There are several boxes of pictures sitting in the craft room that needed to be framed and hung. I hit garage sales, thrift stores, dollar stores, and The Christmas Tree Shop (no, they don't sell Christmas trees. Ok, they do but only around the holidays) in search of cheap, cheap, cheap frames. Guess what, the thrift stores such as the Salvation Army were the most expensive. Outrageous! It was all bargain shops after that. I found a huge supply of cheap frames and white mats at the Christmas Tree Shop.
I didn't buy anything over about $3. I also found a bunch of frames at local garage sales, all for under $1. In total, including the frames, mats and spray paint, I spent less than $20. Actually probably closer to $15.
I had only intended to spray the frames black and leave them at that. But I ended up with super glossy paint, which looked a little scary on the decorative frames. I had some metallic wax in the drawer, so I wiped it on. Much better and less plastic looking.
Spray the frames with your selected color. Learn from my mistake and get a matte coating instead of glossy.
Let them dry for several hours.
After the paint is dry you can rub on a metallic wax or silver/gold-type leaf. Though leafing takes forever. I tried to silver leaf a 4"x6" frame several years ago and it took all afternoon!
Mat, hang and enjoy. I obviously didn't get around to the hanging part.
