Make a Picture Frame from Nature

Go outside on a sunny, dry day and find several sticks or branches. You can always cut them but remember that you are making a picture frame so choose ones that look right to you. They need to be about the same diameter and make sure they are dry. You want to choose the straightest ones.

While you are outside, look around for some moss, bark, feathers or anything else you could use to embellish your frame. Take all that you’ve gathered back inside. Brush or clean everything you picked up to make sure you’re not going to have ants crawling on your walls. Use as little water as possible because you don’t want to make everything wet either.

The next step is to cut your sticks all the same size. You need to have at least 10 of them. Lay four of them on your table in the shape you want (square or rectangle). You can use hemp or a natural thread to wrap around the sticks where they meet to help secure them in place. Then take your glue gun and glue the sticks where they are touching. You don’t want to do it corner to corner. Leave space so you can see them sticking out.

Now wait for the glue to dry and turn your frame over. Take two small sticks and make a cross cover the entire backside of your frame. Glue this in place. This is what will hold your picture in place. You are going to either glue or tape the back of your picture to this cross. That is actually the next step. Once you secure your picture make sure it is not crooked. Make any adjustments to its position now. If you need more support in the back go ahead and glue more sticks on.

Turn your frame back over and get four more sticks. Position these the same way you did with the first four. Glue these sticks together (as you did before) and also glue the bottom and top rows of sticks together where you can. Now take some hemp thread, yarn or whatever you have and wrap it around the corners. This will help hold everything in place and make it secure. Wrap the thread (or whatever you’re using) around both the bottom and top layer of sticks. If you can find a dead natural vine outside this would work too

Now you can decorate your frame. Some great items to use are dried flowers and leaves, feathers, dried moss and potpourri. Glue your embellishments anywhere you want and add as many as you want. Once its done you can use two small nails to hang it up or choose any way you wish. You can even glue wire on the back. These frames are fun to make but they do take a little practice. I recommend starting with small frames and then working your way up. Try making one for a 3×5 or 4×6 picture to start off with.