Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted something. In case anyone is actually reading this, I do apologize. My life has been pretty intense lately; I think about my blog a lot, but actually sitting down and writing is another matter. Among other things, I have been working on materials for teaching scrapbooking courses at my local community college. This weekend I've been working on a series of photos in which I take a page through four changes. A number of years ago I had a really good book that showed what a page would look like at different levels of development. The first one was perfectly fine, and then they become increasingly elaborate. I wish I could remember the title or the authors - it was a terrific book for learning about design development. If any of you know the title or authors, please leave a comment.
Anyway, that was my idea here. I thought it would be useful for students and interesting for me to trace the development of a page from simple through increasingly elaborate. The names have been blocked out but you will see that the pictures are two of the wonderful little boys who bring much joy to my life.
All of the papers are from SEI. I sewed a border around the page with gold thread and black thread. I took the paper colors from the boy's clothing. I have handwritten a little journaling and grouped the yellows all in the lower right corner. I think it's a cute page just the way it is. Debbie Hodge on Get it Scrapped would call this a shelf design, or a ledge, with a band running across the bottom third of the page to ground the elements.
Anyway, that was my idea here. I thought it would be useful for students and interesting for me to trace the development of a page from simple through increasingly elaborate. The names have been blocked out but you will see that the pictures are two of the wonderful little boys who bring much joy to my life.
All of the papers are from SEI. I sewed a border around the page with gold thread and black thread. I took the paper colors from the boy's clothing. I have handwritten a little journaling and grouped the yellows all in the lower right corner. I think it's a cute page just the way it is. Debbie Hodge on Get it Scrapped would call this a shelf design, or a ledge, with a band running across the bottom third of the page to ground the elements.
In the next iteration I added shading to the chipboard heart, the bracket, and the letters. I also shaded the outer edge of the page with Distress Ink Vintage Photo. Then I rewrote the journaling with a heavier black pen because I thought it was a little too difficult to read.
For the third integration I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a pair of red sunglasses. I backed them with some purple acetate I had in my stash. I added a little ribbon tie to the bracket and some wire to the chipboard heart. This adds a lot of texture to the page.
For the final version of the page I first added two more photos, creating a sort of waterfall into the original photo. i struggled over whether to find photos of the two boys, with the older being the "big brother," or just to focus on the older boy with his cool sunglasses. Once I had the photos in place I used acetate stars from Heidi Swapp to embellish them, and created three groupings of the stars around the page to move the eye through everything. I redid the journaling on my computer (which I'm not sure I like better) and changed the paper length of the journaling so that it is more consistent with the shelf. i used the old Fastenater from EKSuccess to staple the end of the journaling strips and to provide more embellishments further down the page.
So the question is whether the last version is "better" than the first. In some ways the third version is my favorite, although I do like the additional photos and the longer journaling strips. But the first version is really fine. It communicates my message very clearly: I love these boys dearly and they often make me laugh!
So the question is whether the last version is "better" than the first. In some ways the third version is my favorite, although I do like the additional photos and the longer journaling strips. But the first version is really fine. It communicates my message very clearly: I love these boys dearly and they often make me laugh!