Write. Click. Scrapbook.

In Review

What a great month we have had! Join me as we take our final stroll through the January gallery and then put it all together for one last layout!

Francine: I love this layout for its groupings. Francine is a master of the collection. I love, too, how the photos seem perfectly placed. Like a well set table.

Karen:  I love how her layouts make me feel. She made use of my happy colors which tells me immediately that the title is not a mournful one, but cheerful. This layout reminds me to take pictures of things (and not just people and food) that make me happy. I have notes that have touched my heart that truly belong in my scrapbook. You, too?

Aly: The first time I saw this layout, I immediately wanted to rewind time to a time a few years' back when we were loaded in the car off to somewhere. Nigel, my oldest, never went in the car, unless we had a big destination. He had the luxury of staying inside. My littlest? She has been hauled about since she was small. At three weeks we started out to tennis in the cold midwestern winter, and we have not stopped since. Aly's layout made me realize I haven't take pictures of some of the more mundane activities. Add it to the checklist!

Celeste: I remember a winter as a child where the snow went halfway up our back door. We had to shove and shove to get the screen door open. But of course, there are no pictures. Celeste's layout is a reminder to me to keep my camera handy and take photos of those weather-related memories.

Marnie: Do you know that I purposefully took my camera along one day on our adventures knowing that I had this layout due? Do you that I am so glad that I did? I love to be a good student, and scrapbooking assignments help me to stretch just like school ones used to.

Erin: I love Erin's honesty. Sharing with us that her photos were taken for the Week in the Life album that never was. And how she didn't let them go to waste. Have you photos leftover from a particular purpose that might fit on a page of a different kind? Let Erin's example be your permission to get them on a layout!

Christa: Military wives are such an amazing lot to me. I am always impressed by how they roll with the punches, even when the changes are huge. And moving around the globe seems pretty huge to me. Wow.

Alexandra: Alexandra can take the simplest things and make them look beautiful. Have you taken a minute to finish up your December daily album? It's nearly February. Perhaps this weekend you could get it out and finish it up before the memories run cold?

Lisa: I love the linear beauty of Lisa's layout. And the little grouping of three at the bottom? Awesome! You know that our eye loves threes and fives best right?

Lisa: If you were to sit down and create a layout about today, what would a recounting of your schedule tell you? The changes in my own schedule over the past few years have been significant and annual. Join me in a pact to promise to record this before the memory of the madness fades?

Amy: For the past few years, Costco has offered free calendars with their holiday cards. I recognized this one, and think this is a magnificent use of one! Amy is so clever.

Marnie: I used to be so good at taking headshot pictures of my kids. Now we all seem too busy. So I was happy to find this one amidst my white balance practice photos. Plain headshots like these are permission to journal whatever I want. I love that.

Vivian: Do you ever read people's journaling and realize just how amazing they are? I loved reading Vivian's journaling. And I love how she introduced her daughter to this opportunity to serve our world. And you know what? It taught me that Vivian is a thoughtful person who is aware of others. And now I love her even more, not just for her great pages. Scrapbooking. It is so much more than paper and glue.

Ann: This photo will be a family treasure forever. When I used to teach at CKCs we would take polls on how many photos people took over a Disney vacation. 5000 was not unheard of. How does one begin to scrapbook that many? One at a time. Choose a favorite, just like Ann did. And what a favorite this one is.

Paula: This is your reminder. Get your family together and take a picture of all of you and then create a layout about today. I love how Paula's journaling becomes the vertical column. Clean and easy and purposeful. Perfect.

Celeste: One of my favorite features of Celeste's layout is the thick'ish black borders around the photos. It really helps ground them. And then I seem to notice each of them, rather than just a group of photos. Celeste's pages have such a definitive style, too. Don't you agree?

Celeste: Did you notice how Celeste makes use of a visual triangle on this page? But there is a bit more magic than just the triangle. The photo cluster on the left is the same width as the journaling space on the right. This makes it look like a missing puzzle piece, thereby adding an additional sense of cohesion. It is subtle design elements like these that can transform your pages.

Kelly: Kelly is becoming a hybrid master! With her date doing double duty as the title, the scene is already set for the photos and story. 12.26 conjures a sense of calm and laze for many of us. Choosing to have so much subtext in a title helps to strengthen the message of a page.

