Janice and I are so happy we have girls who love to craft and love to have their photos taken. If you have kids who love crafting, this beautiful DIY photo frame is the perfect family day activity. We made these collage photo frames with our girls, and we are excited to share this special photo craft idea for you to make with your children. This post is sponsored by HP Canada, so extra thanks for reading and sharing.
Spending time with your kids making crafts and doing DIY projects is such a wonderful way to bond, create memories, and teach your children valuable skills.
You might think doing arts and crafts is only for when your kids are small, but you want to keep working together on fun projects throughout their lives. As kids get older, the activities might get more complicated and even involve tools… and you may have to learn some new skills yourself. When your kids have their hands busy working on a project, they’ll often be more open to chatting and telling you what’s going on in their lives.
Whatever age your children are, they’re likely to get extra excited when you add some fun new technology into your crafting process.
Our girls were so excited when we showed them this sweet little HP Sprocket photo printer!
We loved using this HP Sprocket for our diy photo frame craft because it was so quick and easy to print out a set of photos for each of our girls to use in their frames.
And since the design of these photo frames allows them to switch the photos anytime they want, they can easily print new photos using the HP Sprocket and update their photo collage… even once it’s hanging on their bedroom wall.
What is the HP Sprocket?
The HP Sprocket is a portable pocket-size printer that uses Bluetooth to allow you to print from your smartphone or tablet.
You simply download the free Sprocket App and you can easily print 2×3″ photos that are perfect for creating collages, crafts, and sharing with friends.
The Sprocket App makes is so easy to customize your photos with filters, colourful frames, text and stickers. Our girls loved the Disney borders and stickers they could add to their photos from our trip to Disney World.
I think the ability for kids to easily edit a photo on their phone to personalize it by adding fun text and icons, print it, and then give the photo to a friend is so much fun. These days, kids take so many photos, but they don’t often have them printed to share in real life with friends.
The HP Sprocket comes in white, black, gold, blue or red. And it’s easy to charge with the cable that is included in the box.
Canadians can purchase a HP Sprocket for $159.99 CDN at a variety of retailers including: HP Shopping, Staples, BestBuy, Amazon.ca, Walmart.ca and others
Americans can purchase one for $129.95 USD at many retailers including Amazon.com.
DIY Photo Frame
Our girls created three slightly different styles for their DIY Photo Frames.
Sophia decided to make a vertical chalkboard paint collage photo frame with photos of her two cats. Olivia also used black paint to create the look of a chalkboard, but she laid her photos out horizontally. Julia painted her frame white and created a horizontal collage of photos from our trip to Disney World.
The steps to create each of their diy photo frame projects are basically the same, except that for a white frame, simply use white paint instead of the black chalkboard paint.
How to make a Chalkboard Paint Collage Photo Frame
Supplies
- Unfinished Wood Plaque with Raised Edge
- Chalkboard Paint
- Small Foam Paintbrushes
- 2×3″ Photos
- Large Clothespins (optional)
- Tiny Clothespins
- String
- Chalk
- Hammer
- Nails
- Charms (optional)
Step 1 – Print Your Photos
Our girls each picked a theme and then printed 5 photos each to make their collages.
Step 2 – Paint the Wooden Tray
Paint the tray using the black chalkboard paint or whatever color you want the frame to be.
We painted three coats and used a hair dryer to dry each layer of paint quickly.
Step 3 – Lay Out Photos and Charms
Use clothespins to hold the string temporarily in place as you plan the layout of photos and charms.
Step 4 – Hammer in Nails
Once you’ve determined where the strings should be placed, hammer the nails in position next to the ridge of the tray. The nails should be close to the edge, but have enough room for the string to pass through.
Step 5 – Tie on String
Tie one end of the string to the first nail.
If you’re making a horizontal collage, you will only have two nails… one on each side of the frame.
Step 6 – Thread on Charms
Thread each charm on the string. If you’re making a vertical collage, thread the string through each nail, then add a charm, continue zig-zagging down the frame.
If you’re making a horizontal collage, simply thread the charms on in the order you want them to be between the photos.
Step 7 – Tie the End Of The String
Be sure to tie the string quite tight as the weight of the charms will pull down on the string.
