Peaches McGee: Twill Tape for Money

Financial Investment: $$ ($10 - $25)
Emotional Investment: K (Up the Zoloft)
Worth the Investment: = (Meh)

I have the cutest picture ever, thanks to the best photographer I know. Most of my readers know who she is (Kara May) – she’s my cousin and she’s AMAZING. Check out some of her work at www.karamayphotography.com

For a baby gift, Kara was gracious enough to photograph Peaches (here's a little peek at some of the pictures she took) and to include some prints. I thought, what better way to honor the picture than to make an outstanding frame for it (or rather, dress up a frame with a cool mat). Well, it was a thought.

The Twill Tape Mat project by Martha Stewart looks really cool… basically, you glue twill tape in a geometric pattern around a mat and it really accentuates the picture. Problem is, if you like things to look good close up, then this probably isn’t a great project for you.

I did it two different ways since I was unhappy with the first result and I’m still not satisfied (and really grouchy about having to go back to the hell they refer to as IKEA and snaking my way through that monstrosity of a store to get a new picture frame).

Because Martha has such ~~crappy~~ vague directions, I’ve decided to help everyone out and try to do it step-by-step. Notice that I stated “try,” so be gentle in your comments.

1. Pick a photo that will fit into the inside of a matted frame (you can create your own mat, but that’s a different project for a different day). I chose the Fjallsta frame from IKEA… $12.99 and it fits my décor

2. Martha doesn’t even include a template or anything, but suggests that you photocopy the page in the book of the examples and to tinker around with them. Thanks. Super helpful. Instead, I got my quilting ruler out, a pencil and lightly penciled in lines around the mat. It’s really important that the measurements remain consistent. The picture below is of a different frame/mat that I was going to test it out on, but you get the picture (no pun intended).

If you look really closely, you can see the pencil lines for the design

3. Martha’s instructions state to use craft glue and to glue the twill tape around piece by piece. I found that the glue wasn’t strong enough for the twill tape and didn’t really stick, plus it’s super awesome when you paint the glue over a pencil line and it won’t erase. On my second attempt, I switched to a hot glue gun and while I may have a few burns on my fingers, it was easier to cleanup and looks better.

a. To do the corners, you fold the ribbon at a 45 degree angle (and p.s. Martha, one of your designs uses more like a 30 degree angle so you might not want to state that EVERY angle will be 45 degrees. I’m just sayin’.)

4. Trim the last piece and try to get it as flush as possible to the area that you’re gluing it to.

5. Step back and refrain from throwing the frame against a wall.