What is "gutting" in Scrapbooking terms?

When the term "gutting" is used by us scrapbookers, you know we are not referring to fish... right?!!!

Of course not! What it refers to is the fact that you are "gutting" a piece of card or paper by taking the middle out of it.

Why would you want to do this...?

Well it's a means of economics really. If you "gut" the mat of a photograph or, in the case of the one in the photos here, a whole layout... you get to use the bit in the middle for something else. It makes your stash "go" further.

It would be a waste to leave almost a whole sheet of card which isn't going to be seen.

The reason I wanted to mat the layout here, was because it is a digital A4 layout that I printed out and, of course, my A4 printer can't quite print up to the edge of a whole piece of A4, so there were margins.

I wanted to make the layout up to a proper A4 size and so matted it.

However, before adhering it to the page I used my steel rule and scalpel to gut the card first and now have almost a whole sheet of A4 to use for something else too!

P.S. If you are wondering why I haven't shown you the front of this scrapbooking page, it's because I am submitting it to a magazine for possible publication and so can't publish it here until I know whether it will be published or not! But will as soon as possible.