It’s always helpful to see what goes on in the minds of other scrapbookers while they play; to learn how they get from A-to-Z when putting together a layout.
Do you remember this page, which I did for an Ali Edwards challenge? A few of you asked me to share my thoughts on the design principles, as well the technique for achieving the circular journaling.
In this post I will take you through the steps and design principles that transformed a concept on inner beauty to a completed scrapbook layout. You can watch episode 6 of the Paperclipping Video Podcast to see two different techniques for forming your journaling into a circle.
The Thought Process and Design Principles That Led To This Layout:
It started with a concept and two stamps. I had purchased Ali Edwards’ recent kit, which contained a stamp of the word, “Beautiful,” and another circular one with the words, “find beauty everyday.” Ali’s challenge was to create a layout on the concept of everyday beauty. We were to list things about ourselves that we find beautiful.
I pulled out a photo of myself that I had not yet scrapped and wrote my journaling into paragraphs in a notebook.
The Basic Grey paper with paisleys and birds was an easy choice. I had been wanting to use it for a while. It had pink to match the blossoms in the photo, and I have a personal connection with paisleys, which remind me of the trendy umbrella my mother had when I was a child.
Because this is a layout about my inner self, I wanted it to have an up-close feel. Cutting the paper around the paisleys and adhering them over the photo was my first solution for achieving that. Overlapping the word, “Beautiful,” with the photo matte was the second one. These are visual cues that create intimate feeling.
To direct the eye from the photo to the title, I placed the circular stamp around the title’s first letter. Adding this stamp created the need for some balance. To do this, I formed a visual triangle by stamping two more times around the sides of the layout. I also adhered the cut-out paisley and bird to balance the patterned paper in the upper left corner.
The last step was to add the journaling. This is where I got stuck. My journaling was a long narrow block and I could not visualize it on my layout without it looking blocky, off-balance, or distracting. After staring at my page for an uncomfortable period of time (do we all do that?), the word-circle stamp jumped off the page and the idea to use repetition inspired circular-shaped journaling.
Repetition in art and design is a way to create a feeling of cohesion, rhythm, and movement.
To balance out the weight of all the circles, I added a little more journaling in a rectangular block, repeating the block-shape of the photo and of the layout itself. Writing two more lines of journaling to the very bottom (just right of the circular stamp) created a triangle of horizontal rectangles (from the photo, to the block of journaling on the left, to the two lines at the bottom) that made the layout feel complete.
If you’d like to see two simple techniques for shaping your journaling into a circle, be sure to watch the Paperclipping Video Podcast, Episode 6. And don’t forget to let me know if you decide to give it a try!
