White space...

[pattylt]

I picked up a book at the local library on scrapping simple. Many of the pages have large amounts of blank or "white" space (it doesn't mean the color, only the absence of pattern or decoration) and it tends to be very lean and clean looking.

I like the way it looks and am going to start trying to tone down some of my pages. They use embellies, etc. It is just that they tend to group the pics and embellies in one area leaving large open spaces. It really does force you to focus on the pictures (which should be the point of the page). The photos tend to be single or smaller sized groups...

What do you think of this look? What trends in pagemaking do see that you would like to try? Avoid?

I know some of you already have a "style" that you like and stick with but for me, I bounce all over the spectrum, never really settling on a specific style that I love (or hate, either).

What's out there that caught your eye?

[curriekidsmom]

Patty, I also like the "white space" look. In fact I'm planning on using it in on some of the los for my heritage album. I think it will be perfect since I don't have that many pics. Not sure if this is a trend, but right now I'm using a lot of circles and distressing inks. I think the trend that bothers me the most right now is the overuse of flowers. I love to use them on my los and have already joined the Aug scrap swap, but I've seen sooo many instances of flowers dominating a lo. I guess that's fine if you're planning on putting the lo in a shadow box and hanging it on the wall, but for an album I think the flowers should be a accent with the pictures the focal point, not the other way around. And now I'll get off that particular soapbox.

I also bounce around from look to look and really don't have a "style". Great questions. Thanks for asking.

[Cheryl]

Though I enjoy looking at other types of pages, I like a pretty simple look for my own albums - minimal embellishments, preferably ones that relate to the story I'm trying to convey. I want the focus to be the pictures & the story.

So far as white space, though, I don't have that much -- not because I don't like it, but because I have too many pictures I want to show! I take digital pictures and my scrapbooks are the only place where I have them printed out. So, if a picture isn't put in a scrapbook, I don't have it to look at -- and there are too many pictures I'm not willing to part with!

[JodiSong]

I still use film. It forces me to choose my moments. I've got a couple of books on "simple" style, and it's great for some things, but not for showing my bouncy, perpetual-motion machine (my toddler).

Jodi

[karenliz]

I love the white space in scrapbooks especially on a piece of paper with a great design. I mostly do small scrapbooks/board books so sometimes the white space gives the "WOW" effect on some pages.

What do I like to avoid? 12x12 pages. I'm just challenged there. LOL I only have one 12x12 scrapbook and I've only started one page and its 3 years old. I decided that book I'm going to use the "white space" style to finish it.

[AmyB]

When I first started scrapbooking, I used alot of color and embellies. I don't have time to do that much work anymore. I am so far behind on my books that the quicker the better is my motto. To me the important part is the pics and the stories. I usually have some open spaces, but I also write alot so the whole story is there.

[Heather]

While I haven't actually scrapped pages that style, I usually like the look of it. A lot of what I have seen in pages like that have a lots of fancy swirls and doodles and stuff like that incorporated in the design, and I really like that too.

[Laura N]

I find myself using that white space style more and more. It seems to pull the "reader's eye" through the pages. I did a heritage album for my mom with the same embellishments, colors and that style. It helped the pictures be the focus of the album.

[pattylt]

I find myself using that white space style more and more. It seems to pull the "reader's eye" through the pages. I did a heritage album for my mom with the same embellishments, colors and that style. It helped the pictures be the focus of the album.
I agree. That is why I am liking it more and more, too. It just seems to demand that you pay attention to the photo(s).

I have seen some beautiful pages done with 3 colors of card stock, 3 smallish pictures, not a PP anywhere, maybe 3 small brads and it is gorgeous!

Some just have a single photo that is about 3 1/2 by 5" with a few simple embellies around it and the rest of the 12 x 12 is white space and it really has an impact. My only issue would be that the entire scrapbook should be done in that style or they would look out of place?

[fabyon]

There's no need to cover every single bit of space on a paper ! Let the paper sing for you ! wink if you get distracted by all the embellishments and people don't notice the picture(s)....I'm afraid a mistake was made ! ;)

[Melissa]

Hmmmm, I may need my eyes checked then, since I have a hard time focusing on the photo, and am more interested in the layouts folks come up with!

M

[kasiahbug]

Hmmmm, I may need my eyes checked then, since I have a hard time focusing on the photo, and am more interested in the layouts folks come up with!

M

I'm with you Melissa- For some reason have a hard time looking at the pics, isn't that what a photo album is for LOL- (I feel the glares coming my way.)

[fabyon]

I didn't mean crafters, LOL, as we automatically scan the craft part to learn a new way of creating a layout. I meant ordinary non crafters, not noticing the picture(s).

[JodiSong]

Some just have a single photo that is about 3 1/2 by 5" with a few simple embellies around it and the rest of the 12 x 12 is white space and it really has an impact. My only issue would be that the entire scrapbook should be done in that style or they would look out of place?

It's your scrapbook. Do it however you want!

Jodi

[Heather]

I didn't mean crafters, LOL, as we automatically scan the craft part to learn a new way of creating a layout. I meant ordinary non crafters, not noticing the picture(s).

Yes, I agree! I think as scrappers we automatically analyze a layout to see how we could possibly use it, etc. I do find there are certain themes I am more drawn to tho, and those would be travel, scenery and cats.

[karenliz]

Although I love the white space idea I've seen some scrap pages that used only one picture and tons of embellishments. I only saw the great embellishments and not the picture. The first thing I said looking at the page was where did they get that embellishment?

