When it comes to decorating your walls or shelves with artwork and frames, why not get your kids involved to add some more fun and personality to your décor? And you can enjoy a fun, family activity as well by creating something together. Here are some simple ideas for fun, creative activities you could do with your kids to make colorful creations for the walls of their bedroom or other places in the house.

Handprints

Most kids will love the idea of getting messy and sticking their hands in paint without getting in trouble for it! Handprints in a picture frame make for a simple yet effective aesthetic. You may want to do this with your baby’s hand and footprints to look back at how small they were. And if you have more than one child, they can stamp their handprints in size/age order.

If you’re willing to take the risk, then colorful handprints can also make a fun and eye-catching decoration for the walls of the nursery or kids’ room. Draw out a border around the room in the middle of the wall and have your kids fill it with handprints! Look for non-toxic paint so that it’s safe for babies and infants, or you could even make your own safe paint.

Decorated frames

Good-quality and nice-looking frames don’t have to be your typical stained wood or sleek metal. Liven them up by letting your kids loose with the paints or crayons. This is a good way to personalize a baby photo or a photo of your kids playing together. They could draw or paint their art onto a plain frame or you could have fun with splatter art by flicking paintbrushes at the frame in different colors of paint.

Squirt gun painting

Water fights with squirt guns are already a fun activity, but you can also have fun with them without getting wet by using them to paint a blank canvas or piece of card. Buy a few of those cheap, plastic squirt guns (or use ones you already have lying around) and fill each with a different colored paint.

Squirt the paint at the blank canvas from close up or further away and in different colors to create fun and interesting patterns. Do this outdoors to keep your home safe from flying paint, and make sure you lay some ground rules so your kids don’t start spraying paint on each other’s clothes or in faces.

What fun and imaginative creations could you make with your kids? If you need a custom frame for your creations or for their photos and artwork, then contact Tanglewood Art and Frame or visit us in our Clemmons store.

Your wedding day will, hopefully, be one of the most special and memorable days of your life, so of course you want the best keepsakes and photographs to remember it by. At Tanglewood Art and Frame, we’re here to custom frame your best memories, so let’s look at some tips and ideas for the photos of your big day.

Hiring a professional photographer

Obviously, weddings can be very expensive. If you’re working to a budget, this might tempt you to save on certain areas, for example by having a friend or family member be in charge of the photos during the day. While this can be a nice idea, hiring a professional photographer really puts your mind at ease that the photos are taken care of properly, so there’s one less thing to stress about on the day. And your friend or family member can enjoy the day, too, without the responsibilities of the photographer.

Posed and candid

It’s common to see wedding photos of the happy couple or the wider families and wedding parties posing nicely for the camera. These photos can be great and may be the ones to make it to your wall, but we’d recommend a combination of both posed and candid photos.

Some of the best moments can be captured while people are getting ready, walking up the aisle, and talking and laughing at the reception. So, as well as the more formal photoshoot, make sure your photographer is around for parts of the day to take unplanned and unposed photos.

Leave some photography to the guests

In a casual way, it can be a nice idea to have your guests snap some photos during the day and evening. Some couples leave polaroid cameras or disposable cameras around the venue for guests to use. They can pose for a photo or take candid photos themselves. The results can be really fun, especially once everyone’s had a few drinks after the ceremony.

Choosing your photos for custom framing

After the wedding, you will likely have to meet with your photographer to choose your favorite photos to be framed or placed in a scrapbook of the day. When choosing photos for your wall or mantlepiece, you may choose a few photos to be framed individually or you could make a collage of photos to be framed as one piece. Here, it’s a good idea to choose a mixture of posed and candid photos to get a full range of the day.

There’s a wide variety of materials and styles to consider when choosing all the elements of your custom frames, but we can help you make the best decisions to really complement your photos and make them stand out. Get in touch or visit our store in Clemmons, NC for more advice about custom framing your wedding photos.