Marie: Speaking of dates, how does one not love the date 1.1.11? and to have a baby born on that date? Well, that is pretty special. As a design tip, study Marie's choice of placement for her photos. When you are creating mosaics, make sure you don't have lopped off limbs leading into other limbs, and other such follies. Keep moving things around until they look right. You will know it when you see it.

Donna: I love the celebration of the everyday in Donna's layout. When I saw this, I wanted to run around my whole house and snap photos of all the clutter piles. And then I realized I didn't have hard space enough to record them all!! Teasing. Though I am not teasing about how much you will look back on photos like these and love how transported you will feel into times' past. Please remember to add these pictures to your list!

Celeste: Do you have a lazy day at your house? Or perhaps you have a day that has a regular routine? Have you captured it? Your photos don't need to be display worthy, remember you just want them to remind you of these days that are passing us by. If you do go on a photo field trip, perhaps keep your camera the same angle (up or sideways) for all the pictures as a means of linear bliss.

Keshet: I remember when Nigel was little and I wanted a photo to tell the whole story. And I couldn't figure out how. Well, silly, just add a blackboard! This is such a clever idea. If you check our Pinterest board you will see other examples of blackboards being put to good use, too.

Emily: Favorite part of this layout? The armchairs. Don't they just tell us a little bit about the story? Do you try to reach for embellishments that are purposeful? Don't you find when you do that you love them on your page? Me, too.

Marnie: This silly layout could have not been done and my children's lives would have been perfectly represented. But this page represents my love of learning and my efforts to continue to learn and grow and become every day better at something. And that is a page worth having.

 

The theme this month, Today, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my right now with a new kid photo, stretched the journaling theme of everyday messes to include a messy photo, and added in one of the pieces of the printables page. Putting it all together, I came up with this. My new favorite layout.

I hope you felt inspired to make a new favorite as well!

scrapbook!

Welcome to Scrapbook! Saturday. What a wonderful week we have just had with Amy. I have laughed, cried, shuddered with fear, and breathed sighs of relief. All in one week. I love how scrapbooking is not just about the pages, but the sisterhood and bonds we develop as we read each others' pages. Thank you, Amy, for opening dialogues for me with myself, my son, and my friends. Thank you, too, for helping me feel normal as I enter this new territory. I love watching and learning from other mothers that I respect.

 

This week, we are loaded with goodies. A sketch by Donna, a design challenge, and a printable! Scrapbook Saturdays are the best!

 

January Sketch

Donna has created a sketch for us based upon her layout in the gallery. Here is it.

And for those who prefer, we have again created a layered digital template for you to download and enjoy! You may download here.

Design Challenge

Did you notice how many layouts this month contained linear photo elements? Aly, Celeste, Erin, and Lisa have layouts that rock the vertical stacks of photos! Celeste, Marie, and I all have horizontal photo rows. Linear stacks are a clean and tidy way of incorporating several photos without causing visual clutter. We hope that you will try it for yourself.

 

Printable

We, as a team, had so much fun creating layouts around the today theme that we really want you to do one, too. To help you out, we have created a page of journaling tidbits and embellies for you. We hope you enjoy them!

You may download it here.

 

Here are my challenge layouts:

1. January Sketch

I changed it up a little, squaring off the overlapping elements and making the title all on the top. It was a terrific starting point, which is how I usually use a sketch.

2. Design Challenge

Linear sings to my soul. Ah! The sound of harmony!

3. "Today" Printable

Here is my layout using one of the elements from the printable.

Thanks for stopping by!! Please don't forget to stop by and visit Ali and Renee, our dear sponsors! And maybe leave Crystal a thank you, too, for providing the elements used to make the printable! We hope you enjoy the sketch and printable; please remember they are for personal use only!

 

That's it! Three more challenges to help get your ideas moving and those pages finished!

Have a great week! I'll be back next week!

Card Design Tips

Welcome back to card week. I'm glad you're here! Today I want to share with you some of my go-to design tips for cards. I don't consider myself an expert, but I have picked up a few pointers over the years that help me to create cards I'm pleased with quickly and easily.

To be honest, translating my scrapbooking design habits onto a small card was awkward at first, but after some practice it became much more natural for me and now I really enjoy making cards.  Here are a few tips that helped me get comfortable working with a small canvas:

1) less is more--when working with a small canvas, don't try to add too many elements or your card's design won't be as effective

2) pack one punch--on most of my cards I try to use one high impact element as my focus.  That might be a cool embellishment, a large sentiment, a "wow" color combo, or an awesome technique.

