Mats & Frames Part 1

Our first look at Mats and Frames is pretty simple.  A narrow mat around a photo or other element can really make a difference in the look of a card or scrapbook page.

You can see this technique on the page below - narrow white mats on photos, narrow gray mats on journaling block and title.

This next page has a wider mat for the photo with narrow black borders. This particular one came that way, but you could create the same effect by inking the edges or adding a second, slightly wider mat.

Mats don't have to be simple rectangles.  This picture has multiple mats - two of which were edged with a Martha Stewart "punch around the page" punch. This gives the lovely, lacy shell-type border.

The first page (above) - the koala page - also has multiple mats.  The title has a double mat - a white one, then a larger blue one.  The photo has three mats - all the same color all the same size.  A slight angle for some of them gives an interesting effect.

Next week we'll take a look at photo corners.