Diploma frames and stupid questions

[radwife]

I used www.framingsuccess.com for both mine and DH's diploma's. I was the first in my family to graduate from college let alone get a Master's degree and I am so proud of those accomplishments that really wanted to hang those pieces of paper! DH probably could have cared less about having his diplomas framed and hung, but since I was putting mine up I framed his too.

Oddly enough framing success sent me an email just today with this coupon code if anyone is interested.
FOR A LIMITED TIME- 20% Off Your Order!

Use Coupon Code 10002

[Vishenka69]

I did DH's diplomas at Michael's during their 60% off sale. They ended up being about $100-130 each. His business office has copies of all of them, so I framed originals. Now I need to do mine to match his, but keep putting it off.

[Vanquisher]

Trust me. I wish I could do this on the cheap and just buy frames, but at least one of the diplomas is 12 x 18, which is a stupid and weird size.

[Meenah]

Try one of the frame it yourself places where they help you, but it is reasonable, especially for odd sizes.

[poky]

This place has 12x18 pre-made frames; this line is on sale for $30:

http://www.pictureframes.com/scripts...wse=Collection

[Vanquisher]

Should I matt them? Do you think that looks better? I have three sizes right now that I need to frame, and they are such different sizes. I have an 8 x 10 (college), 16 x 20 (medical school), and an 18 x 12 ( residency - vertical). I was thinking of doing a 3" matt, but would that just be ridiculous? They sell already made 24 x 18 frames at Michaels - a nice one is on clearance for $5. By that same logic, though, I need to get a 22 x 26 frame for the medial school one, and a 14 x 16 one for the college one, and that won't work well. Do you think the matts being different sizes would look stupid?

Ugh.

[oceanchild]

With our diplomas, I really like the look of mats. But it definitely makes DH's med school diploma huge.

I love the look of mats. Especially with a diploma-- much more impressive. My diplomas have about a 2 1/2 inch mat, with a very thin border of school colors between the mat and the diploma. They are different sizes and different orientations, which makes it a bit tricky to find the right way to display them. It sounds like maybe you could hang the two horizontal ones one on top of the other with the vertical residency one beside them?

[NYCHoosier]

I used www.framingsuccess.com for both mine and DH's diploma's. I was the first in my family to graduate from college let alone get a Master's degree and I am so proud of those accomplishments that really wanted to hang those pieces of paper! DH probably could have cared less about having his diplomas framed and hung, but since I was putting mine up I framed his too.

Oddly enough framing success sent me an email just today with this coupon code if anyone is interested.
FOR A LIMITED TIME- 20% Off Your Order!

Use Coupon Code 10002

I'm totally using this for my fashion degree; thank you!! This is a good chunk cheaper than the bookstore with the coupon and less expensive shipping.
I love the fancy frames with the school name in the matting even though I realize it's redundant b/c the school name is already on the diploma. They have my fashion school but not DH's medical school. boo. DH and I both have our undergrad diplomas framed in the fancy frames, will hang them in our home office until we each get real grown-up offices (while I have an office now, it would be weird if I put up my diploma considering my title).

[SoonerTexan]

Hobby Lobby is 50% off this week

[Vanquisher]

Would be nice, but there is no Hobby Lobby anywhere near me.

[MarissaNicole]

Trust me. I wish I could do this on the cheap and just buy frames, but at least one of the diplomas is 12 x 18, which is a stupid and weird size.

My law degree is GINORMOUS, can't figure out why it is so dang big (like 3 times the size of my bachelor's degree) but I wanted matting. What they did was ended up covering the outline around the diploma and putting the matting over it so that it didn't make the huge thing any bigger.

[peggyfromwastate]

I used the floating frame that didn't need a mat. I bought some at Michael's for our college diplomas. For the medical school one, I had it framed at Michaels with a mat and it was super expensive and it's huge. But I'm sure he'll be hanging it up in an office someday. I made some higher quality color copies of the original from Office Depot or something like that because we can't get at the original now. I'm not sure where the copies are, but anyway. I'm using regular black frames from Michael's (I'm doing it myself) with no mat for the state license.

Anyway, I guess before you frame them you should think about where you want them to hang. In your house? In the home office? Or eventually in the work place? I would probably use cheap frames for some copies to hang at the workplace, but have a nice frame at home. And if you take it to get it framed and stick with a simple black or something like that, the framers should be able to deal with the odd size of the diploma. The floating frames are good for that if you DIY, because you don't have a mat to worry about. My mom also will often have the frame shop cut a mat for her for the size print she has, and then she usually puts it in her own frame. That way she doesn't have to pay for the framing, just for the mat.

Good luck!!

My only regret is that we only made 3 copies of the MD diploma... I think we should've made at least 10... Live and learn.

[Vishenka69]

Forgot to mention that you probably shouldn't frame the originals before getting a job that you think he might stay at for a while. Or at least make lots of copies first. On the other hand, with all the moving and copying some of the diplomas didn't look so hot by the time I got around to framing them.

Also, agree with Peggy that the eventual location will affect what frame you go with. Since ours are in the house, I wanted something nice and could go with bigger frame/mat combo.

[DCJenn]

I used Michael's for some and local framers for others. I had mine all done at the same time (including my high school diploma which I still hang on my office wall- that bugger took twelve years- the Master's degree took two and I worked at a chocolate factory and played most of the time). I made sure to make copies, lots of copies of all of the diplomas of the dawkter before we had them done. They're all filed in the filing cabinet and yes, he's needed to supply copies for lots of different things over the years. No one has EVER asked for copies of mine but I guess since I'm not licensed here, it doesn't really matter all that much.

Jenn