Crop

To attend a crop is to attend a workshop and work on your own pages and projects (see our calendar for our scheduled crops). To crop a photo means to cut the photo. Most of the time, trimming excess background like sky (and strangers) to better focus on the main subject of the picture is necessary.

"When I first started scrapbooking, I often cut my photos into various shapes." Sure, you can do this—but you’ll get a cleaner, classic and timeless effect if you keep your photos in a square shape.

Don’t get overzealous with cropping—you might inadvertently cut out something like a car or house that will have personal, historical or sentimental meaning later on. And please, please don’t crop those one-of-a-kind heritage photos! If you really want to, make a color copy of the photo (yes, make color copies of black and white pictures too) and then crop the copy, but save the original!

Acid free

Acidity in paper can cause the molecular structure of the paper to break down, discolour, become brittle and turn inflexible. Acid free papers have a pH of 7.0. If prepared properly, papers made from any fiber can be acid free. Acid free papers slow the process considerably; therefore consider using papers, adhesives, and embellishments that state acid-free, archival, or photo safe.

Archival quality

Scrapbook materials, which have undergone laboratory analysis to determine their acidic and buffered content is within safe levels.

Buffered

A term used to describe a material to which a slightly water-soluble acid or base has been added in order to stabilize the pH. In paper this is an alkaline substance, such as calcium carbonate, which is used to reduce the quantity of acids that may build up as a result of the degradation of paper fiber or acid absorption from the environment.

Buffered paper

During manufacturing, a buffering agent such as calcium carbonate or magnesium bicarbonate can be added to paper to neutralize acid contaminants. Such papers have a pH of 8.5.

Lignin

The natural bonding element, which holds wood fibers together. Newsprint contains lignin—you’ll notice how brittle and yellowed a newspaper becomes after just a few days. Like acid, lignin can be removed during processing to make scrapbooking paper safe.

If you want to include newspaper articles or announcements in your memory album, photocopy them onto acid-free, lignin-free paper or spray them using a pH neutralizer.

pH factor

This refers to the acidity of a paper. The pH scale is the standard for measurement of acidity and alkalinity. It runs from 1 to 14 with each number representing a ten-fold increase; pH neutral is 7. Acid-free products have a pH factor of 7 or above. Special pH tester pens are available to help you determine the acidity of products.

Photo safe

This is a term similar to archival quality but more specific to materials used with photographs. Acid-free is the determining factor for a product to be labeled photo-safe.

To ensure your scrapbooks will last, it is important to use only paper and other materials of archival quality. However, not all products are archival; for example, some metals, fabrics, stickers, papers and embellishments can drastically reduce the life of your photos. If these products are too enticing to resist, ensure that these products do not come in direct contact with your photos.