Choose the best Christmas card you have received this year and trim it to fit a cheap and/or manky picture frame. (If it really won’t fit, scan it and print it to the right size)
You might notice that all these pictures seem a little soft focus. This is what you get when you leave your camera in a friend’s car, and have to use the camera on your phone 🙂
Remove the glass and backing from the frame, and put them somewhere safe
Paint the front of the frame with PVA adhesive or similar. I used some stuff normally used to bond materials in the building trade. My fingers are still slightly bonded!
The observant will notice that I did two, for added procrastination value.
Stick on some bits and pieces. Paper doesn’t seem to work terribly well, but lumps and blobs of stuff and old bits of jewellery are great. Paint some more adhesive over the bits and pieces, then cut some cooking foil roughly to size, being generous with the width, to allow it to go over the lumpy bits. Oh, and look! There are some of my toes!
Scrunch the foil carefully, so that you can un-scrunch it again, and then smooth it over the frame, taking care not to split it where it goes over any corners. Don’t get rid of all your crinkly bits, except if you want to make an object underneath show up clearly.
For some reason, I didn’t think of taking a picture of scrunched up tin foil, but you will see the result below, expressing a greeting to all the lovely readers of El Perro, courtesy of the wonderful Mr Monkton
Rub the whole thing over with black shoe polish to distress it (well I’d be distressed, wouldn’t you?) and buff it gently to remove any excess. Trim off any spare bits of foil and neaten the back as necessary.
Reassemble to frame with the favourite card in it, and VOILA! A fun, framed memento to enjoy for years, and that job you didn’t want to do has been successfully put off.
You could make a fun frame for children, including objects for them to spot – animal shapes, buttons, stars etc… or a really special one for somebody who has upset you, with their dentures and car keys entombed in it.