Richard Lynch, author of "The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2" has made layer mask capability available to Elements Users. He very cleverly adds a lot of tools under the Welcome choice in the Window menu. While this isn't my favorite framing effect, going through the tutorial to try it will teach you a bit about using the layer mask in Elements! The following instructions are for people who have downloaded the tools Richard has provided.

1. Open your Image.
2. Drag the layers palette by its tab out of the dock at the right of the screen. This way it will not close while you're working on your image.
3. Double click on the background layer and the name will become "Layer 0".
4. Hold the control key as you click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layer Palette. A new layer will appear beneath Layer 0.
5. Click on the fill tool, making sure white is your foreground color and fill the new layer with white.
6. Make Layer 0 active by clicking on it.
7. Use the rectangle selection tool to mark off the inside of the frame. You can use a hand-drawn selection too.
8. At the top of the screen click on the Window menu and then on Welcome.
9. Click on Layer Mask. A white box will appear next to your image on Layer 0.
10. Invert the selection by holding down the Control Key and then clicking the letter I
11. Click on Edit>Clear to allow the white to show through the border of your image.
12. Deselect (Select>Deselect)
13. Filter>Artistic or Filter>Brush strokes. Drag on the preview window to move the image over so you can see a corner where your frame will be. Experiment with the sliders. Click OK.