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Congratulations Shanon! We hope you enjoy your learning! Thank you, to Debbie, for your generosity! We love what you do and are grateful to have your support!
Emily returns shortly with the final installment in her design series. We feel like we have learned so much this week. Such great fun. Thank you, Emily, for helping us better understand why things work. Or not. We can't wait to apply our new found knowledge to our pages!
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If you haven't had a chance to take a class through Debbie Hodge's Masterful Scrapbook Design, or its parent company, Get It Scrapped!, well you have been missing out. Debbie has taken online classes to a new level. Featuring both paper, digital, and hybrid scrappers, the classes meet every need. Many of your favorite WCS collective members have worked with Debbie, so you know if you love WCS, you'll love MSD! What exactly is it, you ask? Well here you go:
If you’ve found it downright intimidating to look at a blank page and wondered how you’re going to start putting photos, words, and supplies together, you’re not alone. At Masterful Scrapbook Design you learn that designing awesome–even masterful–scrapbook pages is not difficult when experienced designers lay out the terrain and then share proven techniques for navigating that terrain. Every month you’ll study with 4 guest teachers alongside our core teachers. You’ll get a 30+ page “seminar” that kicks off the month and then attend (or listen to recordings of) 4 webinars (one with each teacher), receive 6+ focus lessons, and access 60+ annotated layouts.
--from the Masterful Scrapbooking Design About section
Debbie has generously agreed to award the winner of this week's giveaway with a 3 month subscription starting NOW and extending through the January 2012 class. Here is a quick rundown of what you'll get:
See any familiar names? Remember how Emily said the impetus for this week's theme of Exploring Design came from her experience teaching for Debbie? You can go back and take archived classes too, so if you want to learn more about design, be sure to check out the September 2011 class, Design Play. Emily's favorite part of teaching? The webinars, where you can listen to the teacher and Debbie discuss that month's topic, always a good time according to Miss Emily. Make sure you follow Debbie on Twitter and Facebook, she's always sharing great tips and free articles.
To enter, simply tell your most used design element or principle. Comments will remain open through this evening and one lucky number will be chosen at random and posted tomorrow morning. Please remember to check back as it is your responsibility to claim your lucky number by midnight Saturday!
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Welcome back! I've really appreciated the comments you've been making this week. Thank you for letting me know that you're enjoying our exploration of design, even if the posts are a tad long. Today's post promises to be much shorter, but not any the less interesting. We'll be looking at composition today. The definition I found at About.com by Marion Boddy-Evans reads as follows:
Composition is the term used for the arrangements of the elements in or the subject matter of a painting. A successful composition draws in the viewer and pulls their eye across the whole painting so that everything is taken in and finally settles on the main subject of the painting.
In his Notes of a Painter, Henri Matisse defined composition this way: "Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings."
There are lots of rules (waiting patiently to be broken), but we're going to talk about three today, definitions again courtesy of Wikipedia.
THE RULE OF THIRDS states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.
This Rosie the Riveter poster is a great example of the Rule of Thirds. her face is in the top left third, her bent elbow in the lower right, the two things that really stand our in this design. If you follow the rules, good design can be timeless.
I try to use this rule as much as I can in my photography, but it can also be used in designing your scrapbook page. 3x3 grid designs are an easy way to use this rule. Looking through my designs, I find that I don't use grids very much, I vow to do it more! Here's the closest I could find, although each grid is not completely filled:
THE RULE OF ODDS states that by framing the object of interest in an artwork with an even number of surrounding objects, it becomes more comforting to the eye, thus creates a feeling of ease and pleasure. It is based on the assumption that humans tend to find visual images that reflect their own preferences/wishes in life more pleasing and attractive.
An image of a person surrounded/framed by two other persons, for instance, where the person in the center is the object of interest in that image/artwork, is more likely to be perceived as friendly and comforting by the viewer, than an image of a single person with no significant surroundings.
Here are a couple of examples for you, the first from Country Living magazine.
