Sunday, July 28, 2013

Craft Time: Cheap, Cool, Wall Art

One advantage of being an artist is always having stuff to put up on the walls, but even with that said, we artists get bored at looking at our own stuff all the time and even we need easy, cheap, graphic ways to enhance our living spaces. A great way to do this is by using prints. Now prints can be found anywhere, but some of the best can be found in well made books. I was lucky enough to find a very cool book from the 80's at a local book sale, it was only a dollar! and it features movie posters from the beginning of the 20th century (1910 to about the 1940's). There were so many cool posters to pick from!
Like this one!!!! Thrill Crazy, Kill Crazy, Gun Crazy!! Too cool...
....also this book had these images in many different sizes...
...and shapes! So it was easy to find one that fit the frame and mat I already had, speaking of which...
The best place to find frames are at thrift stores. Don't worry about the size, color, or shape! Paint is an easy fix. Either spray paint them or hand paint them. The frame I used was unfinished so it was easy to just quickly brush on a couple coats of craft paint. If the frame has a clear coat either sand it down or spray paint it in a series of layers and thin coats, them seal it yourself with a spray varnish. Also, if you can, buy frames that come with mats. Even art work already in them, you can just tear it out and keep the mat, like I did with this one.
Once you pick our print, cut it down to size and masking tape it onto our mat.
There you you go, looks pretty good!
...and this is how it looks framed and hanging on the wall. To make it more dramatic, do groupings and place them in a row, or if you're working with multiple sizes and shapes, hang them in a random pattern. Just lay it out on the floor and experiment. You can even trace the outline of each frame onto paper and tape them on the wall until you get the right grouping, this will save you a lot of headache and nail holes!
Books aren't the only place to find awesome prints to frame, this is a print I got from a movie store's going out of business sale. They had thousands of these postcard like movie prints used for advertising the rentals. I got them 20 for a dollar. This frame was a thrift store find also and it was gold and ugly, but I bought it anyway. I spray painted it and added my own hand painted text and it came out pretty cool. This one has glass in it so sorry for the reflection of my bikini clad boobs (ooops)
This is another movie store sign print. Again with a thrift store frame and a thrift store mat from another frame I had. This mat was, at first glance extremely ugly in its original frame with a really horrible "country kitchen" print but with the right art and frame, it totally changes the whole feel of it. Just goes to show, never let first impressions sway you from buying cheap frames and mats from thrift stores! This one has glass too, sorry for the crappy refection AGAIN!!!

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www.deecomposed.com