Step 8 – Clip on Photos
Using the mini clothespins, attach your photos.
Step 9 – Write in Chalk On The Board
If you’ve used chalkboard paint, you can write on the frame using chalk. To fix mistakes, use a slightly damp cotton swab.
Step 10 – Display and Enjoy
This DIY Photo Frame makes a fabulous gifts! But if your children want to keep their work to admire, hang their collages in their bedrooms. They can switch out the photos anytime they want.
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by HP Canada, so extra thanks for reading and sharing.
Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at pinterest.com/5minutesformom
Absolutely so adorable! I can’t wait to try this. I love decorating with photos! Thank you for sharing at Celebrate It!
What a fun idea Susan and such a perfect thing to do with the kids too. Love it!!
Such a fun project! Thanks for sharing the inspiration!
We love to bake
We like making scrapbooks. The sprocket would be perfect for that!
I love to paint with my daughter, she loves to paint.
We like to make projects using things we find in Nature.
We like to DIY Mickey ears for when we go to Disney World.
My daughter and I like to bake/cook together, she’s 11 so she usually does her dyi by herself, but I’d love make personalized cards with this for birthdays and Christmas
I would like to make scrapbooks with my children so they have memories to look back on
My daughter loves to make necklaces,and bracelets. She would love to start doing scrapbooking and that is most likely we will use it for 🙂
We enjoy making crafts that reuse items and I’m sure we could find plenty of picture frame and other ideas to make use of the Sprocket.
Thanks for the chance.
Our girls have been doing art ever since they were old enough to sit at a little table! We all love photography too, so the HP Sprocket would be wonderful for them to make collages and gifts with.
I have been making crafts with my 3 granddaughters since they have been old enough. The oldest likes to make bracelets, the middle girl loves to color and paint and the youngest loves anything her sisters are doing. Now they are getting older I think the sproket would be a great new addition to our jumble box of craft ideas. Woohoo what a great prize .
We love to make bracelets. I think we’d make a special vacation photo mosaic with this awesome printer.
I don’t have kids but I colour with my nieces. I would make photo guest books & place markers for parties!
I love doing scrapbooks with my kids.
We make greeting cards all the time. I would love to use this to scrapbook! Thanks!
My kids love using recycled materials to make crafts. Their favourite to date was the robot costume that we made out of boxes. Hours of fun was had with that craft.
I would use the HP Sprocket to print pictures of the creations that we can’t keep forever. It would be a wonderful way to document their growing talents.
We love making seasonal / holiday crafts because it helps us get into the spirit! I loved paper mache crafts as a kid so I try to do them with my kids every once in a while even though it can get messy! With the HP sprocket, we could make a DIY snowglobe (sans water of course) and greeting/birthday cards.
I sell baked goods at markets and love to hand-out unique items to my customers. Personalized photos for them and my display would be amazing.
My daughter and I like to make cards for people together and gifts for special occasions. 🙂 thanks!
We like to draw together and we are just beginning to learn and try out oil painting.
We like to make cool wall decor with toilet paper rolls
We’ve just started working on some smaller woodworking projects (shelves) but I have plans to build a long narrow harvest table to fit our long narrow dining room. In the past we painted together (mostly abstract) & did a bit of scrap booking. I think that the sprocket is an amazing little printer and I am sure there are numerous projects that we’ll come up with. I think the thing I’d love to use it most for is when visiting family (especially my elderly father) we would be able to take pictures to leave with him to remind him of our visit!
Some crafts we like are beadwork and greeting cards! I am not sure what projects we would use the Sprocket with yet, maybe the idea shown! I would have to get ideas from Pinterest!!! 🙂
My niece likes to colour, make things out of construction paper and any other thing that a 6 year old is presented with.
My son and I like to draw so maybe we would use this to make a collage of photos and drawings.
My granddaughter like making things out of mason jars. So many things you can make.
