Crafting Wooden Photo Frames Your Own Way

By Clive Leyland

Art lovers and artists alike know that wooden photo frames are not only beautiful on their own, but they help accentuate the pieces of art they contain. Buying one from the store can be expensive, but you could easily build your own and save yourself all that money.

Here are the steps to building a wooden photo frame. If you follow these next steps, you'll have a full wooden photo frame built and ready for use in no time.

(1)Measure the artwork and the mat of your frame. The most important measurement you're going to need is that of the mat; if you cut your frame to the size of the picture, then you're going to wind up with a frame that is too small to fit anything. This step gets skipped more often than you would think. It's never a bad idea to re-measure, either. If you find an issue with your measurements, it's better to deal with it now than after you've invested your time and money in building a frame.

(2)Buy the corresponding amount of lumber as per the measurements you took in step one. Begin cutting. Make sure to keep those measurements in mind as you go along, because you're not going to get another shot at cutting. The lumber should be divided into four pieces, each section is the complete length added the width of the wood multiply by two.

(3)Trim each piece until its edge becomes a forty five degree angle. When you've done this on all four pieces, put it all together on a table and assemble your wooden picture frame. If it doesn't look great in this stage, don't worry. There's still time to sand down any trouble spots. If it looks too big, go ahead and retrieve your saw and go at it.

(4) Sand it all down when you're through cutting. If you want your frame to be a work of art in itself, then you're going to have to put in some work with a belt sander. If you don't mind having a shaggy looking wooden rectangle, then by all means skimp on the sanding.

(5) Glue the angled tips of the pieces together and press tight with right angle clamps. This step requires some patience, as it's going to take some time for that wood glue to bind the pieces the way you want them to. Put quite a lot of pressure on those clamps for better binding.

(6)Put some V nails in each side, one going in and one coming out. This should keep your frame together even if the glue fails. It won't be a perfect fix, but it should keep the shape you want in place long enough to get some emergency glue in the mistaken areas.

(7)Allow your wooden picture frame to dry. Take off the clamps. Let it sit at least until tomorrow morning. This is the last time you're going to have the chance to perfect your wooden picture frame, so if there's something you forgot or noticed since you started, then by all means take care of it now. When you're certain you're through, put some stain on it to make it look nice.

Wooden photo frames may be expensive in the store, but they aren't particularly expensive to make. Following the above steps will ensure that you'll make a wooden photo frame that's just as attractive as a store bought one. - 31520

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