If you listened to last week’s Digi Show, you heard me talk about the Design Quality Guide. This is something the digital scrapbooking industry has needed for a long time. All of the industry standards and expectations in one place. If you have ever wondered what makes designs quality, save this to your computer and refer to it. If you are an established designer or just getting started, download it and take a look, I learned a thing or two and I’m sure you will too!

Supplies: template is Flight Plan #13 by One Little Bird; Flying High by Design by Dani; fonts are Smith, Century Gothic, and Fontologie Weathered.

When Jenn submitted the layout below for the May Playbook with a tip about angling the papers when working on a template, I thought it was pretty smart. I was sure there might be lots of new scrappers that don’t twist their papers a little to match up to the angle of a template shape. I remember a time when I was too new and hadn’t thought of it myself. I thought I would share today, how to twist your paper angle to match a template.

Supplies: Flight Plan #13 by One Little Bird; Love You More Than Ice Cream (included in May 2012 Digi Files); font is Just the Way You Are

Notice on the layout below how the stripes on the paper aren’t perpendicular with the edges of the paper strip:

By mousing over one of the corner handles and turning the paper until the box is perpendicular with the edges of the paper shape, that strip of paper looks more realistic:

I’ll do the same thing with the green paper strip behind the paper we just adjusted. Here is the before:

And after adjusing the green paper…

The changes are subtle, but make a big difference on the finished layout!

Title supplies from The Daily Digi member exclusive kit My Life At Play.

Every now and then, a page I am scrapping takes on a life of its own and ends up in a completely different direction than the one I had intended. Originally, this was going to be a simple page with lots of white space:

Clearly something happened! I really enjoy the “fullness” of the page though and it was very fun to scrap. It made me start to look for examples of other “full” pages.

Bronx Zoo by Gina

Gina used a blocked design to fit in 10 photos and lots of journaling. There is so much to see on this page! It shows that a page with “less” papers and elements can still be a very full page.

Attack of the Tiger by HeatherB

There is patterned paper, solid paper, trim, buttons, paper flowers, word art, journaling and more on this page! The bold solid yellow paper grounds the design and the white frames and white journaling mat make the photos and journaling easily visible.

Grandma’s House by YepBrook

The large central photo catches the eye first and then you start to notice the many smaller photos and lush layers of papers and trim. The flower accents and tucked-in date and location tags just add to the fullness of the page. I love how the title is on the negative space in the photo. Perfection!

The 5th Month by Aurian

What an amazing double-page spread! I love the mix of large, medium and small photos. The use of frames create focal points and the whimsical elements keep you looking around the page. The patterned paper, like the black polka-dots, is skilfully used to add punch to visual clusters.

Attitude by Kirstiegai

Working with a limited colour palette is a great way to incorporate many different layers without them visually competing with each other. There are many different arrows, flowers, stars and doodles on this page, but it is the title and the photo that are the focus, and these are visually joined by a large doodled arrow.

Forever and Always by Chocochoco

This page is stunning with all its beautifully layered flowers. I think part of the reason why it works is that the scrapbook artist repeated each unique flower, button and the leaves several times. It helps to maintain the cohesiveness of the page. Using a black and white photo also helps the picture to stand out among the colourful flowers.

Stuff My Mama Said by Diamndprincz

Each text spot on this page creates a visual cluster and there is just enough of the softly polka-dotted background paper poking through to gives the reader’s eyes places to rest. The gently faded and toned photos work with the soft colours on the page, allowing the brighter colours, like the reds, to pop.

Designing “edge to edge” is a bit intimidating. Part of the challenge is keeping the journaling and photos prominent on such full pages. I learned a lot by studying the work of the great scrappers highlighted above. I’m definitely going to try out this style again!

Sahlin Studio Plastic Alpha. Jenn Barrette Something Good. Brush Script MT font.

Have you ever used acrylics or transparent embellishments on a digital scrapbook page? There are so many fun ways to use these types of elements to kick up the “wow” factor on your layouts! (All images are linked for credits)

I love the use of big acrylic numbers and alphas on a layout! It’s a great way to emphasize a theme, without overpowering the page.

Transparent acrylic embellishments can be placed over patterned paper for a fun look. The design still shows through, yet the text on the alphas is readable.

Not all acrylic is crystal clear. I love the color tinted acrylic hearts on this sweet layout.

Acrylic can go right on top of a photo! I love how the scene is still visible right through the title.

