Custom Framing

Our custom framed historical documents

When Jon and I were dating we spent the fourth of July in two different parts of the country.  He was on the eastern seaboard with his family on a trip and I was in Michigan with my family for my sister Maggie's baby shower.  While hanging out at "some historic hill near Boston," he spotted these replica historical documents.  The Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence.  Jon loves history, especially the the History Channel.  To fill the void of me not being there with him, he purchased the replicas with plans to use them in decorating our home someday.

Fast forward 2 years.  Jon and I are married and ready to start decorating our home.  We checked around for prices on custom sized frames at Michael's, Joann's, and a few other shops.  All of them wanted to charge $50 or more per document, and that was just not an option.

So... we went to Tai Pan Trading.  We were given a giftcard to Tai Pan for our wedding and thought we might find some fun frames, plates, or wreaths.  What we found were the perfect huge size frames!  They were bigger than the prints Jon had picked up, but... they had mod-looking WWII pictures in them.  They were on super clearance for $19 a piece.  Way better than $50 a piece.

We came home with the frames and dissected them.  Pulling out the mod stuff and cutting it down to the same size as the documents to help them stay rigid and unwrinkled.  We then headed over to Joann's with a 50% off coupon.  Jon wanted rich colored fabric.  So deep red or deep purple.  We found this.  We bought a few yards, a sharp pair of scissors, and some spray adhesive.  Here come the steps to custom framing...

1.  Using the spray adhesive spray the cut down mat from the "mod" picture or picture that used to be in your frame.
2.  Carefully press your item onto the mat.  Pulling on the corners to ensure that there are no bubbles.
3.  Using the backing of the frame, spray this with adhesive as well.
4.  Stretch the cut down fabric over the freshly spayed backing.
5.  Once both of these have had sufficient time to dry, carefully spray the back of the joint mat/document and set it down centered on the fabric.
6.  Let them sit before putting them into the frame with the glass (or the glass will get gooey.)

Simple as that.  Sorry if the story in there took forever to get through.  And don't forget, this is try me Tuesday, so now you have to try it for yourself.