A Picture Frame as a Unique and Personal Horse Gift?? You bet!

A Picture Frame as a Unique and Personal Horse Gift?? You bet!

A picture frame containing a picture of your recipient's horse is a great gift in itself. But if you are willing to do just a little gluing, and maybe a little cutting, you can make it into a work of art that will definitely bring a big smile to your loved one's face each time he or she admires it.

If you really want to create a one-of-a-kind horse gift, get ready to design your own decorative picture frame, custom made to fit the horse lover on your list. Are you ready? Great! Let your creativity run wild, and let's get started.

If you started on the Picture Perfect page, you should already have your perfect horse picture selected - a picture of your horse loving friend with his or her horse, or just the horse. If you don't have one yet, go and take one yourself!

Now you need to find just the right picture frame. There are certainly lots to choose from, but I recommend one that will hold an 8x10 picture...bigger is better here. You're going to be using a wide frame and covering it with "horsey" decortations, so you need a large enough horse picture to keep it from being dwarfed by the frame. Your decorative picture frame should enhance the horse picture, not take away from it.

You're looking for a frame that is a good 1.5 inches wide or wider, flat and smooth, and the thicker the better. We're going for depth here, sort of a 3-D look. You can choose an unfinished frame and stain or paint it, or choose a simple finished frame.

Let me show you some examples of what we're looking for. These picture frames have a nice width to them. Be sure to use a mat as well. A mat will add depth and a layered look. You can find a pretty good selection online.

I found these picture frames at The Frame Place. They offer some excellent choices that are reasonably priced (about the same as WalMart).

You can find inexpensive mats at Mat Designers, a sister company to The Frameplace. (http://www.matdesigners.com/index.html) You can pick the mat that is just the right fit for your horse picture and picture frame.

Questions Answered and Topics Addressed:

Learn how to mat your pictures.

What can I use to decorate my photos?

Learn creative ways to mat your photos.

"Decorate your photos with stationary, wallpaper or maps."

How do I make a mat for a framing?

Assemble a Picture Frame
Cut a Picture Frame Mat
Get a Picture Framed
Create Decorative Picture Mats

CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS BELOW TO VIEW A BIGGER SELECTION AND FOR PRICING AND ORDERING INFO.

This 2 inch wide picture frame from The Frame Place is made with Bonanza wood and has a Canadian Walnut finish. Bonanza Wood is a solid material, with a very smooth, wrapped laminate finish. It cuts like pine, joins like pine, and readily accepts nails and hangers. For your information, Bonanza Wood is not 100% wood, but a composite material. It is great quality and the finish is extremely consistent, equal-to or better than most stained wood finishes.

3 inch Unfinished Picture Frame

This 3 inch wide frame from The Frame Place is made from an unfinished bass-wood moulding which you can stain or decorate yourself. You can even paint it if you prefer. This style is great for a craft project like this one. The slightly wider frame gives you a lot of area to work with.

Now that you have selected your picture frame, on to Phase II: choosing your "horsey" decorations. The choices you make here should reflect the horse lover's riding discipline, horse hobbies, horse breed, etc. as well as providing a hint of your own personal style. Here are some examples to wake up your creative side and get you brainstorming:

Breyer Stable Mates from PetSmart

PetSmart has a nice selection of
Breyer Stable Mate
horses to choose from, like this Stable Mates Gift Set by Breyer. These Breyer miniatures are just the right size to accent your photo frame. They com in packs of 1, 2, & 4. Look for the breed that your horse lover has.

Or try one of these Mini Whinnies(TM) Mares Collection They're the perfect size for your picture frame, and you can even use more than one if you want to. You also have a variety of breeds and color to choose from. if you don't find the one you want in the mares collection, take a look at the Stallion or Foal collections.

Here are some more suggestions:

**Breyer doll or tack, like this Paddock Pals Western Games by Breyer

**Barbie stable items, boots, cowboy hat, hunt cap or tack, like the accessories that come with Cali Girl Horse Riding - Lea or Cali Girl Horse Riding - Barbie

**The little cowgirl and horse in this Fisher-Price Little People: Horse, Farmer Girl and Farmer Boy would make really cute frame adornments.

**Accessories from any type of horse set will work if they're the right size, like this english tack set in this Pony Club Cob Horse and Accessories or these accessories in this Madeline: Horse Grooming Play Adventure for 8" Poseable Dolls

**Ornaments like this Horse Onament with Dangle Legs

Silver Heart Concho from Create for Less These nickel plated conchos from
Create for Less are great to decorate with. Use them with suede strips or glue them on as is. Engraved Silver Heart 7/8"
Engraved Silver Ranger Star 1.25"

Silver Ranger's Star Concho from Create for Less

FOR EVEN MORE PICTURE FRAME DEOCRATING IDEAS, JUST CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW AND TAKE A LOOK AROUND.

I was fortunate enough to be able to raid my daughter's horse accessories (with her permission of course) for a lot of the items I used to decorate my picture frame. I dug a few out of my craft box from past birthday parties, etc. I'll have a picture of it in here for you soon so you can get some ideas.

You've got your supplies, so let's grab some wood glue or craft glue and put that masterpiece together. Don't forget to personalize the mat too. Make sure you include names, dates, and maybe the occasion. Once the glue dries, and you have your mat pesonalized and your horse picture in place, hang it up on the wall and give it a final "once-over" to make sure its just the way you want it.

Once you're satisfied with your finishing touches, all that remains is to have your camera ready to catch the expression on your horse lover's face when you present them with your decorative picture frame, or should I say, your horse picture masterpiece.

For a couple of horse lover gift ideas using horse pictures that are a little more extravagant...special gift ideas for that someone special, trot on over to my Pro Photo and Personal Portrait pages. Any horse lover would be thrilled with one of these gifts.

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