Wholesale Matting

I need to know how to DIY to cut mats for framing pictures-how do I bevel the edges? Help!?

I'm trying to re-mat & frame some wall art & family photos. Michaels and Joanne's wants WAY more $ that I can affort. How can I do it myself? I have a straight edge & exacto knive. How do I get the beveled edge (and professional-looking results!)? Is there an inexpensive template or type of matting-knife I should use?

Public Comments

1. Here is something helpful. If you have an actual art supply store you can purchase the matting there and they have to tools to cut the matting. A bevel is very expensive and if you are not comfortable or never used one the art store does have someone to show you or will do it for you. It is about 1/4 the cost of Joanne's and Michaels
2. You can purchase a hand bevel cutter at most art supply stores--I think they cost less than $30 new. It's a metal piece that holds a cutting blade at an angle to cut the bevel. It takes a good bit of practice to get nice looking results, so buy extra matboard for practicing. One thing I've done with photos is to mount them on top of a piece of colored paper. It's not as fancy as the beveled mats, but it looks pretty nice for framed snapshots.
3. The Exato company has a bevel cutting thing. It holds the blade at the right angle. I've had one for years and tried to use it many times with not very good results. May I make a suggestion? Try double matting with just a straight edge. Cut one mat opening about 1/4" smaller than the other.Paint the edge around the opening of the smaller mat an antique gold or maybe gold leaf it.Use two complementary colors of matboard.with this gold (or silver} accent. It's quite striking.