3) three's company--a scrapbook page requires three basic things: photos, text, and embellishments.  A card needs three basic things as well--just swap your high impact element for your photo(s), use your sentiment as your text, and choose your embellishments to compliment the previous two items.

Remember, sometimes your elements will overlap, i.e. your high impact element will be your sentiment, etc.  Also, these tips are meant to be guidelines and all three won't apply to every single card.  But they are a good place to start.

Here are a few cards that illustrate the above tips:

Less is more

Kimber McGray is the genius behind this simple and fabulous card. Some cardstock and a butterfly punch are all you need to create something with tons of "wow" factor.

Source: twopeasinabucket.com via Aly on Pinterest

 

I found this card on the Pebbles Inc blog by guest designer Kimberly Neddo. I love how all it takes is a couple patterned paper banners, a simple sentiment, and a few well-placed embellishments to make this stunning card.

Source: pebblesinc.blogspot.com via Aly on Pinterest

 

Pack one punch

The punch packed into this Doodlebug card I created is the cluster of buttons demonstrating the sentiment.  Adding much more to this card would have given the buttons too much competition and detracted from the main focus.

The high impact element on this card I made with Creative Memories products is the paper loop tree.  The remaining elements on the card all serve to compliment the focal point rather than compete with it.

Three's company

The card below by Kasia Curry is a great example of this tip.  The trio of punched hearts is the high impact element, there's a simple sentiment, and a few button embellishments that compliment the hearts.  Love it!

Source: natureofcraftythings.blogspot.com via Aly on Pinterest

 

 

This card I created using Jillibean Soup products demonstrates the three's company idea as well. The twine-wrapped button is the high impact element here, the mini tag includes a sentiment, and the paper, border stickers, and brad all compliment the focal point.

I hope these tips have inspired you in some way.  Again, they're really just guidelines to use as a spring board for creating.  What matter's most is creating what makes you happy in a way that works best for you.  Tomorrow I'll share some thoughts on using sketches for cards--even sketches meant for scrapbook layouts.  Until then!

scrapbook!

Gallery Walk

I have the pleasure of loading the gallery each month, which means I get sneak peeks of all the layouts as they come in. And then I get to spend some time with each project as I post it and edit the materials' lists. But even still, when I pull open the gallery as a whole, my knees swoon, just a bit.

Like every month, there is something in each project that catches my eye. Let's go in order of appearance.

Lisa's canvas: First, I love red polkadots. And tiny ones remind me of my favorite swiss dot dress when I was little. But my favorite part is Lisa's ingenuity in decorating a stamped doily. I would have been tempted to buy an actual doily, which would not have had the same simple glory that Lisa's stamped doily attains.

Aly's layout: Such a brilliant use of cards. I love how some of the circles are names, others photos, other designs. I think the mixture provides such good balance. And helps us to see how eclectic gatherings help tell stories.

Christa's layout: My favorite part of Christa's layout is how she used border punched paper to create shelves for her pictures. This subtle tie in to her subject unifies her story and photos and design. So clever.

Aly's layout: First, the pictures are perfect. I have had three small children and this very same situation, but never thought to bend down and snap a picture of the ornaments on the floor, or the giant grin of the culprit. Times like this I remember how important it is to visit our site often for reminders of all those photos we don't want to miss!! (Such a shameless plug!! teehee!!) Second, did you notice Aly's use of the photo corners? A quiet means of defining the photos as a whole.

Celeste's layout: One of Celeste's greatest strengths is her design strength. She flexed her muscles for us again this month. Notice how everything about her layout is linear: the squares, the even spaces, the white space. And then, there's the photo. Tilted just so. Thereby drawing our eye in. And with tilt, the ninja's eyes become horizontally even with the squares, thereby providing one more bit of balance and symmetry.

Aly's layout: Did you read the journaling? It talks about a moment of quiet. I find most of my quiet holiday moments are spent staring at the lights on my tree. I feel a layout coming on!

Lisa's layout: Aside from the scrapbooking side of things, I might need some of those cookies!! hee hee. Lisa has such a way with her photos. (My favorite might be the kitty next to the elf!!) It's not just the photos she takes, but her angles, her lighting, and the details. Oh, the details.

Christa's layout: First, do you see how unseasonal the colors in this layout are? Not very Christmas-y,but really lovely all the same. And can you spot the triangle? The bottom of visual triangle is the left hand side of the layout (top to bottom). The apex of the triangle is the photo of Jed. This triangle wouldn't work without the tape at the bottom of the page in the lower left hand corner. Cover it up, for just a moment, and evaluate the difference. See? I told you Christa was clever!!

