Inchie Brass Frame Pendant How To

A touching nursery scene on the cover.
Wait, does that kid at the lower left look ready to bite the sleeping cat, or what?

One of the books my mom had been given, passed down I'm guessing from a relative, someone named Oliver who received it from Edward in 1907.

The book was published in 1899.

It has now passed on to me, the Fairy Picture and ABC Book. It's in pretty sad shape, but I hope to keep it preserved well enough to pass on to my son or daughter if they have children.

Each page has a one color illustration, the first section is illustrated ABC rhymes and the back of the book is nursery rhymes.

This kid has an evil look to him - wonder what he's going to do once he's over that wall...

I scanned several pages, not really knowing exactly what I would do with them, but wanted them available when a particle of inspiration managed to zip into my head.

I had an idea Sunday morning to use these scans in the 1 inch square brass frames from Rings & Things sent as part of their March Gluable Challenge package and remembering a post on their blog about "inchies". By the way, they sell the frames by the dozen. Remember there are 12 to a dozen and if you really don't want 72 frames, don't put "6" in the amount box. Voice of Experience speaking. No worries though, the price is great and I'm sure I'll have lots of ideas for them in the years, nay, decades to come, and never need to re-supply.

Wanna know what I did? I'm telling anyway.

First, I got out my box of Office Depot Glossy Sticker paper. Then I used the Microsoft Picture Editor that came with the MSOffice programs installed on my computer. It's easy, so I use it a lot. I'm sure any picture editing software would provide the same tools.

I took one of the scans

and cropped it square then re-sized it to 160 x160 pixels.

I put one sheet of the glossy paper into the printer. Think that's a rather obvious step to mention? Heh, it wasn't to me...putting in multiple sheets led to some sticking together and messing up the printing.

Because I'm using the Office Photo Editor program to print it, and I wanted an "original size" print, the only way I could figure out how to do that was to use the "contact sheet" selection in the printing wizard. That meant that I just got one small 1" picture on the page.

Not wanting to waste the limited supply of glossy sticker paper I have, I had to trim the sheet after cutting out the print and re-use the remaining paper.

Also, it's a good thing to remember to put it back in the printer and not waste plain paper (Voice of Experience speaking again).

Next, I trimmed it to 1x1 inch

and stuck it on the brass frame.

Peeling off the sticker isn't as easy as you might think. Hint: turn pic over, use edge of scissor blade and, as if you were curling ribbon, pull a corner (carefully!) over the blade to get a curl. You can fairly easily separate the backing from the sticker at the corner then. Don't press it fully down until you've checked to see if it's centered and squared up. Once you've lifted and replaced it about eight times to get it right (saith the VOE yet again) smooth down from one corner or one side to another to try and keep out air bubbles between the frame and the sticker.

Talk about thumbnails - that one needs a good manicure.


Three frames with sticker pictures - what's next?

What's next is up to you - embellish and seal, just seal and use a fancy chain, maybe with charms or dangles. I thought I'd add some small embellishments and got out my new rub-ons from Alpha Stamps.

Guess what, you should put the rub-ons on the sticker before you put the sticker on the frame. Decided not to use the rub-ons. Got out some scrapbooking stickers and some tiny brass bead caps. (VOE now has this stored in her permanent memory).

I played around with tiny chain and some trimmed up filigree bits - didn't use them, too big or too fiddly. Even made some 28 gauge wire spirals and hammered them flat, wasn't happy with that either. Stuck to stickers and the bead caps (which have a bit of a dome to them, so I wacked 'em with the chasing hammer to flatten). Trimmed one bead cap so it could be a corner piece.

I put a sticker in the corner of the green picture, added the bead cap and Mod-Podged the whole thing. The stuff I learned about Mod-Podging, I've added to the VOE files. Suffice it to say, a little goes a long way, it sets up pretty fast and using one's finger leaves lots of lines.

Filled the holes in the bead cap with some gold leaf paint and called it a day. I'm going to fiddle with it more, but I need to get some other stuff done and this post is nearly novel-length as it is. Here's what it looks like for now:

I will probably put the frame pendants on cord, maybe chain, and embellish with something sparkly and dangly from the jump ring that connects the frame to the necklace. When I finish them, I'll be sure to share them with you.

Fairy Tale Fairy Elf Prince says, "That was fun! Here's a rose."