We got onto it after we paid a lot of money to have the local framing store do a lousy job.

You are still faced with the problem of where to get a frame, but plain standard sized frames are pretty cheap in all sorts of places (incl Target etc), and look fine. Another option is getting one online. You have to make a bit of a guess about the colours, but they are massively cheaper than the framing store.

Something else to look at is how much it costs to make a big print of one of your digital photos. I managed to get a great shot on my 4Mp camera, and blew it up so about 24inches or so wide. If you look really close you can see it is blown up a little much, but from the other side of the room it looks great. It was about $30 (and I guess this price is dropping). A hint if you are not sure if it will look ok - print a part of the picture at the same enlargement as you want the whole picture to be - say 1/4 of the image on an 8.5×11 page - much cheaper, and you will see what it looks like blown up.

The end result is a unique, really nicely mounted picture, we both like for enough money that if we get bored of it, change the decor etc, we are not upset about the money we spent. It still gets wows from visitors though.

However, I can go get a full-size mat sheet (32″x40″) and cut *4* 16×20 mats - and a full sheet costs me $5!

And I can get all the colors I want and do all the layering I desire. And the end result is much more beautiful than buying store-cut or custom mats.

I figure I can have it start paying for itself inside of a year with all the pictures I take, and all the shows I compete in. I’ll never go back to doing it another way.

I bought one for my wife and it works great. My wife frames everything now. We get clearance “art” for the cheap frames and cut our own mattes if the one in there doesn’t work for our needs. I think we’re averaging about $10 a frame or less.