What to do with an ugly picture frame

     Do you have a picture frame that you wouldn't even put your worst enemy's photo in because it would be too insulting? Well I know exactly what to do!

    Obviously that's a bit of an exaggeration (maybe). But I did come across an interesting picture frame almost a week ago while re-organizing my closet. 

    It's a square picture frame made out of concrete (I think) with a bunch of lines in it and a tiny little panel for the picture to go in on the upper left-hand side. Maybe that sounds pretty bad, but perhaps not. Don't worry, you'll see it in just a sec. I remember somebody on my street was giving it away a while ago and I thought it looked interesting, so I took it. And it sat in my closet for a long time before I found it again.

    At this point you may be thinking to yourself, 'Ginko, this has nothing to do with cards. It's called a 'card blog' for a reason. Why on earth would I care about a picture frame you don't even care about? Why the heck am I reading this blog anyway?'

    Before you close the tab and crush my dreams, I would advise you to bear with me if you'd like to know what I did with the frame. It does have something to do with baseball cards, in fact, don't you worry.

    I took a little bit to formulate an idea for the frame; at first I said I'd give it away as a wedding gift, lol. But I wouldn't want to insult the couple. Eventually, with the help of a brother who was hanging out with me at the time I found it, I came up with an idea to transform it from a rather ugly brick taking up space in the closet into a lovely card collector's mantlepiece.

    This is literally sitting on the mantle to my left as I write this post.

    Firstly, I flipped the frame over to put the panel for the picture in a better position. The frame stands up on its own or can lean against the wall, so it didn't matter that I flipped it.

    After thoroughly cleaning up the dirty glass panel that protects the photo, I found that I could fit a baseball card in a top loader into the frame as a replacement for a photo without causing any damage to the card itself. Clearly it's not a perfect fit, but I don't have a picture that would fit in there anyway. 

    As to which card I should place into the frame, that's where that brother came in. He suggested that since the frame is more or less a rock, a Rockies card would be the perfect one to use. And I agreed with him wholeheartedly while also chuckling a little. A quick look into a few binders, and I was down to three Rockies to choose from. Ultimately I chose the 2025 Topps Drew Romo, #296. I did so for a few reasons; firstly, I wanted to leave my serial-numbered gold parallel in its binder. Secondly, it's a rookie card, which is cool. And finally, Romo's a catcher, and I thought it best for a catcher to go into the frame (get it???). 

    Like I mentioned before, the entire card didn't fit into the opening, but I can assure you it's safe; I didn't want to harm any of my cards in the process. It's not perfectly centered, but I didn't mind it enough to change it. 

    Well, there you have it. If you have a strange-looking picture frame and want to do something cardy with it, I hope I've been a help to you. If not, well, I have failed you. I'm quite satisfied with the way this quick little craft turned out, and think it'll have a permanent home on my mantle.

    Thanks for checking out the blog! Make sure to have an amazing rest of the week (almost at the weekend) and happy collecting!