Scrapbooking 101

When you sit down and take your pictures in hand what do you see? You see the people, the place or the object you took a picture of. Now putting it on paper shouldn't be all that difficult or complicated, right? Wrong!

Selecting colors-
For years I never realized that I had a gift, an ability to select colors that make pictures pop from the page. It wasn't until I started teaching classes on color theory and how to make your pictures pop at a scrapbooking store in Virginia that I realized that I really did have a "gift". Actually I was surprised at first, I never realized that most folks don't have an eye for color, that some people no matter how hard they try can not seem to get the appropriate color pallet going on- not just in scrapbooking but in the clothing they wear, LOL! Hence the reason why most folks wear jeans because they figure that everything goes with denim- wrong answer! But we'll discuss fashion later (Clint and Stacy are you watching?)☺

Layering-
Another HUGE mistake waiting to happen! I've seen dozens of trends come and go but nothing takes away more from a photo than over layering of patterned paper. My philosophy is to KISS the layout, now you're wondering "I've heard that before but what does that mean"? KISS- keep it simple sweetie! I still to this day love Becky Higgins approach to scrapbooking, keeping it clean. You don't needs tons of embellishments or 5 different patterned papers piled on a page to make a beautiful and eye catching layout.

The Photo(s)-
What to do when all we have to work with are crappy blurred pictures? For me this is especially true when I'm working with older pictures -ones my Mom took back in the 1970's. You make the best of it! That's when you embellish with your journaling! Not everyone can have those beautiful pictures that look like they've been taken by a professional photographer, but we can give it a good try! Basically we work with what we have- there's no point in 'wishing" the pictures were better because it just isn't going to happen.

Stayed tuned as I will add more to all of this...