Less is More -Scraphappy Tip and QP Freebie!

I know that there are some amazing and extravigant layouts out there in the digi world.  You know the ones I’m talking about…masked photo with layers upon layers of little clustered elements surrounding it.  These are gorgeous and well worth the time to do every once in a while.

But for day to day scrapbooking, sometimes less is more.  I have to remind myself of this as well.  As I create layouts using these designers’ amazing work, one of my personal challenges is to find unique ways to use them.

Sometimes this doesn’t work as well as others, but when I’m using a very girly kit and trying to make it work for a boy page, the results can be stunning….but there will be fewer elements to work with.  This is how I am reminded to keep things simple.

Participating in Speed Scraps and challenges that limit me to a certain number of elements is another way to keep me in the practice of simplifying my layouts.

So, below is a layout to prove my point.  This kit will be released the end of the week and is by SAS Designs.  The kit overall is quite girlie, and I have a fun quick page for all of you at the end of this post.

In this layout you can see that I simply layered two papers and only used 7 elements.  The bow, two different stitches, a frame, a photo corner, the rope behind the frame and the ribbon behind the frame.  And I only used each of these elements one time.  I’m not saying this is the most gorgeous layout in the world, it is just simple and masculine…from a very flowery kit.

One last tip, because this layout is fairly monochromatic, I did desaturate the photo just a tad so that, while it remained the focus of the layout, it isn’t overpowering the entire page.

Alrighty,  so I promised you a freebie and it’s a quick page using this fabulous kit!  Here’s a preview of the QP…

To download the quickpage, simply right click on the image and choose “save as”.  Then you’ll just want to unzip the folder once it is downloaded in order to use it.  To use, open the Quick Page and choose a photo.  Add the photo to the layout then move it below the quickpage and position it to fit in the window .  Enjoy!

Oh, if you want a boy quickpage (the one that I used in the example for today), just leave a comment and I’ll email it to you!

Happy Scrappin’!