When I first got back into cross stitching about 1-1/2 years ago, Denise had just started back too. She found a place, Custom Frame Solutions, for ordering frames. She ordered first and was happy so that’s where I’ve been ordering mine. Framing your own work can be intimidating at first but after asking Denise a million questions and watching videos, it’s not hard at all and not even really that time consuming. You can pin your piece to acid free foam core or lace it. I’ve done both and can’t say that I prefer one over the other. I know it’s exciting to send your pieces off to be framed and then to open the box when they arrive back and see the beautiful finished pieces but, at least for me, there’s something about putting those finishing touches into framing that make it feel fully complete that I enjoy. That makes it worth the effort. Plus, custom framing by a framer is more than I need to be spending.
Custom Frame Solutions has a “club”. I think the initial year, it’s $49. Subsequent years, it’s $99 per year. The club prices are good but so are the sale prices. If you don’t order a lot of frames, watching for sales is probably a better idea but last year I ordered 13 frames.
Just to show you the difference in the prices, I put one frame in, same size and will show the various prices. This was one of the frames I almost got for Mighty Acorn.
Here’s the price just off the website – no coupon, no club discount:
Same frame but this is the price with their discount code (which is good for the next two days I think). Always check to be sure the discount code is still valid!
Club price – if you pay the annual membership fee:
Recap:
Price with no discount or club membership: $75.02
Price with discount code: $41.27
Club price: $33.48
Also, the club price is better for glass and foamcore. I order conservation glass and acid free foamcore. With coupon discount, for this frame, the cost would be $21.56. With the club price, the cost is $13.86 so that’s another $8 in savings.
You can see from this example that I would have saved about $16 on this frame by having the $99 club membership. There were four frames in this order. One was larger, one was smaller and two were about the size I used for the example. I’m sure I saved over $50
In 2021, with the 13 frames I ordered, even if I saved only $10 per frame, that still makes the cost of the membership worth the while.
Things I’ve learned dealing with Custom Frame Solutions:
- I’m not sure I’ve ever been to their website when there wasn’t some kind of discount code.
- Their customer service is lacking! Both Denise and I have had issues where something wasn’t right. I think Denise has received missing parts and had a frame that was the wrong size even though she ordered the right size. I’ve had a frame that had rough edges on one corner and the bare wood was showing. I think every time, we’ve sent an email, waited a week or so, heard nothing, sent a second email and then got a response. They’ve always made things right but we’ve had to follow up.
- What we think is happening is that we order frames from Custom Frames and they put the orders out for bids or something because we get frames from everywhere. One day I had an order coming from Brownwood, Texas. I said “Oh, no! Did I put my old address and someone is having to forward that to me?” It ends up that a good friend of one of our friends in Brownwood has a frame shop and he does a lot of this kind of work. I may order five frames the same day and they may come from five different locations.
If you have any questions about framing, ask in the comments please.
Tracy says
–I have ordered from them too. One thing I wish they noted in the description is whether the frame is constructed or not. Obviously it saves them a lot on shipping, to ship a four piece bundle than it does a “made” frame. I like when the frames come fully finished, the corners seem to match better, especially with the fancy moldings. The unconstructed pieces are held together with plastic wedges that are pressed/hammered into pre-cut holes. Other than that, I like their service and selections.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
When I first started ordering, somewhere on their site said that large frames may not come assembled. So far, the only one I’ve received not assembled was a small frame. Also, it came from Brownwood, TX and I think Denise said she’s received a fairly small frame from Brownwood that wasn’t assembled. I agree . . the ones they assemble seem to fit together better.
justquiltin says
Yes – the ones I’ve gotten in pieces that I had to assemble were not large but they did all come from Brownwood. The ones shipped from other places have all been assembled.
Pat D says
When you pin your piece to the acid-free foam core, what kind of pins do you use?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Stainless pins. My preference is short sequin pins but they’re sometimes hard to find. The last ones I ordered were from Hoop & Frame.
Pat D says
Thanks! I think I’ll try that method with Red Bird when it’s finished.
Teri says
…what do you do with your extra fabric if you only pin and pin and lace….
Teri says
…I meant to say and not pin and lace.