ScrapMentor - Scrapbooking 101

Week 5 - Tools/Tips/Techniques

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Photo Mats

A friend of mine recently took a Beginners Scrapbooking class at a local scrapbook store. I tagged along, ostensibly to work on my daughter's scrapbook (which I did), but also out of curiosity. I wanted to keep an ear out for anything I should be sure to include in this Beginner's Scrapbooking course. The instructor got to the part where she was talking about placing photos on your page, and she said there was a "Golden Rule" of scrapbooking. I perked up, thinking surely this is something I should include.

The instructor told her class that the Golden Rule of Scrapbooking is that you must never, ever, ever mount photos directly onto patterned paper, without first matting them on solid-colored cardstock.

A "mat" is a border of any width - made either of patterned paper or, more typically, cardstock.
I was stunned! I thought surely the Golden Rule of Scrapbooking, if there was such a thing, would be to do unto pictures of others as you would have them do unto pictures of you. Or maybe never leave your markers and pens out within arm's reach of little children who want to make your pages "prettier." (I know that's my golden rule!) But never, ever mount photos directly onto patterned paper?

The teacher held up a few examples of what she meant - some very busy photos, with lots of people, seen from far away, matted on extremely busy paper. Think "Christmas morning unwrapping photos" mounted on a large paisley. Not terribly attractive, at least to my tastes, but who am I to judge the tastes of others?

So I got to thinking, and I decided there are no rules about how you "should" mat your photos. Your scrapbooks are a reflection of you. Not just the photos, but the artistic intuition that goes into them. I should confess that I do typically mat my photos. In fact, I typically double-mat them. But not always, and besides - those are just my scrapbooks. You might prefer an entirely different look! After all, some people like brussel sprouts!

NOT Matting For Effect

I'd like to start this week's section off by showing you a few examples of what I think are "effective non-matting" - pages that "work", even though the pictures aren't matted on solid-colored paper or cardstock, before being adhered directly to the background. You can be the judge of whether you think the look would work for you, or not.

The photos on this layout are somewhat busy. The main subject is at a medium distance, so there is some space around him. The horizontal stripes help frame the photos in, and focus attention on the photos. The floral background print, on which the photos are matted, is a small print with a white base, so it isn't too much of a distraction from the photos. The large solid blocks of color in the baby's shirt help, too.

Very close close-ups work quite well unmatted. This black-and-white photo naturally stands apart from the pastel background patterned papers (in fact, black-and-white photos work quite well with practically all pastel colors, except possibly yellow), and the inking on the edges of the patterned papers helps to unify the overall layout.

Rather than relying on a solid-colored mat for the top photograph on this layout, I used the naturally dark background (it was an indoor, nighttime event) to provide some space between the subjects and the rather busy background paper. The picture seemed to just "fall off" at the bottom, until I added the strip of lighter green to help visually prop it into place.

I hope that at least one of those layouts has shown you that it is possible - sometimes even preferable - to create an effective, striking layout without matting every single picture on solid-colored cardstock first.

Matting for Effect

That said, there is still much to be said for matting pictures. Photo mats can help brighten a dark picture or add necessary gravity to an over-bright one. They can help even spacing for odd-shaped photos or help draw attention to a particular photo. Photo mats can add some much-needed dark space to a layout overrun in white space. They can give you a place to anchor decorative embellishments, or unify your overall color scheme. They are a subtle yet effective tool for enhancing the power of your pictures - and that's really what it's all about.

Here are some examples of how I've used photo mats to enhance the appeal of photos in my layouts. Each different type of mat has served a different purpose.

I wanted this layout to be about bridging the age gap between the teen and the toddler. As such, I wanted a color scheme, title, and embellishments that all conveyed the teen scene, but from a decidedly bygone era. The lime green-and-blue retro stickers (especially the lava lamp) were perfect. The trouble was, there was no blue in my patterned paper, or even in the picture. The photo and journaling mats helped to unify my color scheme, and make the blue in the stickers seem a much more natural choice.

This page from my "All About Me" book is about my (usually) bubbly personality, so I used a series of concentric circles to both coordinate with the background paper, and help convey the intended "fizz and pop" mood of the page. Most typically, I go for high-contrast mats (mats that contrast sharply with the background the photo is placed on), but on this page I preferred a more muted, coordinated feel.

The two photos on the right have two mats each. The green mat helps unify the color scheme with the green grass, and is of a pretty standard 1/4" width. The blue mat is off-set and helps add a bit of motion to an otherwise very static layout.

This is a somewhat more complex photo mat than I've shown before. The small blue mat isn't so special, but that is, in turn, mounted on a longer strip of lightly-striped patterned paper. The bottom 1/3 or so of the light mat has the layout's journaling, as well as another matted embellishment. This type of mat helps to warm up what would otherwise be a very cool color-scheme, which might not be exactly appropriate to a layout about a warm spring day.

You don't have to mat each photo individually. This layout uses one large (12"x8") mat for 6 different pictures.

Homework

Mat the photos you chose last week, using any of the suggestions mentioned above. Remember, use mats that coordinate well with your photos, both in terms of color and style. Similarly, mat your printable image and poem, phrase, lyrics, or quote from weeks 2 and 3 of your Computer lessons. Be sure the mats for these are compatible with those for your photos. If you choose not to mat your photos, that's ok, too - it's your scrapbook! Just make sure your photos are well-suited to being left unmounted (see the section on not matting at the beginning of this lesson).

Supplemental Reading

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