Scrapbook Jungle» Basic Components of A Scrapbook Layout

Basic Components of A Scrapbook Layout

Posted in Scrapbooking 101 | May 22nd, 2009

You want to make a great scrapbook page, but you don’t know exactly where to start. To help you get started, here are some standard scrapbook page elements to help you with your page design. Keep in mind, you don’t have to use all the elements listed, and you might find yourself picking and choosing. There is no right or wrong way to make a scrapbook page. However, getting to know the basic standard elements can help get the creative juices flowing. Go ahead, and experiment!

Pictures, Photos, Drawings

- Obviously, Photos are the essential part of scrapbook layouts. Most scrapbook pages you will see will have at least 1 or more photos on them Most scrapbooking pages will have at least one or multiple photos on them. However, keep in mind that you CAN create a beautiful layout without any photos…if you want to focus your page on journaling.

Page Title

What is your page about? The page title displays the words that highlight, summarize or suggest the page theme on scrapbooking layouts. Sometimes I go on the net for some famous quotes. You can use famous sayings, names, or simple phrases as page titles. A title doesn’t always have to be at the top of the layout. It can be placed anywhere as long as it catches the viewer’s attention. Usually the viewer’s eyes will scan the layout for the title when looking at a layout. Then again, a scrapbook layout doesn’t always need a page title. There are so many ways to creating page titles. You write the titles out by hand, use your computer, stencils, stickers, or even paint!

Journaling Text

Journaling text explains the story of the photos or drawing. Journaling does not have to be related to the event of the photos all the time. Journaling text can include short descriptions that includes names and dates, heartfelt letters, captions, quotes, lyrics and even poetry. The net is full of great poetry that you can use in this case.

Page Accents and Embellishments

This includes any embellishment used to dress up a scrapbook page. To be honest, this can be really fun. Let your imagination and creativity take over. Page accents include stickers, silk flowers, slide mounts, buttons, ribbons, brads, eyelets, and such to enhance the attractiveness of the layout. Page accents should support the page theme and not overwhelm and take away attention from the photos.

Mat

The mat is a layer underneath a photo. The purpose of the matt is to leave an all-around border that helping the photo to stand out more. A mat can be made of any material…cardstock, patterned paper, acrylic paint and other decorative elements. A mat can also be thin, thick, dimensional, flat, plain or elaborate depending on the effect you want to create. Once again, you don’t have to mat all the photos.

7) Border

Borders add visual interest to along the side of the layout. There’s countless ways to create visually appealing and interesting borders. Decorative borders can be created from a variety of materials such as ribbon, fabric, charms, and more.