Mom Gothic Arch - More on my Base

Several people have asked what is the black around the edges of my finished arches....

That is the  "Mat Arch" I spoke about in my post on Base Materials and Bindings. 

I actually have two templates I'm working with while working on my Mom Gothic Arches...  My actual GA template plus a larger "Mat Arch" which I am using as the pages of my book.  I am going to mount two arches on each of these chipboard mats and those will be punched and bound together so I am not actually punching holes in my arches.

I am simply cutting these mat arches from a heavier chipboard ~ old game boxes as a matter of fact...

then I'm painting all the edges both front and back black...

I have 5 for the inner pages plus two extra ~ one for the front cover and one for the back.

Hope that answers your questions :)