You can even read journaling through acrylic embellishments!

A simple acrylic bracket is a great addition for layering and visually anchoring photos to a page.

For title work you can mix acrylic alphas with other lettering for creative looks.

One of the biggest tricks for digi scrapping with acrylics (or transparent items) is getting the shadowing right. If you apply a standard drop shadow, it can make an acrylic piece look cloudy or murky. Here are some great tutorials to help you get the best shadows for acrylic pieces.

• Shadowing acrylic elements from SuzyQ Scraps
• Shadowing acrylics tutorial Mye de Leon blog
• Shadowing acrylics Down This Road designs blog

I’ll freely admit that I’m all about “cheating” when it comes to shadowing acrylic elements. I almost always us acrylic drop shadow styles to get the best look. If you’ve never used styles before, you’ll be surprised at how quick and easy they are to use! Many designers include an acrylic style when they sell shadow style packs. These are a few of my favorites:

Shadowing makes a BIG difference with acrylics! Here’s a what my title looked like without any shadowing:

Here’s what it looks like after I applied Traci Stroud’s acrylic shadow style:

It’s worth taking a little extra time and effort to get acrylic shadowing done the right way!

Are you ready for some enabling? Here are some of my favorite acrylic items:

I’m ready to dig through my supplies and play with some acrylic embellishments and alphas now. I hope you can see new uses for clear acrylics on your own digi creations!

Clusters are one of my favorite design features on scrapbook pages, but I have to admit to being a bit cluster-impaired. lol! I’ve always admired how team member Jenn Lindsey uses clusters so effectively on her pages. She has a few tips to share with us:
1. Vary the size and rotation of the elements you’re clustering
2. Elements closer to the bottom layers will cast smaller shadows than those on the top of the clusters.

Credits: Star Gazing by Misty Cato and Melissa Bennett, The Faulty Marker (Heather Hess) and FO Textura Empty (Fontologie) fonts

Credits: Little Traveler collab by A5D Designers, DJB JenLin font

Credits: Snow Fun by Marta Designs, Conrad Voigt and CK Constitution fonts

Team member Trina is a clustering queen! I love to study her layouts because she does such a great job with grouping and placing embellishments. I was happy to learn what tricks she uses to achieve such wonderful results. She shares:

Clustering was one of the hardest things I learned how to do for digital scrapbooking, and I found using templates really helped me get the hang of it until I could do a cluster on my own.  Now my biggest problem is that I always want to put every single element in the kit!  Shadowing plays a HUGE role in making a cluster look realistic like the other girls said.  I usually start with papers because I love patterned papers and fill different types of shapes with them, and then add elements on top of that.  To create a cluster that looks realistic you may have to hide or erase parts of elements so that something is wound around something else (such as threading a tag on a ribbon).  Resize elements, use them 2 or 3 (or more) times, hide parts under others, just go nuts until the cluster is as big and as full as you like.

Credits: Glamorous kit – Jenn Barrette and Eva Kipler Exuberance Templates – Jeanye Labaya

Credits: Yin & Yang 2 Collab – Scrapping With Liz and Fiddle Dee Dee Designs Winter Thrills bundle – Chelle’s Creations

Credits: Everyday Storytelling – Jenn Barrette and Kristin Cronin Barrows Solos Part 4 – Busy Bee Designs

Heddy (another team member) shares a great tip for anyone who struggles with clustering – she says: I love the look of clusters! I often rely on templates with cluster guides because it takes the guess-work out of creating a full cluster.

Credits: facebook fan freebie template by Caroline S.

When it comes to clustering, nothing makes me happier than when I can cheat and use a pre-made cluster. I love it when designers include these in their kits or offer them as embellishment packs! Here are some of my favorites: (all images are linked)

Be sure to read the descriptions on kits and embellishment packs and look for the word “cluster”.

When I looked at the other preview images for this kit, I found that it included several pre-made clusters.

When I read the description for this kit, I found that there were several clusters included.

If you love the look of clusters and want to learn how to make them on your own, be sure to check out NeeNee’s previous post on creating clusters for some great tips. A fun cluster adds so much style to a page!

P.S. The title image was created with the Worn Collaboration cluster set by Sahlin Studio and One Little Bird Designs. The font is Traveling Typewriter.

