Fierce Girl Design: Let's Frame Something: Cutting

Here's a list of basic supplies you'll need:
pencil
X-acto knife
ruler
self-healing cutting mat or cutting board to protect work surface
mat board
backing board
artwork to be framed

Cutting the Mat Board and Backing Board (Outside Dimensions)
If you remember from yesterday's tutorial, we determined we need to cut a piece of mat board measuring 13 5/8 inches wide by 13 5/8 inches high.

So we measure our width of 13 5/8 inches and mark it in two spots.

Then we line up our ruler on those two marks and slice it with our X-acto knife like this:

Well sort of like that. You'll have to forgive my one-handed ruler cutting photo. I don't actually cut things like that, but I was afraid if I left my other hand in the picture, it would block the camera and you would have gotten a photo of my shoulder. Obvioulsy you'll want to use your other hand to hold the ruler in place.

Then we mark the height (In this case, also 13 5/8 inches) in two spots (just like we did with the width), cut again...

...and we end up with this:

Now repeat these steps to cut out your backing board (foam core).

Now it's time to cut the opening of the mat. I use an Alto 4501 Mat Cutting System to cut my mats. Obviously, if you have a different cutter, you'll have to consult your user's manual for specifics on how to use your model. If you have questions, please leave me a note in the comments, and I'll try to help you out.

Cutting the Mat Board Opening
We've determined that our mat is going to have a 2 1/2 inch border, so we need to set our cutter at 2 1/2 inches and place our freshly cut (13 5/8" by 13 5/8") piece of mat board under the straight edge guide, making sure the edge of our mat board is firmly aligned with the edge of our cutter. Then we draw a light pencil line on each of the four sides of our mat board, marking where we will be cutting.

We end up with something like this (sorry the pencil marks are sort of hard to see.):

We then place one side back under the straight edge guide, again making sure the edge of our mat board is firmly aligned with the edge of our cutter. Then we place our cutting tool on top of our mat board, lining up the indicator line (on the red blade holder) with our pencil mark as shown.

Here's a close up:

We then simply depress the blade into the mat board and push slowly and steadily away from us until the blade mark aligns with our pencil mark on the opposite side. Release the blade, remove the cutting tool, turn the mat board to align the next side, and repeat the process on all three remaining sides until the center part of the mat board is completely cut out.