Layout Anatomy - Session 2

If you missed my first Layout Anatomy post, you can find it here. It explains a bit about my intentions of these posts! :)

My friend Chanell at the Instinctive Scrapper created a free kit that she is giving away! In honor of her first creation, I thought I would make a layout with it! My favorite part of the collection has to be the great alpha and the word art Chanell made from it. So, I started with that as my inspiration.

The quote she used reminded me of this tiny little bouquet that Regan had made for me earlier in the spring. I had purposely snapped a couple pictures of it to create a layout.

Photo Notes: Break free from the habit of centering all the subjects of your photos. Off center photos can create a more interesting feel. They also leave you with a great place for some journaling or word art when making scrapbooking pages.

Ali Edwards shares shares some great tips for this here.

Layout Notes: For help with placement of items on your layout, turn on your grids. In Photoshop, the shortcut key is Ctrl ' (single quote). In PSE, go to View>Grid.

In each program, you can adjust the number and spacing of the lines that appear in the grid using Edit>Preferences>Guides, Grid & Slices (or just Grid for PSE). In the preferences dialog, there is a field 'Gridline Every'. If you set the value to 33.33 and change the measurement to percent, your grid will give you a great 'rule of thirds' overlay, no matter what your document size.

Where the heavier gridlines intersect, highlighted with black circles here, are the main points of focus for the page. Putting items of interest at or near these intersections is one way to make sure the viewers eye is drawn to the most important part(s) of your page.

For my layout, I placed my flowers at one intersection, or sweet spot, and then followed the same horizontal line to place the top row of my word art.

Have a great day! :)

"Sweet Simple Things" digital scrapbook layout by Christy VanderWall uses:

• Chanell Rigterink - Sweet Simple Things Collection Mini
• Zen Textures - Zen Textures
• Quick Edge Burn Action - Pioneer Woman
• Digital Scrapbooking Scripts: Copy & Close, File Save 1 - Christy VanderWall