When I’m running short on inspiration, I often go “shopping” in my own stash of digital scrapbook supplies. As I browse through previews, I usually find something that sparks my creativity and makes me feel like scrapping a particular experience or memory. Let me show you a few examples:

This kit had some word art that caught my eye. When I saw the piece that said “Laugh as much as you breathe & Love as long as you live” – I had a certain photograph pop into my mind.

This picture was a candid shot taken during our Christmas card photo shoot. We were laughing so hard that day! The word art was a perfect fit for this memory.

Sweet & Simple by Weeds and Wildflowers. Homemade Apple Font. Ali Edwards Template no 25. Photo by Remember This Photography.

The theme of this kit is what got my wheels turning. I loved the “Around the World” embellishments and they got me thinking about where I had traveled to in my life.

The funny thing is that I didn’t end up using any of the themed elements for my page. I decided that the papers and flowers were so pretty and that they would go well with a picture I had been wanting to scrap of the Eiffel Tower. The page ended up being about my daughter’s dream of going to Paris, instead of my own past travels. It’s so interesting where a kit can take you in your creative journey!

Around the World collab kit by The Digichick designers. The King and Queen Font and Traveling Typewriter fonts. Template by Bree Clarkson (modified)

Many times, a certain embellishment piece (the red camera in this case) or a color scheme will inspire me to scrap a photo or a memory.

The reds and blues of this kit were a great match to a 1997 photo of my daughter at a picnic. Even though the kit does not have a picnic theme, it all came together so nicely!

Everyday Flair by Creashens. Traveling Typewriter font.

I have so much fun looking through my supplies to get ideas, but I’ve never thought to write them down before. It dawned on me as I was browsing my collection for this post, that I was passing up a lot of ideas inspired by kits or products because I didn’t have time to tackle them right now. I decided to jot down a few notes about the goodies I want to use in the near future. You could even include these notes as metadata with your preview image if you’re the organized type! (All images are linked)

LOVE the license plate flag banner in this kit! I have several road trips to document, and my son used to have a license plate bedspread so I have plenty of uses for this.

My kids used to love to play with the pool table in their Great-Grandparents basement. Lots of fond memories that could be illustrated with this fun set.

I have a picture of my daughter sitting in front of a toy beauty shop that I swear was used as inspiration for this kit! Unfortunately, I also have several pictures of her with goofy haircuts that she did herself when I wasn’t looking. The scissors reminded me of those memories!

I know I have said and/or heard a lot of these phrases before! I never thought about doing a “Mom Speak” layout until I saw these word strips.

Another bit of topic inspiration – I should scrap about our family “rules” and traditions!

Isn’t it amazing to see how many ideas you can get from your own stash of supplies? I hope you will go “shopping” through your own kits and act on the inspiration that you find!

P.S. The title image was created with Everyday Flair by Creashens and Howie’s Abundant Stamp Font.

One question we often hear from digital scrapbookers is why we use a certain size of page for either scrapping, printing, or both (if they differ)? Here’s a comment from episode 27 of The Digi Show about printing
Elizabeth says:
Question – what is the purpose of scrapping 12 by 12 only to resize it to 8 by 8? Is the theory you may print it 12 by 12 sometime in the future?

In the beginning of my own digi scrap days, I used to size my canvas at 8×8 and then resize all my supplies to fit that since I knew I would be printing 8×8 pages. I never worried about printing in 12×12 because I figured I wouldn’t change my mind. Then I decided I wanted to make a photo collage page of photos from the entire year of 2007 (pictured above). I used a neat template by Heather Ann Designs and I knew it would make a great display piece to hang in my staircase photo gallery aka the “Wall of Fame”. That was the first time I started off with a 12×12 canvas and I’ve used one ever since. It finally occurred to me that I just might want to print some of my layouts in a bigger size someday!

There are many advantages to using a 12×12 canvas in Photoshop no matter what size you plan to print your creations. I asked several of our Daily Digi team members to share their preferences:

Tara

I don’t scrap 8×8 normally, there however have been a few layout’s I’ve printed 8×8 for variety in my albums.  Those layouts tend to be simpler photo based layouts with minimal text or the layouts about me. Not sure why but flipping through my albums now most of my non-large photo layouts in 8×8 are of me. I do 12×12 and when I print I decide then to mix it up.  I love the varied sizes in my albums! All in all I’d rather the option of sizing down then not being able to print 12×12.

