How to make a mat with your own hands - step by step instructions on how to create and decorate

A mat is a field of paper or cardboard between the picture and the frame. Framing a portrait, an engraving, a child's drawing or an embroidery with the use of a paper mural will give the art object a finished stylish look.

Properly selected coloring, size and material will make even a small picture noticeable in the interior, help to emphasize important details.

What is the use of the mural

The cardboard frame has two main functions - decorative and practical.

Decorative value - to draw attention to the product as a whole. With the help of color to emphasize important semantic elements.

The practical task is to create a gap between the glass and the image. This will save a photo and prints from sticking to the glass after some time and save from loss of decorativeness. In the case of embroidery, collage or other objects with a small volume, will not allow the glass to contact with the protruding parts.

It helps if the baguette is much larger than the image.

Framed with a passepartout you can insert a portrait, engraving, drawing on paper, embroidery, diamond mosaic, herbarium, various collages, certificates, diplomas.

Types

By the way of manufacturing

• Single-layered - a simple type using one cardboard frame. They decorate photos, children's drawings, diplomas, posters, certificates.
• Multilayer - several layers are superimposed on each other, so that each lower layer stands out, as if forming a staircase. It turns out a tunnel effect. The colors of the layers may be the same or different. Correctly chosen shades create harmony between the image and the frame.

According to the material of decoration

• Standard - made of thick paper with a thickness of up to 2 mm.
• Museum - using a special material, impregnated with protective agents. Usually used to decorate valuable retro portraits, prints, watercolors.
• Deep cardboard is used, with a thickness of up to 5mm. A deepened effect is created.
• Cloth - the paper base is decorated with any fabrics that match the style of the artwork.

The form of the window

The window is a hole cut out in the paper base for a photo or picture. The shape can be square, rectangular, polygonal, round, and oval.

Rectangular can be placed vertically or horizontally. When creating collages from photos, different shapes can be used at the same time.

The cardboard around is called the margins - top, bottom, and side.

The size of the margins.

The general rule - for a large and bright picture should be wide margins, for small works narrow, but they should not be less than 3 centimeters.

Optimal size is considered to be 1/3 of the width of the narrow side of the picture. Ready-made frames usually have equal size of all margins. It is convenient to use in any design - portrait or landscape.

For visual perception in finished form, such symmetry is not always good. If the vertical layout is strictly in the geometric center with the margins of equal width, it feels like the picture is dropped down.

If you make the bottom margin a little wider than the top, visually the design will be perceived as correct. This is called the optical center effect.

As a side note. To make the frame paper slightly cover the edges of the image, the window size should be 3-5 mm smaller than the picture.

Choice of color

For framing it is better to choose a color, calm pastel shades. The color should repeat the tone of one of the details of the picture.

Bright tones are suitable for the design of posters and collages.

For black and white graphic drawings, gray and cream color frames are suitable.

White visually increases the picture, but distracts attention a little.

Dark ones, especially black ones, visually reduce the product and accentuate the image.

What you will need for work

To make a frame, first of all, you need the material from which the base of the frame will be made. The most common and commonly used is cardboard.

In stores for needlework you can buy designer cardboard with embossing, mother of pearl, marbled, metallized or with fabric imitation. For beginners, it's better to use regular colored cardboard from kits for children's art. You can use a piece of absorbent cotton or thick wallpaper.

You will need scissors and a sharp utility knife. To make the lines of the folds even and neat, they are made with a thin metal ruler. Pencils, ruler and eraser will be needed when marking the borders. Glue and tape will be needed to fix the details.

As a side note. To check the correct choice of design, turn away for a few seconds, then turn sharply on the picture. If you see the image, not the border, then everything is correct.

A simple paper mat

It is not difficult to make a frame yourself, anyone who knows how to use scissors and glue can do it:

• Prepare a sheet of thick cardboard of the appropriate color.
• Measure the product that will be placed in the frame.
• Mark the borders of the window and margins.
• Withdraw 0.5-1.5 cm inside the window, draw another smaller rectangle.
• Inside the small window, connect the diagonals of the opposite corners.
• Cut along the diagonals to the borders of the inner rectangle.
• Fold along the lines of the perimeter of the resulting triangles.
• Along the perimeter lines of a large rectangle fold in the other side.
• Insert the work in the resulting recess.
• On the wrong side secure with tape.

