Memories and Mats

While some of us may actually scrapbook EVERY photo we take, it’s always nice to display some of our favorites in frames around the house. Choosing frames for photographs is sometimes just as much a part of our creative outlet as choosing the papers for a scrapbook page. We choose specific papers, stickers, and embellishments that represent our family and friends in our albums, so why not create a custom frame that fits your style to display you favorite photos in your home?

Memories and Mats offers a great way to display your photos. You choose your frame, mat color and best of all…the words that display your photos! With Memories and Mats, you are able to build your own frame highlighting the names of your children, your family’s name, a word to fit the theme of a room in your house, or any word that is special to you.

It’s easy to know exactly what your frame and mat will look like by using the Memories and Mats online “builder”. Just type in the word you want to use, choose your mat color, frame style, and frame finish, and you’ve got an instant example of what your frame will look like. It takes the guessing right out of it!

The custom cut block letters are cut from high quality acid-free mat board and are about 2” x 3” in size. Frames are made from high quality solid oak in various styles and finishes. These very reasonably priced custom photo frames are an exciting way to display your photos for all of your guests to enjoy. They also make fantastic gifts for family and friends!

Filling the frames with your photos is the fun part! There are so many different options for how to fill them. You may want to choose photos revolving around a certain person, event or holiday. Or perhaps you’ll want to convert the photos to black and white or sepia to give them a more unified look. You can also use a series of photos from the same photo shoot for an artistic look.

Some of the Scrapjazz Design Team members filled Memories and Mats frames for their homes. Below you’ll see how they went about filling their frames and a picture of their finished product.

I decided to use the word “Scrapjazz” so that I could use this frame in my office. I chose a buttercup mat and a white oak finish to match the rest of the colors in the room.

I first went through my photos and chose photographs that represented Scrapjazz and the work that we’ve done in the past year. I included some of the people that we’ve met, photos of me teaching classes, and photos of some of our milestone moments of development and planning.

I then scanned each photo and resized them to about 3” tall and 2” wide. After printing the photos on photo paper, I played around with the placement of each photo behind the letters in the mat. Since each letter has a different shape, I had to see which photos would look best in each letter. Finally, I was happy with the placement of the photos, so I taped the photos to the back of the mat and put the mat into the frame.

Now I have a frame to look at in my office that reminds me of all of the work we’ve done, and the things we’ve accomplished in the past year. I hope to change some of these photos every once in a while to help show how we’ve grown.

When I first got my Memories and Mat photo frame I was very impressed with the quality. It is in a solid oak frame that is very well made. I chose a cream color mat because I was planning on dressing it up a bit. I chose a mossy green color paper to accent the mat and I also adhered making memories metal letters to spell out the name of each member of my family. When I went to choose photos, I wanted a certain theme so I chose the photos that best depicted what our family is about...LOVE. I also converted all of the pictures to black and white so that there would be consistency.

When it was completed, I was going to hang it up in our family room, but my husband liked how elegant it turned out and he suggested we hang it in the front living room. I agreed and it looks beautiful in the front living room.

I decided to sponge my mat with paint, so that it would match my living room walls. I chose a couple of wedding pictures, and three photos of each of my children. The color scheme is also from my living room, I wanted the photos to have reds, dark greens, and blues. I chose my photos and then used my scanner to size them to fit the mat and be about the same scale. The wallet-size prints fit perfectly! I love the final result! I plan to order some for family members too!

Choosing the pictures for this was pretty easy because of the words I chose. I chose USA for a couple of reasons. 1) Because I wanted to do some of my new house in an American theme; 2) I wanted to showcase the pictures of my kids showing their patriotism at such a young age. In one of the pictures my daughter is reciting the pledge of allegiance on the 4th of July. This was all her idea and I was proud to take a picture of her; and 3) The pictures are located in Colorado and represent our family vacation and how lucky we feel to live in a country where we can travel around and see such beautiful things.

I wanted to mention too how impressed I was when I received my frame and mat. They were packaged so nice and the quality of them is so incredible. I wasn't sure what to expect and they certainly surpassed my expectations. I can't wait to find the perfect spot to hang this frame and mat.

Memories and Mats is a wonderful tool that makes it easy for you to display photos of your loved ones (or others) in a classy way. I think the mat and frame are very sturdy and well made. I also love how you can decorate the mat or leave it just the way you bought it.

I chose to decorate my mat just a little. I used Stampin' Up Inks and sponged Old Olive (a sage green) all over the once ivory mat. I also added corners in burgundy and hunter green to match my living room. My last step was to add silk flowers to the corners as well as in the middle. This adds a more feminine touch to the mat.

The only thing I think I would do differently, is that I would use black and white photos. Black and white photos would make it a little easier to read the words in the mat. It is hard to read the wording at times, but from a distance it is completely fine, even with the color photos. I think this was a wonderful product, and I now want two more with the saying "friends" and "love" on them.

My daughter and I took the trip of her dreams in Febuary to Disney World. This was my first time there as a scrapbooker, so I went prepared with many rolls of film and lots of layouts dancing in my head.

This vacation was for HER, so we did anything and everything she wanted to do and as a result, it will be a trip she will remember for years to come and hopefully will tell her kids about it someday.

I took 31 rolls of film. I will be working on the "Disney Album" for years, but the vacation mat from Memories and Mats is absolutely perfect for showcasing a memory of each park. The letters are large enough to get all the details of the person or object in the photo. Very little cropping was needed for my 4x6 prints. This is important to me, since I rarely crop photos. The frame is beautiful quality too!. It hangs in our living room so that both she and I can remember the happiest place on earth and a wonderful vacation spent together.

Build your own frame and mat at the Memories and Mats web site and enjoy displaying your photos in a personal way.