Hello my friends! I hope your weekend was wonderful!
You may have noticed lately that I'm writing about smaller, simpler projects more often. Over the past year or so I've had this desire to take things back to the way they used to be with blogging -- I used to focus on quicker projects more often and I'm trying to get back to that. I've never stopped doing them, I just always want to give you guys worthwhile content and tend to focus on bigger stuff.
But there are so many things that I do in my home and after all this time I tend to assume most know how to do the same -- but it's not the case! And sometimes I take shortcuts that turn out just fine (and save a lot of money!) and those are the little tips that I LOVE about blogging, so I'm sharing anther one of those today.
This is one of those basic projects I do ALL the time. I've done this DIY "matting" for years when framing artwork -- it's super easy and way cheaper than buying a mat or paying to have one custom cut. I do this so often because most of my frames are from Goodwill and don't always have a mat or are an odd size.
I have some art I've had hanging by our fireplace that I've been meaning to re-mat. Years ago when I first framed these I painted the "mat" gray and I've been warning to switch them out for bright white. You don't need much to do this -- just some scissors, tape, your art and a piece of poster board:
The paper trimmer is not necessary but I'll show how I use that shortly.
The great part about this is you can use basic poster board from the dollar store -- super cheap. You could use anything really -- I've even taken the cardboard backing from the frame and painted it. ;) That's the SUPER cheap way to go. You could use wallpaper, scrapbook paper, wrapping paper for your mat -- the possibilities are endless.
For this I wanted simple white and I went with a little more expensive paper I find at Michael's -- it's got a pretty texture to it that I love. They were $3 each but you can use a coupon or get them on sale at times.
I just trace the size of the cardboard backing onto the paper so I know exactly what size to cut out:
This cut doesn't need to be perfect, the edges will be hidden behind the frame.
Cutting out the art is where I like to use the paper trimmer:
By the way, that art was a free download -- I blogged about that years ago here. It is an AWESOME resource!
I like using the trimmer for the art or photos to get a really clean cut -- even if I have a straight line traced on it I don't tend to get a super straight line with my scissors. I didn't use this trimmer last time I did this so I just cleaned up the edges a bit.
I like to use double-sided tape on the back of the art and then I eyeball where it goes on the poster board:
It looks a little wavy here because it's not pressed against the glass yet.
I honestly can never tell a difference between art that has an actual mat and those that I use this method on:
Love it!:
I used to buy a mat the size of my frame but I quickly realized it's not something I need to spend money on. I especially love this because of all my second hand frames -- it makes them easy to reuse for exactly what I want to frame out. I use this method a LOT for my son's artwork that doesn't fit in a mat perfectly:
You could make your art any shape or size that you want. :)
It's been almost a year since we finished the family room renovation and we are SO happy we took down that wall! Our fireplace is one of my favorites in our home:
There you go! My simple, cheater photo matting method. ;) When you combine it with a Goodwill frame and a free printable, you get some super inexpensive art! This is especially helpful when you're putting together a big gallery wall with a lot of frames. I've also painted the poster board the same color as the wall so it looks like the art is in a floating frame -- love that look too.