CD Photo Frames

The trickiest part is cutting the center out of the CD. The original hole is much too small for a picture, so it will need enlarging. The easiest and certainly the quickest way to do this is to use a Dremel tool and simply sand the center out. It happens in a hurry. However, if you do not have a Dremel, try the way we did ours. I'm sure there are other ways. The following technique is just one.

Materials:

compact disc (CD)
small snapshot
heat gun
craft knife
needle-nose pliers
flat-nose pliers
items for decorating CD: acrylic or glass paint, paper, etc.

1. Use a heat gun to slightly soften the center of the CD (figure B). It won't be noticeably softer, but you will be able to score it.

2. Most CDs have a fine line about 1/2 to 3/4 inch away from the small center hole. Score around that line and then score many fine lines from the center hole toward that line (figure C).

3. After scoring, use flat-nose pliers to pull up the sections one at a time, twist and break them off (figure D). They will no doubt break about halfway to the outer circle line.

4. After breaking off the sections halfway, go around the circle again with the wide tipped pliers and break off the sections (figure E). With luck this time they will break to the scored circle line and will NOT crack the rest of the CD. If you do get a crack, get another CD and start over.

5. Sand any rough edges smooth (figure F).

6. Select the photo that you wish to use to be certain it will fit, but before placing it in position, paint and/or decorate the disc (figure G). If using a single disc, you may wish to leave it as-is, but if you will be putting several together, all that silver may be too much.

Method #1: Use paint meant for nonporous surfaces and drop several drops of two or more colors onto the CD (figure H). Cover with a sheet of freezer wrap paper and rub to blend all the colors together (figure I). Allow to dry.

Method #2: Paint with glass or acrylic paint. When dry, decorate with a variety of decorative buttons from which the shanks have been removed. Our buttons all featured a school days theme...a ruler, an apple, a blackboard, etc. (figure J).

Method #3: Paint with acrylic paint. Ours was painted yellow with a blue and white striped border. The end of a length of ribbon was glued to one side so it could be hung on the wall. The other end of the ribbon was tied in a bow (figure K).

Method #4: Cherryl painted three discs in basketball brown and while the paint was still wet, she rolled a basketball through the paint to give it texture. When dry, she painted the black basketball lines and added various basketball-themed buttons. The three CDs were joined with large jump rings (figure L).

7. After decorating the disc as desired cut a piece of decorative paper (scrapbooking paper is perfect) in a circle matching the CD (figure M). Glue the photo in the center and glue the paper to the back of the CD.