Wall Art - Making Your Own Matte and Framing Art From Paper Pads
Hey there!
Lots of folks in the paper crafting community have paper pads that have large, frameable pages. If you are like me, you aren't 100% sure what to do with them. When I flip through a paper pad, I always say, "This would be so cute framed", buy the paper pad and then only use it to craft or scrapbook but never frame the cute picture or quote. Well this weekend I decided that I needed to get to framing!
I pulled a couple of pages out of my most recent paper pad (Rooftop Garden by Craft Smith). I liked the idea of taking the six 4" X 6" cards and framing them but I really wanted to frame the "Wake Up And Be Amazing" quote for my bedroom.
I have several 11" X 14" frames. I also have a random 11" X 14" matte from a previous project. I wanted to use this matte as a base for my future framing projects.
The existing matte covered a bit more of the picture than I wanted. So, I decided to use some poster board that I always keep on hand as a matte. Instead of cutting my matte by 1 3/4" on the sides and 2 1/2" on the top and bottom, I decided to go with 1" on the sides and 1 1/4" on the top and bottom. I knew that would leave plenty of the quote and the beautiful flowers around it.
One of my best investments had to be my Perfect Paper Crafting Perfect Ruler Crafting Tool. It is the best straight edge I have ever used. It makes using your craft knife to cut a straight line so much easier than a plastic ruler. When I bought my ruler I got a Perfect Little Cutting Mat and I love it too.
The nice thing about using your craft knife for cutting mattes is that you end up with a usable middle! I have a frame and an 9" X 11 1/2" piece of paper that I can use later!
Once I cut my matte, I centered my picture and taped the matte to it. I cleaned up the extra paper along the sides so that everything would fit the frame.
The result was a matte that was perfectly tailored to my picture. Sure, I could have bought a readymade matte but it wouldn't have been a perfect fit for my picture. It would have cut off some of the flowers and I think the flowers make the quote.
Do you think you are ready to make your own mattes? Have I inspired you to frame some of your quotes from your paper pads? If you do, take a picture and tag me on Instagram so I can see it!
