Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Go BIG or Go Home

Ok, peeps, what is UP with all the eensy-weensy photos on everyone's digital scrapbook pages???  If you browse any of the popular designer's websites and/or blogs, you know what I'm talking about.  Layout after layout after layout featuring only a single {tiny} photo, lots of digital elements, and a whole lotta blank space.

Not to mention, when I find a really fun Quick Page to download, there they are again -- itty-bitty windows in the .PNG files where you can slide in a photo no bigger than thumbnail-size.  Like this page:

{Quick Page by Creashens}

How CUTE is that page?  And perfect for the sweet photo of my great-niece, Kayla.  But, dang it, when I printed this out at 8"x8" for my family album, Kayla's picture came out measuring only 1.5" x 1.5".  That's wayyy too small for me {when I have to get out my reading glasses to get a good look at the photo I get grumpy}.

Maybe it's just me but when I look at this page I see the focus as being on the elements - the owl, the button, the stitching, the patterned paper border - rather than on the photo.  I like my pages to be the other way around - with my photos as the focus.

I've been waiting a long time for this trend to go away.  And it's just not going away.  I know there's this idea that all that "white space" (aka empty space) on the page is restful to the eyes, artsy, and modern but, in the long run, my goal is to get all my photos scrapbooked with a minimum of time and money spent.  If I scrapbook just one photo per page it's going to take me a LONG time to make any headway, and it's going to cost me a LOT in ink and paper, too, and albums to put all the pages in and page refills, and bookshelves to hold all the albums . . . well, you get the idea.

Well, I never have followed the crowd, but it could be that my taste and/or style is just different.  Like these pages that I did over the weekend:

{double-click any image for a larger view}


As you can see, my tendency is to FILL the page with photos - usually to the extent that there's no place for journaling {I'm working on that}.  I haven't left much room for elements either, like buttons, ribbons, digi-stickers, etc., which is kind of a shame since I have an external hard drive literally stuffed with 'em.

But somehow I'm ok with that.

And I'm keeping Kayla's page, too, 'cuz it's just way too cute not to.


6 comments:

panoramic photo stitching said...

Beautiful page. loved the color combination. Keep blogging and thanks for sharing.

Regards,
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No Reimer Reason said...

I so agree with you. The QPs are so cute, but I rarely download them because I like to scrap larger photos too - and more than one to a page. I get a little disappointed when I see so many adorable QPs that I know I really won't have much use for.

Once in awhile I use those artsy QPs is for low-res photos (e.g. cell phone photos) that wouldn't look good at a larger size anyways. But other than that, give me a layout with several large photos and I am happy. :)

belle said...

I agree---go big or go home! I've only used the small photo on large page format for pages where the photos were low resolution. Other than that, I like to see the photos with the elements as accents. Thanks for sharing!

Barbara said...

Yes, I'd keep the page of cute little Kayla, too. But,let's be real; it isn't "scrapbooking." It's pretty, it's artistic, and it has its uses, but scrapbooking is the recording our lives. And, for me, that means lots of photos and journaling-that's the story. All those photos are what keep our pages interesting and unique. The elements can and are used by numerous scrappers, but the photos---that's the beauty. And, that's my opinion, for what it's worth!

Joslin said...

I agree too-The main point of my scrapbooking is to use our pictures to document our life. I pick my pictures for an event, then choose some papers to match. The papers and elements are an afterthought with me, where as those "decor" pages are just that-a reason to use all of those little elements they have bought I guess!

Anonymous said...

Oh it is nice to see someone else with the same sentiments! I tend to agree - the white space and embellishments are very artistic but they don't work for my everyday scrapbooking. I like to journal and tell the story of the photos and our life. Plus those tiny pics are hard on my eyes! I do think that the artisic stuff with small photos works very well when the page is printed on canvas and hung on a wall. Super beautiful and personal.