I'm going to give a brief description, since they weren't done in steps and it may be difficult to understand what I've done.
The first is a cross stitched piece called "Angel of autumn." All of the leaves and vines and branches are carved in the top mat and paper from coordinating mat boards were adhered with atg to the under side of the top mat. The leaf design was taken from a Chart Pak design and enlarged and transferred to the back of the mat where it was cut out with a Dexter-3, hand cutter. The scallops were also cut with the same cutter which meets the straight cuts.
The next two pictures are examples of what can happen when decoration gets carried away.
The piece is a Jazz&Heritage Festival Official poster of 1993 , held in New Orleans by the artist John T. Scott. It was framed for an Art Auction at a local PBS station, WYES.
Although it may look simple what was done was the three-D bevels on the two sides met stripes of geometric patterns matching those of the print. The geometric pattern in the three-D bevel were made by cutting small segments of mat and inlaying them together to form the strip that was placed under the three-D bevel. Each color except for the checkered pattern is cut separately. You will also notice in the half photograph that the upper right corner glass etched jazz musicians which correspond to the same images which are hidden in the colorful center geometric of the print.
All of this was done in alpha board and met as well as we could all conservation standards.
I agree with MM that this is what makes framing fun. But as you might be able to see, it also can be time consuming and when done for profit needs to be priced properly. I hope you can print these and I'll try to forward them on to MM also.
I hope I haven't seemed to vain but I enjoy hearing what other people think of my work. Buddy

The first is a cross stitched piece called "Angel of autumn." All of the leaves and vines and branches are carved in the top mat and paper from coordinating mat boards were adhered with atg to the under side of the top mat. The leaf design was taken from a Chart Pak design and enlarged and transferred to the back of the mat where it was cut out with a Dexter-3, hand cutter. The scallops were also cut with the same cutter which meets the straight cuts.
The next two pictures are examples of what can happen when decoration gets carried away.

The piece is a Jazz&Heritage Festival Official poster of 1993 , held in New Orleans by the artist John T. Scott. It was framed for an Art Auction at a local PBS station, WYES.

Although it may look simple what was done was the three-D bevels on the two sides met stripes of geometric patterns matching those of the print. The geometric pattern in the three-D bevel were made by cutting small segments of mat and inlaying them together to form the strip that was placed under the three-D bevel. Each color except for the checkered pattern is cut separately. You will also notice in the half photograph that the upper right corner glass etched jazz musicians which correspond to the same images which are hidden in the colorful center geometric of the print.
All of this was done in alpha board and met as well as we could all conservation standards.
I agree with MM that this is what makes framing fun. But as you might be able to see, it also can be time consuming and when done for profit needs to be priced properly. I hope you can print these and I'll try to forward them on to MM also.
I hope I haven't seemed to vain but I enjoy hearing what other people think of my work. Buddy