How to Make a Popsicle Stick Picture Frame
Updated on June 23, 2021
Working with popsicle sticks in crafting might sound like a ridiculously simple thing but, if you ask me, that’s all part of the charm! There’s something about making things with them that just feels so classic. Usually, I like to look up crafting tutorials that guide us through the steps for making something my kids will love, but lately I’ve been wondering whether I can’t make something that’s geared a little more towards the things that I like to make for myself using the same supplies! That’s how I found myself playing with a design for a popsicle stick photo frame.
Just in case you’d like to try out the way I actually succeeded in making a popsicle stick photo frame, here are the steps I took from start to finish! If you’re the kind of crafter who prefers video tutorials to written ones, you’ll find one of those at the end of this post too.
For this project, you’ll need:
- Popsicle sticks
- Hot glue
- Paint (whatever kind you like best)
- Paintbrush
- Scissors
- Hinge clip
- Photo
Step 1: Gather your materials!
I decided to go for a clearly homemade aesthetic that combines the slightly rustic wooden element of the popsicle sticks with kitschy bright colours and unconventional materials.
Step 2: line up sticks
Line up the popsicle sticks that will make the base or flat backing of your frame. I chose to make mine seven sticks high, laying them edge to edge horizontally as thought they’ve been stacked. I lined them up carefully on a flat surface, making sure their ends were in line with each other as well, making an even square except for the rounded shapes the sticks’ ends make along the sides.
Step 3: glue together
Use an eighth popsicle stick to attach all of the sticks in your base together like a brace. Apply hot glue all the way along its length.
Step 4: brace the back
Press the stick down onto your grid of seven base sticks, angling it diagonally so it braces all of your base sticks in place, lying across them from corner to corner. This will be the back of your photo frame. once it’s dried, that brace stick will keep all of the others even and in place nice and solidly.
Step 5: paint
Paint your sticks! I started with white, using it as a base colour by alternating it on every other stick all the way down. I used my other colours- I chose yellow, orange, and red- as colour pops, painting one stick each in orange and red and using the yellow, which was our favourite, to frame the others by painting it onto the very top and bottom sticks. Leave your painted frame base to dry.
Step 6: add the binder clip
Apply how glue to the back of your binder clip and glue it down onto your frame base near the top and in the center. I chose to put mine in the middle of the second stick from the top, leaving a bit of space above the photo for visual balance. Leave the glued clip to dry.
Step 7: print a photo
Print your photo in a dimension that has the same square shape as your frame but in a smaller width and height, so it sits nicely in the center of the piece framed by the colours of the sticks on all sides. Cut it out and clip it into your binder clip.
Voila! You have a nice new popsicle stick photo frame. You might lean it against something, put a magnet on the back to put it on the fridge, or give it some kind of hook or string so you can hang it on the wall. There are plenty of different things you can do with it to display a photo you love!
Just in case you’d like to try this project out as well, here’s an awesome tutorial video to give you a hand!