This second one cracks me up, it's called Walking Typewriters by graphic designer Kevin Lucius (you can buy his work on Etsy. Cool.). Note the Rule of Odds is employed a few different ways? The three typewriters and the five hands you see when you look across the page. Very clever.
And from my own personal collection of scrapbook pages...as many times as I use this rule, I find I break it just as quickly. Rules are meant to be broken, right? But here's an example of 5 speech bubbles to show I can do it. :)
THE RULE OF SPACE applies to artwork (photography, advertising, illustration) picturing object(s) to which the artist wants to apply the illusion of movement, or which is supposed to create a contextual bubble in the viewer's mind.
This can be achieved, for instance, by leaving white space in the direction the eyes of a portrayed person are looking, or, when picturing a runner, adding white space in front of him rather than behind him to indicate movement.
I use this rule in my photography a lot, then I'll use that space to do my journaling in or I'll put my titlework in the empty space.
Basically anytime you use white space, you're apply this rule to your composition. Pretty easy, huh? Here's a really fun article on white space, called My Problem With White Space by Matt Ward. I understand Matt's point of view, white space gets on my daughter's nerves when I share my work with her. She's starting to embrace it though, which makes this white-space-loving momma happy.
And just a P.S. (of sorts, since it's not really a the end of my post, it's really an M.S.--mid script, sorry. I digress.) in case you might be asking: white space doesn't have to be white, it can be brown (or red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, or anything in between.) as in this example from Alyssasezello.
Though not rules, here are a few other pointers that you can add to your arsenal of design information:
Finally, in my searching for information on design, I ran into this delightful missive by Marvin Bartel, an artist and former professor from Goshen, Indiana. It's called Percy's Principles of Composition and I enjoyed reading through it so much, I thought you might too. It's Mr. Bartel's personal list of principles. He encourages you to make your own as well. So, let's think about that today, yes?
We've got a great giveaway for you tomorrow, please be sure to come back to check it out. Tell all your friends about it too! :)
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Did I overwhelm you yesterday? I tend to go overboard when my hosting week shows up, there's so much I want to cover! I won't be any better today, we still have a lot to cover, but tomorrow... :)
Today is dedicated to the principles of design. What's the difference between elements and principles you ask? I think the best definition I found came from a homework help site called Jiskha:
The major difference between principles and elements is that principles are rules you have to follow and elements are things that will help you complete those rules for the best project outcome.
If you like watching videos, there's a whole series of them by Arguing Art, a couple of guys sitting in a gameroom, discussing the principles of art (they have a bunch of other videos discussing other aspects of art as well.) Not a lot of visuals like yesterday's podcast and video, but interesting in their own way. I'll link you to the introduction, then you can explore more from there if you'd like.
As with elements, there's a large variety in the list of principles. Again, I'm going with the consensus and definitions from Wikipedia. If you'd like to read a great article on the many of the principles, click here. I also want to point out that these principles overlap. An example for movement could just as easily be an example of repetition.
And here we go!
BALANCE is arranging elements so that no one part of a work overpowers, or seems heavier than any other part. The three different kinds of balance are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. Symmetrical (or formal) balance is when both sides of an artwork, if split down the middle, appear to be the same. The human body is an example of symmetrical balance. The asymmetrical balance is the balance that does not weigh equally on both sides. Radial balance is equal in length from the middle. An example is the sun.
I'm not too good at creating layouts with Symmetrical Balance, I like to play with this principle more than I realized. I have almost done it here, had I not slid everything over to the side, I would have almost made it:
This next picture of rocks is an example of Asymmetrical Balance. It comes from this interesting article by Jason Beaird (from his book The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition) Why do the rocks perfectly exemplify this elements? He says:
If you were to use a piece of paper to cover any one of the three stones below, the entire photograph would feel unbalanced and unfinished. This is generally the way balance works. It’s as if the entire composition is in a picture frame hanging by a single nail on the wall. It barely takes much weight on one side or the other to shift the entire picture off balance.
Go ahead, try it. He's right, huh? Pretty cool.