The mat is ready. It is left to insert in a baguette and add details of a decor if you wish.

From a fabric

Framing from fabric gives the finished product a noble, refined look. Having mastered making a frame from paper, it will be easy to cope with a fabric cover. Starch the fabric beforehand, dry it and iron it. The fabric will not deform and crumble:

• Make a blank of thin cardboard with a cut out window of the right size.
• Cut out a rectangle of fabric 1,5-2 cm larger around the perimeter of the paper blank.
• Glue the fabric to the front side of the cardboard.
• Wrap the excess material on the wrong side. Trim the corners to make a neat crease.
• Secure the folded edges to the cardboard with double-sided tape.
• Make a cross-notch in the fabric at the window.
• Wrap inside, trim off the excess, leaving a hem. Glue from the wrong side.
• Insert any prepared picture, except embroidered with threads, a paper mat is better suited for it.

Instead of fabric you can use beautiful single-colored wallpaper with volume embossing.

For embroidered objects

It is necessary to prepare the embroidery in advance. Iron, glue on a dense base:

• Calculate the size of the frame, margins and window.
• Draw on paper, cut out.
• Draw diagonals in the rectangle of the window. Cut.
• Cut off the excess from the resulting triangles, leaving 1.5 cm for the hem on the perimeter of the window.
• At the corners to make incisions.
• Wrap the edges inside.
• On the wrong side of the prepared embroidery.
• Secure with scotch tape or glue.
• Frame into baguette.

With edging.

An uncomplicated method that results in a neat, beautiful design:

• Calculate and cut the paper base as in the previous options.
• Cut 4 cm wide strips of pretty paper in the desired color. Two equal to the height of the window and two equal to the width.
• Fold the strips lengthwise along the entire length.
• Place the strips on the wrong side of the window, so that the front side has a 1-2 mm edge.
• Cut the inner corners and glue the edging to the base.
• After the glue dries, attach the pattern on the wrong side.
• Secure with glue or tape.

It is better to make the edging in a contrasting color, so that it marks the design and accentuates it.

The easiest way

This option will help if you suddenly did not have time to make a craft for school, and time is very short:

• Choose a sheet of cardboard that is suitable in color and size.
• Without cutting anything out, glue the pattern onto it, placing it so that there are margins on each side.
• Frame it in a picture or photo frame.
• If you need to decorate.

How to embellish.

Edging decorations make the picture more lively and attractive.

When decorating children's photos, drawings and applications will be appropriate figures of fairy tale characters, animals, beautiful buttons.

Wedding photos and collages are decorated in a romantic style with lace, hearts, satin flowers, rhinestones and beads.

Edging with a slip, a border of a narrow baguette, is already a decoration. Gives a solid, noble look.

It is appropriate to decorate posters and collages with flags, badges, ribbons and inscriptions.

It is important that the decor does not violate the color palette of the product as a whole, was not bulky and did not break out of the style of the interior.

Tips for beginners

1. The mat and baguette should not merge. Colors are selected so that each element is clearly visible in the overall composition.
2. The mat sets off the picture well if its tone is darker than that of the image.
3. If a slip (a narrow baguette edging made of plastic or wood) is used to decorate a window edge, it must harmonize with the frame baguette, creating a single composition.
4. Frames must be at least twice as wide as the baguette, otherwise the frame will be lost in the decoration.

If you or your child do needlework and have piled up a lot of items you don't want to keep in a drawer but want to hang on your walls, you will need frames. You can order them in a picture framing studio, but they are very expensive.

A great way out is to make your own hands. As you can see from this article, it is not at all difficult and not expensive. It will be an extension of the creative process and will save finances.

Photo ideas and schemes for homemade paperweights