- A scrapbook page can be laid out an infinite number of ways. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if it looks good to you, then it is the right layout. Your scrapbook is your story, told your way. You can lay out your scrapbooks chronologically, base them on a theme or color or season, center them around a person, tell the story of a vacation...your imagination is the limit. No matter what you're scrapping about, though, some basic design tips will help make every page a work of art.
- Decide if your page is going to have one large photo, several smaller photos, or a mix of photo sizes. If you are using several small photos, is there one in particular you'd like to emphasize, or should they all get the same treatment? If your photos are all the same size and shape, you can lay them out in a simple grid. If you'd like one photo in particular to stand out, try framing it with a different color border, or even print it in color and the rest in black and white.
- The colors you choose for your paper and embellishments can influence the feel of your page. A monochromatic scheme (black and white, several shades of the same color, etc.) can give your page a sense of elegance and quiet beauty. Bright, cheery colors add fun--think birthday parties, kids playing in a park, celebrations. You can pull colors from your photo as a starting point, but that doesn't have to be an absolute. Pairing colors that are opposites on the color wheel, such as red and green or blue and orange can make for a striking contrast. (Picture a very red-headed child in a very blue swimming pool.) Picking out paper can be one of the most enjoyable parts of scrapbooking. Choose colors you like together. Let your eye and your instinct guide you.
- Studies have shown that the human eye tends to scan a page of text in the shape of a "Z" starting in the upper left corner. Keeping that tendency in mind can help when you are trying to decide how your page will flow. That doesn't mean all of your important elements have to be in that corner, though. You can make any part of your page stand out with the use of color, embellishments and size, and your readers' eyes will be drawn to it immediately. Also, pay attention to the number of things you are including on a page. Marketers have long known that for some reason, we prefer to see groups with an odd number of objects. Three photos or elements look better than two, five better than four. Thinking of your page as a group of nine squares--like a tic-tac-toe game--can help you decide how to lay out the elements on your page. One photo can certainly take up more than one "square" on the page, but keeping the page roughly divided into an odd number of squares tends to make visual sense.
