Photographs are the guardians of the most valuable moments in life, so they often decorate our homes, evoking pleasant memories. How much more attractive will a photo look if you put it in an original frame made by yourself! Today we will tell you 14 ways to make a photo frame with your own hands, which will become a real interior decoration or a unique creative gift.
Cardboard photo frame
The simplest and at the same time not devoid of originality photo frame can be made from cardboard. Even a child can handle this kind of work!
On one sheet of cardboard, cut out a rectangular center, which should be slightly smaller than the photo. Separately, prepare a cardboard rectangle larger than the photograph. If you plan to put the photo frame on a leg, prepare it too using the template. For a wall item, don’t forget to glue the string.
Then everything is simple - we put a photo on the back side of the “window” and fix it with a rectangle greased with glue, attach the leg.
Such a frame in itself will not have decorative value, so it needs to be decorated. Use colored paper, magazine clippings or gift wrapping.
Frame of branches
You can create a wonderful eco-style photo frame if you use thin twigs and twigs to make it. It is noteworthy that the material is easy to collect simply by leaving the house. Also prepare cardboard for the base, a glue gun, varnish and additional decor in the form of flowers, beads, cones or ribbons.
Form a rectangular blank from dark-colored cardboard or paint it (the main thing is that it does not remain white). Dry twigs need to be lightly peeled, freed from excess bark, and cut to the same length to fit the sides of the frame.
Now you can start gluing the twigs, slightly intertwining their ends in the corners. Finally, glue on the decorative ornaments and varnish the craft.
Popsicle stick photo frame
Popsicle stick frames are beautiful and easy to make. Even children can make such crafts and give them to friends, family members or teachers. With a little time, you can also create your own stick frame.
Simple option
Step 1: Find 4 Popsicle sticks. You will need one stick for each side of the frame. If you need a thicker frame, glue 2 sticks together to make one wide one.
Popsicle sticks
Step 2 . Glue the sticks together to form a square and wait for the glue to dry. To do this, use regular PVA glue.
Gluing sticks
Step 3 . Paint and decorate the frame. This can be done using markers or acrylic paint. Let the frame dry and then decorate it. You can write something on the surface of the product, such as “Daddy and Me” or “I love you, Mommy.” You can also glue items such as glitter, gems or buttons onto it.
The frame of the product is decorated
Step 4 . Place the finished frame on the photo and trace it from the inside using a pen. Photos can be valuable, so it's best to use a copy instead of the original.
Marking is being applied
Step 5 . Cut out the photo. Try to go a little beyond the line you drew. This way your photo won't stick out from the frame.
Photo cut out
Step 6 . Glue the photo to the back of the frame. This manipulation will make the frame and photograph a permanent structure.
Pasting photos
Step 7 . Add ribbon to the back of the frame if you want to hang it on a nail. Cut a piece of tape, flip the frame over, and apply some glue to the top left and right corners. Press the ends of the tape for a few seconds to secure the tape. Let the glue dry and then hang the frame.
The tape is fixed at the back
Step 8 . If you wish, you can glue magnets to the back of the frame so that it can be attached to the surface of the refrigerator instead of a wall. Turn the frame over and apply some glue to the top and bottom of the frame. Press the magnet and wait for the glue to dry. Place the frame on the refrigerator door.
Gluing the magnet
Step 9 . The popsicle stick photo frame is ready. If desired, it can be hung on the wall or attached to the metal surface of the refrigerator.
This is what the finished craft looks like
Reusable frame
Step 1 . Line up 8 popsicle sticks side by side. Lay them horizontally. This will form the basis of your photo. You shouldn't glue them together.
8 popsicle sticks
Step 2: Use a hot glue gun to glue three sticks on top of the horizontal sticks. Place three sticks vertically. Glue one stick in the center of the base of the frame. Glue the other two sticks to the left and right of the base. This will serve as the basis for the entire structure.
3 more sticks are glued on top
Step 3 . Turn the frame over and place a photo of the appropriate size. Place the photo in the center of the design, but do not glue it. You will use the photo as a template.
Photo is placed
Step 4 . Draw a vertical line of glue on both sides of the photo. Make sure the line goes from the bottom of the frame to the top. Be sure to leave a small gap between the glue and the edge of the photo. This way the glue won't get into the photo.