Melissa

I always scrap in 12×12 simply because the papers/templates are all 12×12 in size, and many times the elements are made proportionally to use with 12×12 papers. Until 2012, I’ve resized the page once it’s finished and flattened to 8×8 since that is the size of my 2007-2011 albums. This year, however, I’m printing 12×12 to fit in my Project Life album.

Heddy

I scrap in 12×12 and print in 8×8. I scrap in the larger 12×12 format because all papers and elements are proportioned to work in that size. I view layouts on my screen at a reduced zoom level to mimic an 8×8 print. On my monitor, viewing a 12×12 page at 25% gives me a good estimate of what the page will look like once printed in 8×8. This helps to make sure that my fonts will be readable, even after the layout is printed at the smaller size.

Once a layout is complete, I flatten it at 12×12 and save as a jpg. I print my layouts at Persnickety Prints and they are able to take a 12×12 page and print in 8×8 so I don’t need to save an 8×8 copy.

Wendy

I scrap 12×12, and print 8×8. I scrap at 12×12 for two reasons. I always want my original file to be of the best quality possible. If I scrapped 8×8 and printed a 12×12 later, it would lose quality. So, having that 12×12 means I can always to back to it. The other reason is because resizing to 8×8 from the get go is a waste of time. LOL Everything is designed at 12×12, so it’s easiest for me to scrap that way.

I save a 12×12 initially. Then, when I’m ready to print, I run my bleed check actions on my 12x12s. For the layouts that need adjusting, I’ll make the changes and save a new 12×12. Then, I run a batch to resize to my photobook’s bleed size of 8.25×8.25. Although the software out there will resize for me, uploading hundreds of 12x12s takes significantly longer than hundreds of 8x8s. So, I take the time to batch resize before uploading. Plus, that gives me the opportunity to apply a little sharpening before uploading.

Technically, you’ll get a better result if you resize to 8×8 with your layered file and then flatten and save because the text is still vector at that point. But, I find sharpening after resizing is enough to keep my text crisp. If I had a font that wasn’t playing nice, I might go back to the original and give that a try.

Keep it Simple

One of the best reasons to scrap in 12×12 size in your photo editing program is simply a matter of saving time. Don’t worry about resizing everything to fit a smaller canvas…let the printer do that job for you!

Title graphic credits: Everyday Daily Digi exclusive member kit; fonts are MTF Base Outline and The Only Exception

There are as many ways to incorporate journaling and factual details on a page as there are scrapbookers. The way that journaling and details (like the date and photo captions) are presented on a page can form part of the artistic impact of the page. For example, a hand-printed font (perhaps even your own handwriting made into a custom font!) adds a personal touch to the page, especially when done with non-justified text and varied line spacing. A formal font, like Times New Roman or other serif font, adds importance and a timelessness to the page.

I journal (a lot) on my pages. So, I took a quick trip down memory lane and pulled up a few examples of how I have put journaling on pages.

Scrap Around the Journaling

I am a journaling-heavy scrapper. I often start with the journaling and then fit the pictures, elements and title around the it, making minor adjustments at the end to make the design work.

WORKS FOR ME! - Journal in Microsoft Word (or your preferred word processing software) first and save the file with your photos. Then, when you’re ready to scrap, the journaling and photos are in one spot, ready to use. (And the word processor will help make sure your story is spelled correctly!)

On this page, A Day At the Zoo, I used a premade photo collage as the outer portion of the page and clipped my many photos to it. Next I created the title with some favourite alphas. Then I created a text path that fit into the large centre area, going around the photos and title work. Lastly, I pasted my journaling (previously typed in Microsoft Word). I adjusted the font size, character spacing and line spacing to fit all the journaling evenly in the text box.

Credits

To capture the details about my son’s second month, I used a similar technique as in A Day At the Zoo, but with a very different result.

Credits

Use Journal Strips

Journal strips are my go-to when I have a medium to large amount of journaling for a particular page. I used to avoid them because I didn’t like fiddling around with the type size and spacing, trying to get it to fit on predetermined journaling strip shapes. Happily, I figured out that I could type the journaling first (in one, two or three line blocks), then create a journaling strip shape behind it and lastly clip paper to the shape.

Credits

Tag It

Sometimes a tag is perfect for small amounts of targeted journaling. A small tag can capture the key facts, if you’re succinct.

Credits

WORKS FOR ME! – When I purchase a kit and it has great neutral elements like plain tags, brads, buttons, et cetera, I tag those items for use on future pages. I think of them as my go-to stash of basics. I use the program ACDSee Photo Manager to tag and maintain my digital scrapbooking supplies. If you don’t have ACDSee, you could also copy those elements into a “Basics Stash” folder.

