Creating photo mats with my Pazzles Inspiration is something I hadn’t attempted yet. I had watched the How To Make Photo Frames , but not created a project based on it.
Whilst perusing my photo collection of the children, I came across a favorite of Charlotte sitting out in my parent’s garden reading a book in the sunshine after school. The book is called Charlotte in London, and I love seeing her engrossed in a story just like I was as a child. I would be up late reading my Enid Blyton books instead of sleeping! Charlotte remarks that her favorite smell is the smell of an old book, after picking up my old books.
The photo was taken by my dad, and he framed it beautifully with the branches and leaves softly out of focus in the foreground. Taking my cues from these leaves I simply added a leaf from the images pre-loaded into the Inspiration Software. I placed it in the bottom left hand corner and chose a soft brown and dramatic black for my photo mats. The black for the top layer makes a statement in any frame and the soft brown complimented the timber frame and the natural colours of the photograph.
Following along with the video you will need to create three rectangles in your software; One for the front opening of your chosen frame, one for the photo itself and one for the back opening of the frame. Size them all appropriately as the video suggests and then add the image that will become part of the photo mat so you can see exactly how it will look as the finished product.
As I was photographing my project in the frame I realized that this simple little project actually looked really great! I think any future photo framing may just need a little Pazzles Inspiration added to it! Forget about finding just the right size frame – I’ll just buy plain frames and jazz them up with a photo mat made by me!
I hope you have a play around with a project like this – it doesn’t have to be put in a photo frame either. You can certainly use this technique on a scrapbook page, or even on a card, a large tag, or even a large gift tag on a present for someone special! As with all of our projects, you are only limited by your imagination….and time!
~Belle
Hi Belle, I love this photo mat concept, it certainly makes the photo frame even more special and personal. Thanks for your inspirational project.
you have inspired me! I have some artwork o my walls that I have gotten tired of the matting, but not the artwork. Was getting ready to reframe them but now I realize, because of your project, that I can make my own mats. I am soooo happy!!!!
Thank you so much for the idea and inspiration,
Susan
Belle, your project is lovely! You’ve inspired me to give this a try:-)
This is a great idea
This is a great idea — I love it!
Sorry, meant to ask if this was cut out of mat board of just cardstock. Thanks.
Thanks for your compliments ladies, I think I inspired myself to try more of these!
Cynthia – just plain cardstock 🙂
This project is fabulous! I’ve never thought to do this! It’s such a versatile technique! Thanks for sharing!
Love it – Love it – Love it–I have always loved matting with embellishments–thank you for sharing I will be trying this!!!
I have always loved decorative mats but had never thought of using my Pazzles to create one. Thank you for reminding me of another use of this remarkable machine. Your mat/frame is lovely.