Happy Friday everyone!  Jenelle here today with an inspiration post that will hopefully have you firing up your creative software and getting some more fabulous pages scrapped for your albums and our gallery!

I absolutely LOVE digital scrapbooking – such a creative and fun hobby for me!  I used to really enjoy graphic and art classes when I was in school, even though I never considered myself to be naturally talented in those subjects.  I still remember learning about ‘rules’ of design in those classes and I found that by following those rules (and putting in lots of effort) I could create some pleasing pieces of art work.

Well those rules (or design principles you could also call them) I studied back in school, naturally transfer over to scrapbooking.  They are also closely followed in interior design/decorating, floral arranging, print advertising and even architecture – to name just a few.

Being aware of these design principles can really help you pull together an eye-catching layout and today I would like to explore in detail one of those design principles .  It is called the ‘Visual Triangle’.

The Visual Triangle is a concept that involves an imaginary triangle on your scrapbook page.  It is created by placing three similar elements (eg:- embellishments, clusters, photos, colours, text etc) at the corners, or points, of the imaginary triangle.  It helps create balance on a page (you could even liken it to the number and arrangement of legs needed for a stool to be stable.  3 = balance).

Our brains have a tendency to perceive images in familiar shapes and when you place elements on your scrapbook pages in a triangle, it allows your brain to see the page as a whole, rather than being distracted by one or two items on the layout. It brings your eye all the way around the layout.  It can also direct you to the one area of your page you want your viewer to focus on.  It’s a fairly simple technique that can take your pages from looking good to looking great in a jiffy!  I also believe it’s a technique you can use on every layout – it won’t get old or ever stop having an effect.

There are a myriad of ways you can create visual triangles on a scrapbook layout.  You could create them with:-

• Photos
• Clusters
• Colours
• Text (title, journalling, date)
• Repeated single elements or embellishments

I think the best way to illustrate what I am talking about is to take a look at some example layouts from our team gallery, that use the technique of the visual triangle perfectly.

I hope these 3 examples (remember 3=balance!) have highlighted this technique for you.  There are plenty more layouts in the team gallery that use this technique – next time you are browsing through, take a closer look and see what appeals to you about each particular layout.  It may well be that elements/colours/photos are placed within this visual triangle format!  Subconsciously, we are drawn to designs that use familiar shapes as they are visually appealing to us (eye-candy in a way!  LOL!!).

Why don’t you try this technique out yourself on your next layout – you might be very surprised with the end result!  We’d love to see you post some new pages in the gallery that use this concept.  You may have already been following this design rule and we’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed reading along today, just as I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all my posts here at the Shabby Shoppe Blog.  I have loved being a part of this wonderful team, but it is now time for me to take on some new ventures and I will be signing off from here as a current team member.

A huge thank you to SP, Kylie and the fabulous team for having me here!  I’ve loved every minute!   I will still be ‘lurking’ around in the gallery and reading along with you all though – you can’t get rid of me that easily!!  LOL!!

Have a wonderful weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday with our latest LOTW winner.  Until then, happy scrapping to you all, THANK YOU and bye for now :)

JenelleInspiration, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized 11 Comments

Happy Monday everyone!  Jenelle here with you today, hoping you’ve all had a great weekend and have been enjoying watching the Summer Olympics.  I am so caught up in it all at the moment and as a family, we’ve really been enjoying watching it together.

So I’m taking a break from the action (LOL!!) and browsing through the gallery to find a stand out layout from the previous week….

Looking… looking… far too many gorgeous layouts to narrow down to just one….

But just as there can only be one gold medal winner, there can only be one LOTW and I am so happy to award it to dwilbanks with her fabulous page called Swim Lesson 2011.

Congratulations dwilbanks!  You’ve created an awesome layout here and I really like the way you’ve angled the photo blocks down your page.  Terrific use of  Sandbox elements and alpha here and your swim lesson photos are wonderful.  You may just have a future Olympian on your hands there!

To reward you for your talent (and for sharing it with us in the gallery) you’ve been emailed a $10 gift certificate to the Shabby Shoppe (check your SPAM folder if you don’t spot it straight away).  We look forward to seeing more of your great layouts – congrats again!

So that’s all from me for today – thanks so much for stopping by.  Please pop by again tomorrow when Kim will be spotlighting a well-loved product (quite darling really…wink.. wink…)  from the Shoppe.  Bye for now!

JenelleLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Hello everyone!  It’s Jenelle here today with our latest Product Spotlight.  As the majority of our Shabby Shoppe Blog readers are in the midst of their summer, I thought it would be a great idea to highlight one of our beachy kits today.  Mind you, Kylie and I are still shivering through winter down here in Australia,  so scrapping with this kit has really warmed us up and has us dreaming of the summer sunshine being back again here really soon!

