You do that step so your border is on its own layer. That way you can play with different styles, patterns and colors.

To all of you who helped explain about getting a boarder, Thank you so very much. I have been messing with that for a while now and with you efforts it has finally " SUNK IN"..........Hankw

Glad to help. This is an example of my typical work flow when framing.

Prairie4 copy.jpg (114.82 KiB) Viewed 856 times

Duplicate>flatten
Increase canvas size>sample from photo to get color
Select canvas with wand and copy to it's own layer
Select again and add sandstone texture>deselect.
Add bevel layer style and click fx>add stroke and use color picker to click in picture>decrease bevel to 1 px.
Flatten
Repeat process for frame choosing smaller canvas increase and different bevel with no stroke.
For this example I sampled the sky near the horizon for the mat and the blue flowers for the stroke.
For the frame I sampled the coneheads. Hope this gives you some ideas. Can really get creative once got the basics down.