Decorative Leaf Shaped Organizer From a Picture Frame

When I first thought what I could make out of an old picture frame I had a little bit different thought in mind. It only took a week and a half of spare time to make this awesome project!!! It is great for organizing household items such as rubber bands, pins, paper clips, and much more. I hope you enjoy my Instructable and look forward to making your own leaf shaped organizer.

• Picture frame
• Navy blue spray paint
• Metallic gold spray paint
• Wipe on poly wood stain
• Foam brush
• Blank sheet of paper
• Pencil
• Sandpaper
• Electric sander
• Scroll saw
• Grooved carving knife
• Plywood (7/8 of an inch thick) (11 and 1/8 inches long) (7 and 7/8 inches in width)
• E6000 glue
• Cardboard
• Drill
• 3/8 of an inch drill bit
• Painters tape
• Packaging tape
• Table saw
• Ruler
• Scissors
• staple gun
• circular wood file
• flat wood file
• big round wood file

Take the glass and the back side of your picture frame off. Now you should have only the frame left. With fine sand paper sand the frame. Then grab some cardboard and lay down your frame and spray paint it all navy blue. Then spray the whole bottom and 1/3 of the way up the sides in gold

Once the spray paint is dry take the E6000 glue and squirt some on the back side of the picture frame where the glass laid at one time. Then lay down the glass and let it dry for a day.

Put your picture frame on top of the plywood in the corner, and trace around the edges with a pencil. then lay down the back side of the picture frame and trace around all four sides. Then cut the lines on a table saw. Grab a piece of blank paper and draw out a leaf. Using a ruler trace two lines down the middle of the leaf, that are half an inch apart. Every inch and a half draw two lines half an inch apart that are slanted upward, which will be the veins on the leaf. Then use packaging tape to tape the paper to the plywood you cut out on the table saw. Then drill a hole between each vein in the leaf. Put the wood on the scroll saw and cut out each spot. Using the wood part of the picture frame trace lines on the piece of paper that’s on the plywood. Draw another leaf about half an inch bigger around the other leaf. Then drill two holes near the bottom. Then cut out the two half pipe shaped shapes that you just drew.

Then use a round and flat wood file to sand the walls on the inside of the leaf. Use a electric sander to sand the top of the leaf. Get out some cardboard and the back side of the picture frame. Then paint the back side of the picture frame all navy blue then partly gold making it get lighter and lighter. Now using a round wood file rub it down the center of the leaf which will make a groove in the wood that you could put pencils or marbles on. Now use a grooved carving knife and a round wood file to make a point on the leaf. Then do two coats of wipe on poly following the manufacturers directions. I used a foam brush and let it dry for 2-3 hours. Once the wipe on poly is dry use scissors to cut out a cardboard rectangle to go over the leaf. And tape down the cardboard with painter’s tape which should also cover the wood that is not cover cardboard. Make sure to tape cardboard on both sides of the leaf. Then paint all four sides navy blue and then paint the one whole side gold and up the sides a little to match with the picture frame sides.

Finally put a few drops of E6000 glue on the back side of the leaf and then lay down back side of the picture frame. Once the back side of the picture frame has been laid down, put in a few staples on the back. Now you have one great organizer.

For now the frame top just sits on top of the plywood leaf base. In the future I will add two small hinges so the top can open and close easily.

TIPS

• When laying down the back side of the picture frame make sure it's in the right spot the first time or else the E6000 glue will smear if you try to move it.
• When staining the plywood paint with the grain
• When cutting on the scroll saw do not push the wood too quickly through the blade or else the blade will break.(has happened to me a few times)
• while sanding the picture frame fold the sandpaper thinner than the picture frame or else it will only sand the edges.
• last of all NEVER GIVE UP