Making Fingerpainted Picture Frames with Kids
A Craft Easy Enough for Toddlers and Cool Enough for Teens
Mar 25, 2009
Fingerpainted Picture Frames are a fun, easy craft, suitable even for toddlers. The materials are inexpensive, and the product is something friends and family member will actually use and enjoy!
These are a huge hit with Grandmas and Aunties and a cool gift for younger kids to make and give their friends.
Gathering Supplies
- Unfinished Wood Photo Frame, any shape or size. Try to pick ones with broad faces, so you have a larger “canvas”. Often these can be found at Dollar Stores. Painted frames are okay, as long as they have a matte, not glossy finish.
- White Spray Paint, Matte. One can is under a dollar and depending on the size of your frames, will usually be enough to paint 5-10 frames.
- Fingerpaints, the more colors, the better, but just a basic 4-pack works great.
Getting Started
First off, remove the glass and backs from your frames and put them in a safe place.
Next, lay the frames, face down, on a sheet of newsprint and spray a coat of white paint over them.
When this dries, do one or two more, until the frames are stark. When the second or third coat is dry, flip them over and repeat with the front sides of your frames.
Once the spray paint is dry, you are ready to fingerpaint!
There are many ways to go about this.
You can paint directly on the frames, with fingers or sponges. You can squirt paint directly onto the frames, which creates a cool, abstract look, but takes a bit longer to dry. Or you can achieve a marbleized and/or textured look by following these instructions:
- Choose two or three complementary colors that blend well and have your child paint with them on a sheet of glossy posterboard.
- When they are happy with their designs, take the frame and press it onto their painting. When you lift it (pulling straight up, so as not to smear), the frame will have a beautiful swirly, textured look.
Some Helpful Tips about Color Choices
- Try to choose colors that blend well (for example: blue, green and yellow or red, yellow and orange).
- Non-blending colors (like red and green) can be used in the squirt method or with sponges, but beware- when they mix they turn a very un-Christmassy brown!
- If using non-blending colors, you may want to let the first color dry before applying the second color.
Presentation
Now that your frames are done, don’t forget to pick out a fun picture of your child (and the intended recipient or yourself!) to go inside these one of a kind gifts.
You can also use a paint pen to sign and personalize the back. For example-“Fingerpainted by Bobbi for Gramma Jeanne”.
If you are feeling extra creative, you may want to wrap your gift in homemade wrapping paper.
Summary
- Spraypaint frames with white matte paint
- Paint with finger paints using the 3 methods explained
- Insert photo and sign back
With only a few fun steps, you have made a beautiful keepsake gift that your loved ones will cherish forever!
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