PROPORTION is a measurement of the size and quantity of elements within a composition. In ancient arts, proportions of forms were enlarged to show importance. This is why Egyptian gods and political figures appear so much larger than common people. The ancient Greeks found fame with their accurately-proportioned sculptures of the human form. Beginning with the Renaissance, artists recognized the connection between proportion and the illusion of 3-dimensional space.
An example from the world of graphic design, by artists Gina+Matt, where you get the feeling of depth because of Proportion. Those dogs crack me up.
This layout shows how I translate Proportion into scrapbooking. There are three obviously different sized shapes. The large envelope, the medium-sized journaling/title block, and the small photo. Your eye is led down the page, one of the benefits of the principle of Proportion. I'm not sure this is the strongest example, but looking through my work, I don't find a lot of examples...
EMPHASIS is the point of attraction in a piece of art that draws the viewers eye. If something in a piece of art has emphasis it stands out among other shapes, lines, and viewing points of the painting/drawing
Website designer Daniel Martin's home page is the perfect example of Emphasis. You are immediately pulled into the site, aren't you?
So how do you employ Emphasis in scrapbooking? White space and extra large photos are excellent ways to have one thing stand out. (You'll see in a minute that this layout could also work for the principle of Contrast, the principles overlap.)
UNITY is the wholeness that is achieved through the effective use of the elements and principles of art. The arrangement of elements and principles to create a feeling of completeness.
I found this Whole Foods ad campaign on the Frank Sturges Rep. site. It was also created by artist Gina Triplett. Why is this an example of Unity?
Each piece of packaging is a different size and shape, and each looks slightly different, but they all take bits and piece of this piece, or one similar to it (see the red strip):
My example of Unity comes via the doors of Old Town Zurich. None are alike, but they are all doors, making the layout unified.
MOVEMENT shows actions, or alternatively, the path the viewer's eye follows throughout an artwork. Movement is caused by using elements under the rules of the principles in picture to give the feeling of action and to guide the viewer's eyes throughout the artwork. In movement your art should flow, because you are controlling the viewers eye. You control what they see and how they see it, much like a path leading across the page to the item you really want to be seen by the viewer.
This next picture shows movement in two different ways. The shoes, although subtle show movement because of what shoes are used for: mobility. They are pointed in the direction of moving forward. Were they toe to toe, it wouldn't be as effective. The pattern in the floor also denotes movement. If you want to see some really cool wood floors and art, check out the artist behind this image, Pernille Snedker Hansen, her work is AMAZING!
This layout about my kids exploring uses the felt cirlces between the photos to carry the eye along the photos. There's an obvious starting circle because of how we read from left to right, then the last circle acts as the finishing point of the story.
CONTRAST is created by using elements that conflict with one another. Often, contrast is created using complementary colors or extremely light and dark values. Contrast creates interest in a piece and often draws the eye to certain areas. It is used to make a painting look interesting.
Big versus little (the layout above about the artsy garbage can?). Light versus dark. Anytime you put a color on a black or white background, you get strong Contrast.
This example from the Purl Bee, the pink just pops against the white and grey.
RHYTHM/PATTERN/REPETITION is showing consistency with colors or lines. Putting a red spiral at the bottom left and top right, for example, will cause the eye to move from one spiral, to the other, and everything in between. It is indicating movement by the repetition of elements. Rhythm can make an artwork seem active.
This has nothing to do with design, but it's a cute song, I love the Plain White T's version, but she looks happy, it's my gift to you for sticking with this post. And it's got the word RHYTHM in it :)
Now for a couple of examples for you, this first one from the 3R's blog. It's paint chips. Cool, huh?
And I love this one by Amy Hood, give me a chevron pattern any day. It's gorgeous repitition!
And we are done. Tomorrow's post will be much shorter, I promise. And just a reminder, I've tried to link every original post to give credit to the individual artists. If you pin any of these images, be sure you use the original post. Thanks!
