Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Layout Anatomy

Anatomy \A*nat"o*my\, noun; pl. {Anatomies}. [F. anatomie, L. anatomia, Gr. ? dissection, fr. ? to cut up; ? + ? to cut.] The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of examining its parts; analysis;

Welcome to my first session of Layout Anatomy! This feature of the blog will, hopefully, give you some tips and tricks for making layouts that you love. It won't be a complete dissection of every layout, but a brief tip or two about the creation of a given layout. I will also try to include some photography tidbits in these postings as well.

Disclaimer:
I am of the mindset that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' when it comes to making layouts. So the things I share here are not 'rules' on how to make a great layout, they are just little glimpses inside my mind as I create a layout. I believe in the sentiment 'do what you love and love what you do'. I have learned, however, that some people know what they love when they see it on other peoples layouts, but struggle when it comes to making their own layouts. So, my hope is to help you in your own journey to making layouts that you love.


Photo Notes: Take notice of not only your subject, but the surroundings and background as well. Sometimes simple changes in your position or zoom can mean less editing later.

When I first started taking photos of my daughter splashing in the puddle, part of our playground area was in the frame of the photo (left). This would have been distracting later, if I had decided to use the uncropped photo on a layout. It could be cropped or cloned out in Photoshop, but instead, I took two steps to the left, changing the angle from which I was shooting, and zoomed in a bit more. This removed the distraction from the rest of the photos (right).


Layout Notes: When picking color schemes or style for a layout, look at photo details for inspiration.

If I had to pick color schemes by simply looking through my supply stash, I don't think I would ever get any layouts done, as I would find myself overwhelmed by the choices. My typical inspiration for colors comes directly from my photos. In this case, the only thing that had a lot of color, besides the greens in the trees, was my daughters rain boots. Not only did they inspire me with their colors, but the whimsy, doodled circles inspired the style of my layout as well.


13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the handy tips, Christy. I'm looking forward to following your blog and learning all kinds of things! Great start! ~Karen~

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  2. Love it! Love the story, the photos, the colours...those "dots" are perfect! Those boots are too cute! :)

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  3. "some people know what they love when they see it on other peoples layouts, but struggle when it comes to making their own layouts."

    Oh my gosh Christy, that's exactly me!!!

    Thank you for the lesson :)

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  4. Whoo hoo, this is great and I am so excited to follow you and learn some of your tricks to creating awesome LO's and taking nice photos! I so admire your work! Oh, and getting the freebie ric rac was a sweet treat, too! This is going to be fun!

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  5. Christy, this is awesome! Great tips that I will use. :) Hey, how about posting an easily accessible link to a gallery of all of your layouts? When I go to SG to get inspired from your gallery, it only lets me see about nine layouts. I'd love to be able to see all of your LOs. Thanks for this great blog!
    Susie

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  6. LOL look at her face!!! She just LOVES it. Great layout :)

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  7. thanks christy for all the tips and a great lo ..love how you used the photos...so fun...also grabbed a few of the freebies so thanks for that info...but having trouble getting on divine digital

    great blog and love seeing your layouts as always...looking forward to more great stuff

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  8. What a great idea & clever title for an article series! And love your super cute layout & fab pictures (but, that is no surprise :D).

    As always, you ROCK!

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  9. I feel like jumping like this for you! So happy that you are continuing to be a creative genius and launching your new blog! By the way, love the layout ... but you already knew that 'cuz I've already told you!

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  10. Thanks for the tips Christy! It can be overwhelming to get started sometimes, any little tidbit from someone else is a wonderful gift.

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  11. Great Tut Christy! Love the info. I am one of those scrappers that get "overwhelmed" by my supplies. I put my photos into place and then freak out with what papers and embellies to use.

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  12. Thank you for the great tips, Christy! I so much want to learn digital scrapping and your tutorial will help, immensely. :-)

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  13. Oh this is so me. I easily place my photos within the layout, and then the battle begins. I picked up color from the photo, try those colors schemers, and then the headache begins. I know I am not a natural with digital scrapbooking, but I have chosen it as a part of my physical therapy and also to scrap family photographs. I cannot use a camera, and use speaking software to type, so your scripts are God sent along with this series. Now onto part two. HUGS!!

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