After being helped by Helen through a few glitches, I have happily and successfully completed my project.  For the first one, I added another stroke around the outside the same color as the frame fill (using layer styles).  It took away some pointiness, but I like it anyway.  I can also see where I need to work on lining up my brackets more precisely before closing the frame path with the pen tool.

I love Karina's idea of adding pattern to the frames!  There are so many varieties of looks you could make.  Here is my pattern-filled frame: