How to Build a Picture Frame

Distinctive picture frames are expensive and often the result of complicated cuts assembled with complicated tools. Building your own frame from ready-made items is a way to cut costs and personalize the design and color to match your decor while providing a way around the need for special tools.

Things You'll Need

• Picture
• Items to decorate the frame
• Box top
• Scissors or an art knife
• Hot-glue gun and glue sticks
• Glass the same size as the box top
• Tape
• Corrugated cardboard
• Short dowel rod or thin-gauge wire

Instructions

1. Select the items you want to decorate on the picture frame with. Any ready-made items will do as long as they're not too bulky. Puzzle pieces, building blocks or a child's wooden blocks are perfect for building a picture frame.

2. Decide what photo you want to frame.

3. Cut out the center of a shoe box lid or any other shallow lid of similar stiffness. Refer to your photo to decide the shape of the cut. Leave at least 1 inch of cardboard surface for gluing items but make sure the photo covers the entire cut out area.

4. Arrange the items from Step 1 around the cut out opening. Hot-glue them to the cardboard.

5. Obtain a piece of glass cut to the inside dimensions of the box lid/frame at any home or craft store. Clean both sides of the glass and set it into the lid/frame from the back.

6. Stick a short piece of tape across back of each photo's corner. Position the photo over the frame's opening. Secure the photo with one or two of the tape pieces. Carefully turn the frame over to ensure correct placement of the photo. Adjust as needed and firmly tape the photo in place.

7. Cut two or three sheets of corrugated cardboard and push them into the back of the box lid to hold the glass and photo against the face of the frame. The cardboard pieces need to be the same size as the box top so that they won't fall out when you pick up the frame.

8. Push a short dowel rod into the corrugated cardboard at the center of the base on the back of the frame. Stand it upright on a table. Another option is to make tiny pin holes in the sides of the frame near the top and thread thin gauge wire through the holes. Bend the wire ends back toward the back of the frame and twist them around the body of the wire several times to keep the wire from slipping. Hang the frame on the wall.