Kelly's book: I love the idea of a page or two representing each year of celebrations. I have made similar birthday books, but never thought to do it for Christmas. This is so very smart. And how fun to look at each year as it grows. Thank you, Kelly, for such a terrific idea!

Keshet's layout: Oh, food shots! What's not to love? I have taken photos of the neighbors' and teachers' treats in the past, but rarely seem to get them on a layout. I love how Keshet's layout show a close-up photo and then one in full packaging. Perfect.

Paula's layout: Paula's photo grouping is just perfect. And did you know that you can have this too? She used a digital photo cluster to put it together. These can be used for paper layouts, too by adding your photos, printing it out, and then trimming the edges. Adding the notation on the bottom of the photos makes it even more purposeful. And the layers on the title? Lovely.

Cheryl's ornament: Only Cheryl could transform a dollar store ugly plaque into this darling little creation.

Cheryl's plate: Or a plate into this? And if you try this at home, be sure to add shadows to the layers so that you can tell who is in front. It's the same as if you were using stickers. One on top, one below.

Francine's layout: The title is terrific and tell so much of the story. Good titles are so effective. I have been keeping track of the books we have checked out of the library on Pinterest and I know that a layout like this will be a perfect capture of our visual list! Something I love about Francine's layout is how the title is big and bold, and the flourish is big and bold, and the photos are just so tiny.

Lisa's layout: I love this one for its content. Have you a similar book? A place where you keep all your ideas together? Have you thought to photograph it and add it to your scrapbook? These items that make up our world are so fleeting. And yet, so basic for us. Perhaps you could look around your life and see if there's something you do often that hasn't yet made your scrapbooks!

Lisa's layout: Did you notice the texture of the blue ribbon beneath the photo? and how the ribbon isn't completely adhered, thus providing even more texture? The velvety softness adds to the warm glow of the lights. And again, Lisa's photos are well-composed so that the twinkle lights glow softly.

Marie's layout: The visual triangle on this layout is more like a pyramid, coming up and out of the paper. The stacked layers make the photo rise up and out of the page, catching your eye before anything else. And Marie was right on target in getting down level with the baby to shoot the photo at the appropriate perspective.

Monika's layout: Monika's design is one of my go-to designs. It works seamlessly for horizontal 4x6 photos. I probably have more than 20 layouts with nearly the same design. And, no, that's not lazy, just practical!! Further, did you notice the woodgrain tape? So hip!

Emily's layout: For a layout about a santa collection, Emily's layout is remarkably and delightfully void of santas. Rather, the title is the story and the photo is the evidence. The trees prove the season and the colors lend a cheer. Especially helpful with a black and white photo. And have I mentioned how real Emily's pages seem? And always have a twist of wry humor.

Donna's layout: Donna chose to use two patterned papers as her backdrop, though not in equal proportion. When she added her photographs, she put the narrow photo on the wider pattern, and the wider photo on the narrower strip. This slight adjustment creates flow from the vertical base of the visual triangle (the left hand side of the layout) up and through the triangle to the middle of the page on the right side. With the edge of the landscape photo crossing over onto the patterned paper on the left, the layout becomes cohesive and level.

Amy's layout: This is a wonderful reminder to get our memories on paper even if it means we must wait for the photo. And if you know what size it will be, you can create an whole layout and even place it in the proper album. Who said layouts need photos?

Amy's layout: Being a fontophile and a stickerphile, I have always wanted to create a layout like this, but have never been able to determine how to do it. Now I know who I can ask! I love the boxes and how she hand drew them. And I wish we lived close enough to visit my mom and help her decorate!!

Alexandra's tags: Such a clever way of documenting our homes. Tags relieve the pressure of having a particular number of items and are fun little canvases to decorate. And once we get some snow or put up some lights, I am totally taking Alex's suggestion to document our outside homes.

Thank you for going gallery walking with me. I hope it was helpful to evaluate the little things that make the layouts work so well.

 

Saturday Sketch

This week you have a chance to recreate Donna's layout. She put together a sketch for you that is also downloadable as a layered template. Enjoy!

Thank you, Donna! From all of us!

 

Printable

School ended for us yesterday. Which means Thursday was spent elbow deep in white chocolate popcorn. Having 16 teacher gifts to put together, I thought it might be easiest to print tags. So I made tags.

