Step 3 of the Humboldt County Fair
My fair exhibits are due tomorrow & I feel uber-prepared! I got my prints made at Costco again- the only place in town to get prints made (EVERYONE else send them off). Last year I paid Michael's to custom mat my images & it was super pricey and they didn't even give me backings to the mats. So this time round I decided to do it myself & was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.
Once I had my prints, most in 8x10 but I have two images in 8x12, I took them to Michael's pre-cut mat section. I had to lay them all out on their counter trying to pair up images with mats. It was so hard to decide what colors to go with!! Then I bought 3 sheets of 1/4" white foam board & permanent foam square stickies...
Pre-cut Mats= $4 each (I got 6)
Foam Core= $2 each (got 3)
Stickies= $2 (got 2)
Prints= $2 each (got 6)
So my total cost for this project was $46! I spent that much last year on getting just half of my images mated!! YEAH!
Once I got home I went to work, drawing the mat sizes on the foam core & cutting it out. It was difficult to get the foamcore the same size as the mat so I just made it a 1/4 inch smaller all the way around. I figured it's better to not see it than too see loose pieces sticking out the side...
Then I opened up the pre-cut mats, and put the permanent stickies on the corners and on the long sides....
Disclaimer- Once this is all put together it will be permanent. If I later want to change anything like my image, I have to start over with a new backing and mats b/c the stickies will not come off without ripping.
Then I put stickies on the back corners of my image and the corners of the backing, layered everything (from the top: lavender show mat, white inset mat, image, backing). So simple!! Here is what the first entry looked like when I was finished:
So my entries are now ready to head down to the fair!! I am super excited about this year's competition & keeping my fingers crossed for my first blue ribbon. This is my second competition so I only have 1 more competition before I can enter my images into the professional category- where the competition is fierce but the prizes are soo much better.
I will take some pics of everything finished and matted tonight before I take them off to the fair entry table tomorrow morning!!