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A few months ago, I was asked to be a guest teacher for Debbie Hodge's Masterful Scrapbooking Design. The topic was Design Play. Ever since I was a young whippersnapper, I have secretly wanted to be a designer, more specifically, a bulletin board designer (How to break a 3rd grader's heart? Tell her no such job exists.). Knowing I'd want to do some research to refresh my understanding of the topic, I quickly agreed. Well, I had a blast teaching the class in September, and this week's theme at W.C.S. is the result of that refresher course. Design is a very broad topic and with only one week, we won't be able to dig deep, today and tomorrow we'll talk about the elements and principles, then we'll spend Wednesday discussing composition, and Friday we'll be looking at the varieties of design out there. Hopefully you'll end the week knowing a little bit more about how design can influence your own scrapbooking.
As we begin, I'd like to point out that it seems everyone has a different list of what the elements and principles of design are, many of them are similar, but it's hard to find two that completely agreed. I even found a teaching website that confirmed my suspicion. So please be gentle with me. I am looking at the conglomerate, it may not agree with your opinions, but it gives you an idea.
First, there are the elements:
Hee, hee. Did I fool you? No, we won't be discussing these elements. But it's the same idea. Just as these elements are the building blocks of the natural world, and the elements of design make up the basic structure of good design.
I found this great podcast video by daytonkgraphics, I think it makes the elements pretty easy to understand with lots of visual examples. Please feel free to watch it now (it's just over 9 minutes):
In case you want to skip the video, here are the basics of the elements of design, in written form (definitions taken from Wikipedia). I also recommend this this fabulous little video by FreyaFire, for some easy to understand visuals. I have added some examples, either from my own work or designs I've found in my searching. Because the elements of design work well together some of the examples have more than one element in them, but I hope you understand I had to pick and choose. :)
LINE is most easily defined as a mark that spans a distance between two points (or the path of a moving point), taking any form along the way. As an art element, line pertains to the use of various marks, outlines and implied lines in artwork and design, most often used to define shape in two-dimensional work. Implied line is the path that the viewer's eye takes as it follows shapes, colors, and form along a path, but may not be continuous or physically connected, such as the line created by a dancer's arms, torso, and legs when performing an arabesque.
An example of wavy lines, from a fun tutorial found on this site.
My layout uses many types of lines, curvy, straight, and implied. Implied lines are ones that aren't all there. The stamped ampersand is an example of implied lines.
For some fun ways to use lines in your designs, check out this article.
SHAPE pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional space that can be defined by edges, setting one flat specific space apart from another. Shapes can be geometric (e.g.: square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) or organic (such as the shape of a puddle, blob, leaf, boomerang, etc.) in nature. Shapes are defined by other elements of art: Space, Line, Texture, Value, Color, Form.SPACE by object or around object
It's easy to use shapes in scrapbooking, you probably don't even think about it. Add a mat to your photo and you've got a rectangle. Punch a leaf, you've got an organic shape. Cut a circle for your journaling spot and you've got yet another shape.
This layout has a lot of shapes in it, but the one you don't explicitly see is the strongest one of all in my opinion. I tend to design in triangles a lot.
A fun example of shape can be seen in this montage of designs I found on designlovefest. There are four different images here. Lots of shapes in each one, add them all together and they make even more fun shapes.
FORM may be created by the forming of two or more shapes or as three-dimensional shape (cube, pyramid, sphere, etc.). It may be enhanced by tone, texture and colour. Form is considered three-dimensional showing height, width and depth. Examples of these are sculpture, theatre play and figurines.
Form in scrapbooking is a little harder to apply because we have albums that can squish forms flat. However, I still like to add form, I love the dimensionality of it all. To see how to make this bow, see this tutorial.
And in case you're interested, this bow is doing just fine in my album, because it's made of cardstock, it's a little more resistant to smooshing.
Color is another easy element to incorporate in your scrapbooking. So easy that I'm not going to say much more about it, but I will show you a pretty picture. Using colors that work together on the color wheel is always a safe bet, but don't be afraid to do something unexpected. This room speaks to me, lots of great textures, but it's the colors that grab my attention first, turquoise and burnt orange with black and white just makes me happy.
