How about your list of resolutions? Is it long, short, full of elusive goals or packed with ones that will be easy to keep? Regardless of whether you hope to win The Biggest Loser or shed four pounds, find time to walk with the dog every day for fifteen minutes or run the Boston Marathon, make that list and turn it into your first scrapbook layout for the year 2008. Follow it with pages that chronicle your progress.
I’m sending a cocoa with marshmallows toast for a happy, healthy, and creative New Year! And here’s to every beginner who has just discovered Square One, the place where easy isn’t cheating.
RESOLVE
This month’s project is about making a scrapbook page without any photos, but I’ll mention lots of ways to add them. It’s also about proportion, contrast, and about arranging oversized letters and numbers on a layout.
If you like bright colors your “RESOLVE” page can look just like mine. If you don’t, you can use the design strategies with any combination you prefer. Just like every Square One project, this one is somewhat minimalist, almost plain, but ready to take to another level with a few embellishments and simple additions. I’ll spell out a few options and leave it to you to decide when to declare your page “finished” and ready for the album.
Look at the layout for a minute. What do you see first? Our eye is usually drawn to the upper left of a page because that is how we read text, so it’s likely you see the word RESOLVE before you begin to bounce, left to right, along the numerals and small blocks below. Perhaps you noticed the striped band at the bottom first, drawn by the colors. Perhaps you noticed the background pattern. It doesn’t matter. Sooner or later your eye will take it all in.
DESIGN STRATEGIES AND THINGS TO NOTICE
Notice that the general feel to the page is happy. Bright colors make it feel like a party. In fact, the paper I chose was designed as part of a Birthday Kit. I want the resolutions to feel like prizes or gifts that I am giving myself at the start of what I hope will be a good year. Look closely and you’ll see that the background paper I picked has hundreds of small circles that feel, to me, like champagne bubbles. It reinforces the notion of celebration.
Primary colors - red, yellow, and blue - dominate, but secondary colors - purple, green and orange - are part of the mix. A few touches of white tie things together (the white stitch marks on the letters and numbers, the white background in the text blocks).
If you are switching from this palette to another, think about contrast and how the colors and patterns you choose work together. Contrast can be strong, as shown, or quite subtle. Remember that scrapbooks are viewed at arm’s length. Although the largest elements on my page can be seen across a room, yours can be the opposite, offering a quiet, close-up visit.
If you have a longer list of resolutions you can fit more into the four blocks by using smaller type, by elongating the blocks, or both. If you decide to make more than four blocks, remember that you will have to re-think the placement of the numbers.
Notice that I did not use any yellow letters in the word RESOLVE because they would have disappeared into the yellow background, but a yellow zero looks fine on the band at the bottom. I didn’t use any red numbers on the red band. I positioned the red 8 above the last orange block to make sure it doesn’t get lost, and to add a bit of movement and meaning. Your eye has to move up to greet the New Year, like the upward line on a chart that shows growth or profits.
Notice that the R, O, and second E in the word resolve all hang from the top at the same distance from the top of the page, while the other letters dance and overlap. Spaced normally along a straight base line, the word is much wider than the paper. I tried several arrangements before deciding on my favorite. I like having the R and final E touching the edges of the background, as if they might expand beyond the page if they could.
Notice that the spacing to the left and right of the first and last orange blocks is identical, but the space between the second, third and fourth is not. It’s not an accident. I meant it to be random so the blocks have the same sense of motion as the letters. If you like mathematical precision, get out the ruler. Notice, however, that the numbers are carefully centered on the orange blocks. That decision kept the blocks from looking too random. Move things around as many times as you want till you like what you see, then get out the glue!
Notice the small white marks on the letters and numbers. The die cut shapes have small burrs where they were formerly attached to surrounding cardstock in the booklet. Rather than using sand paper to get rid of them, I left them, camouflaged them with opaque raised ink lines (my trusty Soufflé pen), and turned them into a design element. If you like smoother edges or want to age and distress your lettering, get out the sandpaper or a nail file.
If you want to add photos, there’s space inside the “counters” (enclosed open spaces) of the letters R and O and the numbers zero and 8. Instead of filling all four orange blocks with resolutions, use one for the list and the other three for photos. Randomly sprinkle tiny (.75”) photos across the yellow background. At first glance they will look like confetti, more of the New Year’s celebration effect.
The striped band at the bottom of the page is the printed border on the red paper. If you use other supplies, you’ll need to find or create a .5” band. It does two things: Anchors your eye and ties together the colors in the page.
Notice that the text blocks are cut with deckle scissors so I didn’t have to measure. Alternatively, tear the edges or if you prefer precision, use a ruler and craft knife.
Notice that the letter L sits on one of the orange blocks. This is possible because the letter has a flat bottom. Moving from the L, through the orange block, down to the blue zero is the only strong vertical element in the layout. It is off to the side, not dead center. If the only letter with a flat bottom had been closer to the middle of the layout I would not have let it sit on one of the color blocks.
Dead center on the layout is the right edge of the second orange block. Your eye might trick you into thinking it’s the space between blocks two and three or that it’s the center of the green letter O, but it’s not.
If you want more dimension, add Rain Dots from Cloud 9 Design (shiny raised circle stickers that come in a variety of colors and sizes), an earring with the post or clip removed, miniature playing cards or other game pieces, striped ribbon to replace the band at the bottom, brads to hold the color blocks in place, machine stitching around the blocks, numbers, some or all of the letters. Add borders around the color blocks, use pens to doodle on letters and numbers.
Now that you’ve worn out from reading all the design strategies and from noticing all the things on the layout that I think might be helpful to beginners, it’s time to make your own page full of New Year’s resolutions.
Here are the measurements in case you want to duplicate the layout:
Page – 12” x 12”
Red band at bottom - 3.75”
Striped border band at bottom - .5”
Orange blocks - 2.5” x 4”
Letters and numbers - 2.5” to 3.25”
Supplies:
Die Cut letters and numbers - “Bright Monograms” (Hot Off The Press)
Papers - Finished In A Flash “Birthday Kit” (Hot Off The Press)
Computer Font - Ransom
Soufflé dimensional opaque ink pen (Sakura of America)
Deckle scissors (Artist’s own)
Glue stick or paper glue (Artist’s own)
To find the products mentioned in this article and shown in these layouts, check with your local scrapbook retailer. Browse our Premier Retail Stores for coupons to a store near you.
