Cherish by aly321
Aly loves to tell stories on her pages and with her thoughts jotted down on paper. She chose this particular kit because she loves the soft colors and the elements. She doesn’t worry much about principles and rules and just starts scrapping. Aly is a pretty diverse scrapper and likes to try out new things, but she thinks that deep down, she is an “oobery-goobery cluster scrapper with piles of things” on her pages.
Daddy? by bbe
Brenda’s inspiration came from two places. First, the concept came from looking at this picture and remembering how much she wanted to have that special alone time with her own dad. It reminded her of the million and one questions she always had for him that were just her way of getting his attention. Second, with this picture style (she calls it “illustration meets graffiti) she decided to go bold.
She started by making two duplicates of the original photo. Using the first duplicate she applied the “find all edges filter,” which turns it into a rough black and white sketch and then used a strong unsharp mask. This gives the subjects a really nice thick black outline. She took the second duplicate and layered it on top of the first and adjusted the opacity. It’s a really quick and easy technique that she likes to use for photos of bad quality.
Then she merged the layers and cut out the subjects. Brenda knew right away that she would use Anna’s ArtPlay Palette Metro Graffiti because it’s rich, bold, and edgy. Since the theme was graffiti she found an appropriate font for the title at dafont.com. Brenda just used paper, brushes, and an overlay and topped it off with a bold question mark.
Brenda’s most important design principle is to use a strong focal point that draws attention. She considers herself an artsy scrapper working with brushes, overlays, and blending. She likes to push herself into other styles and tends to experiment.
Summer Fun by tanbanan
Tana was inspired to create this page by a layout challenge at The Lily Pad about a Summer Fun List. She had already created a chalkboard with all of the things her kids wanted to do this summer and she had been taking photos and checking things off her list along the way.
She knew that she wanted to use lots of photos to go along with the list. So, she started with the frames. Tana used Jacque Larsen’s Paper Piece frames as her starting point, resized them a bit, and arranged them on the page. She wanted more color, so she found some coordinating papers that would complement the summer theme and used the frames as clipping masks to add the patterned papers. Then, she just started adding in some of her favorite photos, the title work, and journaling. She feels that when you are truly inspired. . . the page takes on a life of its own and you can’t stop creating until you are done!
Generally, Tana considers herself to be a clean scrapper. She likes to see lines and definition on the page with a few added embellishments to highlight the overall feel to the page. She feels that she does her best work when working on a challenge. It inspires her in ways outside of the box.
That Spark by mrsaboyer
Andrea was inspired by the look in her daughter Genny’s eye. Andrea happened to capture that expression Genny gets right before she does something interesting, which could be something really funny like a crazy dance, or something terrifying, like running into the road.
Andrea fell in love with the kit the minute she saw it, because she is drawn to bright, bold color. She thought it, and the graphic prints, would be a great representation of her personality. She also used one of her templates from her template collab All Summer Long with Michelle Batton. She arranged the photos to create the effect of Genny looking up with that expression. As she began layering on the papers and elements, Andrea noticed this streak of color emerging.
This layout most closely represents the rule of thirds, with the left third almost completely black and white, the middle third with all the paper pieces, and the right third with the photos. Andrea feels that she wings her layouts design wise and hopes to learn some more actual design principles when she begins graphic design school this fall. She does pay attention to doing things in threes though, because she thinks odd numbers are more visually pleasing than even numbers.
Andrea considers herself a freeform scrapper with a strong preference for scrapping real life, warts and all. She likes to preserve everyday moments, as well as her daily struggles.
The DST Gallery is packed with amazing layouts and inspiration. Join us each month for a selection of pages from our amazing members along with a behind-the-scenes look at how each page came together.
Thanks so much for featuring my layout! <3 <3 I'm honored!