In case you need them ...

... you may download them here.

 

Thank you for stopping by and spending some time with us! We appreciate you and hope you are doing well on your holiday preparations. Next week will be filled with more December Dailies. Can't wait to see you here!

Inspired by Saturday Challenges: Flickr Highlights

Welcome to Flickr Saturday, where we'll be highlighting reader & team layouts and other projects from our WCS Flickr gallery that correspond to the blog themes each month.

Be sure to load your layout when you create something inspired by one of our team members. One of these months you might just find yourself featured on the fourth Saturday!

Click Saturday: Design

Lisa O took her own photography challenge and uploaded these beauties to Flickr.

 

Week 3: My Three Senses

Monika inspired Monica to create this mini album from a children's board book purchased from the Target Dollar Spot.

Scrapbook Saturday sketch

Donna's sketch was the basis of Tara's digital layout of her family all dressed up for Halloween.

Marnie also created two layouts with Donna's sketch. One sticks to the sketch pretty closely, one, well, she started there!

Thank you for sharing your creations with us, ladies! We hope you will please join in again next month!

scrapbook.

Welcome to the October edition of Scrapbook! Saturday.  Today we have a sketch, a printable and some scrapbook-friendly craft inspiration to share with you.  Let's get started!

 

SKETCH

Our sketch for this month uses multiple 3x4 photos:

You may download October's Sketch here. It is a fully layered digital template, too. Twice the uses for twice the fun. Bonus!!

Beginning with this sketch, I created a layout about our recent pear-picking adventures:

 

Celeste used the digital template, and switched out the 3x4s for 4x6s to create this layout:

 

Lisa K. created this two-page layout: 

 

Lisa O. create this 8.5x11 layout: 

and a card too!

I love that doily - so pretty!

PRINTABLE

This month our printable, made by the fabulous Beth Proudfoot, is the starting point of a fun and easy scrapbook page:

Quiz your children, or answer the questions for yourself, and make this page to document your Halloween.  Can you believe it is just a little over a week away?

Download this month's printable, here.

CRAFT

Finally, this month we're sharing craft inspiration with you in the form of these origami leaves:

::source::

Visit the link to see a step-by-step picture tutorial.  You can make them in a variety of colors and sizes and would be a wonderful handmade touch to any fall layout.

 

Thank you for stopping by!  Need more inspiration?  Follow us on Pinterest and see what's inspiring our team. 

We hope you will create something using the sketch, the printable or the craft inspiration.  If you do, we'd love to see what you come up with!  Just post it to our Flickr gallery.

Design Day 4--A Variety

Welcome back to my final day! Wasn't yesterday's giveaway the bomb? I love working with Debbie, she has totally changed the way I think about my scrapbooking. She knows how to get into your mind and make you reevaluate and assess your processes. It's pretty cool. If you didn't get a chance to check out the Masterful Scrapbooking Design site, please do so. Like the give.away.day. lady said, the webinars are my favorite part, listening to various designers discuss how they think is just fascinating!

So for today, there are some fields of design that make me very happy. And there are others. Not that I don't enjoy the others, but I only have so many hours in a day, and looking for inspiration from automobile design sites isn't top on my list of fun. What I'm hoping to get across is this: I know there are many many many fields of design, but today we're only looking at the things that make me giddy. All the different areas of design use the same elements, principles, and composition rules we've discussed this week, but in many different ways. I find it interesting to study them for my scrapbooking, I love the opening sequence for Casino Royale because of the motion graphics. I have used packaging from Target as inpsiration for my designing. I borrow heavily from album art, created by graphic designers. There are many children's literature illustrators that I regularly check out. Design is everywhere. I don't promise you'll learn a lot today, but I do promise you'll have fun. Lots of links and videos today, you might get sidetracked (many of the websites have links to other websites that have links to other websites), please come back when you remember you haven't read the whole post...

In no specific order, here are the fields of design I dig as well as some examples, links, websites, and/or articles:

1. Graphic Design

Work by Luke Bott.

There are probably a gazillion graphic design websites out there. I know it's not possible to cover near enough to do them justice, so if you'd like to share ones you love in the comments section, I'd like that very much. But I will share a couple of pictures and links that should keep you busy for a while. One thing I have done to get more inspiration is search for "design" on twitter and follow any results that look interesting.

