Easy Framed Vintage Book Art

Hi guys! As a former framer, and the daughter of a photographer, my walls are full of art! I have tons of framed things on my walls from photographs, to cake toppers, to vintage goodies. One of my favorite framing tricks is to make a picture shadowed or three dimensional. It is really easy and makes a plain deep frame and a print look like something you would have bought at a boutique or a gallery!

Here’s What You Need:

*Deep Frame or Shadowbox Frame

*Vintage Illustrations or Book Pages

*Chip Board

*Matt board

*Foam Core

*Double Stick Tape or Hot Glue, Rubber Cement

Instructions:

The first thing you need to do is make the illustration board. Cut a piece of chipboard to be about an inch less than your illustration. For example, if my illustration is 5×5″, then I would cut my chipboard to be 4×4.

Using double stick tape or rubber cement, glue the chipboard in the center back side of the illustration. Fold the sides to the back of the board and glue or tape down.

Cut a piece of matt board to the size of your frame opening. My frame was 8×8, so I cut a piece of board to 8×8.

Cut a few strips of foam core. Cut these strips down to fit the back side to the illustration board. You will probably want two to four strips. Make sure to cut them so they are at least an inch smaller than the length or width of your illustration board.

Now glue or tape your foam core to the back of the illustration board. You can add more strips to the backside to adjust the depth of your board in the frame. Now glue or tape the illustration board to the center of your matt board by the foam core strips.

To finish, insert your art into the frame and close up the back.

So what do you think? I love them! Shadowing art is so easy, I do most of my prints like this. You can easily shadow a double matt the same way, just add some thin strips of foam core in between the top and bottom mat. I hope you guys will give this a try sometime with one of your favorite illustrations. I think these are great for any room, but would be especially cute in a child’s room. For now, mine are going in my craft room. I’ll be back soon with more diy fun. Until then…