Tips & Tricks Tuesday #5 - Getting more photo mats out of your paper

If you are like me and try to get as much usage out of a piece of patterned paper or cardstock as you can, I think you will appreciate this tutorial. I recently learned a new technique (well, new to me) for getting more photo mats out of 1 piece of 12" x 12" paper. I was so thankful to have this shown to me that I knew I wanted to share it with you.

In this post I will share with you the instructions for cutting 4 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" photo mats from 1 piece of 12" x 12" cardstock. You can also use this technique to cut 4 5" x 7" photo mats from 1 piece of cardstock.  I have included a video of the technique at the end of this post as well as a link to a downloadable PDF of the instructions. Both the video and the PDF contain details for the method to cut the 5" x 7" photo mats.

Step 1: Align the cardstock to the 6 1/4" mark on your trimmer.

Step 2: Cut down to the 4 1/4" mark on your cutting strip.

Step 3 through 5: Rotate the cardstock 90 degrees to the left and repeat steps 1 and 2 three more times. You will end up with a piece of cardstock that looks like this.

Before the next step, it is important that you flip the cardstock over to the back side.

Step 6: Align your cardstock to the 4 1/4" mark on your trimmer. Cut down to the 6 1/4" mark on your cutting strip. This will give you your 1st mat.

Step 7 through 9: Rotate the cardstock 90 degrees to the left and repeat step 6 three more times. You will end up with 4 mats and a piece of cardstock that looks like this.

Step 10: You can trim the extra piece and you will end up with a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece as well as 4 1 1/5" x 4 1/4" pieces. These are great for additional photos or journaling boxes.

Here is the link to the video of this tutorial.

Click here for a downloadable PDF with the instructions for cutting the 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" mats as well as the 5" x 7" photo mats.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Thanks for stopping by!