Scrapropos

What do you do when you only have one sheet of the PERFECT paper, but you have a two-page spread worth of photos? You go back to the store and pay a premium price for it, ’cause it’s not on sale anymore… and while you’re at it, you impulse-buy another $12 worth of paper, plus a couple of ink pads, and WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT - rubber stamps are on sale!

ERRRRRRRRNGH. Wrong answer! You stretch what you have. Here’s how.

In the above layout, I needed a journal box for the right-hand side, so I cut a piece of the blue paper from behind one of the photos on the left-hand side. Voila!

For the JUMP layout, I only had one sheet each of the blue/green - not enough to do any layering - so I cut them both in half and spread them across the 2-page spread.

Mt Elbert is another example of cutting the paper from behind the photo to make journal boxes.

If you use Creative Memories albums like I do, you’ll always have a 1/2″ piece of paper that has to be trimmed off. Use those strips to carry patterned paper from one page to the next! Also, if you only have one sheet of accent paper, don’t be afraid to tear it and use it in corners or in blocks.

If I had to pinpoint a time when my scrapbooking style really evolved, I would say, without a doubt, that it was when I discovered Becky Higgins’ layout sketches. Becky publishes a monthly sketch column in Creating Keepsakes magazine, and has two books out as well. Those two books, Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking and Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 2, are by far the most utilized tools in my studio. (Volume 2 is a step better than Volume 1, because it includes the dimensions for cutting your photos to fit the sketch.)

What makes them so valuable is the way they’re organized. Say you have 9 photos of one event. Simply turn to the section titled “9 Photos”, and choose a sketch that works for you. The sketches work like blueprints - there are no photos or titles, just the drawing itself. I’m sure you’ve seen a layout you liked, then thought, “Aw. If only I had pictures of the kids swimming, I’d copy that.” Sketches taught me to look at layouts differently. Since Becky offers a sketch without photos, you have no preconceived idea of what it should look like. It frees your mind to imagine your OWN photos there. It’s a cross between a blank canvas and a paint-by-number; it’s a coloring book. You’ve got your outline, but you can fill it with whatever colors you want. (The magazine and the books DO show how different people interpreted the layouts, but the sketch is yours to make your own.)

After using Becky’s sketches, I started realizing that when I’m looking for inspiration, I look at ALL layouts this way. Instead of focusing on the PHOTOS in magazine or online gallery layouts, I look at the blueprint of the layout. How can I duplicate that? I also began to see magazine ads the same way. How can I use this layout with photos? Another tip for using sketches: if you have, say, 4 photos to work with, don’t limit yourself to the sketches that feature 4 photos. Look also at the sketches designed for 8 or 9 photos, and only use one side of the sketch. (All sketches are based on double page spreads.) Also remember that you can fill some of the photo spaces with journaling or embellishments.

Here are some of my favorite layouts based on Becky’s sketches. CreatingKeepsakes.com features a section of Becky’s sketches for free, but I’d highly recommend that you buy the books to have on hand. You won’t be disappointed. It will CHANGE the way you approach scrapbooking!

(click on images to enlarge)

One of my favorite layout techniques, especially when I’m working with a photo I really love, is to super-enlarge the photo and feature it on the page. Since I usually work on 12×12 pages, I’ve found that 10×13 or 11×14 enlargements work really well. Just trim the longest side to 12″, and trim the other side to whatever size best compliments your photo.

In this layout, I had the photo printed as an 11×14 (at Costco, the price is a mere $2.99, which is cheaper than many embellisments you could choose to use!). When planning to use enlargements, plan ahead. You probably won’t want to digitally crop the photo, because you’ll want to have plenty of cropping allowance on the enlargement itself. For instance, I knew I’d need to crop 2 inches off the width of this photo to fit it on the page. I needed to allow room for that without having to cut off Aidan’s feet.

For the following layout, I enlarged the photo to 12×18 at Costco ($2.99), then cropped it down to about 6×12.
Here’s the image as I uploaded and printed it:

And here it is after I cropped and scrapbooked it:

In the year since I had these photos printed, Costco has added an 8×12 option ($1.49) to its 1-hour printing service, which makes using enlargements even easier!

Recently, two very talented scrapbookers posted the following layouts on ScrapShare.com, the message board I call home. With their permission, I’m posting their work here, as they’re both wonderful examples of using enlargements. I’m guessing on the sizes they had printed; I forgot to ask them! If I’m wrong, I hope they’ll correct me here!

Snow Capped Mountains, by Veronica Wuthrich, Australia:
My guess is that Veronica had an 8×10 photo printed, then cropped it down to 8×8. You can see the uncropped version of the photo on the facing page.

Winter Wonderland, by Mary Garren, Oklahoma: Mary’s photo looks like a 10×13 that she cut one inch off of.

There’s an online service,ScrapbookPictures.com, that offers 12×12 photos, but I haven’t tried it yet. I think I’ll do it soon!
Do a little cost comparison with the photo services available to you, and give this a try.
If you’re hesitant to do it, or are afraid you’ll mess up, just print a practice photo on your home printer, or even have enlarged on a copy machine at Kinko’s. Play around with it, then work with the real thing. I promise, you’ll love the results!