I love my sharp little scissors.

Literally cutting images out of photos is one of my favorite techniques. Cutting away the background allows the image, usually a person, to stand out. With big photos, the background is big too, and so are any distractions in the background.

I have my favorite pair of "Bumblebee" brand cutting scissors. To cut an image out, it is best to keep the scissors relatively still and move and turn the photo. Practice makes perferct. Hair is really hard.

I do not totally cut people out of the photo, but leave some of one side or the bottom of the photo. Otherwise the people seem to be floating on the page, and I have not had a page layout yet for floating people.

I photgraph and cut out a lot of signs for titles and embellishments.

"Through the years" pages

Assembling pages of related photos taken in different years are a great use of duplicate photos, especially favorites. It does not matter if some of them are repeats from other pages if they make me smile. Sometimes a lovely photo that does not fit anywhere will find a place in this type of page.
I love assembling a page of my daughters cuddling together as infants, toddlers, tweens, and young adults. I made several pages.
Other photos to group for a "through the ages" page:

• Girls of all ages in increasingly stylish Easter dresses.
• Girls curled up with a good book as they grew up.
• Girls napping in interesting places from high chairs to airports.
• Girls on amusement park kiddie rides to roller coasters.
• Girls on the first day of school, increasingly tall and "cool."
• Girls on increasingly large and fast horses.