Washi Tape Photo Mat

This weeks project was a Trash to Treasure makeover of some old picture frames.  I figured I could do one better and make some cute photo mats for the frames to jazz them up even more. 

I grabbed some regular white card stock and popped the glass out of the frame and used it as a template.  I cut around the glass with an x-acto craft knife.

After I had my frame sized card stock, I pulled out some washi tape that I got at Target on clearance (just over a dollar for 3 rolls of black and white washi tape--sa-weet!).  I taped it along each of the edges, not worrying about the ends because I was going to be mitering the corners with my craft knife. It's also not a big deal if the tape isn't perfectly positioned along the edge of the card stock since that will be covered by your picture frame--just get the tape on straight and you're good to go.

The easiest way to do the corners is to just overlap the tape and cut a straight line from the inside corner to the outside corner.  Then you can peel back the excess.

After the line is cut I peeled off the first edge.  Then just peel up the other edge to get the excess tape that's underneath.  When you're all done, you're left with a neatly mitered corner--easy peasy!

And voila! A tidy taped corner.

Repeat on all four corners and all you've got left is to trim the inside of the mat out.

I grabbed my metal ruler to help keep my edges straight and cut along the tape with my craft knife to get rid of the center.

Then you're left with an instant mat.  Be aware that it's a very thin mat--the tape is 5/8 of an inch thick and the frame covers up a bit of the edge. But it's cheap, easy, can be changed out in a snap, and the possibilities of patterns are nearly endless!