One of the main tasks in scrapbooking is cropping your pictures to fit your page or your theme. In addition you may be facing duplicate or similar pictures and be unsure of what you really want to put in your scrapbook. For the beginning scrapper it can be a daunting task to determine what pictures you want to put in your scrapbook and what pictures you can actually fit into your scrapbook. Whether you crop by hand or use a computer program to help you there are numerous ways to crop your pictures. So before you give up and simply plaster all the pictures in (or worse yet do no scrapbooking at all) read on for some scrapbooking tips for cropping.
•Examine each picture individually. Is your picture of an individual or a group of people? What is the most important part of your picture? What draws your eye to the picture? Once you determine what is the most dominant part of the picture you can then figure out where you need to crop it. If the background is distracting or you want to bring more focus on something in the picture crop it down and move on.
•Examine your pictures all together. Once you have cropped each picture bring the group of pictures together that will make up your page or your album. Look for duplicates, similar pictures or pictures that do not contribute to your overall theme. Take them out of the grouping (but do not throw them away!). You now have the core of the pictures that will make up your page or theme that you are working on.
•Put all the pictures in a tentative layout. You do this by placing your pictures on your page without using any adhesive. This will give you a chance to see how all the pictures fit on the page. It works similar to placing puzzle pieces together. Do you have too many pictures? Then continue working your pictures to fit together on the page by selecting the sizes that do fit together.
Do you need a tall, skinny picture or a square to fit into that certain space? This process will allow you to switch picture around until you get the desired effect on the page you are working on. Once you have all the pictures on a page that fit together in the way you want you are ready to move on to the next step.
•Examine your pictures to determine if you want to decoratively crop the edges. In today’s world of scrapbooking you can literally crop the edges of your pictures with almost any decorative boarder. There are both scissors and cutters with a multitude of different edges to enhance your pictures. You can decorate the edges of your pictures to enhance both the pictures and the overall theme you are looking for on your page. For example-pictures can be decorated with a wavy edge to reflect a nautical theme. The only barriers on decorative cropping edges are the tools you have and your imagination.
•Determine whether you want to cut your pictures decoratively or layer your pictures for added effect. In addition to decoratively cropping the edges of your pictures you can then determine whether you want to take it a step further and cut your pictures into decorative shapes. For example-you can cut the picture of the Christmas tree into a Christmas tree shape either free hand or using a stencil. Pictures of children dressed up for Halloween can be silhouetted in pictures cut into shapes of pumpkins. The choices are endless and again are only limited by your creativity. You can also layer pictures for added effect.
Once you have determined all the cropping is done simply affix your pictures to the page and enjoy your scrapbooking efforts!