Simple Photo Matting for Scrapbookers

Most photographs can be enhanced by fixing them to coloured cardstock. This process, known as matting, is one of the most simple and effective ways to display your photographs.

Mounting a photograph on cardstock is easy. Begin by choosing a colour which complements or contrasts with the basic colours in the photo. A mat ought to add interest and definition. If you are unsure what colour to pick most photographs work well with strong plain backgrounds. Black can be particularly effective. Once you feel confident in your choice you might like to experiment more with patterns to produce original and eye-catching effects.

Simple Steps to Mat a Photo

1. Apply tape, photo stickers or adhesive to the back of your photograph.


2. Fix photo to your chosen cardstock by placing it on one corner. Line up the edges of the photo with the edges of the cardstock. Ensure that you leave a small border on the bottom and side of the photo.


3. Once the photo is adhered to the cardstock use scissors to cut around the image. Make sure you leave enough of a border of backing card to work with.


4. Finally trim remaining sides of cardstock to the same amount of border all the way around. A guillotine, if you have one, is very useful for this purpose.


5. You are now ready to use your matted photo in your layout.

Handy Scrapbooking Tools for Beginners

Beyond the basic equipment for the beginner there are other handy items that can be added over time to you scrapbooking kit. Here is a list of some useful tools:

Rubber Stamps
There are a variety of rubber stamps on the market for scrapbooking and cardmaking. Stamps can be used to add decoration to the page and for titles and journalling. Inkpads come in different colours. Make sure you only buy inkpads that are acid free and contain permanent ink.

Craft Knife
Craft knifes can be a godsend for cutting out titles. Make sure you use a cutting mat at all times. If you choose a cutting mat with a grid you will find it makes cutting and measuring much easier.

Paper Trimmer
One of my favourite scrapbooking items is my paper trimmer. It cuts paper and card up to 12x12. I use the Kaiser brand which has a variety of interchangeable blades but there are many others on the market to choose from. The beauty of interchangeable blades is that I can easily get the kind of look I want such as scalloping with a flick of a switch.

Eyelet Tool
If you intend to add a lot of embellishments to your pages you might find an eyelet tool useful. You can buy a kit that includes a hole punch with a variety of different hole sizes.

Embellishments
Embellishments add interest and flair to your pages depending on your theme and the look you are hoping for. Try buttons, paper, fabric such as ribbons and twill tape, tags, wire and metal.

Scrapbookers Guide to Cropping Photos

Not every photo that you will want to use in your scrapbooking pages will be perfect. Once processed you might be disappointed to find that your best pictures have distracting backgrounds or other features that detract from the overall quality or effect you are looking for. One very simple way to immediately improve your photos is to crop them.

Cropping is a very easy technique whereby unwanted details of the photo are eliminated leaving only the parts of the image that are desired. Professionals use heavy pieces of black card cut at right angles which are placed on the photograph to help them decide how much of the photograph to crop. Simply by moving the corners closer together different amounts of cropping of the image can be tested. Once the desired result is achieved the corner points are marked and joined on the image with a sharp pencil. Using the pencil lines as guides the image is then cropped with a paper trimmer or guillotine.

You can achieve great effects with cropping too by creating your own "croppers."

How to Make Your Own Pair of Croppers
Using stiff black cardstock and starting in the righthand corner cut out one right angle measuring 10cm x 2.5cm. Then repeat this process using the same dimensions as before but this time starting at the bottom lefthand corner. You will then have two right angles to use with your smaller photographs to help you with your cropping decisions. Croppers can be any size you wish. Another useful size for larger photographs is 15cm x 3cm.

Essential Supplies for Scrapbooking Beginners

Many people think that they need a lot of equipment to scrapbook but a beginner can get by with only a few essential items. Here's a list to get you on your way at very little expense.

Essential Supplies for Beginner Scrapbooking

Scissors

Ensure that whatever scissors you buy are sharp and easy to use.  I find a small sharp pair for cutting around lettering and small shapes useful.  Also it is handy to have a larger pair for general cutting.

Not essential but kind of useful is to have some fancy scissors with unique patterns to cut out edges and make decorative frames. These can be bought in pack containing various design patterns at very low cost.

Adhesive

Choose eiither double-sided tape or photo stickers.  Photo stickers are easy use and are suitable for photographs.  They come on a runner which makes them easy to handle. Glue dots can be useful for sticking down heavy card. What ever adhesive you choose make sure it is acid free and archive safe.

Pens

Acid free permanent scrapbooking pens are readily available and relatively cheap. A fine tip and a thicker tip for journalling and decorating pages will be enough to get you started. There a range of colours available but black is probably the most useful colour.

Trimmer or Guillotine

A guillotine is useful for trimming card and cropping photographs.  You will get much straighter edges than what can be achieved with scissors.

Card and Paper

Make sure that any card you buy is acid and lignin free to prevent deterioration of your precious photographs.  If you don't you will find your photographs turning yellow and fading as the chemicals in the card and paper eat away at them.

Albums

Albums are available in different sizes.  For a beginner the standard 12x12 album size is a good choice. Scrapbooking albums are acid free, photo-safe and are usually marked archival quality. They are a bit more expensive than other kinds of photo albums but it is worth paying a little more to get an album which will protect your photographs from premature aging. Don't try to economise on this.  It really is not worth it.

Related Links
Start a Scrapbook Tutorial for Beginners to Create First Page
Handy Scrapbooking Tools for Beginners