Upcycling Tutorial: How to make a turtle picture frame

Today’s blog post will teach you how to make a turtle or tortoise picture frame from cardboard. 😀

You will need:

• cardboard (enough for cutting out 3 turtle shapes per picture frame)
• scissors and craft knife
• glue and adhesive tape
• pencil
• paper
• optional: gift wrapping paper or paint or something similar if you want to decorate your picture frame

1. Draw a turtle shape on a piece of paper – pay attention that the turtle’s feet are on a straight line (this is where your picture frame will stand on!). Draw 2 circles inside the shell: the first, larger circle, is the size of your picture, the second innermost circle ought to be about 2mm/0.08inch smaller than your picture (so that your picture won’t fall out! 🙂 ). Cut out the turtle and draw 3 turtles on your cardboard – these will form the 3 layers of the frame.

2. Cut out the innermost circle. Lay the turtle on one of the cardboard turtles (the one you want to be the visible front layer of your frame) and draw in the small circle. Next, cut out the larger inner circle, and draw the larger inner circle on the 2 other turtles. You now ought to have one turtle with the smallest circle, and 2 turtles with the larger inner circle drawn inside.

3. Cut out the turtles, then cut out the inner circles with a craft knife. The turtle with the smallest inner circle will be your front piece.

4. Glue the three layers together – the turtle with the smallest inner circle ought to be the bottom layer. Keep one of the two larger cardboard circles you have cut out – this will be the back of your picture frame that protects your picture. Next you will need to make a stand for your picture: Take your turtle and put it on a spare piece of cardboard; draw around the semi-circle of the head; remove your turtle, then draw two vertical lines on both sides of the semi-circle so that you will have a strip with a rounded top. Cut out the strip. For a simple stand, your strip ought to have a length that is slightly shorter than the frame, so ideally, the strip ought to reach from the top of the head to just above the turtle’s tail. For extra stability, you can make your strip longer than the actual picture frame and then fold it into an L-shape just above the line where the tail starts. Glue the strip to the head (if you have an L-shaped stand, the bottom line of the L ought to face inwards towards the picture).

5. Your picture frame is now ready. If you want, you can decorate your frame, e.g. cover it with gift wrapping paper or painting it or gluing decorative elements to it. Insert your picture and cover it with the cardboard circle which you kept – fasten it with adhesive tape across the back circle. If you want to protect your picture, you can cut out a plastic circle out of some transparent plastic foil and put it inside the frame before you add the picture.