Basics: Getting Started on a New Page

Stuck for an idea? Here are some quick tips to help you start a new page

Do you ever find yourself looking at a bunch of great photos and thinking where do I start? It 's not unusual to be without inspiration when you sit down to complete that special layout. My friends often ask me how I complete pages in such a timely fashion. Here are a few tips I find useful when my creative juices just aren't flowing.

1. Look for inspiration

   Inspiration can come in many forms. I look to magazines, the Internet, friend's layouts, my garden, my children, etc. The list goes on and on. Just open your eyes and mind to the world around you.

2. Sketches

   I like to draw a picture of my layout before I commit it to paper. When I find a feature or entire page that I find appealing, I sketch it. I refer back to my sketches when I'm ready to complete a design. The simplified drawings are free of colour, photos, and embellishments, and provide a perfect outline for my choice of photo and papers.

3. Choose and crop photos

   Determine the number of photos you will be using. What will be your focal point? Will you be completing a single or double page layout? Do you need to crop any unwanted areas from your photos? These are important decisions to be made before starting.

4. Select papers

   What are the predominate colours in your photos and what feelings do you want to evoke with your layout? This is what determines the paper I will use in my layout. I often match photos and paper ahead of time and file them for future layouts.

5. What do you want to say?

   Choose a title. Sometimes this is the first thing I do. Your title can often influence all the other choices you make for your layout.

   

6. Mock up

   Lay out photos, leaving space for your title, journaling, and embellishments. Doing this gives you the opportunity to add or edit any elements. When you are happy with your layout get out your glue stick and photo squares and put it to bed!

I hope some of these tips will be useful the next time you find yourself at a loss of ideas.

Go get your pictures and start scrapping!