Scrapbooking is as individual as the person creating!   I have always believed that there is no “right way” to craft, if you love what you have created, then that is all that really matters!

However, there are some basic tips you can use to help your pages come together and have a “balanced look” about them, and I’m going to look at some basic design guidelines over the next few weeks.

We want our crafting time to be relaxing and fun, but sometimes it can be overwhelming looking at a blank page and not having the conference to drive right in, maybe you’re new to the scrapping world, or like me have taken a big break and need to get your mojo flowing….This is where some simple guidelines can help out.

Page Design –  Rule of Thirds
When designing a page, the rule of thirds is used to prevent the eye from being drawn solely to the centre of the page.

Imagine a grid over your page like this, where the line meets is where your eye will be drawn, and help to give your page a balanced look.

Here’s a page I did a while ago, as an example

When I lay this grid over my page you can see I’ve got something in each meeting point.  I’ve used photos on one side and journalling and embellishments on the other, this keeps your eye moving around the page.

If you have a large photo to use, place it off-centre, covering 1 or  2 of the meeting points, and build elements and titles around the other meeting points, this helps to add visual interest to the layout, this is a variation of the rule photographers use to give visual interest when setting up a shot.

This of course is just one way to add balance and interest to your pages, the design triangle is another way.

Your triangle and be any direction or triangle shape, and you can have more than one if you wish!  Here’s another page of mine that follows this rule, I have my main photo slightly off centre and my design triangle balances out the page by hitting the 3 points around the main element, the photo,

Also on this page, you can find a couple of triangles….. My main focus is the photos down the middle, and then I’ve balanced the page by adding elements on either side to move my focus points around the page.

I hope you find this interesting and helpful, next month I will look at using colours to pull your page together  🙂
Happy Scraping
Donna