TEXTURE is the quality of a surface or the way any work of art is represented. Lines and shading can be used to create different textures as well. For example, if one is portraying certain fabrics, one needs to give the feeling of the right texture so that it closely resembles what the artist is trying to convey.
Texture is easy to achieve in scrapbooking because so there are so many products available both with with actual and implied texture. Papers, ribbons, fabrics, if you want texture, it's there. This layout uses paper with a texture, the ribbon bit along the bottom, some floss, and the smooth finish on the alphabet. I'm a big fan of texture, can you tell?
There are also many papers that have photographed layers. This paper by Sassafras is a good example of implied texture.
Matt Lehman is a master of implied texture. His designs are so visually real, I want to touch the computer screen.
Mikey Burton is another designer that makes me sigh me every time I see his work. I first saw something he did while paging through a design magazine in Barnes & Noble last year. I said his name over and over until I got home and could look him up on Google. His old-fashioned, letter press-inspired work oozes texture.
SPACE is the area provided for a particular purpose. It may have two dimensions (length and width), such as a floor, or it may have three dimensions (length, width, and height). Space includes the background, foreground and middle ground. Space refers to the distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece. There are two types of space: positive and negative space. Positive space refers to the space of a shape representing the subject matter. Negative space refers to the space around and between the subject matter.
Perhaps the most well known variety of space in scrapbooking is white space. We here at write. click. scrapbook. are big fans of white space! See my first gallery layout for a great example:
Negative space can be very fun to explore in your designs, I love that there's not a music note physically represented, it's all created by negative space. Click here to read more on negative space.
And there you have it. Line, Shape, Form, Color, Texture, and Form, the elements of design. Some say there are seven, but I'm sticking with the majority here. I could easily focus on one single element all week, but we must move on, we've got principles and composition to learn about. Until tomorrow!
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Welcome to Write Saturday. This is the Saturday we post some journaling prompts, share some layouts, and hope you'll play along. Please join in and post your inspired layouts to our Flickr gallery! Thank you for joining in!
From our journaling jar this week, we have three prompts:
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Here are some examples from the Write. Click. Scrapbook. team to show you how the challenges translate into layouts.
Since I’ve had four kids, I know exactly what happens when one loses a top tooth: everything changes! So when my youngest, Kaleb, had a wiggly top tooth I knew to snap a picture before it fell out. In the journaling I wrote about what has changed since he lost that tooth.
Karen also wrote about a little one losing a top tooth. I love that we both chose the same focus—but our journaling each reflects our individual approaches. Yet, we both have that same bittersweet feeling. Maybe it’s universal to motherhood!
Celeste journaled about how she’s between her wedding day and her fifteenth anniversary. It’s a great reminder that you deserve some layouts about yourself. What’s changed since you were married?
Erin also journaled about herself and a change she’s recently experienced—becoming a runner. How have your exercise routines changed? What have those changes taught you about yourself?
Christa broke her changes into time periods—what’s changed in 1, 5, and 10 years. This approach lends a startling perspective by helping you see all in one glance the contrast.
Karen also shares a layout about the changes that happen during that baby year. Her journaling about her son’s crawling style evokes that quickness with which babies grow and change in those first 12 months.
Aly also writes about the speedy changes of the baby year. From the end of pregnancy to the start of the second six months, so much can change in just a year.
For this layout, I wrote some of the little details that might get lost in a larger view. There can be such a gap between the expectations of starting a new school year and the reality of it. Journaling about what is happening right now is a great way to capture the texture of everyday life in a way you might otherwise not. Plus, it’s a fun way to use up a class photo or two!
Marnie's layout looks at the addition of homework to their schedule. We all know how homework affects parents, too!! And it was a good excuse to record a snippet of their everyday routine.
My son Nathan’s English teacher inspired this journaling prompt! He had to sit outside for five minutes and pay attention to the signs of the seasons, and then write an essay about it. I liked this assignment so much I decided to also do it. I included his essay and my own in the journaling. Don’t overlook your kids’ writing assignments as a rich source of scrapbook journaling!
