Using a photo as a background

[andyapc]

When I'm creating a 12x12 LO, I know that I need to crop my background picture to a square so that I can stretch it to use it as the entire background without any distortion.

But... what if I only want the picture to cover 1/2 of the background lengthwise (12x6)? So that half of my canvas is covered with the picture and the other half I can journal. How would I crop my picture so that it would cover that area without any distortion?

Is there some formula/ratio I should follow when cropping a picture if I want to use it as a partial background?

I'm not even sure if this question makes sense - maybe I'm missing the obvious?? :(

[Amanda]

I would crop it after you have stretched it. You're in DIP right? Just hold down the corner and stretch it letting the excess hang of the edges and then part of the photo you are actually wanting on the page on the page. Then crop the entire canvas and voila!

[andyapc]

See - I knew I was missing the obvious! Then again, what else is new??