Ocean Photo Frame - Free Pattern

My Boyfriend came home the other day and said he'd like a photo of me in a little frame to sit on his desk at work. I looked everywhere for a small one, but found nothing; then I decided it would be even better if I made one anyway! I'm putting this up as a knitting pattern as the main decoration is made up of knitted I-cords, though you'll also need:

Some card, if you can get a piece with a square or circle cut out of the middle, great; if not, you'll need to cut this out yourself (I used a photo mount)

Oddments of wool (2 different blues and a green work lovely!)

Glue

Paintbrush

Blue paint - I used metallic acrylic

Shells

Wool needle

Get your piece of card and cut a circle out of the middle, unless your lucky enough to have a photo mount hanging around like me :-)

Then paint your card so that you don't get nasty white bits showing through your wool.

Now the knitting bit, first of all you need to knit quite a long I-cord; this is no exact science, mine was about 22 inches long and I did it in the darkest colour. Once I had my cord, I glued it around the edge of the frame first:

I allowed time for the first bit to dry before continuing around the next part of the frame, then again I let that dry; it's a slower process, but its worth it - otherwise it starts to get a bit messy later! So I took my I-cord arount the edge of the frame, then once I'd got to where I had started, I folded the cord in and then followed the line of the hole in the card; again, no exact science, if you want one like mine then just follow the picture, if not go mad and create your own swirly loveliness :-) In total, I used the big I-cord that went around the outside of the frame and aperture, plus 2 lighter blue ones about 3 inches long and 2 green ones about 2 inches long.


I used the lighter blue and green smaller chords to block in the gaps, gluing them down in a swirly manner where possible:

Using the wool needle, I took the thread ends form the I-cords and pulled them through the surrounding chords to bury and hide them; this also helped to keep them in place whilst waiting for the glue to dry:

Then it's a case of grabbing your shells and gluing them down where you see fit - it looks rather good if you cradle shells in the swirls:

Glue around 3 edges of a new piece of card, cut to the same size as your frame.
Place this on the back, the non-glued edge being the side you will insert your picture so I put the dry edge at the top. Then cut a piece for a stand, glue down the first half an inch, then bend outwards to create a stand. Paint the back with your choice of paint; I used a metallic blue acrylic and an old scratchy brush which i used in circles to get a kind of brushed metal effect:

Allow to dry and then insert the photograph of your choice!!

Whilst typing this blog, I received a text from the other half: "Your photo now has pride of place on my desk. Thanks love xx"

My work here is done.