Scrapbooking.com's Head of the Class



	Photo Kaleidoscopes WHEN YOU PEEK THROUGH A KALEIDOSCOPE, YOU LOOK INTO A world of patterns and colors spinning and collapsing into each other. When you peek into a scrapbook, you glimpse the colors and patterns of life. Judy Nurkkala Bloomington, Minnesota, visualized a way to meld the two. When Judy saw a special segment on a craft show, she watched as a basic design, reversed and repeated, unfolded into a kaleidoscope pattern. She thought, "That could be done with photographs?" So Judy went to her scrapbooks to find pictures to create kaleidoscope scrapbook pages. She looked for photos with definite patterns and interesting textures. She looked for elements in photos that would create a continuous design, like the train tracks on the picture of her grandson David, shown above, or the arms of her daughter Paula in the jet-ski picture, shown on the facing page. ABOVE Judy Nurkkala pieced an eight-way photo kaleidoscope using eight reprints of the same photograph-four regular prints and four mirror-image prints, made by printing the negative frame backwards. As shown by her kaleidoscope pages, when Judy works on her scrapbooks, she likes to concentrate on creative design. Besides spending many hours making pages, Judy is also the director of a women's community choir. "I was so involved with music that I never suspected I would start scrapbooking, but a year and a half later, I've completed six albums." "Always try to find something with movement," advises Judy. "With the jet-ski photo, I could picture the arms coming together." Just about any photo can work, depending on how it is cut, but elements such as stairs, fences, geometrics and patterns create the most intriguing kaleidoscopic designs. To test whether a photo would work, Judy laid a 45° clear plastic triangle on top to see what elements in the picture would meet. After some experimentation, she ordered eight reprints of the photo-four regular prints and four reversed, or mirror image, prints made by printing the negative frame backwards. Using the triangle as a guide, she cut and pieced the photos together. The kaleidoscopic results send the imagination whirling. Judy continued to experiment with different angles. (And so did our artists! See page 26 for more information.) "In scrapbooking, you try to be clever but you tend to use some of the same ideas over and over again," reflects Judy. "Then every once in a while, you have a truly new idea."
	FIGURE 1 Order standard and reverse-image reprints from a photofinisher. Then make photocopies to plan your design.	STEP 1 SELECT A PHOTO AND ORDER REPRINTS To make your own kaleidoscope design, first select a photo for which you have a negative. While any photo will work, some are better than others. Look for interesting patterns, textures, geometric shapes, shadows, reflections, contrast and vivid colors. Like any craft, the more you work with this technique, the easier you can imagine how a particular photo will look in a kaleidoscope design.
	To make an eight-way kaleidoscope, order four reprints and four reverse-image reprints from your local photofinisher. You need to be able to talk to someone behind a counter to explain what you want, so filling out an order envelope isn't the best method. Because a negative can slightly shift while a photo is printed, request that the regular prints and reverse-image prints be an exact match.
	STEP 2 EXPERIMENT WITH PHOTOCOPIES When you have your reprints in hand, find a copy machine and make multiple copies of your regular and reverse-image prints (Figure 1). You can also use a scanner, computer and printer to make copies. Experimenting with copies to determine how to cut your photos will save you from making an expensive mistake.	FIGURE 2 Use a 45° clear plastic triangle to determine what part of the image you want mirrored and repeated.
	To figure out your cuts, lay a 45° clear plastic triangle (available at craft and office-supply stores) on one of the copied photos. Because there are infinite cutting possibilities, move the triangle around and try to isolate what part of the image you want mirrored and repeated. Also consider which details you'd like to connect, such as branches or arms, and place those elements on one or both sides of the triangle. Generally, you leave one corner of the photo intact and cut away the two adjacent corners. Once you've selected a good possibility, cut the triangle shapes from eight copied photos-four regular and four reverse-image (Figure 2). Follow the cutting instructions described in Step 3 on page 26. Then lay out the design to make sure that it fits on your page, and determine whether you need to make additional cuts. If you don't like the design, keep experimenting with additional photocopies until you find a cutting pattern that works.
	FIGURE 3 Cut and assemble the design using photocopies to avoid expensive mistakes.	STEP 3 CUT OUT THE PIECES After you've finalized the design with your copies, cut your reprints. To cut the first piece, lay the clear triangle on a regular photo and mark the cutting lines with a wax pencil, drawing a thin line. Using a craft knife on a cutting mat carefully cut just on or outside the marked lines.
	After you've cut the first photo, lay it face down on top of the reverse image print so that the photos are face to face (Figure 3). Match the edges as closely as possible. Using the top photo as your template, draw the cutting lines on the reverse image print with a wax pencil, and then cut it out. Repeat these steps to cut out the remaining photos. Cut as exactly as possible to prevent waves or gaps in the design. Cut on or just outside your cutting lines. You can always trim later, but you can't fix a piece that's been cut too narrowly. Mark your photos and cut them right side up. If you cut from the back, the white edges of the photographic paper are more evident and visually disrupt the kaleidoscope design. Don't cut more than one photo at once because the pictures can slide. When cutting photocopies, you can cut several at a time.
	STEP 4 ASSEMBLE THE DESIGN To assemble your design, carefully lay the photos on your page and hold them in place with removable tape until you're ready to permanently mount them. Make additional cuts as required so the pieces fit well and lie flat. You might need to adjust the center or outside edges of the design with additional cuts. When you're satisfied with the layout, permanently adhere each photo, placing each piece next to the preceding one in a circular fashion.	FIGURE 4 Once you've determined the positioning of the cuts, cut and assemble the design using your actual reprints.
	If you were as inspired by these images and ideas as our staff was, then you will love our new book. A collaborative effort between inspired minds and creative hands resulted in this introduction to the magical, mesmerizing world of photo kaleidoscopes. Each scrapbook idea is unique and dramatic! Thirty-six full-color pages offer dozens of unique ideas, easy-to-follow instructions and dazzling images. Each book is $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Available for shipment in early March.