Write In the Negative

Negative space that is! If you have a photo with a large area that is blank (like sky or water) or solid surface or filled with bokeh (that beautiful photographic blur), try placing your journaling on it.

Credits

Justify It

A simple block of text is simple and the reader takes it in as one design element. On this page, the background has a big pattern, so I used justified text to give it more “visual weight” and help it stand out.

Credits

Sprinkle the Journaling

Putting small portions of journaling around the page adds fun and movement. It is also less intimidating to read than a large block of text.

Credits

Those are just some of my favourite ways to get journaling on a page. I hope you found some ideas that will work for you! (PS – If you love journaling pages, please share your layouts on The Daily Digi’s Flickr group. I’d love to see your designs!)

One of my favorite posts to do each month is the “Play it Again” feature because I love to show that there are many different ways to scrap the same memory. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to create a page and all of these wonderful examples illustrate that point!

For this challenge, I sent my journaling and photo to some of the best scrappers in digiland. Here’s the story I asked them to document:

Colleen is my middle name. It’s supposed to be pronounced as “kah-LEEN” but nobody ever gets it right. Most everyone seems to say it as “koh-LEEN” like the beginning would rhyme with the word “no”. The beginning should really rhyme with the world “ball” and sound like “call”. It especially drives my Mom crazy that it’s always been mispronounced (even at my own wedding ceremony). She always wanted a little girl named Katie Colleen so there was no doubt for her when it came time to name me.

The name Colleen is Celtic or Gaelic in origin and the meaning is “girl”. It is also considered to be an Irish name with the meaning of “Irish Girl”. I’ve always thought the Irish connection was fun since my birthday is pretty close to St. Patrick’s Day.

Even though I do like my middle name, I rarely use it because of the pronunciation issue. It just isn’t worth having to explain it to everyone. That’s why I just use the middle initial of “C” when I write out my full name.

This photo was taken in March of 2005 (back when I used to highlight my hair).

Here are the results:

I just adore the mixture of patterned papers on this layout and the spring colors are perfect for a picture taken in the month of March. I like the finishing touch that the stitching around the edge gives the layout.

Layout by Amy Melniczenko. Gallery Link. We Are In Love by Elise’s Pieces, font is Mom’s Typewriter

The clusters of elements are so pretty on this layout and they do a great job of leading the viewer into the story. I love the black and white treatment of the photograph and the fabulous shadowing work!

Britanee (britaneejean) Gallery link Supply Credits: Be Inspired – Amy – Vol 3 by WM[squared] Designs, What Matters Most by Jady Day Studio & Kim Broedelet, Rock the Shadows Layer Styles by Tracie Stroud.  Font is Typewriter Scribbled

The sepia tone of the photo turned out so nice on this page and I love how the journaling is still easy to read on a patterned paper background. My middle name in the white alpha letters is a great hook to get the reader curious about the story being told.

Layout by Laura (emmasmommy) Gallery Link. Dani Mogstad Secret Recipe Shawna Clingerman Alpha Stash Essential White Pack font DJB I am THAT girl

This layout shows that art journaling techniques can be used for a creative way to scrap a memory. I like my new artsy look and the page is fun and inviting.

Layout by Lorilei Murphy. Gallery link. Art by Studio Rosey Posey

I love dark solid backgrounds with a punch of color and pattern! The flowers are the perfect embellishment to give this page a feminine touch. The text is nice and easy to read also.

Layout by Anne. gallery link. Night & Day by Che Yang Designs, stitches from Stitch it up by Chrisdam Designs Fonts: Helvetica Neue and Selfish

With the photo flipped for the blended background, I got to see another side of myself. It’s such a nice and subtle effect to include a light and blended version of a picture as a background image. The clustering on the stacked frame is just exquisite!

layout by Jenn Lindsey (gallery link) Credits: Let Me Call You Sweetheart by Stolen Moments, All The Small Things by Something Blue Studios, Art Play Palette: Ablaze by Anna Aspnes, Dandelion Wishes by Jenn Barrette, Where I Stand by Litabells Designs, The Other Twin & The Teenage Dream fonts by Heather Hess

These layouts are all very different from each other, but every one of them is fantastic! Each scrapper captured my story in a unique and beautiful way. Thanks so much to the talented digi scrappers who helped us see all the different ways to PLAY!

