DIY Foldable Canvas Frames

Arteza provides a bevy of framing options, including DIY foldable canvas frames, so you can display artwork in your home and office with ease. Naturally, frames enable you to display artworks upon walls or flat surfaces, like a desk or nightstand. While displaying a work of art is a frame’s primary purpose, frames also help to protect artwork.  Frames typically have a protective transparent covering, or as is the case with many of our DIY picture frames, the acid-free paper itself serves as a protector by preventing yellowing and fading. 

How do you make your own picture frames? The simplest method to make your own picture frames is by using a DIY picture frame drawing pad. Simply put, this is a pad of thick paper that has a frame outline already printed on its pages. You create your artwork inside the page’s pre-printed frame, then fold down the edges into a frame. For example, Arteza offers a set of 48 Coloured Pencils with DIY Colouring Sheets 15.2 x 15.2 cm - folded size. Here, each of the DIY colouring sheets comes in the size 25.4 x 29.2 cm and easily folds down to a framed 15.2 x 15.2 cm piece of artwork. Our colouring sheets are acid-free, ensuring your artwork’s vibrancy by preventing hue deterioration, yellowing, and fading from accumulating over time.  

If you're feeling more adventurous, begin with a drawing pad, a mixed media pad, or a watercolour pad, depending on your medium of choice. Next, create your masterpiece. Once it's dry, you're ready to frame your picture. However, before a piece of art is framed it is often secured onto matboard, which is a thick piece of cardboard-like material that is larger than the art by one to three inches. Once the art is secured to the matboard, this then fits within the inner edges of the frame. This is by no means a hard rule. Sometimes a proportionally small piece of art sits in the middle of a large mat. (Art isn't always matted, but matting adds an extra layer of depth to the finished piece.) You can buy pre-cut mat board at a craft store, or you can make your own using cardboard, scrapbooking paper, or even fabric.  

There are an endless amount of options for frames, and the frames themselves are often pieces of art. Again, you can find ready-made frames here at Arteza. These come in assorted sizes and materials. Upon placing your matted artwork within the edges of the frame, you place its transparent cover atop the art, fitting within the frame’s edges and your picture is framed!

Or, you can construct a frame with wood from a hardwood store and paint it any colour you prefer. For new ways to display art in your home, you can make a frame out of sticks bound together with hot glue, then glue the matted art to the back of the sticks. If you're feeling truly crafty, try making a frame out of yarn or fabric — simply glue the yarn along the edge of the mat. As you can see, there are an endless number of ways to make a DIY picture frame. Don't be afraid to get creative. Most importantly, have fun!