How to Scrapbook with Cropped Pictures
Cutting Your Photos with Cropping Tools Can Make Your Pages Better
May 3, 2009
When a group of scrapbookers get together to share ideas and work on their memory books, the activity is often called a “crop.” The name arose because one of the things that separates scrapbooks from regular photo albums is the way that photos are modified. Cropping usually involves cutting off and discarding portions of your photos.
Reasons for Cropping Pictures
There are a number of reasons for cropping your photos:
- To get rid of unwanted elements and distracting backgrounds
- To improve the composition of a photo
- To fit more photos on a layout
- To add creativity to your layout
If you’ve ever photographed your own thumb, cropping is for you! You can also eliminate ex-boyfriends or other undesirable content. Even if your photos don’t have glaring defects, you can improve their composition. If the subject is located awkwardly in the picture, cropping can create pleasing proportions and improve the photo by leading the viewer’s eye where you want it to go. If the horizon in a landscape photo is tilted, cropping can give restore balance.
Cluttered or overly colorful backgrounds that distract the viewer’s eye from the subject can be minimized by cropping. If you’ve been in the habit of standing far away from your subject when taking pictures, you may have a lot of background to cut away! In that case, try enlarging your photo to 5R (5” x 7”) before cropping, to increase the size of your subject.
If you have a lot of photos to fit on a single page or layout, cropping can help. You may lose some scenery, but the added impact makes up for it. An effective approach is to combine one or two larger photos with a group of smaller punched photos (see below).
Instructions for Cropping
The simplest way to crop is to cut a photo in a straight line parallel to one or more of the edges to remove part of the picture. This can be done using straight scissors, scissors with wavy blades for decorative edges, or special trimmers.
Photos can be cropped into interesting shapes to create a focal point or support the theme of a layout. You can cut your photos freehand or use a shape template to get that perfect circular or oval photo. Oversize punches are a fast and easy way to crop photos into geometric shapes. For a more subtle effect, you can use a corner rounder punch to curve the corners of photos.
Sample Pages
- Mother and Son. A circular photo draws the eye more than a square or rectangular one. Supplies: patterned paper – Chatterbox; circle template – Coluzzle (Provo Craft); circle punches – Marvy Uchida and Carl; deckle scissors – Fiskars; stamping ink – Stewart Superior Corp; computer font – Bradley Hand ITC (downloaded from the internet)
- Southside Park. Unnecessary background was cropped out using a square punch. Supplies: cardstock – Westrim Crafts; square punch – Marvy Uchida; pen – Zig Memory System; computer fonts – Kids and Augie (downloaded from the internet)
- Soaking Wet. Crop photos into squares, then use a corner rounder to soften them. Supplies: cardstock – Bazzill; rub-on title – My Mind’s Eye Inc.
- Splash Island. A great way to use a lot of photos with unnecessary background. Supplies: cardstock and stickers – SEI
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