The "A.B." in ABCreations stands for Anmarie Bowden, that's me! My favorite ice cream is Mississippi Mud from Baskin Robbins, altho I'm partial to Oreos crumbled on top of Vanilla Bean ice cream too! I was born on Super Bowl Sunday. I have been digiscraping since 2000. I live in beautiful sunny California. I am married to my soul mate and we have two gorgeous children. My favorite saying is, “If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart!”
Do you find it difficult to make a clean and simple page with a lot of white (clean/negative/empty) space? It’s definitely a step outside my comfort zone. In a digital kit there are so many beautiful papers with patterns and great elements to use, that’s it’s easy to get caught up in using them ALL. But there isn’t any rule saying you have to use all the papers and elements.
The importance of a clean look is “keep it simple” and not to overcrowd the page with a lot of elements. Less is more, and that puts the focus on your photos.
So if you’re going to attempt a layout with white space, here are some tips for you:
Don’t be afraid to leave a lot of empty space on your page. In digital kits, most designers provide solid or neutral papers. You don’t have to use a white paper, any color will do. I use a lot of white, kraft or pink as a base, but in the layout below, you can see that orange paper can do as well.
Choose your photo with care. It can be a black and white picture or a full-color one, perhaps even with a filter! Or for greater variety, use one of each and get some contrast.
In the layout above, MrsBou used just circles and rectangles to keep her layout from looking too busy, and she kept all her elements and her photo near the bottom part of the page to really give the feeling of "white" space.
Plan where your photo and journaling will be placed and add elements groups of threes so you create balance. If it’s a color photo, you can choose a contrasting or similar element to get the focus on the photo. MrsBou used a brown neutral frame and underneath she placed circles and rectangles she made with the patterned papers. It always nice to have a little border too, so she added that cute wonky stitching all around the edge.
If you think the neutral background looks too empty, you can always add some visual interest. In the layout above, MrsBou used a cream paper and used a burning tool to add some "aging" around the edges to really add that contrast.
If you still think the neutral background looks too empty, you can always blend in a patterned paper for some visual interest. Just place it above the layer with the neutral background and then select a blending mode for the patterned paper to get some more depth. In the layout above, MrsBou placed a patterned paper full of text atop the cream paper and scrolled through the blending modes until she got the look she wanted, then she erased a lot of the text so only a bit shows through at the bottom and up the sides of the layout.
There are many great sketch templates for a clean and simple white space layout, but you can also make one yourself. If you find it difficult to get started, you can always look through Instagram or Pinterest or a scrapbooking Gallery to find some inspiration. I hope this helps you step outside of your comfort zone and give the clean and simple white space method a try.
For more free lessons visit ABCreations University, or as I like to call it ABC-U!
Happy Scrapping!
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