Marnie's walk, while noticing the season, also had another purpose. Her journaling captures the reasoning behind the walk as well as the season around them.
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That's it! We hope you feel inspired to record a memory or two! Please don't forget to leave a comment and a link to your layout if you make one!! Thank you for stopping and have a wonderful weekend!
Amy
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Hi and welcome back for my last day of hosting!
I scrapbook chronologically and have always done so. I have thought of doing separate albums for family members, events etc. but it just doesn't feel right for me. My scrapbooks are just like our lives: this and that mixed all together. I guess it can seem odd that I have a page about when I saw my friend Linda for the last time before she passed away and a layout about our pets right next to eachother, but that is how our lives look, highs and lows and inbetweens all mixed.
I also sometimes scrap different sizes of layouts and keep them all mixed together in the same albums. Although I tend to mostly scrap 8,5x11" (actually it is A4 but it is close in size) both vertical and horizontal, I like to add a 6x12” page here and there.
I also do minibooks from time to time. This summer for example I did a summer mini and I love how used it looks and feels now that I am done with it.
My minibooks tend to have themes like summer, December daily or birthdays. I have recently started a happy fall mini!
As I said on Monday, I am intrigued by seeing other peoples creative process and just because of that I am going to invite you to see how I go about to start a project.
First I almost always start with a photo/story. Not that I have a photo for every memory I want to keep, but I do tend to have my camera with me most times :) Then I pick out my background paper which is either black, white or kraft.
After that I dig into my stash of embellishments. I pick out an assortment of things that I think will be used and just put them together with my photo + background paper.
My next step, if I do my journaling on my computer is to write and print that. If I do my journaling by hand I do that when I have added (adhered) the photo and embellishments.
My problem arises when I have almost finished a layout. When I sit there and think, what else should I add? You know when you can just see that it is not all finished?? I usually end up adding some flowers, diecuts, ink or sewing. Nowadays I can actually leave a layout sitting on my table overnight. By morning I usually see what still needs to be added. I used to have a hard time walking away from an unfinished project before, but it seems that has changed.
{edited: i am sorry for the wonky photo!}
I get my scrapbooking inspiration from different things and areas of life. Mostly though, I thrive on seeing other people's pages. Nowadays I keep my favourite layouts in my paper pinterest folder. Now and then I copy the images from there onto a Powerpoint presentation and print it as audience copies, it is super easy and leaves me with a wide collection of page inspiration that I then can keep with me when I sit down to scrap.
Thank you so much for this week and please let me know if you have any questions!
☺ Lisa O
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Thank you all for your comments. Thank, you, Coco Prints, for generously providing not just one, but two prints for ...
Melissa, congratulations! We look forward to hearing from you at writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com! Please include your mailing address! Hooray!! Thanks everyone for participating!
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Today we are so happy to introduce a new giveaway sponsor
Here are some sample prints from the shop. Do they remind you of anyone?
You guessed it, it's Candice Palmer!!
Candice, one of our original wcs team members has opened a print shop!! We have missed her charming pages, but can now soak up her talent in new ways. When it comes to typography and color combinations, Candice is unique and identifiable. And absolutely wonderful. Oh, Candice, we are so happy to see you again!!
Before we get to the details of today's giveaway, we are thrilled to tell you that Candice is offering each and everyone of you 25% off through October 31st. Please enter WRITECLICKSCRAPBOOK in your shopping cart to receive your discount. And with free shipping every. single. day. there is no reason not to get some of your holiday shopping started!!
Would one of you like to have a little Candice love in your home? One lucky reader will receive these two Coco Prints:
If you would like to be considered for today's giveaway, please leave us a comment telling us you favorite two colors to put together and your favorite font. Comments will remain open through this evening and one lucky number will be chosen at random and posted tomorrow morning. Please remember to check back as it is your responsibility to claim your lucky number by midnight Saturday!
And before you go, head on over to the Coco Prints facebook page and leave a little love and thanks to Candice for her generosity!
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