I just want a camera printer to print off all the pics I have on there of my daughter who now lives in ON (I live in SK) I have some amazon gift codes and I’m saving up to get one, and do surveys and such to get more amazon gift codes lol..I’m getting closer, not quite there yet though but hope to by June
I love little science DIY projects (like slime, tornado in a jar) and any paper crafts that I can display on the fridge and in their rooms. I think we could make a fun mini family calendar with the little photo-shoot type photos printed from HP Sprocket. Another idea would be to turn the photos into postcards that we can send to grandma!
My daughter and I love to scrapbook together. She does lots of photography with her dad and then documents her adventures with me. The Hp Sprocket would help her be up-to-date with our craft since we have to wait when we go out of town to get our pictures developed. Good luck everyone.
we would definite make a trip album!
Id love to put our dog and kid pics up!
This DIY is super cute! Love the outcome and the step by step instructions!
We enjoy making personalized Christmas cards each year
we love doing scrapbooks and this gadget sure would come in handy
My son & I would love to make birthday cards and also friendship bracelets. Would love the HP Sprocket for making a collage of our Europe trip.
my kids are grown but we used to love making greeting cards, collages, painting and coloring
We love to do all sorts of projects. My boys are mostly into superhero crafts but my daughter loves flowers, snowflakes, animals, scenery
My kids are grown and I miss having someone to do crafts with
My kids love making collages so this HP Sprocket would be a handy gadget to have.
My daughter would love this for pet pictures.
Oh this is a lovely gadget !! I live in a small town that doesn’t have a photo developing store .. This would be a great crafting tool to make tones of fun crafts with my two kiddos. I’d love to use the HP Sprocket to display my childrens photos and incorporate them as well with a hands on experience. ( making cards for loved ones, modge Podge magnets, place mats made with clear drawer liner and photos.) My littlest would love helping out with these ! They would feel super special and forever be reminded of our fun.
Thanks for the chance to win
knitting
We would use the sprocket for making some nature crafts. We love to find art in nature such as pinecones, twigs and driftwood. I could picture a great ornament made from driftwood with the kids pictures on them.
I think my favorite craft we do is go pick up leaves,acorns ect… in the fall and then we make a collage when we get home.
Totattly love this project!
We love painting! We would love to make a DIY Collage Photo Frame for the HP Sprocket.
I would make a sticker album with this neat little printer.
We love anything that involves painting! I think we would make a a family collage with the sprocket!
I really enjoy scrapbooking with my kids, as well as baking goodies with them. We would use the HP Sprocket for our scrapbooking! Thanks for the chance at this! We would definitely put it to use!
a photo collage
This would be a great project to do with my kids. Tonight my girls and I going to a plant night where we will build a tabletop garden or terrarium for Valentines Day.
collage with our family pics or scrapbook
This would be great for scrapebooking
My daughter and I have been making things together to decorate my new baby’s nursery. She’s 10, so she’s a great help. We would use the sproket for something similar to what you guys did!
When my daughter comes home at Thanksgiving we always do some sort of Christmas ornament or wreath or centerpiece
we make photo cards and handwritten notes. lil one bedazzles the cards too
I don’t have children, but love doing birthday craft projects with my nieces and nephews. I would love to print off photos to make a personalized small scrapbook gift with the hp Sprocket.
We love to draw and color. The HP Sprocket would add another layer to this.
This would be great making a timeline in my baby’s nursery.
Love scrap booking and the HP Sprocket would be perfect for this! Thank you for the chance to win !
we love to do seasonalcrafts, painting, modeling clay.. I would use for scrapbooking.
oh my word- this looked so fun. I usually do play doh and lots of painting crafts with the kids- they love to use paint and glitter and glitter glue – this HP sproket looks like so many good times with the kids!!
I am teaching them to paint. They paint rocks now but who knows where that will end up.
Great for making fun frames.
I’d use it for my scrapbooking, would be so helpful.
I would like to make a scrapbook with my daughter.
my grandkids and i love to decorate picture frames and other crafts for their parents ,we have done their handprints
My girls always likes to make Christmas ornaments. Every year we have a new one to add to our collection on the tree.
We like to make homemade greeting cards, so having this would be perfect!
my kids would really enjoy this. I would let them make something after a family day together
i would love to have the kids print pictures and make them into coasters for family…i love doing crafts with them that they can give as gifts
We like to paint on wood, canvases and textiles. I would like to start making and decorating picture fames with the kids so it would be great to be able to print the photos for the frames from an HP Sprocket.
