Scraplift Yourself: Vol.5

The obvious composition lift:

For the first layout, I wanted to create a layout with a lot of warmth and texture. I created the branch by folding strips of brown patterned paper. I ripped out a spot for journaling and tied some fibers around the page as if the fibers were ripping the paper themselves. Three photos line the bottom of the layout.

In a rush to complete this second layout for a kit contest, I just copied the layout above. A larger title takes the place of a photo and the photos that skim the bottom are square as opposed to the rectangular photos in the family layout, but it's basically the same composition.

A composition evolution:

This was the first layout of many to follow, the OC if you will (original composition). For the next layoug, I chose to put my main photo up high on the page and cropped three photos to emphasize the "star stacking ability." One photo and journaling finish the left side and two more supporting photos line the bottom of the layout.

Rotate "Star-Stacking Diva" 180 degrees and you have the "Cake Queen" composition. Two smaller photos take the place of the original 4" x 6" photo (the bottom left on the "diva" layout). I added a few embellishments, but it's the same layout. Again, I cropped three small photos to bring specific attention to my daughter's messy face.

For the layout, "Under Construction Friends," I moved around the journaling and pushed over the 4" x 6" photo to be up against the other three. I kept my three small cropped photos to emphasize "play."

For "Kiss," I kept the same basic composition, but I traded in my beloved "three cropped photos" for an extra large journaling block.

Remove that extra large journaling block and flip over the "Kiss" composition for "True Colors."

I used patterned paper strips in the place of my "Kiss" layout journaling block and used vertical 4" x 6" photos in the layout, "Kiddie Pool."

In "Our Little Sprout," my vertical patterned paper strips have now gone horizontal!

WOW! That's some composition!

Look at the very first layout and then look at the very last. What do they have in common? How have I changed the composition over time? One huge difference is that I started with a one-page layout and ended up with a two-pager. If I hadn't pointed out that they were originally from the same thought process, would you have thought I was scraplifting myself? Did you notice that even though I changed the layout a lot in the middle of my process, it seems I went back to the original layout in the end? The two layouts below are not so very different in regards to photo placement.

One frequently asked question in regards to scraplifting yourself seems to be, "What if all your layouts look the same?" For me, if I know I'm scraplifting myself, then I put the pages in different albums. It also helps to keep the themes and color schemes different from the original. If you are a chronological scrapbooker, then I recommend scraplifting yourself on a "rotation" basis. Re-surface compositions every six months or scraplift yourself for different theme albums. This is a great way to knock out a baby book, vacation album, and gift album in one weekend. Arm yourself with some basic compositions and just make your photos fit! I hope you find that this process will be a blessing to you and help free up time for more scrapbooking.