Four Seasons photo mats - take the concept and run with it!

I have been working on various designs that can be adapted for many different scrapbook pages or cards. When I do workshops or individual sessions with clients in my Creative Memories business and my custom scrapbooking work these will be useful and adaptable for many projects. I am trying to build frameworks that can be customized for particular situations.

I decided to try some photo mat overlays. I did an entire set with the openings at exactly 4 x 6 inches before checking and then realized that they needed to be slightly smaller since "4 x 6 photo paper" is not always exactly 4 x 6 inches. So I went back and adapted them, reducing the openings by just a bit to ensure full coverage. I do not want to post anything that I have not tested out first since that would not really be a time saver or help to anyone else if they had to repair my errors!

So, with many "burpings" to get the welding correct I have made horizontal and vertical versions of photo mats for the four seasons using the phrases from Stretch Your Imagination and George for the frames.

Here are some examples of how they look over a photo


I did try the markers again and did not care for the way the lines almost completely filled in the words - they also did not show up as clearly on the photo as you can see below:



Of course this would depend on the contrast to the area of the photo that the words overlay and I do like the way the markers look if you choose to use the overlay/mat for a journalling box instead of a photo, like this:



You could do a page with a photo for each season (two vertical and two horizontal) and even use the little 2 x 2 grid filler in the center like this:



Here they are with the opposite set of mats and a different center:



Once you have the .cut file you can go in and do a "Save as" and changed the decorative bit to a phrase, a shape, a name - anything you want. You can also move the decorative word or shape to a position that suits your photo the best. Just be sure to check "weld" and do a preview to see if the cut is correct. If it is not,"burp" the design to get the frame to work - just click on one of the frame rectangles and "copy" and "paste" it and pull it off to the side. Then delete that original rectangle and add the new one back in exactly the same place (you can check the positioning information in the upper right corner of the screen in Design Studio). Preview to check it and then Happy Cutting!

Here are the links for these mats:

Vertical Winter

Vertical Spring

Vertical Summer

Vertical Autumn

Horizontal Winter

Horizontal Spring

Horizontal Summer

Horizontal Autumn