You just spent years of your life and many thousands of dollars earning that little slip of paper that proves you graduated. How are you going to display it for the world to see? Frame it and hang it, so that it stays safe, obviously.
However, there are more practical purposes to keeping your diploma safe than just showing it off. Your university will likely have some hoops to jump through and charge fees if you ever lose it and need to reprint it. Plus, some work places employers actually ask for a photo, or photocopy of your diploma to prove that you have the credentials. Additionally, many professionals hang their diplomas in their office, to show proof of their expertise.
In this post, you’re going to learn three easy steps to frame your diploma, then hang it up for display.
Here’s a handy list of tools you will need to get started:
- A professional custom Diploma Frame from Signature Announcements
- 3M acid free tape strip (included with frame)
- One flathead screwdriver
- One hammer
- One nail, or anchor bolt and screw for drywall
- Optional Picture Perfect Hanger
Step 1 – Preparing Your Diploma Frame
Place your frame face down on bubble wrap or a soft towel to prevent scratching the front surface, then use your flathead screwdriver to gently pry back the flexible metal tabs on the back of the frame.
Once all the metal tabs are bent in the open position toward you straight up, gently lift out the black back mounting board. Next remove the cutout mat board and glass with the blue or white protective film. Remove the protective film off the glass. Use glass cleaner and paper towels to touch up any fingerprints. Place the clean glass back into the frame. Next place the cutout mat board back into the frame on top of the glass.
Step 2 – Inserting Your Diploma & Closing the Frame
On top of the cutout mat board inside the frame, gently place your diploma, face down. Make sure the top, bottom and side edges of the diploma are lined up parallel and evenly spaced with the sides of the opening inside the matte board.
Using the 3M archival tape strip provided in your package, snip the long piece of tape into two pieces. Remove the backing and place one piece of tape across the top left of your diploma, making sure to put the bottom half of the tape over your diploma and the top half of the tape over the cutout matte board. Use your finger to smooth the tape.
Make sure the diploma is still squarely aligned inside the cutout matte board. Repeat the taping process across the top right of your diploma and the cutout matte board directly above it.
Only tape the top two corners. Over time paper expands and will cause bowing to occur if all four corners are taped.
Once your diploma is taped to the cutout matte board along the top two edges corners, place the black back mounting board back inside the frame and bend the flexible metal black tabs all the way back down so that they’re holding the back mounting board in place.
That’s it! You’re done framing.
Step 3 – Hanging Your Frame
If you ordered the optional Perfect Picture Hanger with your frame please follow instructions provided with the kit for installation of the frame.
Pick a space suitable for showing off your diploma and frame. If it’s your office, make sure that your clients or patients will be able to see it. If you’re working from a zoom office, place it where the camera will pick it up. Once you’ve picked a spot, make a mark with a pencil, right at the top center. Then set the diploma and frame down for a moment.
About half a finger’s length (2 inches) make a second pencil mark below the first mark on the wall where the top of the frame was. Right on this bottom hole, hammer in the nail at a 45 degree so the nail head is pointing up. If the wall is made of drywall, hammer in an anchor bolt and put a screw into the anchor bolt, leaving about an inch of the screw still outside the bolt.
Lastly, set your diploma frame onto the nail or screw, aiming the nail or screw for the center. Alternatively, if you purchased the Picture Perfect Easy Hanger option please follow included instructions.
For optimal results, use a bubble balance or bubble balance phone app along the top of the picture frame to make sure that it’s level. If it’s not level, slowly and gently push left or right to ensure that the nail or screw is in the center.
If you’re hanging multiple diplomas (good on you!) then make sure to hang them by order of importance, from left to right.
Summary
In this post, you learned how to frame and hang your diploma. If you haven’t already purchased a professional Diploma Frame from Signature Announcements to put your achievements in the best possible light, then that’s the first step! If you already have it, make sure that you:
- Open the frame to make space for your diploma.
- Neatly place and tape your diploma squarely inside the space.
- Hang it in a prominent location to show the world your accomplishments.
Thanks so much for reading, and congratulations!
