Photo Mania

october ’08 spread (8" x 8")
Full Calendar set; Chocolate Chip, Night of Navy, Really Rust, and Very Vanilla
textured card stock; On Board Timeless Type; VersaMark® pad; Clear Stampin’
Emboss® powder; Button Latte; Stampin’ Dimensionals; Photo Corners and 1-3/8"
Circle punches; crochet thread

Puzzled by too many photos? A few dos and don’ts can help you fit the pieces together perfectly.

When you put together a jigsaw puzzle, no matter how many pieces you have, they all fit neatly together to form a complete picture. Unfortunately, scrapbooking is rarely that way! Sometimes
trying to fit more than three pictures on a scrapbook page can feel like trying to put together a puzzle with too many pieces. Here are some dos and don'ts for fitting your photos perfectly into the puzzle and creating beautiful and memorable scrapbook pages.

DO use photos with uniform color, even if they’re from different events. Using photographs with similar color schemes is less confusing for the eye and allows you to focus more on the
photographs themselves instead of clashing color schemes.

DO let your photos decide the color scheme of your layout. In our samples, the blues, browns, and oranges in the photos coordinate with the Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, and Very Vanilla textured card stock. The harmonious color scheme allows the pictures to be the focal point instead of getting lost in a myriad of colors.

DON’T use too many patterns. When you use a lot of photos, you want them—not your beautiful patterned papers— to be the focal point of your page. While patterned papers work great for
scrapbook pages with only one or two photos, if you’re putting three or more photos on a page, patterned papers only work to distract from the photos.

DO keep your photo sizes and shapes uniform. If you’re using more than three photos, it’s a good idea to have one large photo that can work as the focal point of the page and then two additional photos that are uniform (or at least similar) in size and shape. In our spread, the family photo is the focal point of the page, while the additional two photos work as accents. When you look at the page, your eyes naturally go to the largest photo first—the focal point—and then move on to the other smaller, less prominent photos (the accents).

If you don’t want one particular photo to be the focal point, then make all your photos the same size and shape. On the right side of our layout, using three same-sized photos lets your eyes move evenly over the page without distraction. tip: When working with more than four photos, using punches such as our 1-3/8" Square punch or 1-3/4" Circle punch will help you keep them uniform in size and shape.

DO balance your layouts. If you’re using a large number of photos on one side of your layout (four or more), keep your layout balanced by only using one or two photos on the other side.

DON’T go overboard with the embellishments. When scrapbooking with multiple photos on a page, keep embellishments to a minimum.

If you want to use an accent, use only one or two large pieces as they will be less distracting. In our layout, the embellishments blend into the background (a few Chocolate Chip circles, a Really Rust line, some chipboard, and a Chocolate Chip button) and do not overpower the photos themselves.

DO use uniform spaces to do your journaling. If you have a lot of photos, consider making your journaling area the same size as the photos. For example, if you do a checkerboard layout, your photos can make up the “black” squares and your journaling can make up the “white” squares.
Following these basic dos and don’ts will allow you to scrapbook multiple photos on a page in a way that is visually pleasing and uncluttered, resulting in a beautifully put-together puzzle!

Hope that helps a little...