Friday, January 17, 2014

Easy Custom Frames Using Book Corners & Plexiglass!

I love my Brian Kesinger calendar, so when the time came to switch it out for the new year I decided to try and save the artwork from 2013's:


At first I thought I'd just cut out the pages and frame them, but I quickly discovered every page's art was a different size - and none were anywhere close to a standard frame size:

 Drat.

As I sat pondering, the digital photo corners in the calendar's design gave me an idea. Why not use brass book corners to make custom frames?

I still had several sets of book corners left over from my old book purse experimenting days, so my only expense was this $6 poster frame from Wal-Mart:

 
Kindly ignore the truly outrageous Jem pink, please; the plexiglass is clear, promise.

Think of the frame as an art sandwich: first the plexi, then the art, and lastly a thin sheet of chipboard or heavy cardstock. (Not cardboard, though; the corrugated sides look terrible.)

My calendar pages were perfect because each page had a virtual mat already printed in place, but you could always place your own art on a colored background, scrapbook paper, or even use real mats, if you want to get crazy.

So, cut out your art:


Then cut out matching chipboard backers, and use a glue stick to stick the art down:

(The chipboard came off the back of last year's desk calendar. Yay, recycling!)

This doesn't have to be perfect; the book corners will clamp everything down later. Make sure your edges line up, though!

The most time-consuming part is cutting the plexiglass, but if you do it right it's super-duper easy. (Which took me three or fours tries doing things the hard way to figure out, of course.)

As you can see, I had enough plexi for all 9 or 10 of my pages, and with space to spare for future frames. (Also, that pink: Ow.)


First, trace your art onto the side of the plexi with the thin plastic protective layer on it:

Use a pencil; it'll show up on that thin plastic.

Next use a craft blade and a ruler to start scoring those lines. (The ruler will keep you on course; this plexi is slippery stuff!)

Now, here's the slightly time consuming - but extremely important - part: you need to score each line 8-10 times, and on both sides of the plastic. That's right; flip the whole sheet over and score the opposite side, too. (Be careful when flipping; the plexi is both flexible and oddly brittle.)

Overshoot your corners like this, too, to make sure you get a nice clean break.

Once you're done scoring, get a padded pencil (or something with a similar amount of "give") and place it directly underneath your score line, like so:


Now gently press on either side of the pencil, and your plexi should snap or tear easily. If it doesn't, don't force it; go back and try scoring the line a few more times. If you force it, you risk snapping off a jagged break.

Btw, because this plexi is so thin, you may be tempted to cut it with scissors. Technically you can, but this is what happens:

 See all those white marks down the top side? You'll get those micro-fractures down every cut line with scissors. Not good.

When your plexi is cut out, use a nail file to take off any sharp burrs or jagged bits. (There shouldn't be many.)

Now you're ready to assemble!

I don't remember where I ordered my own book corners all those years back, but here's a close up of two of the styles I used:

After a little digging, I found a pack of 100 corners in bronze for less than $12 (including shipping) here on Amazon. That's enough to do 25 frames - not too shabby!

You can also check the scrapbooking aisle in your local craft store, or find a book-binding supplier online. Just remember you need corners that wrap around the back side; not just decorative ones that stick on the front.

Place your plexi over the art & backer board, and then use a pair of smooth-jaw pliers to clamp the book corners in place, holding the layers together. It helps to pad your pliers with a small cloth, just to be on the safe side; don't want to scratch those shiny corners!

When you're done give your corners a tug; if they budge at all, go back with the pliers and clamp them down tighter.

I finished cutting 10 pieces of plexiglass and assembling seven frames in just one night - but I think I spent a good 5 hours doing it all.

This project is Tonks-approved.

Even the best plexiglass is a bit scruffy compared to glass, of course, but you'll never see the imperfections from any kind of distance - and lookit that beautiful shine!

The corners are what really make the whole frame, though; I love that rich gleam of brass:



To hang your art - get ready to judge me - I recommend using that re-usable poster putty stuff. Yes, really! These frames are so ridiculously light that there's no point in hammering nails in your walls, and the putty lets you re-position them to your heart's content. (You could also put magnets on the back and class up your fridge, or go ahead and glue down a traditional saw-tooth hanger, if you really want to.)

I'm currently working on putting together a nice collage in a corner of our back room:

 
Not quite there yet, but working on it!


