Just Horse-ing Around

In my head it seems you just make this all come together rather quickly, Janice. I took quite a few pictures yesterday that I think could probably be used for a scrapbook page......but it will not come together quickly. As always I like the arrangement and title you have come up with.

Thanks guys.

Anatomy of my layout

Sometimes I use a full page template - pretty much following it as designed, but happy every item on the page is resizable, movable, removable and replaceable - and  when I’m done, the page looks nothing like the template or sometimes it looks just as the artist designed the template.

Sometimes I use a photo array template - a part I grab off a template or has actually started out only as a photo array - and then I design around that photo array.

And sometimes I drop my photos onto a blank background and size them and move them around until I like the display. This is what I did with this page.

First I straightened and cropped the photos - I didn’t fix colors or brightness because I liked that they didn’t all look the same. (The difference in the photos was because each of these photo frame displays was on a different wall in the main part of the building and the light source determined the background color of the wall even though the entire place was painted the same color.)

After placing the photos, I placed my title. And even though this isn’t one of my typical layouts where I grab items from a scrapbook kit, I used the story about Affirmed, a horse logo with my name, some graphics I made - so I never looked for a scrapbook kit that I could grab items from.

After everything was in place, I needed a background. Instead of searching for a background paper that would work, I grabbed a brush, set it on very large and swept across the page in two strokes, which accidentally left a white space for my title to sit.

When you do any brushing on a page, make sure to do it on it’s own layer so you can resize it, move it, and delete it if you choose.

The photos blended into the background too well - so I added a stroke to each one.  Usually I frame the main one, but this time I didn't bother to look for a frame as I had worked on this layout long enough plus I had used the 'frame the main photo' idea many times in the recent past.

Make sure you add some info about the page's 'story' - journaling or at least a descriptive title - and make sure to date your page.

This page took me a lot of fooling around and to be honest, I’m never happy when a page is so straight on and organized, but there comes a time when I’m designing that I say ‘enough is enough’ and I declare a layout finished.  It is difficult to work with multiple photos - especially photos that in themselves, are so busy - so it was a challenge - adding graphics from a scrapbook kit may well have been 'too much'.

It tells my story very well, but it has no pizazz - but my designing has hit a wall in many instances. Sometimes I sit back and say WOW - I really love that, but nowadays, I mostly say - It’s OK.  I think in this case, it's the background - it just doesn't 'sing' and may actually compete with my photos.  I just don't know.

As always, any suggestions or comments - negative or positive - are welcome.

Thanks for your input. That color and solidness of color bothers me too. Although I usually have a rule about revisiting a layout when I’m finished, I may change the background.

That is what is so great about scrapbooking - we all have differing visions 😉