Easy How to Mat Photos, & Pictures, With No Measuring!

Love for photography will eventually lead to entering treasured photos into local district fairs, state fairs, local competitions, or just mounting them on your walls to enjoy. Having paid for the first set of pictures to be professionally mounted for our local fair, I quickly realized how easy it would be to do it myself.  It is easy in this "how-to" mat photos and pictures, with no measuring article.  Using the packaging to 'measure', you'll be sure to get your edges straight.

Most competitions require you to mount the picture on a hardboard backing. If it has to be thicker than 1/8", your best bet is to use foam board you can get at most any craft store. They have it in colors, but many competitions require you to use white. Some don't, so whatever matches your picture, is the best to use if you can use colors. Only the edges will show, if your mat is cut precise, and nice edges can add that professional touch to your artwork.

With only a few 'tools' you can be matting and mounting your own pictures in no time.

Tools:

1. A foam board cutter. You can use your everyday box cutter, but I don't recommend it. It has a thicker blade, and doesn't make a clean cut. Use your box cutter to remove the packaging on the mat; it usually is tight and hard to remove without damaging the mat.
2. A pencil to mark the foam board
3. It helps to have a metal 90° square angle to line up corners exactly square. It's not necessary, since you're not 'measuring', but it does help to keep everything square.
4. A large piece of cardboard, larger than the foam board, to cut on, and protect your table. If you have a large cutting mat already, that will work even better.
5. Craft glue, or two-sided tape to bind it all together.

How-to:

Foam Board usually comes in 20"x30" sheets. The mat usually has packaging that is the same size as the mat, so use the mat packaging to 'measure', or since technically we're not measuring, use the packaging as a cutting guide. The size of your picture determines the mat size, use 11"x14" mats for 8"x10" pictures, 8"x10" mats for 5"x7" pictures, etc..

1. Lay the cardboard mat packaging down lining up on one corner of the foam board. Laying it landscape, long side of packaging on long side of foam board, you'll get 2 out of each sheet. (This will leave a 9"x30" strip of foam board, good for 3 8"x10" mats.) Make a line across the 30" length of foam board, which will be the length of 2 mats, plus 2", if you're making 11"x14" mat boards.
2. Using your square, ruler, or any hard edge tool, follow the pencil line, and start cutting. Cutting foam board is not easy, so DO NOT rush this part. 3 passes is recommended, but take as many as 6 passes for best results. If you want clean edges, you'll appreciate that you took the time to cut the foam board. The first pass will barely cut into the top paper; the 2nd & 3rd passes will cut the top paper, and begin to cut the foam core. The 4th & 5th cut will finish the core, and start the bottom paper; you'll hear it scrape the bottom paper as you get close. The final cut, should be through the foam board, and be scraping your cardboard.
3. TIP: ***You shouldn't have too many deep cuts into the cardboard, as once you're through the foam board it will separate, and you'll know you're done. Plus, you don't want to dull your knife on cardboard; a sharp foam board knife will keep your task going smoothly. Be sure to get the replacement blades, if you plan on doing more than 10 pictures. A single blade should cut 10 mats easily without dulling.
4. Once you have the 30" cut made, lay your mat packaging back down, and draw a line for the 2nd edge you'll cut. Using the foam board's corner, you'll only have to cut the other 2 sides of each mat. Cut the last side using the same technique above.

Matting the Picture

1. Now that you have your foam boards cut to size, lay your picture on the foam board, and position it using the actual mat. Once you know where your picture will go, carefully lift the mat, without moving the picture, and then glue the picture down, holding it at one edge, and only gluing a small dot the corners. You can also use a small piece of tape, if you think you have enough room on the corners, so it doesn't show once you place the mat down. Two-sided tape under the corners would work nicely, too.
2. Once your picture is 'set', glue around where the mat will set, and be sure to get the edges. I like to zigzag the glue, so I don't get too much by the edge, but still get glue out to the edge. You surely don't want glue oozing up inside your mat.
3. Line up the mat with the picture that is secured to the foam board by holding the corners to be sure it's all square.
4. Press the mat down, covering it with the mat packaging, to be sure it's all secure, and straight.

Mounting

1. Once your mat is down, you're finished, unless of course, you want to hang it. For this, there are great stick-on hangers at your art store, or you can fashion one yourself, recycling those fake credit cards you get in the mail. :) Simply punch a hole in the center of one end, then bend it out about 1", and glue the flat side to the back of the picture, centering it close to the top. Ok, for this part, you should measure center, to get it exact, tilty pictures are not nice to see on the wall. You could fold the packaging in half, to find center, and therefore not have to 'measure' at all.
2. Now, I stop here, since all my pictures are usually fair entries. But you could put them in a frame if it fits the foamboard, or use thinner hardboard if you know you're going to put it in a particular frame.

Taking pictures is fun, and taking amazing pictures should be shared. Learn how to display your pictures, so everyone can enjoy seeing what you see! :)

Follow the pictures, for additional help, if you have any questions, feel free to email me, or leave a comment.

The photos source is the section and step # above.