How to Crop a Photo for Scrapbooking

Photos are the cornerstone of a scrapbooking project. Scrapbooks are, after all, intended to be creative showcases for photographs. Cropping photos is one way to vary the appearance of your scrapbook.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Photo for cropping
• Template (optional)
• Wax pencil
• Small scissors
• Paper towel or rag
• Acid-free adhesive
• Scrapbook

Crop a Photo for Scrapbooking

1. Pick out a photo or photos to crop. It usually only takes a couple of minutes to crop a single photo for scrapbooking purposes.

2. Take a moment to plan the scrapbook page on which the photo will appear. Knowing how you want the overall page to look will allow you to decide how large the cropped photo needs to be and what shape you want for the photo.

3. Find a design you want to use. You may want to use a template (a die-cut template works well for this), or you may want to use a magazine clipping or even a cut-out of a drawing you created yourself.

4. Use your wax pencil to trace the outline of your chosen design onto the front of a photograph. Choose a wax pencil in a dark color so you make sure you can clearly see the line being made by the wax pencil.

5. Cut along the wax pencil lines using small, sharp scissors. Small scissors work best on photographs. Take care to cut as true to the wax pencil lines as possible.

6. Wipe the wax pencil marks from the cropped photograph. This is easily accomplished with a dry dishrag or paper towel.

7. Apply adhesive to the back of the cropped photograph. Make sure you use acid-free tape or glue to do this, so as not to cause damage to your photo in later years.

8. Press the cropped photo into your scrapbook. Continue to press firmly for a few seconds to make sure the photo is securely in place.

Tips & Warnings

• When drawing a shape on a photo with a wax pencil, always draw on the front. Wax pencil markings wipe off of the front of a photo very easily. However, marks made to the back of the photo are permanent.
• Make sure you don't crop out any important details from your photo. While background details like the sky and grass may not be historically important, that house to the left of your sister in the picture could be your childhood home or a best friend's house--details that future generations will probably want to see.