Do you have those layouts that you feel are just blah…ones that maybe you have put aside, waiting for inspiration to strike so that you can finish it? I have ten ways that you can try and spruce up those layouts and get your mojo flowing again.
- Add more layers – put them behind the photo, along the edge, wherever. Use ribbons, string, paper mats…anything.
- Shrink it all – take your focal point and all the elements associated with it, and shrink them down. Reposition them, and check out the results
- Change the font – look at your journaling…it may be in the font you love and always use…however, changing the font of the journaling can change the look of the whole page.
- Take away the color – Using a color photo? What if it was black and white? Using a black and white photo? What if it had really amped up color? Give it a shot and see what happens.
- Change the photo – Look through the photos you have from the event you are scrapping, or of the person you are scrapping…do you have one that might work better? Put it into the layout and see if that gets you moving again.
- Add something unexpected – flowers on boy layouts, a car on a girl layout, metal embellishments on a wedding layout…sometimes we let our perception of what “belongs” on a layout keep us from trying something different.
- Swap out the background – Maybe you always gravitate towards a plain paper background. What if you gave it a shot and tried a patterned paper background? It often makes all the difference.
- Take stuff away – It’s easy to get carried away with layering and adding more and more to your layouts (see #1). Try taking stuff off your layout, bring your focus back to the photos and the story
- Crop the photo – try making an interesting crop on your photo. A photo with an interesting and unexpected crop can change the whole dynamic of a layout.
- Flatten and save the layout – yup, you read that right. Flatten it, and save it…as is. It’s easy to forget the focus is on the photos and the stories, not the latest techniques and products. Sometimes, you just have to move on!
What do you do when you get into a funk with a layout?
Electra says
Great tips, thank you!