Have you guessed which kit it is yet?  Of course you have!  It is our Splash Coordinated Kit and it is ON SALE for a limited time only in the Shoppe for just $4.25!

Splash is such a fun kit to scrap with – a real mix of shabby/ornate/casual – helping you create wonderful beach or pool layouts from your lazy summer days.  The textures in the papers are brilliant and they lend themselves really well to blending.  And I love all the little chrome beach elements – they really stand out against the blues and greens.  Oh and the labels – how cute are the labels?!  I reach for them a lot in my summery pages.

So, enough talk already!  On to the inspiration!!  First up is my layout using Splash (and a couple of other Shoppe goodies – I will outline them in my Shabby Artist gallery post).  I had lots of fun creating this and really loved the effect of the textured background paper.

Kim has wowed us yet again with her scrapping mastery.  Splash is showcased beautifully here in this layout of her youngest little man – what a cutie!  I love this photo!

I love how Casharina has ‘sprinkled’ some pink throughout her layout, perfectly complementing the blues and greens of Splash.  A gorgeous summertime page!

Rosy has highlighted perfectly how Splash can be used for non-beachy layouts.  What a beautiful baby boy page she has created here!  I also can’t help but notice that Rosy has used her trademark blending techniques here with the background paper.  You can check out Rosy’s blog post on soft light blending modes here if you missed it last week.

And to finish off, a delightful fun-in-the-pool layout from Kylie.  I just love that title!

I hope these layouts from the team have helped inspire you to get creative with your latest scrapping projects.  You can check out layout credits and more details in our Shabby Artist gallery as we upload them throughout the day/night.

Along with Splash, we also have the Splash Piece-a-Cake Album ON SALE for a limited time in the Shoppe for only $5.50 – such a quick and easy way to get all your summer photos scrapped.  Easy-peasy!

Well, that’s all for today folks!  Thanks so much for dropping by today.  Please check back again on Thursday, when Kylie will be sharing another of her gorgeous (and free) desktops!  We’ll see you all then!

JenelleProduct Spotlight, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Hi everyone, Jenelle here with you today.  I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend (and a big ‘Happy Canada Day’ to all our Canadian friends out there!) I’m here to share this week’s LOTW with you all.

I’ve chosen Amber’s fabulous page called Funny Faces – how cute is this!

So much to admire here!  I love the way Amber has layered all those strips of paper and the tree cluster with the heart ribbon and flowers is just perfect!  And, of course, these photos are just priceless ~ totally adorable and the whole layout really makes me smile!   And while browsing Amber’s gallery (what a beautiful family you have there Amber!) I noticed that this layout is a partner page for another little cutie – you can check it out here.

Congratulations to you Amber!  We hope you enjoy spending your $10 gift card in the Shoppe and we look forward to seeing more of your beautiful pages.  (Don’t forget to check your SPAM folder if you can’t find our email in your inbox).

Thanks for checking in today.  Be sure to visit again on Thursday when Kylie will be sharing the newest Template Challenge with you all!  Until then, happy scrapping everyone!

JenelleLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 9 Comments

It’s that time of the week everyone!  Jenelle here with our latest Layout of the Week post!  I really love doing these posts even though it is extremely difficult to narrow my choice down to just one layout (I know we always say that, but it really is so hard!) However, there was one particular layout this week that TOTALLY jumped out at me in the gallery.  I’m sure you noticed it too.

This week, I’ve chosen a layout called Just Married by the very talented mcmoran as our LOTW and here it is… just look at all that fabulousness!!!

First up, I adore the colour scheme mcmoran has chosen to complement this wonderful B&W photo of her parents on their wedding day (looking oh-so-stylish I must add!). Combining the Twirl and Darling papers, along with SP’s Just Married stickers is a perfect scrapping match.  I also really like the way mcmoran has added her parents’ names to the wedding cake.  This fabulous photograph is still the main focal point on this page and these pops of red are the perfect embellishment in my opinion!

Congratulations mcmoran, you will be emailed a $10 gift certificate to the Shabby Shoppe today.  Have a great time shoppe-ing and we can’t wait to see another fabulous layout from you in the gallery soon.  (Don’t forget to check your Spam folder if you don’t see our email in your inbox.)

Thanks for checking in today.  I’d really like to encourage you all to continue posting your Shabby Shoppe layouts in our gallery as we are always on the lookout for stand-out pages.  And you’ve got to be ‘in in to win it’ , right?! And if you haven’t yet made that big leap and posted your first layout yet, why don’t you give it a try?  We’d love to see how you use SP’s wonderful products in your memory keeping.

Kylie will be back here on Wednesday with our latest edition of Focus on Photos, so we’ll see you all again then.  In the meantime, happy scrapping!

JenelleLayout of the Week, Uncategorized 3 Comments