How-To: Matting Your Own Art

I recently picked up some prints from a seller on Etsy.  I love the prints, but they were an unusual size.  I couldn't find any frames that fit them nicely, and I wasn't prepared to pay for custom framing.  So, as usual, I went the DIY route for framing and matting.  I'm pretty pleased with the results...

I picked up the supplies for this project for less than $40 total.  That was due in large part to the sale at the craft store.  My frames were marked down from $21.99 to $7.99!  Ummm, yes please!  The poster board ran me about $6.  Other than that, I had all the supplies needed on hand.





To create your own matting, you'll need:

• frames 
• poster board
• art prints
• pencil
• X-acto knife
• Omnigrid ruler
• self healing mat

First things first, I used these float frames.  They are designed with two panes of glass, instead of one pane of glass and piece of backing.  I chose them by accident, because they were on sale.  But they worked out far better than expected because the matting ended up pressed snugly to the art print between the two panes of glass.  I did matte another set of prints with traditional frames, and the results were not nearly as polished.  The finished product with the float frames looks almost professional...from a distance at least!  When you get up close, you can see there is no depth to the matting, so it doesn't have QUITE the same effect, but damn close!  And I couldn't be happier, especially for just under $40!  

To start off, take the glass out of your frame.  Lay the glass down on top of your poster board.  I lined mine up in one of the corners so I only had to cut two sides.  Less room for user error is always good, imo.  Press down firmly in the center of the glass, and cut around the sides of the glass with your X-acto.  

You should then have a piece of poster board which fits your frame perfectly.  Move the glass and X-acto elsewhere.  Figure out how thick you want your matting borders to be.  If you're not sure, start off THICKER than you think you might want.  That way you will still have room to trim, if necessary. The top and bottom borders don't have to be the same thickness, just as long as it's visually appealing to you!  I made sure my prints were evenly framed by the matting, which ended up looking nicely symmetrical although my matting is thicker on the sides than top/bottom.  

Once you've determined how thick you want the matting, grab your Omnigrid ruler, lay it over the poster board at the desired measurement, and draw a line with your pencil.  Do this with all four sides. Now you have a nice, neat rectangle in the middle which you will be cutting out.  Now realign the Omnigrid with your lines, and use it to trace your pencil markings on each side.  You should end up with something looking like this:

Repeat these steps as many times as necessary for each print you have.

To assemble, lay down one of your glass panes, then lay the matting down on top of the glass, then line your print up on top of the matting (face down), and lay the back pane of glass down on top.  Carefully lift the panes and slide them into the frame.  And viola! You have a matted piece of art!

As I mentioned earlier, I do highly recommend getting the float frames for this project because the end result will be much more polished.  The prints I did with traditional frames were not pressed as tightly to the front pane of glass, and you could see some shadows where gaps formed between the print and the matting.  Nothing major, but I'm a perfectionist and it bothers me.  My boyfriend says he doesn't notice and they look fine.  Whatever.

Any questions?  Feel free to leave them in the comments section!

DIY All Purpose Cleaner Recipe

I bought a book full of eco-friendly recipes a while ago called Clean House, Clean Planet, by Karen Logan.  My main reason for doing so is, obviously, to make more eco-friendly products.  I recently watched a documentary on Netflix (Chemercial: Redifining clean for a new generation) about a family who gave up all chemicals.  They had the air quality within their home tested before they changed products, and had alarmingly high rates of VOC's in the air. After they had converted to homemade eco-products for some time, they had their air quality tested again, and the VOC rate was next to nothing. Watching this documentary got me thinking about all the pollution that I probably have within my own home.  

My second motivation for making my own products is to save money.  Who doesn't want to save money?  Seriously?  For the most part, most of these ecofriendly products can be made with a combination of vinegar, baking soda, borax, and castile soap. My preferred castile soap is Dr. Bronner's.  These are all inexpensive and easily attainable products. I happen to already have all of these things on hand, but I'm pretty sure you can pick them all up for less than $25. If you are willing to spend more initially, you can buy larger quantities and save money in the long run. But, if you just want to dip your toe into making your own products, you can get small quantities of all these products for an affordable price. 

Now, dont get me wrong, it's not like I hadnt thought about going green before seeing this documentary. Of course I have already thought about it, and I even tried replacing my usual cleaning products with their eco-friendly counterparts years ago, but I found them to not be nearly as effective. Also, I found it to be MORE wastefule to use the eco products since I had to use more to get the same results, which then caused more plastic waste and more spending. 

Since I've resolved to make 2013 a healthier year, I figured there is no better time than now to whip out this book and make something!  The first thing I made was all purpose cleaner.  It only took the 3 simple ingredients, plus some hot water!  Quick and easy!  Check it out...

Oh, and don't mind the bowl of baking soda in the picture. I put that in the line-up by accident, and didn't feel like taking a new picture once I realized!  Yes, I can count, and no the recipe below is NOT lacking a measurement for baking soda :)

All Purpose Cleaner

24 oz. spray bottle

1/2 tsp. borax

2 tbsp. white vinegar

Hot water up to ~20 oz. fill line

1/2 c. castile soap (I used Dr. B's peppermint)

10 drops essential oil (optional for fragrance)

1. Combine borax and vinegar in the spray bottle, then fill bottle up to the 20 oz fill line. Shake until borax is dissolved.  Then pour in the castile soap and essential oil and shake gently to combine.  
2. Clean some shit!  Enjoy knowing that your skin won't melt off!

It's really that easy to have a homemade, eco-friendly all purpose cleaner!  It literally took me less than 5 minutes to make this.  The best part is that it actually works!  And I don't have to worry about getting bleach on my clothes if I bump against the counter while I'm cleaning.  Maybe it's just me, but I used to ruin a lot of shirts that way.  Yea, probably just me...

