The paper you select as a mat for your photos can be quite impactful depending upon the other papers you’ve chosen for your layout. The mat here is actually a piece of cardstock cut from a sheet of photo realistic paper with an image of rusted metal upon it. The metal and its varying states of erosion make for a somewhat ugly piece by itself in my opinion, but when placed as a mat it is quite striking. Here on the Oh Brother page you can see that with that mat against a plain blue paper it really lends a sense of interest to the mat. This effect would not be achieved with a solid colored mat. The mottled look of the striped strip across the bottom is similar to the mottling on the mat which ties it together too. So the next time you find yourself on the brink of making a mat for a photo, consider not using that solid cardstock!

Tagged with: color tricks | Cost-efficiency | embellishments | Photo Realistic Paper

Categorized as: Color Tricks | Cost-efficiency | Embellishments | Scrapbook