I always have a hard time finding the perfect piece of “art” to add to our frames. I never want to spend big money because I find that I’m often sick of it in a few months & don’t want to change it out because of the money I spent on it.
I love Etsy, but find myself feeling overwhelmed trying to find a print that is inside of my budget and one that I feel I can live with for awhile. Plus, I’m pretty awful at online shopping. Unlike Casey, I need to be in.the.store- touching the product, holding the product, hmmming & hawwwing on whether I should actually buy it or wait for something better to come along.
Enter today’s amazing framed art, which magically seems to answer all of these dilemmas for under five bucks…
Framed greeting cards. Yup, they fit my criteria perfectly and solve all of my wishy-washy art dilemmas.
1. Affordable – check
2. Able to be changed every few months without feeling guilty – check
3. Able to be picked up at a store so I can hmm and haww as to whether I should really buy them -check
I bought this white frame at Target and scoured their greeting card section for a card that shared a message/design that I loved. Target has a great selection of greeting cards, but I’m sure any store that offers greeting cards could be a winner. (Especially those trendy gift shops that seem to have THE BEST cards. Typically those cards are out of my rookie budget, but for a piece of art that could cost far more than a couple bucks if I purchased it on Etsy- I feel less guilty splurging on a $4 card).
I picked this winner in the “engagement” section at Target. The color scheme was exactly what I had in mind, the watercolor trend has recently stolen my heart and I just loved its simple message.
This was my runner-up. See a trend here?
I added the greeting card to the frame and just like that, my framed art was ready to be hung!
I absolutely l.o.v.e. everything about it, but most importantly, I love that I’m not “married” to this design. If I’m out & about and see another card that begs me to buy it, I’m going to pick that bad boy up and not feel bad switching them out. And who knows… Maybe I’ll pay this adorable card forward. Maybe not though… would that be weird?
Either way, I don’t foresee taking this one down anytime soon. It just works. And for $3 a card, it really, really works for me.
I added it next to another very special frame in our home (a new addition as well)…
The frame to the right is my wedding gift to Matt on the morning of our wedding. To make a long story short, Matt and I are both high school teachers. After a weekend retreat with our students (where we met and got to know each other thanks to a variety of high school aged team building activities), I found this crumbled up note in my mailbox.
E239 is Matt’s classroom. Of course this old-fashioned note stole my heart and sealed the deal early on (although I didn’t leak that information to Mr. Matkovich). The funny thing is, I never responded on the note itself, but instead, saved the note without him knowing. Right before our wedding, I dug out this old treasure and finally gave him my official answer with a bold check mark. I framed it, and on the morning of our wedding, Matt unwrapped this frame and was shocked to find that I still had the piece of paper that started it all….
The greeting card message seems like the perfect neighbor to such a meaningful treasure. I love how they work together to spread love and simplicity. Tune in tomorrow to see where these two darling frames are currently hanging in our home. Spoiler alert: I spy an IKEA hack, milk painted chair and lots of color popping!
