Scrapbooking Layout

Dominant Photo Scrapbooking Layout

Scrapbooking really is all about the pictures, so perhaps the simplest way to lay out a scrapbook page is with a large photo as your centerpiece. It could be centered on the page with a border around it (use a paper border, stickers or even leave that space for your journaling). Or you could place the picture to one side, leaving more space for journaling or other artistic flourishes.

You could even put the picture on the page at an angle, so that the edges of the photo are trimmed off as they run off your scrapbook page. This gives an interesting look to a basic layout and leaves lots of room for other stuff on the page.

Two or more photos

Sometimes one photo just doesn’t tell the story. Pages with two or three photos give you a lot more options for layout. You can stack the pictures in a column down one side of the page, leaving lots of space for die cuts, rubber stamps, colored paper and journaling. Or you can put them in a straight line along the top, bottom or center of the page.

You could put the pictures in the corners (especially if you have four) and save the center of the page for a jazzy title or a special keepsake. Or put one photo in a corner and the others in a row on a different part of the page. Stack them diagonally across the page, in a square or a circle.

And speaking of circles, remember that your photos don’t have to stay square. Cut them into circles, diamonds or triangles, or cut the edges with a fancy pinking shear that mimics the shape of the border on your page.

Photo collage

You could also turn your page into a giant collage. You might want to work with color photocopies of your pictures when you do this, so you will still have a whole copy of the picture somewhere in case you need it later.

Go to the copy shop and get high-quality color copies of your pictures, then cut out people, start stacking and gluing and see what comes out. Or cut your pictures like jigsaw puzzle pieces so that they all fit together on your page without overlap. You could even make a big picture look like a collage by giving it the puzzle piece treatment. Leave a little white space around each piece for extra whimsy.

Store-bought (and free) inspiration

A trip to the craft store will give you inspiration for different layouts. Looking at all the papers, stamps, stickers, die cuts, embellishments, pastels, gel pens and more will give you more ideas than you will ever have time to work with.

You can also search for ideas online and use free templates and add ons to get free inspiration for your pages. Check out the DIY Scrapbooking page for all sorts of ideas, tips, techniques and downloadable patterns. There are some great sources for basic cutouts at Creativity Portal, including words you can print out and use as titles.

If you just want to look at other people’s pages to get some ideas for what you can do with your own layouts, visit Rubber Stamping Links for a good collection of links to pages with layouts on display (there are several dead links here).

Other good sources for free layouts to look at are Better Homes and Gardens, dMarie, and Scrapbooking.com. These sties should give you all the inspiration you need to create beautiful scrapbooking layouts.