When you’re browsing or shopping for store-bought photo frames, you will commonly see both wooden and metal frames. If you’re designing and buying a custom frame, then you’ll need to choose the material of your frame, too. So, if you’re deciding between metal and wood frames, let’s look at some of the differences and benefits of the aesthetics of each.

Metal picture frames

Metal picture frames are a good choice if you’re looking for a modern aesthetic or even an industrial one depending on the materials and finishes you use. So, if the piece you’re framing has a modern look and feel to it, then a metal frame could complement it perfectly. Or perhaps the modern aesthetic matches the design and décor of the room you are placing the frame in.

A variety of metals can be used for picture frames, including aluminum, silver, and bronze. Each will have its own style and benefits. Aluminum is a particularly lightweight option for framing as well as a more affordable one than silver and bronze. These are all durable options and can be more cost-effective than wood frames. And you’ve got lots of choices when it comes to choosing colors and finishing your frame.

Wood picture frames

Wood is a classic look for your photo frames and can have a wide variety of styles and shades. MDF is a common material used for wooden frames, although a range of hardwoods and softwoods can also be used for different aesthetics and greater durability. Both engineered and natural wood can be used as well.

Applying different finishes to the wood will also have a big impact on how it looks. You can opt for a frame with a rustic appeal or something a little more polished. You can have pretty much any shade of brown imaginable between different types of wood and finishes, as well as the option to paint it a completely different color to match the palette of the room and its décor.

Compared to metal, wood frames add a little more warmth to the room and can be more unique due to the slight variations in grain from natural wood. Wood is a durable material, although they can be more expensive than metal frames depending on the material you choose.

Visit Tanglewood in-store or contact us online to find out more about our custom framing services. We can frame almost anything you want, from 2D art to 3D memorabilia and lots more.

Your child’s bedroom is somewhere you can get really fun, colorful, and creative when it comes to decorating. You could decorate it in a way that reflects the things they love, whether that’s dinosaurs, cute animals, or superheroes, for example. Or you could just opt for bright colors and more generic decorations like geometric patterns. After all, some young kids tend to move quickly from one phase to the next when it comes to their interests.

If you’re looking for some interesting ways to decorate your kid’s room, then here are some fun ideas you could try.

Decals

Decals are a simple way to apply patterns and images to your kid’s walls. The image or pattern is prepared on some material and then can be easily transferred to the wall. These can be made in a wide variety of sizes, so you could cover one wall with an image of their favorite character or animal, for example, or apply lots of different images as a kind of border. There are lots of possibilities when it comes to decals.

Posters

You can add pops of color to their walls with posters, which can be stuck up on their own, prepared on canvas, or custom framed and hung up. Kids will love choosing their own posters or pulling them out of magazines. And you can find posters for pretty much anything your child is interested in.

Photos

Framed photos are another great option for your kid’s walls. Parents are especially likely to do this when the child is still a baby or infant, framing baby photos and putting them up on the walls. As they get older, your child may want to choose their own photos, such as a fun family moment or photos of them with their friends.

Framed toys and keepsakes

At Tanglewood Art and Frame, we don’t just frame 2D pieces like photos and artwork, but also 3D objects. Maybe your child has a favorite toy they no longer play with, an item of clothing they’ve grown out of, or a baby blanket, for example. You could have this item, or multiple items of this kind, custom framed and hung on the wall.

If you need any custom framing services for decorating your child’s room or any other areas in your home, then contact Tanglewood Art and Frame to find out more about our services, or visit us in-store in Clemmons, NC.

Having a professional family photoshoot is a great way to get high-quality photos of your family that you can frame and cherish forever, proudly displaying them on your wall. Whether it’s just a couple, parents with their kids, or the whole extended family, you can get great results for your family portrait.

But maybe you don’t want the old, stuffy idea of four people stood together nicely in perfect height order, or sat politely with their hands on their laps. If this isn’t for you, then you don’t have to worry. You can do lots of fun or crazy poses during your professional photoshoot. The photographer may even have some of their own ideas that you can try.

