Wreath Photo Frame

I began making these frames when I was teaching Kindergarten.  We often would have puzzles that would be missing so many pieces that they would no longer be enjoyable for the kids to put together so we would save the pieces to use for crafts.  One of the crafts  we liked to make were these holiday wreaths out of the puzzle pieces.  I decided that they would make really cute picture frames to send home to the parents so after the kids would make the wreaths, I would take a picture of them to put inside of it.  This particular one is one my daughter made.  We had two really adorable pictures of her and I couldn’t decide between them – so I had her make a second wreath and we glued them together, back to back to make a double sided frame.  This makes for a lovely tree ornament or we would often hang it in a window or from a light fixture or something similar where you’d be able to see both sides easily.  To make these, I just cut out a donut shape from an old cereal box to serve as the base for the wreath.  Glue  on puzzle pieces to cover it.  I found it best, especially if working with children, to glue the puzzle pieces on upside down using a good white glue like Aleene’s Tacky Glue.  The “right” side of the puzzle pieces is protected by a shiny finish that doesn’t accept paint as well as the back of the puzzle pieces do.  Of course you could put on several coats of paint or use something like Gesso to seal them before painting but these extra steps were often frustrating for little ones.  So, we just glued them on upside down so that the children could paint on the “wrong” sides of the puzzles pieces where they were generally just a bare cardboard that accepted paint quite easily.  Embellish these wreaths with glitter, pompoms, holly berries cut out of paper, felt, or fun foam, or even little bits of cotton balls to simulate snow.  There are lots of possibilities!