"Found" Art

What's hanging on your walls? If you frequent galleries and purchase original works of art, this post might not be for you.  I love having something to catch my eye on the wall and have several spots in my house that are ideal for a rotating display of  "art." Greeting cards, magazine covers, silhouettes and shapes die cut using the Sizzix machine have all ended up under glass in a black frame bought with a coupon at Michael's.

Greeting cards are my one of my favorite things to frame (as you can see in this not so terrific photo collage). I'm thwarted by glass reflection . . . but you'll get the idea.  The most difficult part of framing a card is its size.  Many will fit into a 5x7 frame but won't have much of a presence on the wall if the picture takes up all of the frame.  An easy solution is to up-size the frame. With the array of frames and pre-cut mats available in craft stores, you can assemble great looking wall art using favorite greeting cards.

It's not obvious from the photo, but the smallest of these four examples is the 8"x8" framed ice skaters, a photo of little metal figurines taken by my sister-in-law (a professional photographer) as her Christmas card several years ago.  The mat is frosty snowflake scrapbook paper rubber-cemented onto the cheap white cardboard mat that came in the frame.  I cut out the opening with a craft knife and stamped the "happy holidays" label onto card stock, cut it out and tacked it to the mat so it is under the glass . To the right of the skaters the gray rectangle is Pat's business logo placed vertically to give credit where credit is due. This little beauty hung in my powder room for the holidays and is a favorite.

The largest of the four pictures is Santa pulling the tree. This has hung in my hallway for the past several years and has a wonderful vintage feel. The card came from my friend Jane, and is about 4"x6" but is displayed in an 11"x14" frame. It's all about the layers - the red around the image is a piece of linen-textured material unearthed from my hoard of fabrics that coordinated well with Santa's coat. The next layer is a standard pre-cut black core 8"x10" mat with a 5"x7" opening. Filling the space between the black mat and the black frame is black and tan check wrapping paper positioned on the diagonal.  The result is the look of custom framing using standard items.

The wood paneled truck and the Christmas carol pictures are both in 8"x10" frames with standard size 8"x10" mats. With its white border, the truck card was centered in the mat and white paper fills the space between the card and the mat. The spacing isn't precise, but it isn't noticeable because of the color.




The "Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat" card is one that we sent as our Christmas card about twenty or more years ago. I did trim the sides of this rectangular card a bit so that a fairly equal amount of  red paper would show between the standard 5"x7" mat opening and the card edges. The paper happens to be vintage end-paper style wrapping paper I kept from my mother's stuff. It adds just the right look and complements the red lettering.

So if you have a special card or one with an image you like, take it out of the drawer and put it on the wall. It's pretty simple and will make you smile.

Cheers!