DIY Polaroid Frames: A Tutorial

Hi there. After a lengthy hiatus I've decided that I will have a blog that I care for and possibly neglect far less than before. To start off with a bang, I'm posting a tutorial (a real one! with steps! and pictures!). An accidental spring cleaning has left me with a brand new slate, so I hope you will enjoy the digs. Anyway, a tutorial as promised...

Aren't they ....fun? They were super easy (and cheap) to make and I love them. To make your own you will need:

-one sheet of fun foam (or more depending on how many you want to make)

-a sheet or paper or cardstock

-an exacto knife

-a ruler

-a pencil

-a cutting surface

1. Make a stencil using your paper or cardstock. Use these dimensions to draw out a polaroid. Thanks to Mr. Chip for posting his findings.

2. Use an exacto knife to cut out the middle. Don't forget to mark the inside so you remember which way is up or down since the picture part is not an exact square.

3. Line your stencil up a straight side of one of the foam sheets, and use your ruler as a guide to make a strong, straight cut. I chose to measure carefully before cutting without marking the foam because I wanted options as to which side to use. I also just wanted to mark the foam as little as possible. Feel free to make thin pencil marks if you prefer.

4. Continue until you have blocks that look this these.

5. Take your paper middle section and line it up as evenly as possible against the top of a block. I just eyeballed it and it worked fine. Then mark the four corners of the picture part with a pencil. Use those dots to cut the "picture" part out.

6. Lastly, don't toss the cut out block! Save it, cut it into a 1/2 inch strip, and glue it to the backside of the frame. Make sure you only use a thin strip of glue and now you will have a place to slip a photo in.

There you have it! I printed out a couple of photos onto photo paper at home and then just cut to size. Since I wasn't worried about preserving the photos I used a little bit of tape too. The total cost for this project was less than two dollars. The foam sheets were 70 cents each and I already had all the other supplies. This was a quick and fun project and I hope you try it.

-A