Oh, and just to combine my last two craft posts: you could ALSO make frames like this and use metal tape for the edges instead of photo corners. In fact, I'm tempted to try this myself next, only with copper tape. Mmm... copper....


Happy crafting, and happy framing, everyone!

*****

Come see ALL of my craft projects on one page, right here!


34 comments:

  1. Thank you! A while ago, a friend of mine made me an awesome drawing, and I had no idea how to frame it on my (rather thin) budget. This seems like a pretty good way to go :D

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  2. Oddly enough, if you ever want to cut up thicker Plexiglas, the best way to get a clean cut (including the cutters that they sell) is to put duct tape along the places you want a cut and then use a jigsaw. It melts if you do not have the duct tape and the things sold in stores for cutting, if the plexiglass is thick enough, really just score it and the edges look bad.

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    1. Innnnnteresting! I may have to give this a try. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. Really, really LIKE. I can think of several uses for this.
    May I suggest a non-traditional, more abstract placement of your frames? Just a suggestion. Breaking out of that rigid OCD box now and then is good.

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    1. See, that's what I WANT - but it's an uphill battles against my symmetry-demanding brain. Ha! Can you come over here and arrange them for me? :D

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    2. I'd sure love to, though it would be a long trip from San Francisco. You can always take one group like this (or maybe the next one) and JUST.DO.IT. Everything else could be very symmetrical and even and spaced out. Except for one group. And hey -- if you end up getting all itchy and twitchy every time you look at it (don't I know that feeling?) just change it. If you have them applied with some tacky putty stuff it will be easy.

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  4. A few summers ago, my family took our annual trip to Yosemite. In the park, they have a store of pretty much exclusively Ansel Adams merchandise. I convinced my parents to buy me a couple of matted prints. They were $20 each and double matted to fit 16x20 and they, of course, were gorgeous. Custom mats like that can run pretty expensive, depending on the material, so I though $20 for the print AND the mat was a great deal! Not too long after, I began working as a framer for *chain-hobby-store* and wanted to frame them up a little nicer than the cheap frames I had them in. It was during that process that I went to replace to backing and discovered that my prints were actually from outdated Ansel Adams calendars, reused by the store to reduce profit loss. A little upsetting at first, until I remembered I had my own calendar I could take apart and mat. I now have a mini Ansel Adams gallery in my home. :)

    (Also, a pack of 100 corners makes 25 frames, not 20. No judgement. All God's children.)

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    1. Ha! Sneaky store...

      Also, whoopsie. Can you tell math was never my strong point?

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  5. Jen - the thing I zeroed in for your final picture was your lightswitch plate. One of your prior posts was using rub and buff. When I redid my light fixtures in the kitchen using copper, I went a little crazy and did the rub and buff on the lightswitch plate. It worked great!

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  6. Thank you for showing us this!! It's a little serendipitous because I bought Doctor Who/Disney calendars (Karen Hallion, LOVE her artwork) for a friend and myself for Christmas, and this was my plan exactly - when the year is over, cut out the artwork and frame it! So I'm absolutely thrilled about this tutorial!

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    1. I bought that same Karen Hallion calendar for my daughter for Christmas with the intention of doing the same thing! LOL

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  7. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I pick up original art prints at every con I go to and have a stack that don't fit any standard frames and getting them custom framed is out of my price range :( I've been AGONIZING over how I can afford to do this and make it look nice. You're the best!

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  8. 100 corners are enough for 25 frames!

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  9. A bit OT, but an alternative use for smaller calendar art printed on cardstock is just to cut it out carefully and turn it into an oversized "postcard". Use the back for the writing surface (though it's best to mail it inside an envelope if it's not sturdy enough to handle being dropped in the mail naked).

    Really, the "postcard solution" is just transferring the guilt of throwing away pretty artwork from yourself to your correspondents, but hey, it works for me.

    I used that strategy for some lovely reproductions of Indian miniature paintings from a small 2013 wall calendar, with assorted pastel-colored office-supply "invitation envelopes" that (with a little picking and choosing) even look as though they were meant to match the paintings!

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  10. You can buy sheets of plexi at Home Depot or similar, but I've never priced it. May still be cheaper to tear apart a sale poster frame! Also, if you need an even cheaper and easier solution, you could use acetate sheets (think overhead projector sheets or page protectors, for you kids old enough to remember what either of those things are! or actual acetate sheets from the scrapbooking department) just to protect the artwork. Acetate is super easy to cut with scissors. You might have to double up your chipboard though, to fill out the book corner. Also, if your print ends up a little to heavy for poster putty, 3M makes command adhesive velcro now. One half sticks to the back of your art, the other half mounts to the wall with their removable adhesive strips.

