Trashtastic Tuesday- Craft Paper Mat & Thrift Store Frame

Hey all!  Welcome to Trashtastic Tuesday! This is a little series around here where I show you something that I thrifted, sometimes I make it over, sometimes I don’t.  Or it may be something that I have owned and I am tired of, or no longer like, so I make it over.  But nevertheless, it is usually something that I paid very little money for.  This project I am sharing with you today is near and dear to my heart.  Because the end result is my having a beautiful frame to finally hang the artwork that Delaney brought me home from Sweden when she travelled there over the summer.  She bought me this print of Stockholm.  I am not sure how to describe it, but it is in the shape of Stockholm, and it has words of all of the different towns, and it was love at first sight when I opened it!  Unfortunately, I was unable to find a frame for it, because it is not a standard American size for frames that you can buy already made in stores, so I set out to find something that would work, because do you know how expensive it is to have something framed?  I lucked into this awesome frame one day at Goodwill, and it was big enough that I thought I could rehab it and make a mat to fit my print into, and it was like it was meant to be all along!  I am going to show you lots of pictures today of this cozy little corner and my new Artwork, and I am going to show you how you can matte and frame something yourself using craft paper or any other paper you choose.

Life has been crazy busy lately, and I haven’t had a lot of time.  But I wanted to share my new artwork today, so I decorated this one corner for Fall, but I’m just going to be honest, the rest of this room looks like a tornado went through it because it is full of Fall boxes of décor and half finished Fall projects.  I am hoping to finish it all soon so I can do a home tour for Fall!  But behold my Stockholm artwork on the wall!  Isn’t it gorgeous?  I just love the grey frame with the brown craft paper and the black and white print.

If you have been hanging with me for a while you may know that we hosted a foreign exchange student from just outside of Stockholm 2 years ago, and we all fell madly in love with her forever.  Delaney visited her and her family for three weeks this past June, and she had the time of her life!  We are hoping she will be visiting us sometime in the next year back here in WV.  But in the meantime, the print makes me think of her, and also of my beloved Pap pap who was from Sweden.  He passed over 10 years ago, and he instilled in all of us a love for all things Swedish and I thank God that I was blessed to know him and love him for so many years.  I know I will be with him in Heaven again on day!  If you come to visit us, you will find Swedish touches all around our home, and they all make me smile!

I I love this little Fall vignette I put together!  I’m not sure it will stay this way when I actually do the rest of my Fall decorating, but for now it is making me happy.  I bought the little white ramekin recently at the Target One Spot for $3- they came in a set of two!  And that wood slice?  I may or may not have swiped it from a pile of wood on the side of the road in Webster Co. over the weekend near a place where we parked at a cross country meet  #I’mathief.  The white pedestal bowl and brass candlesticks are both from thrift stores.

Let me share with you how you can make your own matte with any type of paper you choose.  I chose brown craft paper.  This was left over that were from my brown paper floor I installed in our downstairs hallway.  I highly recommend you buy a roll of this stuff, it can be used for so many different things!  You can purchase it at Lowes or Home Depot in the paint dept.  You will cut four strips of the paper one for each side.  Make it wide enough that you can fold about an inch or so of it under to make a nice clean edge around your artwork.  I mounted my artwork right onto the backing that was already in the frame and then afterwards, I used the old art that was in the frame when I bought it and used it as the backing.  As you can see in the picture below, I simply folded it straight across on all four corners.  Worrying about how to do the corners was stressing me out, so I decided to make it very simple, and I like the way it looks, simple!  You will lay your strip of paper out one each edge and fold about an inch or so under along the artwork.  I used double sided tape to tape it down along the inner edge, just barely overlapping the artwork.  Next you will turn the artwork face down and fold the remaining paper under and onto the back of the artwork, and tape it.

You can see in the next two pictures the back side of the art that I am matting.  You just fold it all over nice and neatly, use a credit card or something to make nice sharp crease in everything you are folding, and just tape it neatly to the backing.  I just wrapped the corners right around, and in some cases I took scissors and cut off excess paper so it would not be bulky looking.

As for the frame itself, when I bought it, it was painted a glossy cream, and it looked all chippy and dirty.  So I gave it two coats of Behr Premium Plus flat paint in the color Suede Gray. This was left over from the bathroom cabinet I painted in our master bathroom.  After the paint dried, I used a clear wax and waxed and buffed it.  It is quite a substantial and heavy frame, and I was lucky to have found it at a thrift store for next to nothing.  They don’t make frames this nice for cheap nowadays!

I love the addition it makes to this little corner where Delaney’s senior picture hangs.  I am so happy that I was able to frame this artwork and display it in our home!  I love the way it turned out.  I was able to get a expensive, high quality look at a fraction of the price compared to having the piece professionally framed.  This is a special piece that will its rightful place in our family for years.

I also bought the little chevron pumpkin at the Target One Spot, and the Give Thanks pillow on the sofa.  Target One Spot totally rocked it out this Fall with the things they have available, who’s with me on that?

In other news, and some of you may have read this already, this will be one of the last posts where you will be seeing this sofa and chaise, because we bought new furniture for this room!  We are just waiting for it to come in and there are going to be huge changes coming very soon in here.  I am so excited!  I am going to go ahead and decorate this room for Fall just so I can post my Fall home tour, but any day after that we will be getting the new furniture and I am sure I will be showing it all off for you!

The feather pillow, the black and white striped pillows, and the deer antler pillow on the chaise were all purchased from Amazon, and you can find them here on my Amazon Store.  BTW, I always add everything we purchase from Amazon to my Amazon Store, and there is a widget that will take you straight to our store in my sidebar- title Sweet Parrish Place Amazon Store.  So if you ever want to take a look at it just click over to it.  You will find all of our favorite things and everything we have ever ordered.  If you purchase something we will receive a small commission, but you will not be charged any more at all.  So help a sister out!

Do you have champagne taste and a tiny budget like me?  Love fashion, DIY, crafting, all things vintage and thrifty?  Stick with me, I’ve got you covered!

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