Updated for 2016!

I sure love Disney them park picture frames, but I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t purchase many because they are all priced over $20, and if memory serves, some float up into the $40 range. That’s really not a tremendous amount of money to pay for a souvenir, especially in a fantasyland of gifts that can leap into the thousands, but I’m always on the lookout for a cheaper alternative.

Are you looking for a fun family craft? Head down to the Wal-mart craft section, Micheal’s or Hobby Lobby and check out the unpainted wooden picture frames. My personal preference is Wal-mart, because most of the frames I buy there are $1. Seriously…wooden picture frames for one dollar.

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I like to use a light sandpaper on the edges of the frame, because inexpensive wood frames don’t aways have the smoothest edges.

I’m a pretty good crafter, but I am not all that original. I’ve found the best place to find ideas for painting is Google images.

This frame didn’t look all that hard to replicate, with just straight lines and circles, so I traced out what I wanted. I used quarters to make the yellow button circles, and the quarter and a Chapstick top for the Mickey head circles at the top of the frame.

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Deciding that painting ultra-thin circles with a brush would be really difficult, I used fabric paint in the little squeeze bottles. They may not be completely circular up close, but they are pretty close to circular from a distance.

Fabric paint dries just as well on wood as it would on fabric, in fact maybe even better since it’s a completely flat and less movable surface.

And the final product.

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Everything Mickey-themed uses black, red, and yellow, which you notice quickly when you search Google images.

I bought this wooden Christmas ornament from Michael’s, usually priced at $4.99 but was marked at half off after Christmas, and so it ended up being around $2.50. And in keeping with the Mickey colors, I started painting.

I used two wooden circles I had saved (my husband said translate this as hoarded) from some project at one time or another and painted them black. You can guess where this is headed.

This is the final product, which I believe would have looked completely different with a Christmas color scheme and no extra black circles. It would have looked way…less…Mickey. 

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When you Google Minnie Mouse, you get a lot of red and pink images.

I drew out the next two frames, one inspired by Mickey and one by Minnie, and then just added the pink bow to the traditional Mickey color scheme. It looks red with my camera phone, but I pinky swear the bow is truly pink.

I realize that Mickey’s buttons should be more oval that round, but oval is tough to reproduce and circular is not when you use an object to trace. I and a big-time tracer. 

Now add some color. Did I mention that bow is really pink?! It really is.

I filled in the colored circles with fabric paint, because this gave the frame a raised texture. You could always use regular paint.

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And then I tried to step it up a bit. This picture looked more difficult than anything I finished before it.

I use a Mac laptop, and I made the size smaller and actually traced the shape off the screen. Then I traced it onto the frame, making a few adjustments before I went any further.

Then I just started filling in the drawing with paint. I always work my way from the outside in. Mickey’s face is often a flesh color or white, and I decided this looked better in white like the original.

Instead of a plain red background, I added some lines of brown and yellow paint in for a streaked look. I mixed those colors with red so it blended in.

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I outlined the Mickey face with the fabric paint, and in places where it was bit blobby or too wide, I just went back and edged it with white paint.

The cost…

For the three wooden frames pictures above, I am almost certain I paid $1 for each one. I had a full box of paint and paint brushes to work with already, so that didn’t cost me anything extra. But what if you have none of that and have to purchase paint and brushes? I would say budget $10-15.

Any paint supplies you have left will be available for use with your next arts and crafts project. I did a lot of crafts when my children were younger, so some of these bottles and containers of paints were over 10 years old. I gave the fabric paint a good shake, and some of the regular paints needed some extra water added. Most of these paints then worked just fine after 8 – 10 years. I would therefore say my paints were a good investment for my money.

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Thanks for stopping by, and we’ll see you in the crafts section, picking out frames and red & black paint.

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Amanda Major is the creator of cheapskateprincess.com. She remembers her first visit to Magic Kingdom like it was yesterday, because she had a ham sandwich tucked in her shorts pocket. The whole family snuck in their lunch; you can’t make that kinda stuff up. 40 years worth of trips to Orlando later, she is still trying to save money on vacations.

Amanda is a Disney Vacation Club Member and Annual Pass holder. Her amazing husband, band director Carl Major, plus three teen children and two dogs keep her busy. Amanda teaches Leadership to high school seniors in the almost-coastal town of Foley, Alabama. Read about her cheapskating local vacations with this link. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, walking somewhere, or paddling a kayak. Life is indeed a blast. 

We hope we can help save you some money too. Use this link for a free no obligation vacation quote from our Travel Consultant with Pixie Vacations, Mike Ellis. You can also e-mail him at mike@pixievacations.com.