Michelle Timmer

If you remember last week, my blog post was about getting your photos sorted and prepared for a scrapbook layout.  Now that that step is completed, it time to move on to the scrapbook layout design process. If you have ever arranged some flowers, painted a room or tried your hand at home decorating, you will find that those same basic design theories also apply to scrapbooking. They are focal point,  rule of odds, visual triangle, repetition and gradation. Lets take a closer look.

Focal Point

  A focal point is the place where the eye naturally goes on a  scrapbook page.
 Photo on left side of layout is an example of focal point.

• Enlarge the Photo
• Crop photos - the other photos on the page
• Matt  photos- double,triple matt.
• Portrait and Landscape pictures-  having options help create balanced pages
• Close up- usually the strongest photo and makes a great focal point photo  

The Rule of Odds

  The rule of odds says our eyes tend to find it more natural and pleasing if things are arranged in odd numbers. Notice the photos(3) and embellishments on the layout above.

• Photos- use a focal point photo plus odd number photos or a focal point photo plus an even  number of photos
• Embellishments- select in groups of 3's, 5's or 7 's. 

 Visual Triangle

 A visual triangle is three connected things. Our brains seek out familiar shapes, like triangles, Having these shapes, allows our eyes to see the page as a whole.  In the above lyout it is the clusters of embellishments and photos.

• photos
• embellishments  
• event text: title, date, journaling. 
• Color

Repetition

 Repetition is using the same item on different places of the layout to make the page complete. This works well for 2 page layouts. Repetition by itself can become boring, but repetition with some variation looks like movement on a scrapbook page.  Here are some ways to use repetition in your layout.  In my example above, it is the red cardstock and patterned paper

• Color - paper
• Pattern - paper
• Embellishments
• Shapes - cricut images, chipboard, stickers

Gradation

Gradation is the gradual change in size and color. It creates movement helping the eyes to follow the changes across the page.  By combining repetition with gradation you will have a powerful design principle that can guide the viewer to the most important parts of your scrapbook pages. Again the example layout show this in the changes of size in the red cardstock and patterned paper on the right side and the gray and blue buttons on each page. The photos change in size too.

So there is it, some basic design theory to help you make an eye catching layout. As satisfying as this can be, I now do something different. Close To My Heart has  several  How To Books with layout templates, that fast track me through much of the design process. I so appreciate the help I get from them, and use them all the time. Contact me to order your own copy of  Reflections, Cherish, Imagine, Magic, or Make it from your Heart 1 and 2. You will not be sorry you did.
Thanks for reading ~ Michelle

Next time, Glue,Paper,Scissors - A scrapbookers Game