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Scrapbooking Ideas Come Easy When You Understand Design

Atlantis

I got an email from someone who recently discovered Paperclipping and, since so many of you are trying for better design expertise, and some of you are struggling with the same fear as she is, I wanted to share her question and my response:

I love your tutorials. I am too scared to scrapbook, even though I want to do it so very much. I know some of the basics of design but can’t tell myself if I did the right thing. Would you please incorporate a video with some example showing right/wrong.

There really is no wrong! If you like it, it’s right.

BUT, I understand that sometimes we don’t like it and we can’t figure out WHY. This is one of the coolest things about knowing design principles: it becomes easier to figure out why something isn’t looking right to you, and what to do about it. Another of the coolest things is that design principles help you come up with scrapbooking ideas much more quickly!

But here’s the thing — you won’t get it down by learning about a principle once. It doesn’t work that way. Here’s what it does take, and here’s what you can do with the Paperclipping Video Tutorials to help you really master the use of design in your scrapbooking and papercrafts . . .

How To Learn To Use Design Principles

  1. Learn about a principle by reading about it or watching a Paperclipping Video Tutorial.
  2. Analyze great-looking scrapbook pages, cards, and other designs to figure out what principles are helping them look great.
  3. Practice using the design principles yourself.
  4. Analyze what you made that you’re not happy with, trying to figure out which principles you could employ.
  5. Learn more principles, since understanding one will often help you understand another, or review principles you already know.
  6. Analyze more scrapbooking pages and designs that you love to figure out what principles are helping them look great.
  7. Practice using the design principles yourself — again.
  8. Analyze what you made that you’re not happy with, trying to figure out which principles you could employ . . .

Are you seeing the pattern?

Learn * Analyze * Practice * Analyze * Learn * Analyze * Practice * Analyze * Learn * Analyze

You can’t just read about a principle. You can’t just watch a video. You need to analyze and practice, and then do it again. If you wait to scrapbook until you get the principles down, you’ll just never get them down at all! It takes doing.

And it’s okay to make something you don’t love (I do it a lot), to figure out what you would differently next time (I do that, too), and then put the perfectly imperfect page in your album and keep trying!

It’s a learning cycle.

Before and After Videos

I have at least two video tutorials where I analyzed layouts I didn’t like, identified some helpful design principles, and then employed them.

If you are a Paperclipping Member, you can re-watch these episodes as a reminder. Do you wish you were, but aren’t? With 153 episodes, many of which discuss design principles, you will learn to to make scrapbooking ideas and fixes come easily!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • allisonLP

    As a proud paperclipping member, I must say the tutorials on design principles are my favorite. I would love to exlore more on my own as well, so can you reccomend a few books I could read?

  • http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

    Hi, Allison! In my experience, you have to dig deep into design by studying

    a niche (and when I say niche here I'm really referring to industries:

    design for architecture, design for logos, design for ads, design for

    interior decorating, design for painting, photography etc). I have found

    that when you go looking for design in general, there is only enough content

    to fill an article. It's very, very basic.

    There are a list of principles and elements of design with their definitions

    and what they do, and that's it. Then, to really dig deep into design, you

    need to apply those principles and elements to a specific niche. So I

    learned to really get design when I studied how it applied to painting (I

    have a few books on painting). I got a book on designing logos. I've read

    articles on design in architecture. I've learned about photography. I began

    to recall all that I learned in modern dance (another visual art).

    So I don't have a specific book I can recommend on design in general.

    If it helps, I am taking all these principles and putting them together with

    many of the Paperclipping video tutorials on design, and I'm turning it into

    a course that will be free for Paperclipping Members. That way you can see

    what all those principles and elements are and how they apply to

    scrapbooking and paper crafts. I expect this to be done next month.

    If you still want more, I recommend you find another area of design you're

    interested (landscaping or interior decorating, for example) and find a

    design book in that area. The principles apply across the board, so you'll

    just need to recognize how they apply to scrapbooking.

    :)

  • Laura P

    Hi Noell! Just wanted to add here, as I have been doing some research for a class I would love to develop and on art journaling… I have to say even the college textbooks say when it come to creativity, creating, drawing and just plain “art” in general, the biggest thing that you just pointed out as all others have is…”creativity occurs in action” So like the famous Nike slogan…”Just Do It” Go ahead what can it hurt?