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  11. Always such a treat when one of your cats makes an unexpected guest appearance in a photo, Jen. We do love them dearly.

    Excellent tips as always! I've tried plexiglass stuff before and have been left terrified of it but what you've suggested sounds most sensible :)

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  12. Ugh, and there I was hoping the end of this post was going to be "and the others will be on the giveaway board!" :-P Now THAT would make me want to enter.

    I think the layout problem is that the majority of them are the same shape and orientation, with only one odd shape and two striking colors. I'd recommend starting with the long one in the center and placing the others based on it, since it can't help but look out of place. My OCD manifests in needing to solve problems, so it's killing me right now that my computer died, because I'd so copy the image and make a mock layout.

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  13. Someone commented about Command making Velcro strips now. They also make picture frame strips that are sort of like Velcro. They work great; I live in an apartment so I try to put as few holes in the walls as possible.

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  14. These are so cool. The art looks great. You are so crafty, I love visiting this site.

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  15. And here I was thinking I would make a separate mat for each of them or something... your idea is much better :3

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  16. You are a genius!!

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  17. What a great idea (as your ideas always are, really)! Love this solution and can't wait to try it out on some of my odd sized stuff,

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  18. The big problem I see with this is what you use for backing: that chipboard is almost certainly really acidic. That means that over the years, it will start damaging the prints, turning it yellow and brittle. For pieces that you know you won't want to keep all that long, that's fine. But if you're doing this for pieces of art that you really love and want to keep looking good, make sure that anything it touches is acid-free. It's more expensive than reusing some old cardstock, but it also won't destroy your artwork, either.

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  19. I just took down and put up the same calendar was wondering how to preserve them perfect timing

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  20. These look great! The way you displayed them and mounted them yourself does great honour to the Steampunky subject matter!

    Also, your cat is named Tonks? Awesome!

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  21. Oh no! Today Epbot is showing up as being reported to Microsoft as a "dangerous" website.

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  22. How clever! I never would have thought of using brass corners with plexi. Also, that 3M tape with the tabs for easy removal would be good, too. I'm a school teacher, and I've switched over to using that stuff for all of my classroom decorating purposes. I used to use sticky tack, but it never held up in the warmer months when it got humid (posters peeling right off the wall in the middle of a class) and sometimes it would actually leave almost an oily or greasy stain on the posters, even soaking through to the front. That 3M tape has worked the best - stays put as long as I want until I need to move it! without damage to posters or the wall. (Sorry, not meaning to sound like a commercial here. ;) )

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  23. Jen, great project as always! Just wondering - that link you provided to Amazon, is that through your CakeWrecks affiliate site? Just want to make sure you "get credit" for any orders your faithful Epbot readers make on Amazon!

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  24. I got so inspired by this I had to post a suggestion. Swap the middle picture with the lower left one. The blue green colors will then flow from lower left to upper right and lower right. That will pick up the green in the bottle. A little coppery patina on the switch plate to also pick up the color to pull it together. The color is asymmetric while the shapes are not. Everyone is happy. If it were me :).

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  25. Nice idea AND thank you for the ear worm.

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  26. An amazing idea. Simple and functional. Could you please repost the link on amazon? I get a page not found error. It would be even better if you posted the name of the picture frame corners. I can't seem to find any that wrap around to the other side like the ones in your project. I'm just finding the sticky version that goes on the front.

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  27. Such an amazing idea. I'm so excited there may have been some maniacal laughter over here. XD Thanks so much for sharing yet ANOTHER awesome tutorial, especially since we're still needing some frames for several odd sized art works from cons. I actually have a matte board cutter and everything but yeah that obviously hasn't gotten done anyway so maybe this is what I need, haha!

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  28. If anyone is still looking at this after 8 months ;) I think the grouping on the wall might look a lot better if the items were much closer together, like maybe only 1/2 inch between them in all directions. Then they look less "estranged" from one another and the individual items become sort of One Big Art, like a collage. Try to fit them together to make a perimeter shape that's pleasing.

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  29. Oh I wish I could get that calendar. The one for 2016 is in color. I like the sepia tone lone way more

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