Making Better Use of a Portrait Frame

Before getting married, me and my now wife went to a lot of different wedding fairs all over the country to get inspiration. One of the fairs gave us a great little goody bag, and one of the items that came with it was this simple portrait frame, which I put in the drawer as kept meaning to put in a nice picture in from the wedding, but I struggled to pick just the one that I liked.

Step 1: Moo Cards

I decided that rather than just picking the one picture, I would get a load of pictures printed to fit in the frame. This is where I came across moo mini business cards. Moo print you business cards where one side is all the same (so I put our wedding date so that I never forget our anniversary) and on the other side they can print any photograph you like.

Step 2: Laying Our the Pictures

Next I laid down the pictures precisely where I thought they would look best. I found that some of the moo cards had to be cut to size a little, but that was no problem. The gaps around the edge also don't really matter as most will be covered up by the frame border, and if you do try and squeeze photos into those gaps they will have to be soo small you are unlikely to recognise what you have put in them.

Step 3: Sticking the Pictures Down

This is the part when you have to spend time getting it right! Put one picture down so that it looks square with the frame, and then line all pictures up to that one. If you get that picture wrong, all the rest look wonky, so take your time. The rest of them is just about sticking them down and lining them up with that first picture.

I just used double sided sticky tape, but glue would work just as well (if not better but I did not have any in stock). As it is going to be pushed up against the glass, it does not really matter what you use so long as the glue is not too thick and gloopy that is seeps out between the images.

Step 4: Cutting and Framing

Now simply cut off the surplus around the edges and place into the frame.

Step 5: Sugru Buttonhole Flower

For the wedding day I had a foam rose buttonhole, which I of course kept, and now I think could put on this frame to always keep it visible. Our hackspace had a load of free sugru, so I grab some of the packs of white. With the white sugru you need to be extra careful that you have clean hands. Sugru sticks to pretty much anything, including the dirt under your fingernails!

The sugru is like forming modelling clay, but it sets hard and sticks to metal pretty well, so all I did was cover the stem with the white sugru, push it onto the side of the frame, and then smooth it out with my thumb.