Page Arrangements – My Style Journey

Continuing on my style journey, we've already covered the basics.  Now we're going to consider page arranges: how do I like to place my designs?

WHITE SPACE

I learned that I like white space.  My pages are not all about what I put on them; they are also about what I don’t put on them.  White space can be used to corral the eye.  I feel like my pages that make good use of white space (or negative space since it isn’t always “white”) look the most like magazine pages.

I find an easy way to make good use of negative and positive space is to use a cluster photo layout.  I like when my photos are somewhat bordered in a cohesive pattern.

LEADING LINES

I like straight lines and geometric shapes.  I do deviate from straight lines and block shapes with fair frequency.  In those cases, I find the use of symmetry helps bring back some definition to the layout when the clean lines are absent.  These techniques lead the eye around the page.

While I tend to favour straight lines, I do have a soft spot for circles.  I use these in smaller bits: pearls, dew drops, buttons, or stacked medallion-type embellishments.  I don’t use eyelets much, even though they are circular.  I bought a Crop-a-dile II to set them and it really does make it easy!  I’m finding, however, that I prefer circles that don’t have a “backing” on the other side of the paper the way eyelets and brads do.  That means, I'm allowed to buy buttons, pearls/dewdrops and rhinestones, but brads and eyelets are off the list until I am completely out of them.