Daddy cool

Show your dad you care this Father’s Day with a funky handmade photo frame

Father’s Day is looming (Sunday June 21) and shops around the country are offering the usual tat.

Ditch the novelty socks, cheap chocolates and Simpson’s slippers and make up for those teenage years of angst in which your Pa played the pivotal role of ‘Taxi Driver 1’ with our fab photo frame.

Equipment:

Cereal box
Scissors
Ruler
Paintbrush
PVA glue
Double sided sticky tape
Photograph – make sure it’s not your only copy!

Method:

1: Wrap your cereal box in brown paper, leaving the top of the box unwrapped. Place your chosen photograph on top of the cereal box and draw around it – make sure it’s central or you’ll end up with a wonky frame. You can choose a landscape or portrait shaped photo. 

2: Using a pair of scissors, make a hole in the middle of the outline and cut four times, into each corner. Fold back the flaps and secure with tape.

3: Next you need to decide on your decoration. Think about what your dad likes: maybe he’s a sweet fiend, in which case you could choose Smarties, M&Ms or Lovehearts. Make sure you coat sweets in PVA glue to seal and leave to dry before use. Other suggestions include beer bottle tops, alphabet letters, beads, badges or stamps.

4: Play around with the arrangement until you’re happy. Then attach to the front of the photo frame using a paint brush with plenty of PVA glue and leave to dry. Using double sided sticky tape, mount your photograph onto a piece of card a few inches bigger than your photo. Place sticky tape around the edges of the card and slide into the top of the cereal box. When secure, seal the top of the box and cover with the rest of the brown paper.

by Eva Caiden

Tips

1: Try using a shoe box instead of a cereal box.

2: What about making a fancy set of photo frames you can display on your wall? Repeat steps 1-5 for as many photo frames as you desire.

3: Connect them by attaching a piece of ribbon from the bottom to the top of each frame.
Make sure you leave enough ribbon for each frame to hang flat against the wall. Fix with double sided sticky tape.

4: Leave a section of ribbon free at the top photo frame to tie a bow which you can hang the frames from.

For step by step instructions see our Flickr guide.