Look through each layout again and think about which one you prefer. Think about why that one stands out to you and what you like about it. It’s a great exercise to help you learn about yourself as a scrapper and your own preferred style. It also might help you explore some new styles that you haven’t tried before.  Its perfectly OK to use several different styles and methods in your own scrapbooking – I do it all the time!  When you get ready to work on your next layout, take some time to think about all the ways you could play with that memory and have some fun!

P.S. The font used in the title image is Café Rojo

Title Graphic Credits: TDD My Life At Play member exclusive kit; Fonts are Splendid 66 and The Only Exception

Even though I scrapbook digitally, I love to spend time in the paper scrapbook galleries. This is partly due to the fact that my scrapbook style tends more toward the “paper-style” of digi scrapping and partly because there is so much great inspiration in the paper galleries.

This post is going to highlight just a few of the great paper scrapbooking trends and techniques that I’ve come across, shown in digital format. There are some amazing digi scrappers who work in “paper-style”.

First though, I should say that I think realistic shadowing is the number one trick to having a realistic paper-style digi page. The Daily Digi has a ton of posts about shadowing, so I’m not going to repeat them here. Here is just a sampling:

• One Layout Shadowed by Different Digi Scrappers
• Why Would I Want to Warp or Liquefy My Drop Shadows?
• To Shadow or Not to Shadow? That Is the Question.
• and many more in our Drop Shadow Tutorial section of the site

In no particular order, let’s look at some ideas for a realistic paper-style page:

Add More Fasteners

The reason I wanted to do this post is because of the page I made below, which is a scraplift of a paper page. (See credits in link) Doing the scraplift made me realize how important details like fasteners (staples, stitches, tape, etc.) are in adding to the realism of a page.

By Heddy.

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to use fasteners, Katie did a great post about Fun With Fasteners.

Let’s look at some tips…

Add More Papers

When I first started digi scrapping there was no doubt that the digi papers available were far more modern and on-trend than the physical papers available in my local scrapping store. Well, going through the paper galleries now is so inspiring! The colours and patterns are beautiful and fresh. I’m loving how strips of imperfectly cut pieces of paper are being used for layering. Digi scrappers are using the skew tool to make their own imperfect cuts (or digi templates that have “pre-cut” paper strips).

By Valoriew.

Start With a Neutral Background

A quick browse through paper galleries and it becomes clear that a lot of paper scrappers start with neutral papers like plain brown kraft paper, white card stock, graph paper and lined paper.

By dianeskie.

By Ana.Paula.

Katie did a great post about marking go-to items like neutral backgrounds in a “favourite folder” or with a keyword tag to find them easily when you go to scrap.

Black Alphas

When going through the paper galleries, I noticed that many pages featured striking titles in black alphas. Personally, I love having a few black pieces on a page because it catches the eye. A title in a black alpha is a clear focal point.

By trista.

By Heddy.

Mix Alphas

I have over 530 alphas tagged on my computer right now. I probably have a ton more that I haven’t had a chance to tag yet! I think I should really be taking note of the paper scrapper trend of mixing alphas, especially neutral alphas, to form titles.

By norton94.

Check out Katie’s post about digi scrapping with alphas for more ideas.

Journaling Guidelines

You’ll often see handwritten journaling written on journaling guidelines (i.e. ruled lines). Obviously on digi pages, journaling will be straight without guidelines, but it’s fun to use them anyway. They add emphasis to the journaling and ground the text.

By MamaBee.

Use a Full Composition

Very full paper pages catch my attention. So many great details to admire! Digitally we’re lucky that we can rely on templates designed for full-page coverage.

By Marnel.

By Bouille.

Maybe you’ve seen some paper layouts that have inspired you to try something new in digi? Feel free to share!

Paintbox by Cinnamon Designs (crafty madness). Howser font

I know some scrappers (*cough *cough – Steph!) won’t use an item on a page if it isn’t something they could have used in real life (IRL). Those who love to digi scrap with a paper-looking style, might feel uncomfortable putting branches, wheelbarrows, chairs,and other unusual embellishments on their pages. I can totally understand that, but I also love that in digi you can do anything you want to! There is a reason why these items would not work in real life… that’s because they would be too bulky! Can you imagine putting real paintbrushes on a page? To me, that’s the appeal of using these types of items on a digital layout – because I can! There really are NO limits to what can be put on a digital layout, and it will always remain just as thin as a piece of paper.

