D.I.Y. Magnetic Polaroid Frame

I was on my new favourite camera site: www.photojojo.com (check it out, it's really awesome) and I saw they were selling magnetic polaroid frames for your fridge. I thought this was such a great idea, but i also thought paying $15 was a bit steep. I took a quick look at them however and realized that they would be very easy to make! I also just so happened to have a sheet of photo-magnets laying around that I've been desperately figure out what to use it for. It was like the frames floated off the screen and into my blog.

They are laughably easy to make, even your dog could do it! (if only they had thumbs...) You can write un-funny witty comments about you and your friends and post it on the fridge for everyone to see! What's not to love? There is so much fun to be had with only a dollar.

Here's what you'll need:

Materials:

• Scissors
• 1 sheet, Create your Own Photo-Magnets
 *Depending on how many frames you would like to make, will depend on how many sheets you need. You can easily get 2 frames from 1 sheet, so if you're planning on making more, you might have to spend $2 instead :O
* You also want to make sure they are the ones with the sticky back. This is what you are going to be writing on later. 

Steps:

Step 1

Take the photo-magnet sheet out of the package and approximate the width of your frame. You'll need to go a little over half (horizontally) to get the right width and about half (vertically) to get your height. 

You can use a ruler here if you would like to get straighter lines and exact measurements, but I free handed it. It gives it more of a vintage rough look when it's not perfect, but some may argue it looks sloppy and homemade. If that's the case for you then a ruler is the way to go!

Do not take off the glossy paper on the back (white paper holding the glue) because this is what you're going to use to write on later with your dry erase markers.  

Step 2
Cut out the middle. Remember this is a Polaroid frame, so the bottom is going to be much thicker then the rest of the frame. If you need a visual to go off of you can take a look at mine here, or just google images polaroid frames and you will get a good idea for size.

What I did was poke the pointy end of the scissors into the middle of the square. From there I cut up and started shaping a smaller circle from the inside. Note that it is better to start with the edges of your frame too thick then too thin. When they are thicker you can slowly cut down the sides until they get to your desired length, rather then regretting how small you accidentally cut them. *Less is more!

As you can see in the picture, the original square I cut out is much smaller then the size I ended up with.

Step 3
And there you have your very own magnetic polaroid picture frame! You can use these for your kitchen fridge and impress all your roommates with your amazing crafting skills :)

X
Sarah

D.I.Y. Frame hooks

The other day I was decorating my room and I wanted to put my calender up, but because I got it from Value Village it didn't have any hooks or pins to hang it with. My roommate had previously tried making her own hooks out of small office supplies, but it never ended up working out. I thought it was a really smart idea and wanted to expand on it myself. Turns out the only thing I added was was a different type of tape. But hey, whatever works!

Here I'm going to show you how to make your own frame hooks.
Here's what I did:

Materials:

-Tape
-Thumbtacks
-Paper clips
-Screws (can be replaced by thumbtacks, but need to be the ones that stick out and aren't flat)
-Calender (or something to hang up, but for the sake of this D.I.Y. I'll be referring to a calender)









Step one

Choose where you want your calender to go on the wall. Either screw in your screws or place your thumbtacks to where you want and make sure they are level. Once you see where you need to place the hooks, it gives you a guideline for making them later.  

Step two

Make an indent or mark on the back of your calender with the placed screws so you know where you need the loop in your hooks to go. Having a cardboard background makes this indentation much easier because obviously it's easy to crush, but with wood frames or other more solid material, you could put a dab of paint on the ends of your screws or thumbtacks. While it's still wet, press against the screws and it will leave a two clear marks of where your hooks need to go. 

Once you have your visual you can start assembling your hook. 

Take your paper clip and put the biggest part of the loop around the hole you just punctured. Leaving the clip there, place a tack in the smaller loop at the bottom. This secures it in place. 

Step three

Tape the thumbtack in place. This is to make sure the tack doesn't come out and the paper clip stays exactly where you need it to. What tape you use may vary depending on what type of artwork or frame your working with, but for mine I found that regular old Scotch Tape did the trick. You don't have to worry about making it pretty because no one is going to see it, so if you have to put 15 layers of tape on (but hopefully you wont have to), you can. 

Step four

Place your clips loops around the screws or thumbtacks and VOILA! You have your very own homemade frame hooks! 

X

Sarah