DIY Wooden Photo Stand

This week's So You Think Your Crafty theme was a little bit harder for me than any of the other weeks. The theme was "Paint" and although I have made a lot of painted projects in my life, I haven't really shared any painted projects on my blog. I played around with a few different ideas before deciding on the DIY Wooden Photo Stand. I really wanted something that I could share how to make, not just paint something that I bought or that would be difficult to replicate.

The original idea is not really mine, it was based on a gift I received a few years ago for Christmas. The original gifted photo stand was larger and held a 5x7 photo. I made mine a little smaller, it is more of a 4x6 size, which makes it perfect to put on the corner of my desk. One of the reasons I wanted to make it is because I love quotes and have been trying to come up with a way that I can display quotes in my office but with the ability to change them out as often as I want. This seemed like the perfect solution.

Another great thing about this photo stand is that it can be made completely from pieces you can buy at a craft store, no special tools or skills required. The main board piece could be cut down from a 2x6, or a 2x8 if you want a larger size, and that was my original plan but I don't have a saw and would have needed to take it to someone's house to cut it down. I went to Hobby Lobby to look for the other pieces and found a precut piece of wood the perfect size so I didn't have to worry about how I would cut the board. It is definitely cheaper to buy the large board and cut it down, at least if you want to make several, but for the sake of convenience this worked better for me, and with a 40% off coupon it wasn't too bad.

Because I wanted to make mine a quote holder I made a few little printable quotes that I could use on there. I chose things that I thought worked well in my workspace, quotes about creativity and following your dreams. I will include links to the PDFs so that you can print them off if you would like. Although the stand will hold a 4x6 I decided to make my quotes 4x5, I just thought it gave a more even border all the way around.

How to Make a DIY Wooden Photo Stand

Finished size about 11 inches tall

You will need:

• piece of wood- approximately 5"x7"x1 1/2" (or a 2x6 cut to 7" long)
•  3"x5" small plaque
• a candlestick 1 7/8"x1 3/4"
• an acorn dowel cap 1"
• mini clothespin
• wood glue (I used Liquid Fusion Clear Urethane Adhesive)
• acrylic craft paint in desired color
• foam paintbrush
• sandpaper

Assembly:

Sand the pieces if needed, especially the board. Glue the pieces together being sure to center all of them. The small plaque is the base, glue the candlestick to the center of the plaque. Glue one end of the board centered on top of the candlestick, then glue the acorn cap centered on the top of the board. Last glue the clothespin to the front of the board centered right at the top.

Paint the board the color that you want. You may need a couple of coats. Let dry, then sand the edges in a few places if desired.

Now all you need is to find something to hang on it. You can put some pictures on it, print off some quotes of your own or use the ones that I made. There are two quotes per page with one exception.

CLICK HERE to get printable quotes

The first two quotes are two quotes from LDS Church leaders about being creative. I love both of these quotes. 

The next set are two quotes by Walt Disney about achieving your dreams.

The last two are a quote from Albert Einstein and one by Audrey Hepburn. 

Then just for fun I made one more that has absolutely nothing to do with creativity or achieving your dreams like the other do, but I love this time of year and as a teenager the Anne of Green Gables books were my absolute favorite books. I may have read the whole series a time or two, or ten, let's just say that I read them a few times. But anyway, a quote about my favorite month, which happens to be this month,  by one of my favorite book characters, I just had to throw it in. This one is on a page all by itself. I tried to match them up in a way that the two quotes on each page kind of went together so that you could pick and choose if you didn't want to print them all and none of the other quotes really went with this one. 

I hope you enjoy this little photo/quote stand as much as I do. It was really a pretty quick and easy project to make. I'm glad that I finally have a way to display quotes on my desk. Do you have any favorite quotes? I would love to hear them, I love quotes and am always looking for good ones.