While planning my design, I about fell over when I noticed how wonderfully the large flowers on the "Romance" paper matched the ones on my daughter's hair accessory and tunic. So I knew I wanted those flowers to stand out on the layout.
I used my precision scissors to cut out one of the flowers, and when I saw how pretty it was going to look on my layout, I decided I needed more of them.
So I cut out 2 more flowers for a total of 3 (I like to use embellishments in odd numbers... 1, 3, or 5... as odd numbers of items tend to be more visually pleasing than even numbers of items (ever notice how restaurants usually serve appetizers in sets of 3 or 5? Ahh now I'm hungry)).
I don't usually fussy cut but I guess the addiction doesn't take long to set in. The doily-type shapes on the "Roses" paper were screaming at me to be cut out.
As with the flowers, I cut out 3 of the doily shapes.
The gorgeous white gem Prima flower was the perfect thing for me to build my embellishment cluster around. I love how it stands out so elegantly among all of the pink things.
By the way, do you notice I have 3 sets of embellishments on my layout- the big cluster on the bottom right, a small cluster on the top left, and a banner on the top right? There's my odd number of clusters.
Furthermore, do you notice the number of embellishments that are contained within each cluster? The big one has 7, the small one has 3, and the banner is 1 (with 5 parts)- again, all odd numbers.
and, if you mentally draw an imaginary line from one cluster to the second one, then another line from the second to the third one, and another line from the third one back to the first cluster, can you imagine how those 3 lines form a visual triangle? That's a simple design principle to draw the eye to the center, where the photo is.
I love to add little finishing touches on my work, usually in the form of glitter glue or pearl pen accents. In the above photo you can see that I lined the edges of the red heart with little "pearls" using my pearl pen. I did the same for 1 heart in each of the 3 sets of embellishment clusters to balance the detailing.
I couldn't scrap without my foam squares. I use them to adhere my photo to the page so that I can easily tuck things behind it. I also use them to adhere most of my embellishments and title stickers. A little dimension goes a long way.
I hope this little peek into my simple design process is helpful. We'd love to hear if you use any of these techniques- and if you use any others- on your work.
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My Creative Scrapbook Design Team member
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