Keeping it quick, as well as simple ...

Hello and welcome to the month of February! Alexa here, thinking about scrapping 'ordinary everyday' photos. You know the sort - you go for a walk or out with friends or family, you take some pictures along the way, then if you've time you download them whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, and think "Oh, I must do something with those ...". But you don't. Life takes over, there doesn't seem to be a good moment to catalogue them or name them, select them or print them, and then before you can say 'Gosh, is it Friday already?", they've slid into the shadowy world of The Great Unscrapped.

 

Of course, you may be super-organised and this never happens to you! But it does to me and I'm sensing I am not alone. Simplicity of process is hoving into view in my scrapping life as being as important and desirable as simplicity of layout. So here are some ideas for using what the photos tell us in order to make layouts quicker to complete, to hone our visual eye, and to make them hang together without lots of hunting for papers and embellishments. (Farewell to time-wasting frustration!).

 

1 Keep the design simple: the simpler the better. A block of photos (either edge to edge, or with a fine white separation between each) is always eye-catching. Here I chose to have a page for photos and a page for journalling.

 

2 Abandon colour wheels: leave 'em in the drawer and let the photos tell you. What's the strongest colour? Here, the blue of the sky. What are the other prominent colours? I saw a tawny hue, green and dark grey. The bright checks of the hat and scarf weren't obvious enough to try and tie them in so I decided to ignore them. (Note to self: please don't grab any old thing from the cloakroom. Dress for the camera!).

3 Balance the photos: look at the colours and shapes in them. Triangles reign supreme - if the three photos with blue sky were positioned together, they would pull the eye towards them and leave the layout unbalanced. A triangular placement moves the eye round the page. Do some of the photos contain figures and others landscape? Spread them around. Crop ruthlessly, but happily! Right, that's the photos sorted; now to the journalling.

 

4 Choose two fonts. Cathy Zielske recommends no more than two types of font (though they can be used in different sizes), and I've found this to be a really useful guide in working quickly. Looking at your photos again, are there any clues in the shapes or objects? Squares and rectangles might suggest a very regular font, wavy or curving lines a font with flourishes, jagged lines or a particular theme might point to a 'fun' font. Here, the fine white grid between the photos suggested a simple classical font for the letter 'H' (Helvetica Neue) and the angles of bodies. legs, and arms seemed to tie in nicely with Lima Bean font - as well as its irregularity, some of the letters look as if they are falling over slightly and that was very much the theme of the walk! Don't spend ages hunting for fonts. As soon as you see one which will fit the bill, choose it and look no further. As for size of font, look again at the photos - are there any objects which stand out? I initially chose a size which was too large, and out of scale. It looked much better when reduced to approximately the size of DH's head.

 

5 Get colours from the photos: as a rough rule of thumb, squinting helps. Which colour is prominent in the photos and could be echoed in the title? Will it help tie the layout together? Does it reinforce or add to a triangle somewhere? I choose blue to balance the sky, and the tawny shade to pull the colour of the grass in the far right middle photo onto the left-hand page. Using the same colour for the Lima Bean font throughout kept it simple, gave three more instances of that colour on the left-hand side, and also formed a visual triangle. Dark grey for the journalling keeps it easy to read, and a smidgen of green in the line connects with the grass in the photo to its right.

 

6 Position the text. The photos will often suggest good places for the title and journalling to sit. Are there any strong horizontal lines in them? Any roof lines, hill tops, people's heads, signposts? The branch on which DH is pulling looked like an arrow, and lined up nicely with the bottom edge of the photo top left, so this seemed a good place. There might well have been other good places too, but quick scrapping means swift choices and no looking back!

Six simple hints for faster scrapping. Hopefully, they'll be satisfying and pleasurable too: there is enjoyment to be had from using less! If you have any of your own to share, do leave a comment, and if you are happy for me to incorporate them, with a link to you, in a future post, then I'll be delighted. Here's to a happy and creative February!

Comments

[Sian]

A very nicely thought out post Alexa. Plenty of helpful advice there :)

[mandy]

Really helpful advice... just what I needed to hear... thanks.

[Michele]

Beautiful LO! Love the tips :)