by Pamela Kay

Created on: June 17, 2009   Last Updated: March 26, 2011

Cropping photos for your scrapbook helps create focal points as well as adding visual interest. You can crop a photo several ways such as with scissors, a blade or by matting, which will preserve old pictures. There are also several other reasons for cropping a photo, such as changing its size and shape, removing unwanted subject matter or highlighting certain areas.

*Measure Twice Cut Once

Make sure you know what you want before you cut or crop your photos. Try your page layout on a table and move the elements around until you find the fit you want. Then determine what size you need, mark it with a ruler and wax pencil and cut carefully on the line.

*Scissors Trimmers And Croppers

-Scissors come with a variety of cutting edges; pinking, scalloped, straight, hearts, fish and many more. These can add interest to the photo, but too much can detract from the photo, so try doing only one or two edges with a design. Use templates to trace a design on a photo and then use straight cut scissors to cut on the line.

-Trimmers work with a swing down blade or a sliding blade much the same as the paper cutters we used in grade school. They can only be used for straight cuts but if you are doing a lot of photos it can save your fingers some wear and tear. Just measure the photo, mark it, line it up with the straight edge and crop it.

-Croppers can round picture corners or give them a fancy beveled edge. They come with several blade sizes and are as easy to use as a hole punch. Almost foolproof, you just insert the corner of the photo and squeeze.

*A Few Cropping Ideas

-Turn a photo into a 3-D photo by making several copies and then carefully cutting out one or two elements in the photo. Glue the cutouts to thick card-stock or scrapping foam squares and trim the edges. Glue the element back into its place and you're done.

-Sometimes it's hard to cut an old photo but it's just takes up the whole page and that won't do. You can attach the photo to the page, then using a page size background sheet and a template make a cutout to allow some of the old photo to show and attach it. Then add the other elements to this background sheet and you haven't damaged the old photo.

-Instead of cropping a decorative edge on a photo, crop the inside edge of a mat and place over the photo.

-Crop a photo to separate several elements in a photo and attach them to the page with a distance between them. Then add an embellishment that connects them. For example children tossing a ball, use a sticker or button for the ball. Or, for a child flying a kite, attach the child at the bottom of the page and run thin string to the top of the page and attach a neon kite with a hanging tail.

-Crop the various elements in a photo and attach them in a thought bubble attached to a close up of someone. For instance a photo of a bride to be with a thought bubble showing things she hopes to get at her shower or a child with a thought bubble full of candy.

The possibilities for why and how to crop a photo for scrapbooks are endless. Just organize your photos and start going through them with an outside-the-box imagination. Before you know it, you'll be creating beautiful and unique scrapbook pages.

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