Recently I bought a mat cutter so I can do the framing myself. The system is really simple, even for someone who never really tried it and is rather clumsy. I bought large sheets of matting paper: 100 x 150 m. which I cut up to pieces of 50 x 50 cm. The best looking ones I took, measured the dimensions of the photograph, added 1 cm to each side as I wanted a tiny white border visible around the photograph and drew the dimensions on the back of the mat.
Then I took the ruler, aligned it with the lines I made on the mat, attached the cutter, lined that one up with the lines I drew and started cutting. It’s really very simple. I emphasized the lines on the cutter and mat so that I hope you can see the way it works. It cuts about 1 mm smaller on each side compared to the line you drew so keep that in mind while doing it and it’s gonna end up perfect!
Once you finished the four sides the inside will fall out and you can continue the mounting.
The way I mount is that I have another mat ready, 50×50 without a hole, and use it to attach the photo to. I use small double adhesive tape by Henzo and only attach it at the top of the paper. I printed the photo on 30×40 paper and the image itself is only 26×26 so I have a good white border to work with. I only place the tape where the white border is, not where the actual image is. That way you will never damage your photo, whether it’s due degradation of the glue in time or when you want to take it out of the mat one day. The two mats are taped together using acid-free tape and you flip the previously cut mat over the one where you attached the photo to and voilá; frame it and look at it full of joy 🙂
And on to the next one!
Photography Contrastique - Alternative Photographic Processes 
