When finances were low, I would make collages of photos by plastering photos of my loved ones on a sheet of cardboard in a pretty array, making sure there were no open spaces. Most of the pictures were of us doing fun things together. Later, I would put it in a poster frame. These were favorites among my family members and we still have them today.
This page contains the following solutions.
Use the crinkled cardboard sheets inside light bulb packages to help anchor a photograph inside a frame.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have ten 12x18 collages, one of each of my 10 grandchildren. I cannot afford to frame each one, so would like ideas on how I might be able to mount them as a group on a wall. It would be okay to tack them onto something, but would like ideas about what that something might be. I have a nice wall by my entry door in a mobile home, that provides at least 80 inches of width.
Go to Salvation Army and see if you can buy old, framed artwork (the really big pieces)... Remove the artwork and put in your photo collages or check with your local freecycle networking group (online) and see if someone can donate old framed artwork to you.
You could also put cork board along the hall and hand the pieces on the board - perhaps in plastic sleeves? (You could trim the edges.) Or laminate them? I have also see photos hung from a clothesline-type line with colorful clothespins. Or you could get some foam board and mount them by glueing them on the board with spray adhesive.
Card Stock is what i would use, and some gold or silver push pins. They even make push pins with foam birdhouse pics on them and such... found mine at Michaels Craft Store.
Card Stock is way cheap and sold at your local Walmart, and you can find it in ANY COLOR.
Invest in a slide paper cutter because you want it to look nice, and once your brain is storming you will see infinite possibilities for that one tool, and that one pkg of card stock.
I just did this! I went to a thrift store and bought several very large framed pictures. I pasted some really nice, but cheap, wallpaper over the "art"...got the wallpaper there also, then I used a little bit of white glue to mount several collages of my grand kids (I only have 4 so far!) on the wallpaper. The frames are all different, but the small amount of wallpaper I left showing ties them all together so they look very professional.
My walls are a dark red, so I used black and white wall paper and all the frames are either black or white. Looks good! My grand kids love them! And their parents want me to frame some for them, also!
I have a lot of old wooden frames; and collage frames. They are not the best quality & do not have glass. It would
be my pleasure to mail you what I have laying around.This is why they were,so some day,somebody could use them. My name is CINDY-If you want ,you can contact me at -kwhic AT att.net or kwhic AT aol.com. or (305)-295-6278
The frames are not too much weight,I want to give free of any monies to whom appreciation,so shipping is on me. Plus, I can make room another box of stuff in my home. Hope all is kind. Surely would like to clean up' some say, is clutter; so I can stash some new found stuffiness.
Some ideas I've seen. I recently visited a home with hundreds of family photos on the wall attached to a simple piece of colored cardboard with ribbon separating the photos. I saw another with pictures tacked together and then thin beautiful ribbon crisscrossed over them with beads attached here and there with a glue gun.
Another idea: Dollar store frames are inexpensive as well as those at thrift stores. I touch them up and give some a personal touch with craft paint. I've even seen scraps of fabric or colored paper hung on the wall with pictures attached to the fronts with spacing between them to let the color and pattern show through. My favorite though is to purchase an old large frame artwork from the thrift store and make a collage inside. Simply glue the photos onto it. then do scrapbook style adding ribbon, or cut colored paper, gift wraps strips or whatever between the photos.
One can even cut out mini paper or fabric frames and glue the picture behind them. Once dry, add them to the collage. One can cut out hearts of fabric or colored paper, cut out the middle and place one a loved one's image inside. Any shape can do. Be creative. If the frame is plain paint texture, patterns, or color collages on it. Touch up scratched frames or paint them your favorite colors.
Spray painting is fast, and many stores carry generic cans for about a dollar like walmart and kmart and probably a few others. can paint quite a few with a single can. or enhance the aging and ruff up an old frame a little more and then rub in a second color into the scratches, or even add a little sparkle with metallic paints, gold, copper, silver, or even a little glitter. Use old broken jewelry or beads as embellishments.
A trip to the beach photos, use cheap liquid glue and glue sand over an old or cheap frame, after drying a couple of shells and instant theme frame. Theming frames can be fun and one can use their imagination to do lots of things on the exterior of frames as well as within a collage inside a large old picture frame.
Garage sales are sometimes a place to find frames as well. I collect them when I find them inexpensive and then when I need one, I choose the size, and then dress the frame up for my project of the moment. I've even used these frames to put my artwork in and with my personalized touch ups have received raves from the art world where I used to live. Let your imagination sour, there is no wrong way to do it.
Somehow I had collected several pieces of glass from picture frames over the past few years and came up with this idea how to make an all-glass picture frame.
