Tutorial: Photo Holder

I take a lot of photos.  I just finished my “2011 O’Regan Yearbook” – an 80 page book I made on Kodak Gallery that’s complete with 1,027 of my “favorite” pictures of 2011.  What can you really do with all those pictures?  The key is ordering prints of your favorites right away.   Order them in a variety of sizes, color finishes (black and white, sepia, full color), and even papers (matte and glossy) and put them in frames and photo holders when you get them in.    Mae Armstrong on our PSA Essentials design team came up with a photo holder – you will be sure to order and fill this one up!  She’s also chosen to display precious cards and other paper keepsakes in it…. Simply adorable. 

Here’s how Mae went about doing this.  It does involve a few power tools but Mae’s compiled a great step-by-step tutorial here.  First she purchased wooden dowels, wood glue, and a thick 3" 1 1/2" wood base at Lowe’s.   When she got started, she measured a 2 ½” allowance on each side of the base before drilling holes for the wooden dowels.

She lined up the wooden dowels and made sure the spacing looked even, about 1 ½” space in between.    She used a pencil and marked up the middle of the wooden base before drilling to ensure accuracy and to avoid having to drill again. 

The 5/16" bit was a perfect size for the wooden dowels, she was happy to use her new drill!    Drilling does make a bit of a mess, for that reason Mae suggests doing the drilling outside the house or maybe inside the garage.

After drilling, she filled in holes with Elmer's Wood Glue Max and used a mallet to secure the dowels all the way down.  She set it aside and let it dry for an hour. 

While waiting for the wooden stand to dry, Mae dressed up wooden clothespins with a fine crochet yarn.   She picked red and pink.   She wrapped the bottom half of the pin to dress it up and secured the yarn with glue. 

Mae found some extra wooden discs and stamped them using PSA Essentials Peel and Stick Rosettas stamp set.  She punched some scalloped tags and mounted the wooden discs on it.
To give it more depth she pre-cut some cute doily accents for the outer design. 

She then glued the wooden disc onto her scalloped paper and then glued everything on top of the doily accent.  She dressed it up with some puff pearl paint and set aside to dry.

As one of the last steps,  Mae glued the flower tops onto the clothespins and glued them on the wooden dowels. She waited for a bit and then, this project was complete!

Here’s the finished project on her mantel – looks great, don’t you agree?