Cardboard is often found in abundance at home, as many grocery items come packaged in cardboard boxes. As a result, we tend to gather quite a bit, which is usually discarded.

However, repurposing cardboard for creative and practical uses not only reduces waste but also contributes to a cleaner, greener environment. That’s why today, we’re going to reuse cardboard to make a simple and eco-friendly photo frame.

Things you need:

1. One empty cardboard box (shoes, oil, etc.)

2. Pieces of colourful papers (you can use foam or felt)

3. White glue or hot glue

4. Scissors

5. Ruler

6. Two A-4-sized coloured paper to be used as the base colour for the photo frame.

Directions:

1. Cut pieces of colourful paper (foam or felt) into leaf shapes, you can vary the sizes. Also, cut out small circles in different sizes; picture 2.

2. Using a ruler, cut out a photo frame, preferably 6 inches wide and 7 inches long, picture 3.

3. Cut out the inner section of the frame, keeping a one-inch-wide border on all four sides. Place this hollow frame on one of coloured A4-sized papers and cut the sides accordingly so they can be folded neatly inside the frame, picture 4.

4. Carefully paste this A4-sized paper over the entire frame, folding and securing the edges neatly on the back, picture 5.

5. Take another piece of cardboard that is one inch smaller than the overall frame boundary. Cover this piece with the same-coloured paper as the frame. Next, cut three small strips of cardboard and paste them along three sides of the frame’s boundary. Glue the base on top of the strips. This will create a gap between the base and the frame, allowing space to insert the pictures, 6, 7 and 8.

6. Take a strip of black paper and roll it into a reed shape, pictures 9 and 10.

7. Gently press the reed to curve it, and paste it onto one side of the frame’s boundary, picture 11.

8. Next, paste the leaves on both sides of the reed, and add small circles on the other side of the frame, pictures 12 and 13.

9. To make a frame stand, cut out an ‘A-shaped’ strip from a piece of cardboard and attach it to the back of the frame. Now your frame is ready to hold your picture. If you’d like to hang it, you can glue a loop of string to the back.

The writer can be contacted at ithecraftman@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 12th, 2025