Introduction: Fancy Picture Frame

About: Former Israeli now living in NY. Artist (mostly paintings) my and my husband are currently making art together, he's a photographer and the experience of making pictures in more then one way really appeal t…

A neat way to use those cardboard boxes that are just laying around, and create something cool.

I made this one for a swap-bot swap that was about mosaic art, I tried to use as much scrap paper as possible. I'm really happy with the way it came out, it was quick and fun to make and real cheap and easy.

Material needed:

2 pieces of cardboard cut from a cardboard box. the pieces should be the same size and each of them should be the size of the final picture frame - cut them at the size of the picture plus 2 inch to each side and to the bottom and top.

Acrylic paint in a color of your choice

Elmer's glue (or any other glue - this is what I had)

Cool paper scraps - magazine clipping, wrapping paper, candy or food wrapper and labels, postcards or whatever you feel like using.

Tools

Craft or exacto knife

Paint brush

Ruller

Pen or paints or markers if you want to

OK - Let's start!

Step 1: Cutting the Frame

First thing you need to do is mesure both piece of cardboard and cut them, so that both of them would have a rectangular \ square hole in the middle.

The piece that would go in the front should have a hole that's smaller then the piece that would go in the back.

I mesured 2" on each side from the piece in the front and 1" on each side from the frame in the back.

Throw away the small rectangular that's left after cutting but keep the bigger one.

Step 2: Painting

Paint all 3 pieces on one side in any color that you want - the back doesn't have to be colored cause it's going to face the wall, but I painted it anyway, I'm sending it to someone so I wanted it to look pretty.

Leave to dry.

Alternative - if you like the way cardboard looks, you can leave it like it is, or another option - use any paper you like and paste on the frame.

Step 3: Decorate

Now the fun part begin!

I used whole bunch of scrap papers to decorate the frame: Photos from a magazine, candy wrapper for the gold and metalic blue, pieces of origami paper and so on. Usually I wouldn't go so overboard with decoration, but I made this for a Mosaic swap and had to use some mosaic effect in it. I actually like how this came out and now I'm going to make one for myself.

If you want to try the same mosaic effect - Cut the paper scraps to tiny squares and paste them using the Elmer's glue one next to the other. use larger pieces for the corners.

I think that for such a rich decor, it's better to stick to one or two colors and use different shades of them, with too many colors this will go too messy.

Step 4: Glue!

Now all you got to do is put a lot of glue on the back side of the back part of the frame and paste the two parts together.

Leave to dry (about 10 or 20 minutes)

Step 5: Insert Photo Here

I didn't know what the picture in the frame would be, actually I just wanted to make the frame, but I had to put something in (sort of like those generic man \ little girl \ puppy photos you get when oyu buy a picture frame in the store).

I tried different thing, it's nice to match the colors of the image to the colors of the frame (or the other way around).

When you are done - use the rectangular piece of cardboard that you cut from the piece in the back to close the frame and hold the photo in place.

Step 6: Admire Your Handy Work

Or in my case, write a nice note, wrap it up and prepare for a walk to the post office to have it send.

I'm surprise how well this came out and after finishing writing this instructable, I plan to start another one.

I want to try and make smaller ones and put a magnet in the back to hang on the refrigerator!