.  I also hold it down with dots of strong, but clear, glue.  I am still experimenting with good glues that hide though.  I will say, the glue eraser that Tim Holtz makes is an amazing tool to have!  If you look closely at these you'll see a spot where I still needed to touch up (which I did) after the photos.

The Front Without the Photo

Inside The Front

Since I found the chipboard to be a little bit of an eye sore, I put some pinkish glimmer mist on the edges.  I did use clear gesso before adding the glimmer mist, but it still warped the card just a little.  I ended up adding the little velcro square after to add the option of closing the card.  The acorn branch near the bottom is only glued down at the very ends.  This gives you an attractive photo holder that also blends into the background.  It is from the same Melissa Frances paper collection as the rest of the card. 

Inside of Back

Originally I was just going to decorate the blank side next to the envelope.  I fussy cut this flower but I couldn't really come up with anything that I liked as a card layout.  So, I decided to just tack down the sides so that it gave another place in which a person could put a photo.  The envelope is also just a cricut file.  I fussy cut the piece the flap folds under from that same paper set.  I wanted to give it a image that stood out, so I used a random section from a much larger stamp and some white embossing powder.  The stamp is Flutter from KaiserCraft.

This shows you the flower without the photo.  I added some light gray ink to try and tone down the background and make the flower pop a little more.  Any vintage looking stamp would work for that aspect.  The flower will cover most of the stamp image.

I hope you enjoyed this card.  It is somewhat simple in construction.  The fussy cutting and waiting on the Cricut were the most time consuming parts, other than design.  If your paper is pretty enough you don't need to add a lot for a striking piece.

Supplies

• Melissa Frances Old World Paper
• This particular paper seems to be out of print, if you can't find it any vintage or grungy collage style paper can give you a similar look.  Tim Holtz has some similar styles.  If you want more flowery then Prima has some amazing papers that would work well with this.  If you know of others feel free to mention them in the comments for others.
• Chipboard or Cardstock for a base if you want something thick and sturdy.  If you use something heavy like bazzel and with color then you can let the edges show.
• Prima Debutante Flowers Item #580742 or any other medium sized matching flower
• Jewelry beading wire (the thinner stuff), twist two colors for a similar look
• KaiserCraft CS853 Flutter Stamp
• White embossing powder (I used Stamp it Up brand of fine powder)
• Bo Bunny Heritage Stamp Stickers #17902890
• Glimmer mist if you don't use pretty cardstock
• Clear gesso if you are going to glimmer mist anything.
• Small piece of velcro or a snap to hold the front closed if desired.
• Clock Ephemera or a clock cut from some heavy paper