There should be a gap between the glue and the photo
Step 5 . Place the popsicle sticks on the glued surface and press them with your fingers. Hold the chopsticks upright. Make sure the inside edge of each stick overlaps the photo. This will help secure the photo inside the frame. Otherwise, it will simply fall out.
Sticks are pressed with fingers
Step 6 . Glue one stick on top and bottom of the frame base. Apply glue to the surface of the sticks to be glued and fix them in the position as in the photo.
The same is done at the top and bottom of the frame.
Step 7 . Place three sticks on top of each other and secure them with glue. Make another element as in the photo. These will support the bottom of the frame so it can stand.
Creates additional frame support
Step 8 . Glue each stack to the bottom of the frame base. One of them will be in front of the photo, and the other will be behind. This will make the entire structure more stable.
This will make the frame more stable.
Step 9 . Decorate the finished product. Paint the frame and let it dry before decorating. You can write something on the surface of the frame, such as a name or a short message. You can also glue on various small objects, such as glitter, gems or buttons.
The frame can be further decorated
Step 10 . Slide the photo across the top of the frame. To put another photo or image, simply pull it out and replace it with a new one.
A photo is inserted at the end
Photo frame made of seashells
Any family with children will probably find some seashells lying around. The tireless child is ready to collect tons of this material, without finding any use for it. Take this opportunity and decorate your photo frame with shells!
The basis can be a regular wooden or plastic frame. Select whole shells, rinse thoroughly, dry and start gluing. When the composition is finished, open the shell frame with varnish or paint.
Denim photo frame
A creative youth photo frame can be made from old jeans. As a base, take a thick sheet of plywood or a rectangular wooden board. Draw the outlines of the future photo on it.
Prepare the decor - cut denim ribbons of the same width, but different lengths, so that the finished rounds are of different sizes. Lubricate each tape with glue on one side and twist it. When you have collected a lot of these “details”, cover the frame with them.
After complete drying, it is necessary to carefully trim the bottoms of the outer rounds from the inside, as well as the sides of the cardboard protruding from the sides. Now you can place your favorite photo here!
Pallet picture frame
If you don’t know what to give to a friend or loved one, then a frame made from a pallet is a great gift. To make it, you don’t need any special tools or skills, so anyone can make such a picture frame. You just need to follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Step 1 . Find a whole pallet or small parts of it. Select four small boards to form the frame and make sure they are all long enough.
The boards must be long enough
On a note! If you have spare parts from an old pallet, you can use them to decorate the finished structure. They may also be needed if you made mistakes while working.
Step 2. Decide on the photo size. Take measurements and use them to control the wood you cut.
You need to decide on the size of the frame in advance.
Step 3 . Cut the wood pieces to size. Using your measurements, cut the pieces of wood to the width and length you need for the frame.
Elements of the future frame
Step 4 . Sand the surfaces of the wood pieces using a plane (or have someone do it for you). This must be done with each of the blanks.
Workpieces need to be processed
Step 5 . Form a square frame on a flat surface. Glue the four pieces together at the junctions. Use clamps to tightly connect the parts. Aim for a very neat and tight fit at every corner. Clamps (such as clamps) will help create the necessary pressure. Leave until the glue is completely dry before removing the clamps.
Glued frame
Step 6 . Apply varnish to the surface of the frame. If you want to decorate it, then after varnishing the product can be painted in different colors.
Frame after applying varnish
Step 7 . Glue a thick piece of cardboard to the back of the frame, leaving the top part unglued. The picture or photograph will need to be inserted into the frame through the top. Glue some string to the back and hang the finished frame on the wall. Instead of a loop, you can make a cardboard leg that is attached to the back of the product.
Corrugated cardboard is glued to the back
Step 8 . Insert the photo and hang the frame on the wall in a suitable place. Everything is done, all that remains is to enjoy the result of the work done.
Finished photo frame
Country style frame made of yarn
To make a cute frame in which a family or children's photo will look great, you can use knitting threads. You will need 70-80g of yarn of one or more colors (at your discretion) and two cardboard frames.
Each of the bases must be tightly wrapped with thread, passing twice so that there are no voids left. Now cover the photograph with two of these wrapped frames and once again pass the thread through the entire product, fixing it in this way.
During the winding process, you can string multi-colored beads, buttons onto threads, or decorate a ready-made photo frame with artificial flowers.
Natural materials
Tastefully decorated frames in a natural style always attract attention. After all, we are all children of nature.
Coffee beans, lentils, acorns
Everything can go into action and create unique compositions. Coffee beans will be useful to you not only for making an invigorating drink, they turn out to be an excellent material for decorating a photo frame with your own hands: they have a wonderful smell, an original texture, a noble color, and they do not spoil. The work won’t take much time either: it’s not so difficult to use a glue gun or PVA glue to tightly line a standard photo frame with coffee beans, which in its new guise is guaranteed to become a leading interior accessory.
A similar thing can be done by replacing coffee beans with lentils, pumpkin seeds, acorns, corks and just chopsticks. Creative craftsmen do not ignore ordinary pine cones: they use pliers to separate each scale and paste over the frame. It’s a labor-intensive task, of course, but worth it – it turns out very beautifully. The work can be varnished.
Tip: to make your handmade frame smell fragrant, buy star anise and star anise and find a place for them in the overall decor.
Shells
This is one of the rewarding materials for decorating a photographic frame with your own hands. For decoration you need shells of various shapes and sizes. In addition to shells, it is appropriate to use interesting glass, sea pebbles and other finds made on the sea or river bank in inlay.
Paper
When creating an exclusive frame with your own hands, you can use paper, which under normal circumstances would face the sad fate of waste paper. Very original photo frames are decorated with paper tubes from newspapers and magazines that have served their purpose.
They can be either short (we stick them on the end) or oblong – we use them in a horizontal position. Another decor idea: birch bark is a very impressive type of natural material. Cut a piece of birch bark into five strips. Four will become the actual frame, the fifth can be made into a stand.
Salty dough
You can turn an ordinary photo frame into a designer one using salt dough. Everyone has their own ideas: some will decorate it with flowers, while others will add the name of the child shown in the picture. But first you need to make this very dough: knead it from a glass of salt, two glasses of flour and water. Having achieved the consistency of plasticine, start sculpting the intended decorative elements right on the corner of the photo frame - this way the dough will take the desired shape at the base, and you can easily glue it to the right place. Place it in the oven for 20 minutes. Let it cool, glue it to the frame and begin painting with any colors. You can even limit yourself to one from an aerosol can. The final stage consists of varnishing (it is better to do two layers) and drying.
Mosaic frame made of disks
Iridescent DVDs are an excellent material for making a high-tech photo frame with your own hands. Take a few old, unwanted disks and break them into small fragments.
Prepare a cardboard base and start gluing pieces that can be placed in a chaotic manner. After finishing the work, let the frame dry for several hours.
Now you need to process the gaps - use acrylic compounds in tubes or paints for stained glass painting. Don't forget about the edges of the frame!
How to make a wooden frame with your own hands
Nowadays, homemade interior items are in great demand. Many stores have appeared selling goods of this category. Handmade products look original; the authors put in not only imagination and skills, but also a piece of their soul. And it’s nice to have in your home not standard products from consumer goods, but an individual product, which is in a single copy. However, for such products you will have to pay a tidy sum, since authorship is valued at a high price. It will be much cheaper if you show creativity, imagination and realize your vision of a household item, for example: photo frames, paintings, wooden mirrors.
Creative plans
Before starting any work, you always need to draw up a rough plan of action, prepare materials and the item you want to frame. The finished product should fit organically into the interior of the room, be it an office or a residential apartment. The frame cannot but match the style of the overall interior. Also, the materials from which frames are made vary greatly in texture, quality, and color. The wooden frame itself can be in a simple style, or it can be with beautiful openwork carvings.
Even a simple, even frame made of wood is complemented with design elements that will give it a special style and originality. You also need to decide what exactly to focus on in your work. If the main thing in the project is the design of a finished frame, then it can be purchased in a store and transformed into a masterpiece at home. If the frame itself becomes the object of creativity, then it is better to make it yourself.
Selection of materials
In order to make a wooden frame with your own hands, the necessary wood is selected. Basically you need to look at the pattern and structure of the tree, since, in principle, any species is suitable for this. If the frame will be painted later, then the simplest one is chosen - pine or spruce. If the structure of the wood is visible and the product is subsequently coated with varnish or stain, then you need to take wood with an original pattern. Walnut, ash, cherry, and linden look very beautiful. Beautiful frames for paintings with your own hands made of wood are created when carvings are applied to them (floral, plot or simple ornament). For carving, use softer wood, especially if the carver is a beginner. A professional, of course, will make a pattern on an oak board, but for a beginner it will be difficult, since oak is considered a very hard tree. You will also have to buy a set of cutters of different sizes.
Another option for making a frame with your own hands from wood is a simple wooden product, which is decorated on top with improvised materials. Nowadays, picture frames decorated with something unusual are fashionable. These can be pieces of bark, pencils, shells, buttons and other waste material.
Making a wooden frame
Before making a picture frame from wood, you need to prepare the following materials and tools: plywood or fiberboard; wooden slats, plinth or baguette; hand saw or jigsaw; miter box; construction stapler; PVA glue; acrylic varnish or paint, brushes; stain (if necessary); plastic or metal loop; nails or screws; hammer or screwdriver (as a last resort - a screwdriver); corner clamps; sandpaper. When planning to cover a picture frame with something (it’s easy to make one from wood with your own hands), prepare the material that is needed for this. You can lay out the required pattern on the table in advance to understand how it will look.
Step-by-step instruction
The first step is to measure the size of the painting and cut out a square or rectangle from plywood or fiberboard. Its size should be larger than the picture by the width of the wooden slats. Having attached a picture or photograph to the plywood, outline it with a pencil so as not to stain the object while working. The painting can then be put aside until the work is completed.
The second step in making a frame from wood with your own hands will be cutting the slats at an angle of 45 degrees. To do this you will need a saw and a miter box. A strip or block of wood is inserted into the miter box and sawed off along the line. Then we repeat the procedure with another bar. We combine the corners of two pieces of wood, you should get a right angle of 90 degrees. We apply this angle to the plywood and mark the length of the other sides. After this, using the marked marks, we make cuts in the other two corners. We attach the assembled frame to the plywood and check its size. If everything comes together clearly, you can proceed to the next stage. The ends of the slats, cut at 45 degrees, are coated with PVA glue and tightly tightened with corner clamps, left alone until completely glued (approximately 2 hours). After this, for better fastening, connect the corners of the slats with staples using a construction stapler.
Assembling a wooden frame
The last stage of making the frame will be fastening the parts together. There is a small nuance here. If you are attaching a painting or photograph permanently, you can glue it to plywood. Then everything is much simpler. The finished frame just needs to be nailed to the plywood or fastened with small screws. If the photo is inserted, then you will have to work extra hard. In order for the photo to fit freely into the frame, you must leave a gap between the frame and the photo. In a purchased frame, wooden slats are processed on a milling machine and a step is made for insertion. Not everyone has a router at home, so you need to do it differently. Make an additional layer between the frame and the plywood, for example from thick cardboard. Strips are cut to size corresponding to the width of the frame and glued along the perimeter of the plywood on three sides. There is no need to do this from above. A painting or photograph will be inserted into that slot.
Next, clean the surface with sandpaper and cover with a layer of varnish or paint. After drying, repeat the cleaning procedure and cover with another layer. Let dry. Acrylic varnish dries quickly and produces almost no unpleasant odors. It doesn't take long to make a picture frame with your own hands from wood. All that remains is to attach a loop and hang it on the wall. The only thing I can recommend is to laminate the photograph so that you can periodically wipe off dust without damaging the photograph itself.
Variety of materials
You can create frames with your own hands from wood and metal, baguettes and plastic, polyurethane baseboards and simple branches. Nowadays there is such a free approach to the choice of materials that any flight of fancy can be realized. The frames are roughly knocked down with large nails, tied together from randomly sized branches, burned with a blowtorch, and stripped with a stiff brush. Everyone has their own approach. Whoever thinks of something will realize it in his work. Nowadays, there are so many different materials and examples from other designers that you can look at the photographs and choose the one that suits you.
Designer frame for mirror
Frames can be made not only from slats or bars. Let's consider several options for unusual frames. For example, how to make a frame for a mirror out of wood with your own hands using small twigs? To do this, we take plywood and cut out a figure several centimeters larger in diameter than the mirror.
If, for example, it is round, then a larger circle is drawn, etc. Then the mirror itself is glued to the center of the plywood circle using liquid nails. A strip of plywood remains along the edges, which we will decorate. To do this, take wood glue and, in turn, coat each branch with glue and place it in a circle with the end in the middle. The work is meticulous and long, but the result will be a completely original thing.
Frame of twigs
Let's look at another example of an original photo frame. Anyone can make it from wood with their own hands. A photograph is glued to a sheet of plywood and a few centimeters of margin are left to the edges to decorate the frame. Branches of the same or different lengths are collected, thoroughly dried and treated with an antiseptic.
After this, you can cover them with acrylic varnish, or you can leave them untouched. Take a beautiful twine and make four bundles from an equal number of branches. The bundles are tightly connected to each other. The result is a frame of twigs, which is then glued to the free part of the plywood sheet. Come up with your own version, create, search, try, and everything will work out! Good luck! fb.ru Another publication contains material on the same topic.
Cook photo frame
A reliable and original design of a photo frame can even be made from salt dough. Creating it is quite simple: pour a glass of flour and half a glass of salt into a bowl, add 100 ml of water (if you want the frame to be colored, dilute the water with food coloring). Knead the dough and season it with 50 ml of vegetable oil.
The dough should “rest” for two hours, after which you can begin modeling. Place the finished product in a preheated oven and bake for two hours, remembering to turn it over.
If you do not color the dough initially, you can paint the finished product after it has completely cooled. A dough photo frame will last longer if you open it with a layer of varnish.
Photo frames from scrap materials
“Photo frames made of cardboard framed with knitting threads look impressive”
This may sound paradoxical, but the simpler the material used to make a photo frame, the more impressive the result will be. Test your ideas in practice.
An incredibly beautiful frame will be made from a piece of ceiling tile. All you need to do is cut out a figure of the intended shape in it with a stationery knife. It can be not only a rectangle: give the unusual photo frame more original proportions. Make it oval, hexagonal, triangular, heart-shaped. The decoration stage will complete the work. The base can be painted or decorated with adhesive parts.
Ceiling tile photo frames
No less attractive frames can be made from scraps of ceiling or wall plinths. We cut out the sections according to the dimensions of the structure and assemble the parts into the given shape by gluing the end parts. We decorate at our discretion. Fast and effective!
Photo frame made from wall plinth
Cardboard photo frames framed with knitting threads look impressive. The base is wrapped with mohair, colored acrylic or other types of yarn. Children's photographs will look especially tender in such a frame.
Cardboard photo frame framed with knitting threads
Is a paper photo frame boring? Try making it from a glossy magazine. Tubes are wound from its multi-colored leaves, which are then collected together. For convenience and speed of the process, the sheets can be wound onto a pen or pencil.
Photo frame from a glossy magazine
Upgrade an old frame with discs. They are broken into fragments and a pattern is laid out from small elements on the surface to be decorated. To make it even more decorative, the resulting voids between the parts are painted with acrylic paints. It is more convenient to use tubes. Through their sharp spout it will be easier to carefully fill the voids.
The process of laying out a pattern from disks
The same principle can be used with colored glass. Stained glass decor will look great!
But perhaps the most unusual photo frames can be called products made from... dough. It is kneaded according to a special recipe. For a glass of flour you will need half a glass of fine salt and water, as well as 50 ml of vegetable oil. If a colored model is conceived, then food coloring is added to the dough. Mix the dry ingredients and fill them with colored water. Knead the mixture and season with vegetable oil. Knead the dough until ready. Roll into a ball and leave it to lie under a towel for a couple of hours.
Necessary materials for making a dough frame
Make a frame from the rested dough and dry it in an oven preheated to 100 (no more!) degrees. The process will take several hours, but the dough will not crack. Don't forget to turn the unusual photo frame over. At the end of the procedure, the product is allowed to cool and is opened with varnish.
Paint the finished frame in the desired color
It is not necessary to make the frame initially colored. Leave it white and decorate it as you wish after baking.
If you’re not ready to work on a photo frame with your own hands, but you still want to add something exclusive to your home, use transparent glass containers. Roll the photo into a tube and immediately push it into the neck of the bottle. For greater effect, fill the bottle void with glass balls of different colors, dried grass, and cereals.
Original photo frame from a bottle
Create an entire photo collage by mounting your photos on an authentic wheel hanging on the wall. The abundance of small photographs in photo frames made from scrap materials does not fit into the decor, but you really want to put them on display? Combine them into one picture. To do this, you will need to assemble a frame made of wood or plastic, like a picture frame. In addition to this, stock up on: small nails or a set of colored pushpins, jute, measuring tape, clothespins.
Photo collage in a wooden frame with clothespins
The size of an unusual photo frame is determined by the number of pictures that should fit in it.
Lay out the photos on paper in the order in which you would like to see them inside the painting. Take measurements and assemble the photo frame with your own hands. Now, drive nails in the appropriate places and stretch the jute over them. Using clothespins, hang photographs along the stretched threads, like laundry on a line. Your picture has been created!
The beauty of such a decorative element is that the collection of photos in it can be changed regularly. You can make thematic or nostalgic collages, photo reviews of recent events in the family. Creative and always relevant!
The content of the photo collage can be changed regularly
Frame using decoupage technique
The name of the drawing technique sounds rather pompous, but in reality it is a simple re-gluing. To make a stylish photo frame, you will need napkins with a pattern, PVA glue, a wooden or plastic base frame and varnish.
Disassemble the old frame and paint the front surface with white acrylic paint (for convenience, it is better to use a sponge), wait for it to dry. Apply a napkin, dip the brush in glue and work the canvas, smoothing out any air bubbles that may have formed.
When the product has dried thoroughly, you need to cut out the middle for the photo and glue the edges inward. Now you can assemble the photo frame and varnish it.
Window frame photo frame
Yes, you are reading absolutely correctly - you can make a unique panel in the shabby chic style from an ordinary window frame. To do this, of course, you will need an old window frame, which you don’t even need to paint - cracked paint and chips will become the “highlight” of the product.
The frame needs to be disassembled, one large photograph or several small ones must be inserted, depending on the number of windows. The photographs must first be glued onto a sheet of cardboard or thick paper. It is better to choose black and white photos - they will look harmonious with your “antique” luxurious frame.
Now all that remains is to assemble the product and find it a worthy place on the shelf of the living room or bedroom.
Photo frame made of buttons
It's no secret that many housewives, when sending old clothes to a landfill, cut off buttons from them in the hope that they will come in handy someday. Well, their time has come - decorate a photo frame with multi-colored buttons!
Choose buttons of different sizes - this will make it easier for you to create a composition. Place the large buttons on the frame first, and then fill in the gaps with small ones. If you are satisfied with the result, start gluing, fixing each button one by one.
If you make a frame-backing yourself from cardboard, it is better to first cover it with colored paper, because the gaps, one way or another, will be visible.
Original frame made of cereals
A simple and affordable option for making a photo frame with your own hands is to make it using cereals or grains. You will also need thick cardboard, some paper, glue and paint.
Create a frame from cardboard or plywood, and cover the edges with paper for beauty. Paint the workpiece. Now you can start decorating.
Place the frame on the support so that it is in a horizontal position. Thickly coat the surface with glue to form a decent layer and sprinkle cereal on top. The miracle frame is ready! To make it last longer, coat it with additional protective varnish.
Ways to decorate photo frames
If the finished photo frame seems simple and unattractive, you can decorate it, turning it into a unique thing that can become an original decorative element.
Let's look at the simplest techniques for decorating photo frames.
Quilline style decoration
There are probably old postcards around the house. We cut them into strips, which we roll into spirals. We fix the ends of the strips with glue and attach the quilling rolls to the frame.
Using colorful paper napkins
We cut the napkins into squares, make lumps out of them and glue them to the base. Carefully straighten the “roses” and give the product a finished look.
Using seafood
Seashells of different sizes and smooth pebbles are suitable for decoration.
We lay out the elements on the frame and fix them with hot glue. You can paint or varnish the finished craft.
Decorating with “golden” shells
Let's prepare halves of walnut shells. Lay them out on paper and paint them with golden spray paint. After drying, attach the shell to the photo frame using a glue gun.
Use of eggshells
We chop the washed and dried shell into small fragments and glue it to the base. Using a brush, we paint the shells in different colors and coat the finished product with varnish.
Aroma decor
Photo frames can be not only beautiful, but also fragrant. In this case, anise stars or cinnamon sticks are used as decoration. The glued elements have a beautiful natural color, so it will be enough to refine them with varnish.
Birch bark decor
As the name implies, birch bark is used to decorate the frame. Using scissors, cut the required number of blanks and attach them to the base with hot glue.
Such a photo frame will look very impressive when framing black and white photographs.
Decoration with braid
In this case, the base for the frame should be painted in a contrasting dark color. The selected braid is glued around the perimeter of the frame. To complete the composition, you can decorate it with multi-colored buttons.
Decoration with cord
For decoration you will need a twisted cord and double-sided tape. The rope is attached in a circle in several rows, filling the entire surface of the workpiece.
Denim decor
We cut off belts, scraps with rivets and other decorative elements from unnecessary denim items. We glue them to the base using a glue gun and place them under a press for better adhesion to the surface.
Decorating with yarn
We take knitting threads of the desired colors and tightly wrap them around the edges of the frame. Products for children's photographs are especially delicate.
Using disks
We break the unnecessary disks into fragments and lay them on the surface of the photo frame. To fill the voids we use acrylic paint in tubes.
By analogy with disks, you can decorate the frame with fragments of old stained glass. In this case, the product will turn out bright and unique.
We have not considered all the ways to make photo frames with your own hands. A variety of materials are used for work. These are felt, velor, satin, guipure and lace. Buttons, brooches, coins, beads, beads and sequins will be useful for decoration. You can always find a use for scrap materials to create a unique photo frame.
Retro frame from an alarm clock
An interesting idea to make a stylish photo frame, giving a second life to an old alarm clock. Use a screwdriver to disassemble the alarm clock. Place the glass on the photo and cut out the image.
Now put the whole structure back together, but without the hands and clock mechanism. The photo is placed under glass. To securely fix the photo, coat its edges with glue.
This retro-style photo frame will be a wonderful decoration for a fireplace, bookshelf, or an excellent gift.
Photo frame made of clothespins
You can use clothespins to make a fun sun frame where the photos will be arranged in a circle. This is one of the easiest ways!
First you need to form a circle from thick cardboard. Cut out the middle or leave it, pasting it with a colorful picture - decide at your discretion.
Now glue the clothespins along the entire circumference so that the opening side of each of them faces up. Your wonderful photo frame is ready!
Elegant paper photo frame
Look how easy it is to make a cute photo frame even from plain paper! For the frame you will need a thick sheet of paper. Draw a template as shown in the photo - you can print the image or redraw it by enlarging it on the monitor.
Now, following the step-by-step instructions, fold the frame and decorate the inside with colored paper or fabric. Start decorating, but don’t forget that the frame is paper, so you can’t glue a lot of decorations onto it, otherwise the product may lose its shape.
Two or three flowers or butterflies will be enough. You can complete the composition with a contrasting thread winding with a cute trinket.
Making a wooden photo frame
Photography is of considerable importance in our life, because what, if not photography, reminds us of some of the memorable moments of our lives captured on it?..
A photograph is a bright and wonderful reminder of a vacation or weekend spent, especially if it happened in the lap of natural beauty...
The wooden photo frame offered below can be an excellent addition and a worthy frame for your photographs of this kind.
It can be an interesting and useful gift for an experienced tourist, an avid fisherman or hunter, and can also decorate the interior of your wooden house or bathhouse.
Using very inexpensive tools and devices, following the step-by-step technology described below, you can make a similar thing for your home from a ubiquitous material - branches.
First you need to select the material - since it is distributed almost everywhere, this should not be a problem.
Preferences are such that it is more desirable to select healthy hardwood branches with bark, cut down in winter. They should be moderately even, but it is better if they have a slight curvature. The diameter of the branches should be approximately 4-5 cm and they should have well-preserved bark. Moreover, it is desirable that the bark is not smooth, and even better if there are also pieces of moss or lichen on it - in this case the frame will be more expressive.
We cut the found branches into pieces of approximately 40-50 cm and dry them for some time (about a month) in a warm room.
After some drying, you can start working. We cut the blanks to length, with an allowance of 2-3 cm. Since the photo has dimensions of 20*30 cm, we cut the long blanks at approximately 46 cm (30 cm length of the photo, 10 cm for two joints, and 6 cm for two tails) , and short ones - about 36 cm (same as the previous size, minus 10 cm). We measure the required length with a tape measure and cut it with a hand hacksaw.
Next, we lay out planes on the blanks using a universal woodworking machine, or using a manual electric planer. The thickness of the workpieces should be approximately the same.