I would love to use it to print pictures and to make diy frames for the pictures 🙂
I would use the Sprocket to print off some photos to leave with my mom in her continuing care home.
We like to paint rocks.
I love perler beads, almost like Lego, you can make anything out of them, there are even 3D projects to do.
I would love to use it for scrapbooking
macrame is fun!
amazing way to capture a picture and share it with friends right away.
Our grandson Loves crafts and lately we have discovered acrylic painting. He is only 5 but has a very creative mind. This little printer would be perfect to print off pictures of something he would like to paint from our walks. Thank you I have never seen one of these before 🙂
We do cut and paste crafts…like turning old toilet paper rolls into Pokemon bowling pins.
I think it would be fun to let my son make his own special photo album.
My daughter and I usually like to do crafts that involve fabric as a medium. Now that she’s older I think she’d enjoy more paper-based mediums. We’re working on a family recipe book so the HP Sprocket would definitely come in handy!
Would make a collage frame and collage album
My grandson and I will do various crafts. Sometimes we cut and glue, sometimes we color. I love your little photo board and I think that would be great fun to do. We could paint it in colorful chalk paint and then take pictures of a family walk somewhere. It could change with the seasons! Awesome idea!
In the past, bathbombs and Cake in a mug. Currently, slime. Our daughter desperately wants one of these HP Sprokets!
We do all sorts of crafts like painting, paper, clay and pastels. I would love to make a collage with my daughter.
We like ro make crafts to give as gifts my kids are very crafty we would probly make picture frames for them
My daughter helps me make Christmas ornaments,Fairy houses and baking. I want to redo my daughters bedroom It would be great to make a photo feature on her wall.
My son and I like to draw and make holiday cards together.
My daughter and I have really made some super cool, funny personalized Christmas ornaments over the years for our family! We also enjoy making homemade cards for holidays & calendars as well. We would use the Sprocket to make a family tree project next!
We love to color!
We like beading and cross-stitching!
My niece and I love making jewelry together!
I like to paint and do felt crafts with my little grandson. I would like to use the HP Sprocket for scrap booking.
We like to make homemade picture frames and frame photos.
As a family we enjoy seeing together (son & daughter), this would make for a great craft to send to family back in England.
My daughters love to make friendship bracelets and holiday themed crafts.
We like to make holiday decorations and my boys love building models.
We love to paint ceramics and we also love to make frames from sticks we find walking!
We like to make theme crafts and personalize it with photos of us and our pets.
We enjoy creating beautiful designs for birthday cards, and make our own scrapbooks which have mementoes, photos and the sprocket would be used for the scrapbook work and cards creations.
That photo collage frame is such a great idea; I’ll be holding onto that one. We’re planning for our first so I would use the HP sprocket to decorate the baby room. I always made a number of crafts with my niece which usually used pieces from nature. I plan on doing a lot of crafts with my own kids.
Would make a collage album to give to my grandparents, it would have the best moments we captured through the years apart. Would be nice to share it to them.
This looks amazing !! Would love to have this
I’d like to do papercrafts.
My daughter love to make crafts especially our own cards
My granddaughter and I love doing all different kinds of crafts together. We would use the Sprocket for scrapbooking.
Love to colour and do papercrafts. I would love the HP Sprocket for making greeting cards and some ornaments to share next Christmas.
We like to make scrapbooks and bake cookies. I’d love to use the sprocket for more scrapbooking!
I am teaching them to make greeting cards. We always make something when they visit.
I would love to teach them how to transfer photos onto wood. What fun! This HP Sprocket would be so handy to have 🙂 Thank you so much for this post and giveaway!
I’d love to use the HP Sprocket for scrap-booking, and i think it would be so special to make personalized Christmas ornaments with the photos with my little one.
I’d love to use it for sending photos to friends and family in letters and cards. I’d also use it to make our own personalized photo cards or newsletters. We’re also big fans of making shadow boxes for memorable events or to give as gifts. And we could make our own photo albums or print to put in photo frames. This would make it so easy to add our favourite photos to all of these craft, gift and decor ideas!