Step 1: Get your supplies.
I went out and bought an 8×12 in picture frame but you can get whatever size you want. I wanted mine to blend in with my other pictures in my room and 8×12 was perfect. I bought a white frame because it was cheap, and I was going to paint it anyway. Get nice paper for inside the frame. I picked a white piece of paper because it was cheap, and I wanted to decorate it myself. Any craft store has “nice” (better than construction paper but not glossy like printer paper) paper. If you don’t want to design it yourself you can just buy a printed one from the craft store too. However, with the printed paper try to pick something on the lighter side, like pastel colors or a pattern that’s not over the top, this way when you go to actually make use of it you can see and read your writing. Pick a piece slightly larger than you frame in case you mess up when cutting it or designing it just for a back up. You can also use a piece of construction paper since it tends to fade from the sun. If you are going to paint on your paper get the paints, markers, color pencils, or crayons you want! Whatever will make it your own.
Step 2: Work on the background paper.
• Cut your paper. If you bought the exact size you can skip this part. If you bought a larger size paper or are using construction paper, measure the size of your frame and measure the size of your paper to correspond with the frame size.
• After that if you bought a printed paper you can skip this next part. If you bought a white basic color paper like me so you could design it — go ahead! I made mine a purple ombre. I bought white and purple paint and mixed them to make a few lighter shades and a few darker shades. I then blotted it on with a circular sponge paintbrush and made it fade from dark purple at the bottom to white to match my paper.
Step 3: Add a title.
You can put whatever title you want at the top of your paper. I put “To-Do” however you can put things like “Homework” or “Reminders” or “Agenda” — really whatever floats your boat. I traced bubble letters that I found online on to a purple piece of construction paper and then just cut them out and glued them at the top, in the center of my white paper. I kept it as a heading, but you can put the words wherever on your paper, or you don’t have to put any at all.
Step 4: Design the frame.
If you bought a frame and like it the way it is skip this step. If you want to design or paint your frame now is the time. I bought a white frame so I could paint it whichever color I wanted. I bought gold paint and gold glitter and did two coats of gold paint all around the frame and while the paint was still wet I sprinkled on gold glitter.
Step 5: Let everything dry.
If you didn’t paint then skip this step. If you used any type of paint or glue my suggestion is let it dry overnight, or for at least 3 maybe 4 hours if your antsy and just want it done. I would just lightly touch the paint to see if it is still wet, or sometimes you can just tell by looking at it.
Step 6: Put your paper in the frame.
That’s all there is to it; take the back off the frame insert your paper. Put the back, back on.
Step 7: Now you’re ready to use it.
All you need is an expo marker. You can write on the glass part of the frame with any color expo marker you want. Black is the best color for being able to see it clearly, in my preference. If I want to categorize things then I use different colors.
Happy Crafting!