Here are some fun ideas that could make a great family photo for your walls…

Green screen

If you don’t want a traditional picture in front of a plain backdrop, find a photographer who can do photoshoots in front of a green screen background. This means you can choose from a variety of backdrops, whether you want to transport yourself to Paris or fly off into space. You can choose a variety of fun and interesting backdrops and strike a pose in front of them.

Get messy

If you’ve got young kids, then life in your house likely never looks as neat and tidy as a posed family portrait does. Celebrate this messiness in your family photo by capturing a moment of fun and chaos. You could have a water fight or a food fight in front of the camera and let the photographer capture the chaos. Your kids are sure to love it, which is easier than trying to convince them to smile for the camera.

Dress up

You don’t have to be in your Sunday best to take a family photo. Why not dress up as your favorite characters or celebrities? This is one that’s likely to appeal to kids and adults alike. You could all dress up as superheroes or characters from your favorite movie, for example, even better if they’re a family themselves. Get fun and wacky for an interesting family photo that shows off your personality.

Recreate an old photo

This is a popular one for grown-up siblings to do for their parents. Find an old photo of when you were babies or young children – the goofier and more embarrassing the better! Now recreate that photo by striking the same poses and even recreating the outfits you wore (or didn’t wear in the case of embarrassing bath time photos). These photos can make fun and touching gifts for your parents.

Make your family photos fun and unique, and make them worthy of the wall with custom framing from Tanglewood Art and Frame. Contact us to find out more about our services in Clemmons and Winston Salem, NC.

A lot of photography styles and ideas are taken from the art that came long before it. Looking to art can give you ideas of how to hang unique, custom frames of the photographs you love in your home. One of these styles is the triptych. Read on to find out more about triptychs and how to use this style in your home for a stylish aesthetic.

What are triptychs?

A triptych is an artform where three pieces are displayed next to each other or one piece of art is divided into three sections. Traditionally, three sections of a painting were separated into frames but connected by hinges so that it can be opened and closed to display the entire work of art. This was common on the altars of churches.

In modern times, inspiration has been taken from these triptychs in both art and photography. One photograph may be split into three across three frames or canvases, or three different photos may be chosen and framed separately, but these three photos are similar to each other or connected in some way.

Triptych framing ideas

When you’ve got a lot of space to fill, a triptych can be a great alternative to a gallery wall made up of lots of photos. Let’s look at some tips and ideas that can help you choose the perfect triptych for your walls.

Landscape photography

Because triptychs tend to be wider than they are tall, landscape photos are perfect for this type of treatment. Whether it’s a photo you’ve taken on vacation or a professional photo that you admire, you can split this landscape into three connecting sections to create a striking framed wall.

Choose a subject

We’ve mentioned that a triptych can be three separate photos instead of one. One way this can work is by choosing a single subject, such as your baby or your dog, and framing three different photos from the same photoshoot. For example, you may take your baby for a professional newborn photoshoot or have a couple’s photoshoot done and frame your three favorites to position together. The fact that these photos are from the same moment maintains the strong visual link and continuity between them.

Choosing your frame

Once you’ve chosen the photo or photos to use for your triptych, you also have various decisions to make about the framing of the images. One style choice is whether to have the photo fill the frame completely, as is popular with canvas design, or to have white space between the frame and the photo. Custom framing professionals can help guide you through these decisions to choose the right frame and style to suit your preferences.

If you need custom framing services for your triptych or other design ideas, then contact Tanglewood Art and Frame or visit us at our store in Clemmons, NC for all of your custom framing needs.

You don’t need to pay for a professional photographer to get photos worthy of custom framing and hanging on your wall or placing on the mantel. You can buy your own camera for a reasonably affordable price, and even smartphone cameras can produce some impressive photos these days.

