1. How to dry mat your photos

2. Supplies White or black mat board Image Millimeter ruler T-square ruler Mechanical pencil Exacto Knife and Green Gridded cutting mat Dry mat tissue

3. #1: choose correct tissue and size it Cut dry-matting tissue to approximate size, making sure it covers total image!

4. #2 Attach tissue: Tack the dry mount tissue to the back of the photo in the middle. Move the tip of the iron in circles to make a dime-size connection!

5. Well done! Tissue is affixed to photo!

6. #4 Trim the photo and dry mount tissue together REMEMBER! Use a sharp exacto & don’t put fingers in blade’s path!!! Use a green grid cutting mat and align the T-square perfectly on the yellow line to make your first perfect straight cut. Notice how the plastic is off the table edge so it lays FLAT!

7. Press RULER firmly while cutting so the ruler won’t move. Have a friend hold it but watch their fingers! DO NOT cut into the ruler! DO NOT hold the knife at an angle!

8. BRAVO! 4 straight edges and 4 perfect corners of 90°! AND, no visible mount tissue!

9. Dry Press your photo to mat board This means creating a beautiful border of at least 3 centimeters around your print’s top and sides. The bottom border should be a bit wider, so maybe 4 or 5 cm. (you may choose a much wider border if it looks good for your image.)

10. Step 1: set up for dry pressing to mat board Place the image in a perfect 90° corner of the dry mount board. (if the mat board doesn’t have one, cut one!) Move the image so the side and top are EQUAL and at least 3 centimeters each.

11. DO THE MATH! You want perfectly equal borders, so use millimeters and do the math! RULERS with millimeters are essential for marking your chosen border width accurately. x X + Y = bigger than X ! Like a pedestal for your art! xx

12. Measure out the dry mount board, using a millimeter ruler and very light pencil marks all along the L-shaped border. (at least 3 cm) Pencil marks should be very light!

13. After set up, tack the photo to the board: Tack the dry mount photo to the dry mount board, using the little pencil dots you made and DOUBLE CHECKING with the millimeter ruler. After DOUBLE CHECKING equal borders, tack the top two corners down with clean white paper protecting your print from GUNK on the tacking iron!

14. BRAVO! Top 2 corners are tacked to board! (dime size connections)

15. Step 6 Place the photo and the board into the dry mount press between clean paper for 45 seconds at 180 degrees! Attached corners towards the back of the press. Cover photo with clean white paper to protect it! Remove, and smooth it down as it cools. If the dry mount hasn’t worked, put back into press for up to 2 minutes

16. STOP and turn off all electrical!

17. Step 2 Cut off any excess board in the paper cutter or...

18. NOT!!!!!! Or your print will have a raggedy white edge like this one!!! Use the green board and the Exacto knife silly!!!

19. OOPS! Forgot to cut off white edges!!!

20. Meredith C. Perfect?

21. Helpful Hints to Dry Mounting

24. Keep small tack iron below medium heat or it will melt your prints & burn your fingers! The triangle should be in the middle

25. Dry mount press should be at 180 degrees NO HIGHER if it is too hot, paper will release!

26. Remember to turn it all OFF when finished