Of course, when working on a machine and with power tools, you should not forget about safety rules .
After pre-treatment, you need to let the workpieces sit for a while and dry, if necessary. After a few days of exposure, we check the evenness of the planes - if necessary, level them again.
Now let's start making connections. The connection is simple - half a tree, and in this case it does not require special precision and accuracy.
First, we make markings - place a sheet of paper or thick cardboard measuring 20*30 cm on the laid out blanks and mark the location of the cutouts on the lower blanks.
Using a wood hacksaw, follow the markings and make several transverse cuts half the thickness of the workpiece..
Now, using a sharp chisel and light blows of a mallet, we cut off the excess material.
Similarly, we mark and make cutouts on the remaining two blanks and remove excess material with a chisel.
As a result of these simple operations, four blanks are obtained with cutouts for a half-tree cross connection.
On a flat plane we lay out the blanks in the same order as during marking, and fasten them at the joints using wood screws.
The planes of the workpieces after fastening must be in the same plane - if this is not the case, then we adjust the joints with a chisel.
Now you need to cut a recess on the inside of the resulting structure for inserting glass. To begin with, we mark the contours of the future recess using a sheet of paper and outline its boundaries with a pencil along a ruler, adding 2-3 mm on each side.
We set up a manual milling machine - install a groove cutter in the collet and set the milling depth equal to the thickness of the glass and photograph.
Using a square, we set the stop for smooth milling and secure it with self-tapping screws.
Pressing the sole of the milling machine against the stop, we carefully mill out the recesses on all four workpieces.
We trim corners and burrs with a sharp chisel.
After this, use coarse sandpaper to sand off the remaining pile and uncut fibers.
We cut off the “tails” with a hacksaw, making them approximately the same length, 3-4 cm.
Using an electric plane or a sharp chisel, we form beautiful ends of the “tails” at the ends.
We cut off the remaining burrs and fibers with a sharp chisel and sand the ends with sandpaper.
From jute twine (with coarse fibers) we cut four pieces of 8-9 meters each and, using an electric drill, twist them into cords approximately 1.5 m long (fold in half, secure one end, secure the other in the chuck of an electric drill, twist them into a double cord. Disconnect both ends and the cord itself will twist into a quadruple).
Using a hacksaw and chisel, we cut out indentations for the cord approximately 1 cm wide from the inside of the joints.
And after that, we begin to tightly tie the connection with a cord, carefully making sure that the cord passes exactly in the place where the recesses are cut.
We tuck the end of the cord into an already wound cord or secure it with a stapler.
The result is four beautifully designed corner joints.
Now you need to cut out the back wall, which will hold the glass and photograph in place in the recess.
Using a ruler, measure the required length and width of the wall - it should cover the recess, plus you need to add 15 mm on each side to attach the back wall to the back of the frame. After that, we cut out a rectangle from hardboard or thin plywood according to these dimensions.
We mark the locations of the holes for fastening, drill them with a drill with a diameter of 3 mm and countersink them with a drill with a diameter of 8 mm for the screw heads.
Using a roller glass cutter, we cut out the glass of the required size - it should be 2-3 mm smaller than the size of the recess cut for it. To avoid cutting yourself in the future, we sand the sharp edges with fine-grained sandpaper secured in the block.
We apply a protective and decorative coating - wood oil or varnish - to the wooden parts of the frame and let it sit for about a day until it dries completely. This coating will make the frame brighter and more expressive. .
After the protective and decorative coating has dried, insert the glass and photograph into the recess intended for them.
Using small self-tapping screws, screw the back wall to the frame. Using a piece of twine tied to two small screws, we make fastenings for hanging on the wall.
And after that, the finished frame can be hung on the wall.
Photo gallery
Making a photo frame with your own hands is an interesting creative process that allows you to make a real masterpiece from simple materials. Don't forget to check out our photo gallery! Here you will find even more interesting ideas that you can safely experiment with using different decorating methods.
Materials for stands
What materials can the stand be made from?
- Cardboard
- Wire
- Fabric or foam
- Bottles
- Wooden crafts
- Paper sheets
- Constructor elements
- Plastic cards
Don't limit yourself to this list, turn on the imagination in your head and give any object such a function. The advantages of a stand that you can make with your own hands are speed of production, low cost, and uniqueness.
