Have you ever heard someone say. “I don’t have a creative bone in my body”? Or, “I’m afraid of the blank page.” To these claims, we say “That’s nonsense!” In reality, creativity does not require any special bones… and in our scrapbooking world, a blank page is really just a friendly invitation to try something fun!

With any new project, it’s the perfect time to consider “the big picture” and choose your layout design approach. Whenever possible, think of each two-page spread as a single horizontal layout and balance your photos between the two pages. When there are several photos to incorporate, your photos naturally become the focus of the pages.

Sometimes, “less is more”.
When you have fewer photos to work with, the layout will be more dependent on your artistic decoration and text. This doesn’t mean you have to fill a page with “stuff”. (For better design, make sure you leave some space blank. This empty space, also called “negative space”, actually becomes an important element in your design).

How to easily create a visual balance as the basis for your page.
Many experienced scrapbookers work with an invisible “tic-tac-toe” grid to guide their layout and the placement of key photos. For each page or spread there are four points where these lines intersect and yes, those are likely to be the best spots to place your photos or most important memorabilia / decorative elements. If you are designing a spread, your “tic-tac-toe” grid gets more extended horizontally, but the principle of key balance points is still the same. Please see Illustration A.

While visual balance is key to attractive pages, symmetry is rarely successful except in highly formalized albums, and even then should be used sparingly. Why? When you make your layout symmetrical, there is no visual tension to attract and hold the viewer’s interest, and not much is “left to the imagination”. Viewers tend to “look past” symmetry while asymmetric designs are often more attractive and will hold the viewer’s attention for longer.

You can recognize a good layout, even as a little sketch.
It’s helpful to quickly “rough out” a small sketch to use a guide for your page or spread. You can always change your design, but it’s still a good idea to have a “thumbnail” drawing as reference. For example, if you are in the middle of your page or spread, and you are interrupted, (not that this ever happens in real life), it’s always good to have a sketch of your original idea to come back to and you don’t have to feel like you are starting from scratch.

Another method we like for creating great layouts is to use your base sheet, a sheet protector, your un-cropped photos, un-modified papers, plus any ribbons and additional “decoration”. As you are developing your layout, begin to place all of the elements you want to use right on the page, layering the papers, playing with the type, but without using any adhesive. Try different looks with the patterns and shapes within the context of the actual scrapbook page. You’ll be far more confident in making your design decisions, once you have a good sense of what you’re working with, and most of the elements are right out in front of you.

With scrapbooking kits from Memory Keeping Collection, you’ll always have a step-by-step instruction brochure and everything you need, including all the extras like ribbons, fonts and 3-D embellishments. So, whether you decide to follow the suggested layout or create your own, you’ll have the highest quality, color compatible designer materials to work with. For more information on our Memory Keeping Collection products, click “products” on the home page.

- Marc Ziner

Tags: Layout

This entry was posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under Layout Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.