DIY Picture Frame

I don't know about you, but I am a major Michaels-aholic. Any craft store really, just can't handle myself. When I'm having a rotten day I especially love to go to Michaels. Don't need anything in particular to go to Michaels, will just raid the clearance aisle for whatever is a good deal. Doesn't even matter if I need it or not, if it's a good deal on craft supply of things I've either wanted to use or think will be useful one day then I get it. I just can't help myself. Eh, what are ya gonna do? Brad has learned to just put up with it.

During one of these excursions I came across this behemoth. It was only $3!! I texted my sister and asked her if she thought I could even do it. I love painting, but am not very good at it. Figured if I had lines that I had to follow then maybe I could do it. It was so cheap I figured what could it hurt? That was until I got it home and just looked at Brad and said, "What did I get myself into?" Seriously! Look at this thing.

Anywho, I did it. Took me about a month of working on it and here and there. For my first paint by numbers it came out great. It just takes a lot of patience. I'm serious...A LOT!

Now that I've finished the picture, all I needed was a frame. My picture is a 16x20 so trying to find a modestly priced frame was impossible. Finally I decided to just make my own. How hard can it be, right? Here is what I did.

DIY Picture Frame

Supplies:

-8' trim piece

-Stain

-Wood Glue

-Staple Gun with staples

-Duck Tape

-Picture hanging kit

-Plastic sheeting

Directions:

1. Measure the picture you want to frame and decide how long you want your pieces. I wanted mine to barely cover the edges of the picture, so I cut mine into 2-24" pieces and 2-20" pieces.

2. Cut the pieces at a 45 degree angle--miter saws make this much easier, but not impossible if you don't have one.

3. Lay out each piece to form your frame and put your staples into the back.

4. Seperate each piece just a little bit and add your wood glue. Be sure not to put too much wood glue because the glue will not take stain as well as the wood.

5. Weight it down and let it dry.

6. Once glue is completely dry, add your stain. You don't need much stain. I used leftover from when we made our dining room table. Let dry completely. You can see where the stain didn't soak into the glue as much as the surrounding wood. Brad liked it, said it looked rustic.

Turns out my wood was bowed and it didn't want to stay glued. So after the stain dried, I added more glue and clamped it down. It stayed this time.

7. I didn't want or have anything fancy to attach the picture onto the back of the frame, so I just used duck tape on each corner. 1,002 uses now!

8. We already had a picture hanging kit and used one of the serrated brackets on the top of the frame.

9. Used a nail in the wall and hung it up. Didn't need much, frame and picture are super light.

Hung it over my cow chair. This may be my new favorite corner of the living room now. I love how the bright colors in the picture look with the natural colors of my cow chair.

Running Tally:

Wood - $10

Wood Glue -$3 (can save money if you already have this)

Staple Gun and Staples - $16 (can also save money here if you already have one)

Picture - $3

TOTAL -$32 (would be $13 if you already had the wood glue and staple gun)

What do you think? Little ghetto I know, but no one needs to know you duck taped your picture to the frame. What have you been wanting to frame forever?