5 Nature Photograph Projects

Nature is beautiful. From rolling hills and moss dripping from trees to lizards scurrying along a path, nature fills our senses with its beauty. Take advantage of nature’s own beauty by incorporating nature photographs in your scrapbooks and paper craft projects.

Nature photographs make marvelous subjects for a layout. Outstanding photographs can be highlighted on scrapbook layouts. Nature photographs, though, can also be used in other ways. Using your own personal nature photographs can enhance your scrapbooks and paper craft projects. How can you do it? There are lots of opportunities. To get your creativity started take a look at these five projects using nature photographs.

Background Decoration. Consider using your own nature photographs as the background for a layout. Like patterned paper, photographs can provide an interesting background. Depending on the size of the photograph, it could be used as a small section of the background, a larger section or even a border. Maureen Spell used a beautiful photograph of a cloud to add a personal, graphic and artistic flair to her layout Nate.

Mosaic Effect. Create a beautiful element to your scrapbook page by making a mosaic effect from nature photographs. Using a square punch create small squares from your photographs. Intersperse them on your layout or along a border for a beautiful mosaic design. In the layout Among the Beauties I punched squares out of three different photographs and included them on the layout.

Journal Decoration. For a unique design on a journal, decorate the center or the border of a journal with a nature photograph. Use a complementary paper to accent the photograph. For my journal cover I chose a favorite photograph of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. I chose a matching patterned paper for the background and mounted it on the journal. For texture I tore cardstock then center mounted the photograph on the journal.

Tag Element. A nature photograph makes a beautiful element for a tag. For my tag I included a photograph of a sea otter I had taken at an aquarium. Before I printed out the photograph I added a quote in Adobe Photoshop. Then, I mounted the photograph on cardstock and finished decorating the tag.

Embellishment. Use nature photographs to embellish a layout. Photographs can be cut for titles, journaling boxes (print text on vellum or transparency), borders and embellishments. For my layout, Pt. Reyes Seashore, I cut flowers from photographs and used them as an embellishment. The pink flower in the title and the white flowers in the lower left corner were cut from photographs.

Take a look through your own nature photographs and find ways to use them on your next layout or paper craft project. Your own photographs will add a personal component to the layout that you can’t get from pre-made products. Plus, you will be adding your own artistic sense to your creations.