Scraps Of Mind

May 10th 2008

Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas

Saturday Scrapbooking Ideas #11

Here’s another photo tip.

When your child has a special milestone such as a first haircut,

take a ‘before’ photo then take some during the event

and finally take an ‘after’ photo.

Three photos of the stages of the event will make a great scrapbooking story for your layout.

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May 9th 2008

Five Freebies on Friday - 9 May 2008

Normal service is resumes this week so on with Five Freebies on Friday. Some cool Scrapbooking Freebie goodies I’ve found for you over the last week.

And don’t forget to leave some love when you download your freebie. Just a simple thank you comment makes all the difference to the designer who will have put a lot of time and effort into creating your freebie.

Well we have to kick off this week’s Freebie list with the free Scraps of Mind Yummy Treats eRecipe Book. Grab youself a copy and one for your Mum.
This great Cupcake Couture Kit from Utopian Rain is seriously yummy. Great for scrapbooking Yummy Treats Recipes.
How about honoring your Mum buy putting her face on a postage stamp? Pick up these stamp frames from Lindsay Jane Designs and you can fulfill your wish.
And there’s a very cute little quick page at DNADryad. It would make a gorgeous card for Mothers Day.
And here’s a freebie for you paper scrapbookers. Simple Scrapbooks have some journal tags for you to download and print out.

Embrace the Space … on your Scrapbook Page

Yesterday I wrote about Simple Scrapbooking and I touched on the minimalist style of scrapbook layouts. Where you leave a large part of your layout canvas empty.

This is called ‘white space’ or ‘negative space’ and is a technique used in advertising and magazine layouts. Basically it means that by leaving plenty of space around your focal subject, the viewer’s eye is not confused and is drawn automatically to your point of focus. It also means that the layout design is more restful to the eye as it is not darting about all over the page, trying to take in all that there is to see.

When this style started to be taken up by the scrapbooking world, I admired the scrapbook layouts that these minimalist scrapbookers were creating but I found it really difficult to do it myself.

It’s amazing how strongly a habit becomes ingrained. I felt I just couldn’t leave so much empty space on my layouts. I had to just pop a cluster of flowers there, or maybe some ribbon and brads.

It took quite a while before I could come to terms with the Less is More approach. But I have to say, I’m really glad that I persisted.

In this Forever scrapbook layout you can see what I mean by Less is More. The elements for this layout are from the Scrap Girls Refresh Kit. I love the effect created by a single photo with just a small collage of embellishments in a corner and a title. And I can now happily deal with leaving all the rest of the layout canvas empty. Because I think the overall effect is stylish and easy to look at.

What do you think of the Less is More approach?

Have you tried it? Maybe is isn’t for everyone, after all how boring would it be if we all adopted the same scrapbooking style? There’d be no fun in looking through other people’s galleries.

And if you’re thinking of giving it a go, here’s a little tip. If you choose your background paper with an interesting design in it, it’s easier to cope with leaving so much of the space empty.

What are your thoughts?