Frugal Art: Make Your Own Bookplatesby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 09 Feb 2007 06:40 AM
Here is a trick I learned while working as the manager of a chic little gallery in a quaint Connecticut town. If you have your eye on a print but don't want to spend a lot, you can hang a bookplate on your wall. What is more, if you are frugal, you can even make your own. What is a bookplate? A bookplate is the termed used for an unbound page of a book. In the case of art, many print publishers put out books of the artwork they represent, either by artist or by collection. The bookplate is one of these pages that features a photo or copy of a print. Instead of binding the book, some of the pages may be framed as art. This art is not valuable, and you won't find it on Antique's Roadshow, but it still makes nice pictures to decorate a home. While it might be difficult for you to obtain an actual bookplate, you can achieve the same effect by pulling out the pages of a coffee table book. For the price of one print, you can have dozens of pictures this way to frame and hang as you wish. Instead of paying full price for a book of "prints," you can also find your coffee table books on the discount rack at the bookstore, in library sales and in thrift stores. How to make your bookplate? Carefully remove, from the book, the page or pages you want to display. An "exacto" knife can be used, or if you are really careful, you can essentially take the book apart at the seams. Don't worry too much about frayed edges. You can cover them with a mat or trim them off before framing. If you really want to get creative, try extending the picture onto the mat. I've seen this done brilliantly with great effect. For example, if there is a white birch tree in the image, mat the art in a dark mat and paint some additional trees on the mat. Or, have the branches continue from the painting onto the mat. It gives you a nice 3-D effect. Frame your custom bookplate and enjoy! Related Articles: Frugal Books: Find Your Used Book Sales Today! Do Those Book Reward Programs Really Pay? Decorating Your Outdoor Space with Found Objects Secret Sources of Free and Low Cost Paint Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags art, bookplates, Decorating, Tips Discuss this article
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Want great visual art without the high prices? From Grandma Moses to Dali, you can have the artist you want for a fraction of the cost.