[Sandra]

I just had to jump in here after reading about the white space.I am working on Augusts sketch idea and the sketch lends itself to white space because of how it is layed out.I've changed this and that to make it not look unbalanced but I have a lot of space with nothing in it and I guess that is what is called white space.I keep wanting to stick a bows into the space but that doesn't look right either.Oh,well...back to the drawing board.:rolleyes:

[Sonshine]

Awe geez - I'm going to regret getting into this topic, I know. (see trends you're tired of for example) Because I'm sure to ruffle some feathers here. The white space you're talking about came about through the introduction of digital scrapping. Soon it became a fad to group everything together in one corner with a tiny little photo and a couple lines of hand journaling. And that's fine - it CAN be an appealing style if it's done correctly. But the entire concept of tastefully and skillfully using embellishments to DRAW your eye to your photo can just as easily be lost in white space as it can be in overdoing embellishments. The key is - you have to have an extremely dramatic, stand-alone photo to pull it off well. Emphasize again, the idea of using embellishments skillfully is to DRAW the eye TO the photo - not to fill up space. Without getting too technical everything you place on a page should be consciously and purposefully drawing the eye to your photo. People have a tendency to place too many unintentional things on a page, and haphazardly place embellishments without the thought of WHY they're placing them where they do, and is the addition of something going to just look pretty because you like it; does it create a visual balance of color that draws you to your focal point or does it just sit there and take away your attention from the photo? After having done a few different 'styles' of scrapbook design, I have found that creating a successful page with a lot of intentional white space is much more difficult than traditional scrapbooking, because you're already starting "off balance" so-to-speak. But it is extremely fun to try this technique, and anyone that does scrapbooking should definitely give it a try in my opinion. It's definitely a good healthy exercise for anyone that struggles with over-do. Most definitely, it is YOUR scrapbook, YOUR page, YOUR memory, and it only has to please you. Go for it.

[fabyon]

Awe geez - I'm going to regret getting into this topic, I know. (see trends you're tired of for example) Because I'm sure to ruffle some feathers here. The white space you're talking about came about through the introduction of digital scrapping. Soon it became a fad to group everything together in one corner with a tiny little photo and a couple lines of hand journaling. And that's fine - it CAN be an appealing style if it's done correctly. But the entire concept of tastefully and skillfully using embellishments to DRAW your eye to your photo can just as easily be lost in white space as it can be in overdoing embellishments. The key is - you have to have an extremely dramatic, stand-alone photo to pull it off well. Emphasize again, the idea of using embellishments skillfully is to DRAW the eye TO the photo - not to fill up space. Without getting too technical everything you place on a page should be consciously and purposefully drawing the eye to your photo. People have a tendency to place too many unintentional things on a page, and haphazardly place embellishments without the thought of WHY they're placing them where they do, and is the addition of something going to just look pretty because you like it; does it create a visual balance of color that draws you to your focal point or does it just sit there and take away your attention from the photo? After having done a few different 'styles' of scrapbook design, I have found that creating a successful page with a lot of intentional white space is much more difficult than traditional scrapbooking, because you're already starting "off balance" so-to-speak. But it is extremely fun to try this technique, and anyone that does scrapbooking should definitely give it a try in my opinion. It's definitely a good healthy exercise for anyone that struggles with over-do. Most definitely, it is YOUR scrapbook, YOUR page, YOUR memory, and it only has to please you. Go for it.

AMEN to that ! That's exactly what I wanted to say but couldn't ... Thanks Sonshine !

[cantstopstampin]

I LOVE white space!

[pennyd]

I think I would like white space, I don't know. I am scrapping six kids, two grandkids (so far), my husband, my dog and my garden! I also love to have lots of pictures on a page, I've recently discovered wallet sized pictures, there's room for lots of them but still plenty of space to tell the story.

I've noticed the main thing I tend to avoid scrapbooking is ME! I just scrapped my son's 19th birthday and everyone is in the pictures but me. Seems strange, I got into this addicting craft so I could leave stories for my children, they are going to know about each other, the grandkids, my husband, my dog and my garden - but not mom. Oh well, there's always more pictures to scrap - there has to be a picture of me in there somewhere.

[pattylt]

I have a bit of a hard time scrapping myself, too. My daughter pointed out to me that since the point of doing the pages is to remember the past and our family moments, I should make sure I include pictures of myself and my thoughts, etc. It is harder for me but I have forced myself to include pictures of Me.

Naturally, we always hate the way we look in photos and probably, like me, you are the picture taker as well as the scrapper so we often have tons of photos without a single shot of ourselves. I now pass the camera to others and tell them to take the shots they would like to remember.... they always include shots of me so they must want to see me in there, too.

It took a lot of scrapbook pages before I did my first page about myself and my kids both loved it. So, I now make sure I am in there, here and there, and it gets easier as I do more of them.

How bout y'all? Do any pages of yourself much?

[Cheryl]

My problem is that as the main photographer, I simply don't have as many pictures of me! (Yup. That's my story & I'm sticking to it!)

[pennyd]

My problem is that as the main photographer, I simply don't have as many pictures of me! (Yup. That's my story & I'm sticking to it!)

That's my problem too. My DH thinks one picture of any event is plenty (silly man) and if my kids take the pictures, I end up with photos of people's nostrils! I'm going to work on this though - I have visions of my future grandkids looking through scrapbooks years from now and wondering who is that lady on that one page, they probably figure I'm just a stranger since I'm not in the rest of the family pages.

[Cheryl]

I have visions of my future grandkids looking through scrapbooks years from now and wondering who is that lady on that one page, they probably figure I'm just a stranger since I'm not in the rest of the family pages.

Hmmm - good point. Wouldn't want that!

Actually, folks have given my husband such a hard time about my scrapbook of our latest trip -- since many of the pictures feature him, and few feature me -- that he's trying to be better about getting pictures of me.;) We'll see how long that lasts! :D

[Janet Currie]

I agree most pics are of the kids and dad for me too. Will have to make a point of letting someone else take care of the clicks....haha