Going to be displaying or selling some art soon but don't have the cash to dish out for stands for all of your masterpieces? FEAR NOT! All you need is three straight sticks, three rubber bands, and a small board you can make a mighty fine little tripod stand that you could make a small army of for the cost of one store-bought stand.

This can also be a great simple to make easel for those with little ones who want to do some painting this summer. The kids can make the easel then they can make Michelangelo jealous with their paintings.

Step 1: Materials

There's plenty of room for other materials if you like, but the easiest I could thing of is as follows.

3- rubber bands
3- 1/2"x5' wooden dowels
1- 1"x2" board the width of your display piece

You could also use PVC,bamboo, string, or replace the board with a wide enough stick your display won't fall off. Go nuts.

Step 2: Assembly

1: Put the three dowels together and wrap a rubber band around them at their tops to hold the top together and make a tripod.

2: Loosely wrap one rubber band on the bottom of one of the dowels, and slide it up to the point you want your board at. Repeat for the other leg and rubber band.

3: Pull the rubber bands on the legs out and slip in the 1x2 board.

4: Adjust the height of the board as needed and make sure it's sitting level. Set up the tripod evenly between the three legs to avoid it tipping over.

5: Place your display on the 1x2. The rubber bands running across the top of it will help hold it in place.

Step 3: Additions

There are many things you could do to improve on this design and make for a more sturdy or permanent stand. Attaching from each side on the front to the back leg will make keeping that back leg evenly placed easier. If your display is on a slippery surface some rubber feet on the bottoms of the legs might keep it from slipping. If your displaying in a windy area then you might want to add some sort of clamp to the top of your piece to keep it from being blown away, and if you hang a weight from the middle of the tripod it'll keep the whole setup form being blown over. If you're passionate about your stands you could always stain or paint them as well. Sanding the board's edges will make it less likely to cut or break your rubber bands and helps the stands look more finished too.

Step 4: DISPLAY!

Now that you can stop worrying about how you'll get your art to your viewer's level, and start worrying what they'll think about it. Either way at the end of the day you can break these stands down entirely and they can be held together by their own rubber bands in small bundles. How convenient is that?! Just make sure you have some extra rubber bands around in case one breaks on you.