Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Easy Frames - Gypsy or Design Studio



 A quick and easy way to make a decorative frame for a scrapbook page or a card is to use a border from one of the many cartridges with prewelded border designs.  Some of the borders will work better than other so just experiment with some of your favorites.



 This screen shot shows the border I used for the daisy frame.  This border is one of the many lovely borders on the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.  Below is a screen shot of the border as it appears directly from the cartridge proportionately sized to 11 inches wide.



The height is too tall for the frame effect I wanted so I adjusted the height to 2 inches, as shown below.

 

On the Gypsy you need to deselect the "chain" between the words height and width (yellow when "on" to preserve the proportions and black and white when "off"). This enables you to set the exact height and width you want.  In Design Studio, you use the "handle"  in the lower right corner of the selection box to proportionally size the border.  If you want to set specific width and height just enter the numbers in the Shape Properties box and press "enter" on your keyboard or click on the mat.



This screen shot shows the two together so you can easily see the difference.



Once you have the border adjusted to your preferred size, simply copy and paste (or duplicate) three times, rotate the three additional borders 90, 180 and 270 degrees (which will appear as -90 in both Design Studio and on the Gypsy) and fit them together into a nice frame.



 Here is another example, also using a border from Gypsy Wanderings.



For this frame I used the border design highlighted on the keypad above.



The design at eleven inches wide with no alteration is just over 5 inches tall - much too wide for a frame.



I adjusted the height to 1.5 inches, copied and  pasted (in Design Studio) or duplicated (on the Gypsy), rotated and welded and created a simple and fast frame for a 12 x 12 page.



Here is another view of the same frame - I cut it from double sided paper which gave me two different "looks" to choose between.

To make a similar frame for a card you would simply use sizes that would fit your intended card size.  A few other cartridges with border designs you might want to try are Storybook, Life is a Beach, Celebrations, Doodlecharms, Mickey and Friends, Paper Pups, Sports Mania, and Stand and Salute.

(The drive home went well but I am exhausted with a bit of a sore throat and stuffy nose so it will be early to bed for me...)

7 comments:

  1. Sometimes it's just scary how creative and talented you are.. lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that first frame Diane...gosh I hope you aren't coming down with what seems to be going around here...my sore throat lasted a whole darn week. Take good care of yourself and REST!

    HUGS,
    Vicki

    ReplyDelete
  3. You truly are a very gifted person. I'm cutting out my first saved cut file on my gypsy right now. I hope it works. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just love the floral frame. It is adorable. Thanx for sharing it!

    Take care of yourself. There has been a nasty bug going around NJ that tends to really knock ppl out. Curl up with a cup of tea, a warm blanke and your gypsy!

    Feel better!

    bast830@comcast.net

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've just found the joys of CDS! I love your work. Just one question - is there any way to make these boarders on a 6 X 12 mat?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Nikki,

    You could cut the adapted border four times and then adhere them to the paper to mimic the welded version on the 12 x 12 mat. The overlaps would not be very noticeable - or you could even choose to use different colors on each side for a variation on the look.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Diane! I'm trying to decide whether I want a new E for Christmas or a bunch of new carts...... It would be nice to cut 12" :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I love to hear from the people who read my blog. I moderate all comments to keep spam off the blog without making you decode the squiggly letters so your comment may not appear immediately.