HELP for cutting pictures for your scrapbooks

[Connie of Trenton]

I am just curious what you all use for cutting your pictures when scrapbooking. I bought a Creative Memory corner rounder which I like the look of but I want some variety. Do you all use regular scissors or a special cutting tool? If so which one? I just bought a mat and have some stencils but don't want to limit myself to hearts, stars, etc. My daughter just takes the scissors and crops away. I am so worried I am going to wreck a picture and if I have no negative then it will be ruined. Help!

 

[Tiger Fan]

My first suggestion is to not cut anything that is the only one for now. After you feel more confident take on those, but for now use ones you have a negative for. Now on to the cutting. I have the Creative Memories Custom Cutting System and it's to die for. There are other similar products, but I love this one. You can cut ovals, circles, straight edge, and decorate edges. I also use the CM personal trimmer for my pictures. I suggest you start with simple cropping and corner rounding and expand from there. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Lisa

 

[chessie]

I am partial to the Creative Memories cutting system. I have the straight cutter which also cuts 2 wavy lines and the circle and ovals with the basic 3 blades. That's about all the shapes I use for my photos.

Occasionally I silhouette a photo and for that I use a tool called Easy Matter. You use scissors to cut your photos into any shape and use the Easy Matter to trace around it to make the exact shape. There are several mat widths you can choose from or you can use multiple mats

 

[fostrmom2mny]

One more suggestion for the one of a kind pictures. Take them and have them color copied. It's easy and if you don't have too many, it doesn't cost too much. I find that cutting the copies are much easier, and when I'm finished with the layout, you can't tell which pictures are original and which ones are color copies .

I haven't started it yet, but this is how I will make my Wedding album. No way that I'd consider cutting those originals!!!!
Gerri

 

[lisaschu]

There's definitely a barrier when you first start scrapping. I think most people worry about cropping their photos. However, you do get over it in time. The best tool I've found for trimming photos is CM's Personal Trimmer. They just updated it and it's awesome! The next tool I would buy would be the CM Custom Cutting System. I love this thing! It's so easy to use and the possibilities are endless. Good luck!

 

[BusyMomof3]

Here's another vote for the CM Personal Trimmer and the CM Custom Cutting System.

I just got the new personal trimmer this week and it is awesome! My old one wore out after 4 years of hard work.

I also have the cutting system w/ circles, ovals and the straight pattern. The new hexagon and pentagon patterns are cool, too. I don't use them a lot, but they are nice when you are looking for something a little different.

 

[BevS97]

I don't photo's cut into any 'shapes' except for v. occasionally a circle or an oval - I wouldn't dream of cutting a photo into a star or a heart - In a few years time you will look back and regret that.

I use the coluzzle cutting system which is cheaper than the CM one initially and I think it works really well - you get templates in various shapes, I've got circle, square and oval and a special swivel knife which slots into the template and cuts the photo/cardstock for you.

I also use a CM personal trimmer for cropping my photo's into rectangles, and for thin mats - I particularly like it for thin mats as it seems to be the straightest trimmer (I also have a fiskers which does NOT cut straight at all)

Bev

 

[Lesley]

You are worried you will cut something out that you didn't want to cut out and losing it forever...here are some of my favorite tips to offer-

If you are worried that an unreplaceable photo will be ruined, don't crop it. Use it as is. If you want you can even mount it with corners or in a mounting sleeve so that someday you can make copies of it (then you can crop those!) Most photo stores can do copies of prints without negatives.

Start out using photos you're not very worried about.....recent shots that you've gotten doubles printed of or something.

When cropping consider the composition of the photo....don't throw the baby out with the bath water! Remember that sometimes backgrounds hold things we want to see years down the road. If getting an oval means cutting off those cute baby toes or some other such thing either don't do it or stop the oval at that spot and cut out the toes by hand so they're still in the cropped photo.

If you are a good photographer, you may not find it desireable to crop your photos. I have been working at improving my photography and I do less and less cutting as I get better. Cropping is still wonderful to salvage those pics where the kids moved the wrong way or someone wandered into the view of the lens (or I find something embarrassing in the background after the fact) but its not necessary for all photos. The best photographs are generally better left untouched, just mounted in a way that accentuates them.

Throw out the really bad ones! They won't get any better even when there's less of them!

I agree with BevS97 about most shapes....unless your layout and your photos are particularly suited to them they don't generally turn out very well. I'm also pretty averse to cutting photos with fancy edges...the paper I mat the photos with looks great decoratively cut, but doing it to the edge of the photo generally detracts from the photo. On occasion a page full of balloon, heart or star shaped photos can be cute, but its easily overdone. I try not to use more than one "shape" (circle, oval or other) on a page.

Keep in mind that the whole point is to make your photos more enjoyable to look at and to help your photos tell their stories.

BTW...I'm a huge fan of the CM CCS and all that goes with it...used selectively.

Oh, and as Norm Abrams would say...."Measure twice, cut once"

Have fun! That's also the point of it!

 

[Buckleybunch]

I don't cut my pictures a lot. Only if there is a lot of "blank" space. I like seeing what is going on in the background. ( some times it helps tell the story).
I have also stopped using the corner rounder on my pictures. Call me strange, but I like the square look.

 

[Lesley]

I agree...the sharp edges often look best. When I first started my scrapbooks I thought the corner rounder was the greatest invention ever. Now I find I hardly ever use it. It is nice when you're going for a softer look.....but the clean lines of the sharp edges are wonderful.

I've also found that photos with borders (like from Ritz camera) look amazing on natural pages...no cutting necessary. I bet they'd look cool on black pages too.