Creative uses for mat scraps?

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framinzfun

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Aug 28, 2002
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Location
eastern pa
I am doing some cleaning in our shop, and realized that there are stockpiles of mat pieces, not really big enough to consider holding onto for future use, most are 8 x 10 and less. We do have some pieces cut to standard sizes and have them set out for sale (We are also an art supplies store as well as a custom framer, so selling matboard uncut is OK). Anyway, I am looking for some creative and not so time consuming things to do with these hundreds of mat pieces (Seriously, :eek: HUNDREDS!) We donated a lot of them to local schools and Scouts and such, but there has to be SOMETHING to do with these things to sell or something. Any ideas?
 
I keep a grocery bag near the wall cutter. Any mat scraps that will fit (up to about 12x16) go in the bag.

When the bag is full, I call someone who will come and get it for her school. If she doesn't come in about 48 hours, the bag goes in the recycling bin.

When she DOES come in, I worry that some school kid is going to cut himself on the beveled edges of the board and sue my ***.

That's the only not-too-time-consuming thing I've ever found to do with mat scraps.

You can bag them up and sell 'em by the pound but, at least in our community, you need a commercial scale certified and inspected by the city to sell ANYTHING by weight.

Oh, and scraps bigger than 12x16 get used up for backing, since they are all alphacellulose boards. I only save/refile one partial sheet of each number and it has to be 32" high.
 
Coasters, note paper, drawer liners, art supplies...

I do a lot of very small mats, so I don't have a lot of scraps, but what I do have left over I donate to one or another school. They are always glad to have them.
 
I will cut anything that is 8x10 into a mat for a 3x5 photo and stick it in an 8x10 frame made from scrap frame stock. Anything smaller gets recycled.
 
You can use it for wall covering, table top covering,top of shelves, cut 1.5"x2" opening in mats for school pictures, throw a bunch in a box have a contest who ever guesses the wieght or the exact sqaure inches gets the scraps plus a $25.00 framing certificate or something. Use it as boarders around your windows. If your an art supply store be creative! What is the name of your store? So much more no time!
 
Place mats for doll houses.

We give our scraps of foam board to a local antique book dealer. He uses them as spacers instead of styrofoam Fritos to pack books for shipping .
 
Schools get them first, if they don't pick them up in a timely manner then a paper maker gets them. He strips the surface paper off and then pulps them in a old blender.
 
I have a calligrapher that comes by and picks up whatever I have for her. She does calligraphy on them and gives them away to others for gifts.

I mix 2 part epoxy on scraps when I have the need to and I use small scraps of foamcore as a pad under the hold down on my underpinner when v-nailing soft wood mouldings or most every moulding that has gesso on them.

Framerguy
 
Disposable glue "roller pan".

Dust pan. Goes out with the dust.

5x7 note stack by the phone.

4x4 -- throwing stars.....

shims.

lay our or doodle paper, that is nice and stiff.
 
All of the above, plus:

Suede scraps can be used to line small boxes made from scrap moulding. We have made desk boxes with individual compartments lined with suede. Also use suede scraps as bases for lamps made out of scrap and boxes.

Bookmarks, small christmas ornaments - mount or paint a picture to the mat/matboard, attach a ribbon, and hang up and sell. One lady here was selling her hand painted mat ornaments for $7.50.

Cards - strip the surface paper off and glue pieces onto cards. One lady here was making cards made out of the scraps this way. She made cards with scenes made out of scraps, or as "modern" art pictures. She sells them for $3.50.

Pages for flower presses - works great!

One fellow here was a book maker - he would use the scraps for the covers and splines, covering them with leather and engraving them.

One customer buys scraps out of our scrap box on the bargain table for making shoe soles and hats for dolls she creates and sells. Another man uses the scrap to back inticately done scroll work pictures he does with his band saw.

Another customer uses our cotton scraps to make stationary, with her flowers and leaves thrown into the mix. She also made flower seed cards, where you could plant the card and in the spring the seeds would flower into marigolds, for-get-me-nots, etc, because she had incorporated flower seeds into the mix.

Besides donating to schools, there are senior centers, day care centers, day camps, churches, and homeless shelters. A few years ago, we donated a stack of scrap discontinued matoard 4 feet by 6 feet by nearly 3 feet high to a city wide arts program for low income and homeless youth. They came in vans and picked it up and it was all gone in an hour.
 
I swear last week a fly was buzzing around the shop. I picked up a piece of filet moulding, and a 4x6 mat cutout. I ATG'd the mat to the filet and swatted the fly, saying a famous line from scarface. I felt so tough...

framer
smileyshot22.gif
 
I believe I have found a most satisfactory way to dispose of mat scraps, as well as those kraft paper sheets that are packed between lites of glass, scraps of corrugated cardboard, small, silly pieces of lumber and 25-year-old canceled checks.

My new workshop has a fireplace. Today, when I went to frame my weekly quota (4-5 orders) it was a balmy 3 degrees and the house wasn't a whole lot warmer, since nobody is there most of the time.

I started a roaring fire in the fireplace. It's a relatively efficient model that actually heats the room instead of sucking out whatever heat is already there.

I had been concerned about what to do with scrap paper products. Two Rivers doesn't have a very sophisticated recycling program in place. ("If the hogs won't eat it, bury it out back.") I believe the problem is solved - at least until summer.

By the end of the day, my shop was a lot tidier and there was a lot less superfluous furniture taking up valuable space.

The only possible downside is that everything I framed smells like smoke. Well, that and the excessive amount of time I wasted staring at the fire like I'd just invented it.
 
Originally posted by Ron Eggers:
Well, that and the excessive amount of time I wasted staring at the fire like I'd just invented it.
Click to expand...
Of course, that wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with starting that roaring fire with UnSeal . . . :D
 
I cut down scraps to a uniform size that will fit into a small box and mix my putty colors on them, when done I file them together in the box. The colors never mix with the others and stay pliable.
I also keep larger scraps around to train new employees on the mat cutter.
Oval scaps are great for throwing at customers at high speeds, if you catch them just right they make a smacking noise on impact.
 
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