Scrapping old Polaroid photos can be a bit tricky and it’s a problem I’ve had to deal with recently while working on pages for my kids’ scrapbooks. Unfortunately, a lot of photos of my oldest child are Polaroids – sign of the times. They’re all pretty standard in size and can be pretty ugly with that boring white border, leaving us few alternatives for creativity. That can pose a serious quandary for scrapbookers who like to add color and flair to their scrapbook pages by cropping and matting their photos.
My solution has been to scan in my favorites, then color-correct, crop, re-size and reprint. With the scanners on the today’s market, it hasn’t really been much of a problem. I can fill my scanner bed with several Polaroids, scan, then separate them in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I like that I can print them larger or smaller depending on my plan for them on the scrapbook page, such as the larger photo in this layout.
Another solution is to disguise those boring white edges and that’s what I’ve done on this layout. The smaller photo here is an original Polaroid. I first painted the edges with Ranger Paint Dabbers then wrapped Tim Holtz Tissue Tape around one edge and simply attached the photo to the page using more Tissue Tape that covers up the edges. It gives the photo an altered look that fits with my style of scrapping.
I enjoy scrapping these older photos because there was no staging – it captured life as it was – right down to the Marlboro reds!
