mat switcheroo

so i bought a few frames for my new prints i told you guys about, but when i got home, the mats were off by about a half inch each. argh!!! sooo, today, i went to michael's and asked an employee about getting a mat cut. she said that you had to either buy an entire large piece of mat ($14), or they could cut one for you (even more $). she seemed perplexed that i would even ask about such a thing, so i decided to ditch that plan and come up with another one later. 

while i was walking to the check out area, i noticed pieces of foam for kids' crafts that were 99 cents. i thought that if i cut one with a razor, it would be very similar to the look of mat board. in a photography class in college, we learned to cut mats for our prints, but it was always pretty difficult to cut the mat board because it was very thick (it would slip-slide away, etc). buuut with the foam, it's like cutting a banana with a knife (weird example? yes.)

check it, don't wreck it:

"fun foam" 

this is the only part i think you would have to have a bit of creativity for - you have to measure whatever you want framed (artwork, picture, etc), and make sure that you cut your lines to make a rectangle that would be smaller than your item to be framed. pretty much a no-brainer though, and if you can measure, you can do it

ruler

foam board

frame

photo

pencil

razor

voila!

(it's a little off, but i wasn't in the mood to get it exact. this was a test-run, anyway.

and, with it's new friend!