Once you’ve taken your photos, you can even improve them using various photo editing apps to make sure they’re really frameable. Let’s look at some of the free photo editing apps you could try.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Photoshop is well known for its photo editing skills, but the full program can be difficult to understand if you don’t have any design or editing skills, not to mention expensive. Luckily, Adobe have a free version of Photoshop for iPhones and Android devices that gives you some of the program’s basic and even some more advanced functions for editing photos on your smartphone.

With Adobe Photoshop Express, you can crop images, remove red-eye, apply filters, adjust things like brightness and contrast, and much more. And it’s intuitive and easy to use on a touchscreen. If you have more experience with Photoshop, then you might want to try Adobe’s Lightroom Photo Editor, another free Photoshop app but with slightly more sophisticated and complex features for those who know how to use them.

Snapseed

Snapseed is another free photo editing app with an impressive range of tools and pro editing features that let you finetune your photos. Use a brush tool, adjust white balance and other levels, adjust the perspective, as well as all your basic photo editing tools like cropping and adding filters. One of the great things about this app is that you can edit your favorite filters to apply them perfectly, or even create your own.

LiveCollage

If you can’t choose just one photo that’s worthy of your walls, then why not make a collage out of a few of your favorites? LiveCollage and a variety of other collage apps allow you to easily and seamlessly stitch photos together however you like. You can choose from thousands of layouts on LiveCollage to get your photos just how you like them, as well as experimenting with different styles and backgrounds.

Adobe Photoshop Fix

Did you have an annoying pimple on the day of your family photo or while taking photos with friends? Or perhaps you want to hide the dark circles under your eyes from your lack of sleep? Another of Adobe’s free Photoshop apps, Adobe Photoshop Fix makes it easy to hide and remove these kinds of blemishes. You can even adjust the size, shape, and position of someone’s facial features if you really want to tinker with how you or others look in the photo.

Once you’ve finished experimenting with photo editing and have the perfect pictures to display in your home, contact Tanglewood Art and Frame or visit us in-store for professional custom framing services to suit you.

Ever wondered how the custom framing process works? Well, we’re here to explain this process to you to help you understand what’s involved in the art of custom framing. Read on to find out more about our process…

Choosing your materials

We work closely with our customers to get their input, helping to ensure that the final product is one they’re pleased with. So, when you bring something in to be framed, we look at all the elements of the frame together to choose the best ones. This includes the matting, the glazing, and the frame itself. There are lots of different styles, materials, and colors to choose from, and we can help by advising you what we think works best. Considering the room the frame will be placed in will also help you determine the right style and coloring.

Preparing the artwork

Whether it’s a photo, a painting, or a piece of memorabilia, we’ll first do any preparation work required to make sure the piece is in good shape and ready to be custom framed.

Mounting the artwork

With the carefully selected materials at hand, we start preparing the frame by, firstly, mounting the artwork to the backing board. This helps to keep the piece rigid, which is especially important for your typical 2D pieces such as photos and paintings. This process also keeps the artwork in place on the board so that it doesn’t slide about in the frame.

Matting the artwork

Next up is the matboard, which is applied on top of the artwork, essentially framing the piece itself. This piece of material keeps a small space between the artwork and the glazing, helping to keep it protected. Matboards are available in various colors to complement the artwork, the frame, and the room it will be placed in.

Glazing and framing the artwork

We craft the frame to suit the specifications agreed on at the beginning of the process and bring all the elements of the framed artwork together, including the glazing, creating the finished piece. There are various options when it comes to glazing, which serves the purpose of both protecting the artwork and presenting it as well as possible.

Professional custom framing gives you an excellent result compared to purchasing a standard frame in a store. If you’re looking for custom framing services around Winston Salem, NC, then contact us at Tanglewood Art and Frame to get a frame that fits perfectly in your home or workplace.

When you think of family photographs being used to decorate the walls of a family home, what comes to mind is usually a thoroughly planned picture of the family posed nicely in a line or with the parents at the back and the kids in the front. But this kind of rigorously planned and posed photography doesn’t often capture the personality of the family and individuals being photographed. This is where candid photographs can offer up something a little different.