Box Trio Makeover

Remember those primed boxes I shared with you last week?  

 

Applying coats of yellow paint

I first became acquainted with this set of boxes while aimlessly browsing a thrift store for fun stuff to repurpose.  They were hideous and baby-themed in pastel blue, yellow, and pink.  Absolutely hideous, I tell you (forgive me, I forgot to take an unadulterated “before” photo).  At the time I had no plan for them, but just knew I couldn’t pass them up for under $3.  Hidden storage/organization space such as this is always a valuable commodity, and with a little paint I knew these things could be great someday.  So I purchased them, threw them in the basement with all the other cast-off someday-crafts, and forgot all about them.  Until recently. 

Recently, I decided I wanted some sort of storage in my bathroom for things like q-tips and cotton balls.  Currently, I keep all of these things in a drawer in their original packaging, which looks like crap and isn’t really all that convenient.  I wanted something that I could keep out in the open, perhaps on the back of the toilet.  So, like any good hoarder, I check the basement to see if I have a suitable forgotten someday-craft castaway.  Turns out I did.  Enter the ugly nursery themed box trio.  It’s a perfect size for behind the toilet.  Imagine my joy. 

I decided I would decoupage some fun cardstock to the sides of the tray, and paint the trio to match the paper.  Easy enough.  I head to the craft store, and I find (and purchase) this lovely paper. 

Cute, right?  Obviously, I found this paper so wonderful that I went off track entirely.  You see, my bathroom is not gray and yellow.  My bedroom is.  My bathroom?  That’s sage green and brown.  I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I decided to go with it.  Plans be damned.  I’ll work it into the bedroom somewhere.  Perhaps for jewelry?

Anyway, this paper will go around the outside of the tray, maybe even lining the bottom. I’ll paint the tray and boxes dark gray, and let the stencil design peek through in yellow. 

Currently, the boxes are painted yellow awaiting their stencil application and final coats of gray paint.  

Progress now relies on finding a stencil.  So, sadly, this project is officially on the backburner until I find a stencil.

On to my next project: Painted Vases

Does anyone else have crafting ADD?  I seem to always have multiple projects going on at once.

Going Vertical

So, it’s been an aggravatingly long time since I’ve had time to veg out and craft.  I’ve been maddeningly busy as of late.  I started going back to school during fall of 2011.  I also work a full time job and said full time job has been requiring some overtime for the past few months.  Most people with any semblance of time management skills would be able to manage this without issue.  But me?  No time management skills to speak of.  Literally zero.  So I’ve been deprived of all those sweet hours of interweb browsing, pinning, and crafting that I used to take for granted.  All work and no play has made  Jack Heather a dull boy  girl.  In order to prevent a quarter one life crisis (I could hardly call it mid-life…I’m only 27, after all) I decided to take a break and forgo summer classes.

I think it will be well worth it.  I’m only less than a month into my leisure time and I feel like a new person already.  I have 9+ months’ worth of accumulated ideas sloshing around and incubating in my brain.  I need to get them out. There is an overpopulation of craft ideas and they are starting to overtake my thoughts.  It’s not pretty in there.  I must make the most of every sweet, precious second.

I spent the day Tuesday shopping for supplies.  We have 5 thrift stores , 2 craft stores, and 3 discount stores (Target, Ross, and TJ Maxx).  When I'm seeking out cheap supplies for projects I usually try to get to as many of these stores as possible.  I didn't manage to hit all 10 stores, but I did get to 3 of the thrift stores, Ross, and AC Moore.  I found a lot of really great stuff that I'm really excited to start working on!

My living room already looks like a war zone.  I do not yet have a dedicated craft space (other than the basement, but the lighting is depressing down there), so I am forced to do my crafting throughout the house in areas like the living room and kitchen.  This doesn't bother me one bit, but I think my boyfriend wants to catch my craft supplies on fire.    

 I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to organize my mess of ideas into a cohesive design plan that I can actually work on and put to use within my home.  I realized recently that for as much as I craft and try to decorate my home, I often neglect my walls somehow.  I was sitting on my couch, looking around my house taking stock of what I wanted to accomplish…and I realized that the only walls I’ve decorated are the ones I can see from the couch!!  I literally have neglected to decorate almost every single wall in my home!  My work is cut out for me.  My goal this summer is to get vertical with my projects and get some stuff on these barren walls!

I need to create something for the following areas.  Some areas I have something specific in mind for, others it’s completely uncharted territory.

1. Living room above the couch
2. Office space above my desk
3. Kitchen above table
4. 3 walls of my bedroom (2 walls/br)
5. Entryway (3 projects)

That makes about 15 potential projects, give or take.  Plus, I have a few things I’m working on now which are things that I’ve been planning for a really long time, but have put off for one reason or another.  The fact that these are really old ideas finally coming to life is making me all that much more eager to see them to fruition.  I’ve been so eager to get the ball rolling that I already have 5 projects in motion!  Only one of which is for the walls.  Can you tell I get side tracked easily? 

The things I’m working on right now consist of a lot of painting, which means a lot of drying time, which in turn means a lot of multi-tasking.  Spray painting also means that I’m at Mother Nature’s mercy.  This is the real reason I have 5 projects going at once.  I need reliable indoor projects to fall back on.  That, and I’m basically a crazy person.  Or so I’m told.  Here's a sneak peek at one of my current projects.

More to come on that some day soon.  If you're wondering, I'm using a gigantic box from an amazon order as a paint shield.  Worked fairly well, but I'll line the deck next time with a plastic drop cloth.  I’ll have individual posts for this project, and the other projects as I get them finished…or as they progress, depending on how long I take!