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[OM] Frames and Mats

Subject: [OM] Frames and Mats
From: "Tom Scales" <tscales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 17:12:26 -0500
I just replied to a list member that wrote me privately and realized that
most of it might be useful to the list (at least the US and Canadian
members).

Here's a slightly edited version:

I found a place called www.matshop.com.  For Canadian buyers, it's
www.matshop.ca.  They are actually in Canada, and the prices (converted to
US) are a little better (may not be as good if you have Canadian $).

Their prices are pretty good, but a minimum $100 order.  US$100 in the US,
C$100 in Canada.

I bought a bunch of standard sized, white mats -- 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14, which
were 65 cents, 85 cents and $1.45 respectively.  Couldn't find them locally
for less than 3 or 4 dollars.

They look to be 'major brand' -- Crescent Whitecore.  They're even cheaper
for the standard ones (slightly cream core).

The other place I found was, believe it or not, Target.  They have a huge
selection of frames, most of them expensive.  But, on the end of the row, if
you look closely, they have nice, small frames very cheap.  They have 3
1/2x5 and 5x7, wooden frames, with glass, backing and stand for $2 a piece.
The only challenge is that they are not wrapped, so a high percentage were
scratched. Had to go to two Targets to get enough.  First I framed every
school picture since our kids were in preschool (OK, they shouldn't have
just been in a box) and made a nice display up the side of the stairs.  Now
I am rescanning my favorites and will print many of them.   They also have
simply metal 8x10 frames that are nice, for $3.  Some will be 'bathroom
wall' decorations (small), some will be bedroom decoration (medium), some
will be living/family room decoration (large).

Target didn't have 11x14, but KMart did, for $5 each. Again, nice wooden
frames. You have to look around though, as they make them hard to find
behind the $15 frames.

Oh, one last thing. Target has nice, black, wooden poster frames (24x36) for
$18.  No place else came close. I have found that for my better scans, I can
use the 4x feature of the Epson 1270 driver (prints one image across 4
sheets of 13x19 paper) and make a surprisingly nice poster size image.  From
an appropriate viewing distance, it looks great!  It leaves a border of
about an inch, or just white glossy paper, but in the poster frame it looks
nice. I'll look into mat, but that's probably another $20 and I don't think
it needs it.  First one I have printed poster size is:

http://www.scalesfamily.com/Tom/SAI/g13-2n-03.jpg

It's hard to see on your monitor, but the boat is a deep red and really
stands out. I don't know what I did to make it do this, but the print came
out almost with an oil paint finish. Now I have to figure out how to do that
again.

As I mentioned, I'm trying to spruce up our house.  We're kind of stark
people, meaning not much on the walls and no, well, crap on the shelves.
Part of it is that my wife is visually impaired, so breakable stuff is a bad
idea. Part of it is being lazy. So, I thought I would make some effort to
add some color and artwork to the
walls and that it would mean more if it was my work.

Tom



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