Creative Cutouts for Your Scrapbook Page Canvas

Creative cutouts made with electrolnic or manual die cutting machines–or even a punch or stencial with exacto knife–give you a great way to play with pattern, shape, and dimension on the scrapbook page canvas.

You can use cutouts to:

• create rich and charming layers
• feature one or more of your page’s key parts (i.e., photo, title, journaling, embellishment or background)
• reinforce page story through shape or motif

Our team has creative cutout ideas for you below.

Kelly Prang says, “I HAD to make a page about my son’s new (to him) car, and document how excited he was to get to drive his very own convertible.”

“I used a circular cutout, round like wheels and like the sun (which connects to the sunshine and happiness) showing in these photos.”

“This cutout is a .png file from an Etsy shop called The Cut Shoppe. It could be used with either a Silhouette or Cricut electronic cutting machine. Since I scrapbook digitally, I took the png file, attached an inner shadow for depth beneath the sky-print paper, then filled the space behind the cutouts with different patterned papers for a dynamic look.”

“I thought the circles added motion and movement to my page, and fit the theme of my page as well.”

 

Cara Vincens says, “I love tea: proper black tea. I’ll have about 4 cups a day, and I wanted to celebrate this small piece of my every day here. This photo was taken on our recent trip to Scotland where I was able to get tea at restaurants, something I’m not able to do here in continental Europe. It was quite a treat!”

“I cut out a stack of teacups directly from my background piece of cardstock. It’s a cut file and I used my Silhouette to cut it. I layered various patterned papers behind the cut, one for each cup and then layered the words and the cut pieces for the insides of the cup handles over the patterned papers. The title was part of the same cut file. I find that a glue pen is the best way to stick down these intricate pieces.”

“A pretty teacup is part of the experience for me. I have a large collection and I love choosing the one that suits my mood when it comes time to pour… hmmm, maybe I should scrapbook my teacup collection next! The fun stack of cups along with the pretty floral papers really reflects me, my likes and my daily tea breaks, which is exactly the mood I was going for. I love the whimsical feel to the page and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this fun teacup stack without this cut into my canvas.”

 

Christy Strickler says, ” When my son was small, he would help with the laundry. The mess and headache paid off as now he is a teen who does his own laundry.”

“I used two types of cutouts on my page. After adhering the photos, I cut out 3 squares from the canvas using a craft knife, flipped them over, trimmed them and replaced them inside the same space they were removed from. This allowed me to use both sides of the patterned paper. It was an easy way to add to the grid while also adding texture.”

“I added faux stitching with a pen. It helps give a handmade, cozy feel to those blocks while also compensating for them not being exact cuts. The second cut out item was the triangle lace block under the title. It came premade with a scrapbook kit. It helps lift the title up from the page. Using a solid block of cardstock would have drawn attention away from my photos. This is much more subtle.”

 

Hannah Lemieux says, “The story of this layout is about my daughters exploring outside and finding small butterflies and baby ladybugs. They were so excited to show me their find. I love their excitement for learning and exploration. I am glad that I could use this time to capture this moment in a beautiful way. I was able to capture both the ladybugs and my daughter interacting with them.”

“I used my Silhouette to create doodled elements that I cut out. I also fussy cut several elements by hand. I cut out flowers and bugs to use for layering. I also cut my patterned paper to use for edging. I cut elements out of my die cuts, for a couple area. Lastly, I water colored part of my title and fussy cut around it.”

“I used my iPad Pro to doodle the ladybugs before turning it into a PNG file to add to the Silhouette system to create a printed cut file. The only other tools I used were fussy cutting scissors. The smaller size helps to get into the corners of the smaller patterns.”

“I love all the edges fussy cutting elements give a layout. They create shadows and extra places to tuck more elements. Some of the doodled ladybugs on my layout, I fussy cut around parts of it to tuck my photo over. I wanted the photo to blend right into background of the layout. By fussy cutting extra bugs, I now have more elements to place on my layout that I can pop up with dimensional adhesive to create interest throughout my layout. I love that the elements and things I cut out really help my layout feel like you are outside discovering ladybugs yourself. I really wanted my mixed media and the cut out designs to go together and feel like they were all one collection.”

 

Jana Oliveira says, “I loved this picture of my son and I wanted to make a layout with a message for him.”

“Here I’ve used a digital gesso stencil and turned it into a paper cut out by clipping a digital paper to the shape of the stencil, just like the ones you cut with electronic die cutters, only I used digital stencil shapes.”

“I liked that I can vary the blended artistic background with a more traditional layout by using the cut out as a board where I clipped the paper messages for my son.”