What is a candid photo?

A candid photo is one that is not posed or planned. The subject may not even be aware you are taking photos, such as snapping shots of your kids while they’re happily playing in the backyard.

Other times, the subjects may be aware of the photographer but still don’t know when photos are being taken. For example, a wedding day photographer often acts as a fly-on-the-wall during the ceremony or the reception, taking photos of people happily chatting, drinking, or wiping a tear away.

Either way, the idea is that the subject does not change their behavior for the photograph, they are simply acting natural doing whatever they are doing.

Candid photos vs. posed photos

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of candid photos compared to posed photos.

When people complain about not being photogenic, it’s often because they feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. Someone might have a nice smile when they’re laughing with friends, but point a camera at them and it suddenly becomes an awkward and forced smile, instead. Candid photography eliminates this because you’re photographing natural behavior rather than a forced pose.

However, candid photography can still lead to unflattering poses. It can be difficult to time a photograph just right when someone is moving, talking, and laughing naturally. Candid photography can involve a lot of luck and perseverance to achieve the perfect shot, especially if you’re photographing hyperactive children or animals.

But the best thing about candid photos is that they reflect people’s (or animals’) real personality and uniqueness by capturing them acting naturally or in their natural environment. You can capture an image of someone having fun, working hard, pursuing a hobby they love, or the loving look in someone’s eye when they look at their kids or partner. Whatever kind of candid photo you’re taking, the results are real, not staged.

Great candid photos are perfect for custom framing and hanging on the walls in your home, or even to be given as a gift. If you’re interested in custom framing services around Clemmons and Winston Salem, NC, then contact Tanglewood Art and Frame or visit us in-store.

You’ve just put in a lot of effort to complete a puzzle and you feel extremely satisfied to see the finished result. Maybe it took you hours, or maybe days, weeks, even months. But the next step can feel a little soul-destroying. All that fun and hard work just to break it up again and put it back in the box, maybe never to be looked at again.

Sure, you could take a photo of the puzzle to remember it and show off your achievement, but it just isn’t the same. So, why not frame the actual puzzle and put it up on your wall?

Choosing a puzzle to frame

Which puzzle to frame should be completely personal to you. Usually, it’s one that you’ve spent a lot of time on or that has sentimental meaning to you or a loved one you’re giving a gift to. Here are a few ideas:

• A challenging puzzle – Perhaps there’s one puzzle that was a real challenge and that you spent a lot of time on, either alone or with friends and family. Frame it to show off your achievement.
• A custom puzzle – You can get a puzzle printed with whatever photo you want, complete the puzzle, and then frame it for your wall.
• A child’s puzzle – Celebrate your child’s achievement by framing the first puzzle they completed by themselves or preserve the puzzle that they repeatedly did as a child.
• A couple’s puzzle – Did you and your partner spend one of your early dates doing a puzzle together on a rainy day? Frame it and remember those happy moments.

How to frame a puzzle

After you’ve completed your puzzle, you want to make sure that all the pieces will stay together even if you move the finished puzzle. The last thing you want is for some pieces to come apart once inside the frame.

One way to achieve this is to use glue on the puzzle. You can get special puzzle adhesive for this purpose, or you can opt for ordinary glue, but try to find one with low water content to reduce the risk of the pieces wrinkling or peeling. Spread the glue evenly over the face of the puzzle using a sponge or a piece of card, for example. You can use a paintbrush for this, but you may end up leaving brush strokes. A spray adhesive could also be quick and easy to apply.

Another option is adhesive tape designed for puzzles. This is usually quick and easy to apply and doesn’t create as much mess as glue. Once your puzzle is secure, you can bring it into a custom frame shop to complete the framing process for you. When choosing a frame, a float mounting frame is the best to choose for these purposes.

If you want to frame a puzzle for your home or as a gift, then contact Tanglewood Art and Frame or visit us in Clemmons, NC.