Need Help with Framing Cheap Posters

Heather's post was a good idea. If you want to trim off the white border, then take your poster to the store and just tell them what size frame you plan to use and have them cut a matte board and make you a matte that will fit the frame. Then, you could go anywhere to get the frame. Hobby Lobby and Michaels both have coupons in the Sunday paper. Also, Big Lots carries frames. So does the Good Will store, though you'd probably want to spray paint anything you found here since they are usually older. p.s. I have found Hobby Lobby to have the best selection of colors of matte board. As long as it's a standard size frame that the matte is going into, the cost is minimal. Plus, you can use a coupon on the matte.

Instead of framing, what if you dry mount them on foam board (make sure it's with heat, not just spray adhesive), and stick them up with funky push pins? That way you have the stability to hang them and they won't curl up.

You could also trim off the borders and just get a custom matting that fits into a standart poster frame. That way it has the professional look but much less expensive then custom framing.

try turning the borders around and painting them... make them a funky color that goes with your decor.

You can go to Michael's hobby store and get frames for posters that are really nice. And if you bring your poster with you, you can go to the counter in the framing section and have then blow all the dust out for you. They have really good sales also, like 50% off or 60% off look in the Sunday papers for those. My mom gets all her posters framed from there and they always look great. I hope this helps.

Martha,

I am artist and over the years have probably saved thou$ands by getting frames at garage sales. People often sell picture, frame and all if they don't like the picture - and they sell for next to nothing just to get rid of it. Just ignore the picture in the frame because you can always remove it to put yours in. If I am at a garage sale and see a nice frame, I will buy it for a quarter or two - and never more than a couple of dollars. Sooner or later I'll end up using the frame. Nine out of 10 garage sales you go to will have a nice picture frame for sale somewhere in the pile. If you can wait a few weekends and can do some garage sailing, sooner or later you'll find the right size - that is, if you are willing to have a standard frame size and then find a mat for your non-standard poster size.

Speaking of mats, buying a small cutter and cutting your own mat is cheaper than paying a store to do it. Or you can keep an eye out for mats that are within the frames that you see at garages sales, buy those frames for the mats within, and then paint the mat if its not the right color. Airbrush, if you have access to one, paints mats the best.

Anyway, not often will you find a custom frame at a garage sale because people who have custom frames usually paid for them so they know how expensive custom is OR they have custom for the valuable stuff they wouldn't be selling at their garage sale anyway. If you are looking for more than a few frames that all match each other, your odds go down with garage sales -although it isn't unusual to see two or three matching ones at a time. If it were me, I would go for the metal one in chrome (silver), which is the most common frame and nicest for the money because if you only find one at the garage sales, you can still visit thrift stores for something to match - although you'll pay more there than at a garage sale. Thrift stores always have tons of frames.

If the glass is broken, you can get the frame for even cheaper and then go to a glass shop (cheaper than a hobby store) and buy a piece of regular glass for around $5 (they'll cut it while you wait). Don't pay extra for non-glare glass.

Good luck,
-A.