• That's how I found design.org, it's kind of like Pinterest for designers of all varieties. 
• Check out this article on DesignReviver about using social media for finding inspiration.
• And the GraphicsDesignBlog is just one of many sites that has great articles. You can get lost for hours. 
• Same with DesignFix (which is not solely a graphics site, and I do know that graphic and web design are not the same...), lots of really fun articles that can take you from place to place to place.
• DesignInspiration and FFFFound are kind of like Pinterest as well.

Then there are the design blogs. Ah, designers who host a blogs dedicated solely to things that inspire them, and sometimes they'll give away wallpaper and things, which I very much appreciate. :) These are just a few:

• how about orange
• graphic exchange
• simple blueprint
• design is mine
• design work life
• eat drink chic
• design sponge

I'm going to stop now. We have other things to do! 

 

2. Motion Graphics

This film by Pleix is just delightful, I love the colors used.

 

Super cute video (are you seeing a trend here?) by FWY Studios for match.com

 

So as not to load you down with too many videos, this is another interesting one from of various videos put together by Digital Kitchen (they do the opener for House). They have a really cool one that I can't figure out how to post, but if you click on the Motionspire link below, look for Funny or Die. It's a very graphically inspired short that makes no sense, but is awesome to watch and gather ideas from.

 

And if you want to while away more hours than you do on Pintrest, go to Motionspire. Set aside a large block of time for this click. :) Don't say I didn't warn you.

3. Package Design 

I think any one these posts I've done this week could easily become a post in itself, and any topic we're looking at today could fill a whole week as well, but this topic, I just love. Something about the how of the presentation makes me happy.

I love the swoop on this packaging, Target had a similar one on it's store brand. But the childhood confession is just clever. I like packaging that makes one smile. 

The Dieline and Lovely Package are a couple of other ones you can check out.

4. Typography

If you enjoy typography, there are just as many gazillion sites, but one I enjoy is Friends of Type. You'll also enjoy going to Flickr and searching under "typography."

 

5. Illustration

That's Tad Carpenter; that's fun.

Find a rep firm and you've got hours of enjoyment ahead of you. Here are a couple: Illustration Web and Frank Sturges Rep. 

Jessica Hische is a designer, letter, AND illustrator, but I'm putting under the latter here because love her illustrations. Check out her blog too, she has a fun, quirky sense of humor. It used to have a "teenage girl" mode where you could click and the background turned to a tiled sparkly wolf picture. I can't seem to find that on her blog right now, sad. I am always referring new Twitter users to her letter to her mom about Twitter. Her URL is funny too.

And I'll end with the fabulous Oliver Jeffers. His work is genius. You are not allowed to argue with me.

Thank you for joining me this week. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing all my design finds with you. There are so many more, I encourage you to explore on your own. And if you find anything you want to share, post it to our Twitter page. I check that often. Have a great weekend and don't forget to come back on Saturday for our new Write.Click.Scrapbook. feature!

 

 

Design Day 3--Composition

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:

Other techniques (from Wikipedia)

• There should be a center of interest or focus in the work, to prevent it becoming a pattern in itself;
• The direction followed by the viewer's eye should lead the viewer's gaze around all elements in the work before leading out of the picture;
• The subject should not be facing out of the image;
• A moving subject should have space in front;
• Exact bisections of the picture space should be avoided;
• Small, high contrast, elements have as much impact as larger, duller elements;
• The prominent subject should be off-centre, unless a symmetrical or formal composition is desired, and can be balanced by smaller satellite elements
• the horizon line should not divide the art work in two equal parts but be positioned to emphasize either the sky or ground; showing more sky if painting is of clouds, sun rise/set, and more ground if a landscape.

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! :)

 

 

 

Design Day 2--Principles

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!

 

Design Day 1--The Elements

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 pertains to the use of hue in artwork and design. Defined as primary colors (red, yellow, blue) which cannot be mixed in pigment from other hues, secondary colors (green, orange, purple) which are directly mixed from combinations of primary colors. Further combinations of primary and secondary colors create tertiary (and more) hues. Tint and Shade are references to adding variations in Value; other tertiary colors are derived by mixing either a primary or secondary color with a neutral color. e.g. Red + White = Pink.VALUE

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!

Disclaimer: I majored in English. I had always been interested in Graphic Design, but didn't want to do the internship, so I graduated college knowing a lot about language and not nearly enough about design. I've been grateful I studied English, it has served me well. But there's always been a bit of a regret in the back of my mind that I didn't do more with my interest in design. I am trying to say I'm in no way an expert on the topic I'm about to spend a week discussing.