I love to use realistic embellishments to help me illustrate the story of my layout. I took photos of my kids painting for their art class, but I found that adding some brushes and a box of paints really accentuated the message I wanted to convey.

Layout by Katie. Cinnamon Designs Crafty Madness kit Template by Janet Phillips fonts are Calibri and Fontologie Messy Bessy

Some digi scrappers think that only fantasy-style scrappers can use items that “wouldn’t work in real life” but I love to add them for an extra pop on any type of page!

Layout by Katie, supplies: What’s for Dinner? by Cinnamon Designs, Template by Hilary Heidelberg. Traveling Typewriter font.

One of my favorite layouts from the Play it Again series we do here at The Daily Digi is this one that has a real fork as an embellishment. That would never work in a paper scrapbook, but I love it on this digital page because it tells the story of the formal dinner we were getting ready to attend.

Layout by Britanee Walker. Credits: Coastal Holiday by Tracie Stroud, Bon Appetit by SuzyQ Scraps and Brittish Designs. Foundations {Round} by DeCrow Designs.

Something I avoided as a paper scrapper was adding extra bulk to my pages. I loved the look of  even simple ribbons and flowers, but felt like they took up too much room in my album. Team member Lauren Reid expressed the same thing and said she loves to add “anything chunky… When I only paper scrapped, I LOOVED the look of chunky items (buttons, but flowers, keys, book plates), but hated how they trashed my albums and pages… I definitely love that anything is usable in digi!” Melissa Lewis on our team agrees: “This is me, too! I never used much of anything besides paper when I paper scrapped because I couldn’t stand how thick and unwieldy the books would become. But I LOVE using ribbons and buttons especially on my digital pages.”

Layout by Jenn Lindsey. Credits: TempBlends Vol. 1 by Jenn Lindsey Sea O Sea by Jofia Devoe

Team member Jenn Lindsey shares: “When I first started in digi in 2006, I wouldn’t use anything on my layouts that you wouldn’t normally find in paper scrapping, and I also had to make sure that most items were “attached” to my page in some way – as if I thought they would actually fall off of my layout? I’m not sure why I imposed those restrictions on myself since I’d never been a paper scrapper, but I guess I was looking to mimic the paper look in my layouts the best that I could. As the digi products evolved and expanded over the years I began to let go of my self-imposed “rules” and now just scrap with whatever makes me happy. I now have a hard time not using some sort of foliage or other “live” greenery on my pages. I love the dimension and texture that they can add to a page, and honestly leaves just make me happy. I don’t care anymore if I feel like I’m breaking any “rules”, I just scrap the way I like to, using whatever products I find along the way that appeal to me.
a tiny bit of “live” greenery was just what I felt this layout needed to really bring the photo to life”

Layout by Jenn Lindsey. credits: Where I Stand by Litabells Designs, Traveling Typewriter font

The spotlight in this layout certainly isn’t something you’d find in a paper supply store – but it added just the perfect whimsical touch to my layout:

Layout by Jenn Lindsey. Credits: Bonus Temp #1 by Jenn Lindsey (available exclusively to subscribers of TDD), You Rock by Kristin Aagard, Photography Frames by Janet Brisbois, Jailbird Jenna font

Boxes and balloons added just the perfect amount of dimension and festivity to this layout:

Layout by Jenn Lindsey. Year’s Worth Template Set by Jenn Lindsey, Mischief Maker by Micheline Martin, Birthday Love by HGD by Laurie Ann, sf Jubilee font

Sometimes I like to totally exaggerate an element by playing with the shadows to make them appear as if they’re coming straight out of the page. These weren’t necessarily non-traditional items, but when used in this way, they appear more bulky and realistic:

Layout by Jenn Lindsey. Credits: Psycho Magnet Reloaded & Crazy Stitches 1 by Flergs, In Bloom alpha (recolored), shadows from Flergs blog freebie (modified in places), glitter sparkle from In Bloom glitters. Jacki’s Hand font

Even if you aren’t comfortable using bulkier items on your digital layouts, you might want to consider using them in some of the following creative ways:

• As an illustration on a page when you don’t have a photo.
• For embellishing recipe cards & layouts
• As images on cards and invitations

Digital scrapbooking is an art form that allows all types of creativity. There is no “wrong” or “right” way to express yourself, so let go and have fun!

P.S. The random winner from yesterday’s post was Amber Olson. Congrats Amber!