Quick 'n easy Passepartout cutting...

Everybody who paints watercolours knows that you usually frame them  behind glass,and that the painting looks better and deeper with a passepartout / mount / mat around it.

You can buy standard size passepartouts, but often they just do not fit your watercolour. Unfortunately cutting the perfect passepartout from beautiful thick carton under 45° angle just isn't an easy job - and if you want to express yourself in a painting on stretched paper you don't want to stay within exact dimensions...

The method of passepartout-cutting I'm suggesting here is easy, fast - and can be used as stand-alone or underneath a standard mount...

Needed: a piece of thick-ish paper (>=150 gr), a ruler, a pencil, a rubber, sellotape and a good sharp cutter.

1. Take the correct measurements inside the image:

2. Draw the outline on the paper you are going to cut the mount from:

3. Stick a piece of sellotape over the crossing lines:

4. With your knife, cut a diagonal out of all 4 corners:

5. Cut out a smaller rectangle or square:

6. Carefully fold the 4 parts:

7. Turn your passepartout around, to check if all is perfect, turn back and stick your image to it – done!