Test Your Skills 4

Test Your Skills

For this challenge let’s take a look at a rectangular grid page I made about moving my mom out of the home she had lived in for 25 years and into a retirement center. I wanted to chronicle this bittersweet moment, and a rectangular grid design seemed well-suited for showing a variety of photos.

I scraplifted my design from this QwikPage template by Jen White using the kit World Travel by HGD by Laurie Ann.

Take the Quiz

Look at the page and identify any No-no’s. (There are two.)

Credits
Paper: A Mother’s Love by Misty Cato
Font: Horizon

SHOW ANSWERS

No-no #1: Pattern or color of a paper overwhelms the page

In this case the floral background paper is mostly distracting. It has colors that match colors in my photos, but it doesn’t improve the page or provide focus for the photos.

No-no #2: Bevels on plain type

I’m sorry to say it, but bevels on plain type instantly flag a page as “rookie.” It so seldom looks good that you’re better off to avoid it altogether.

Other than fixing the two No-no’s, what advice would you give me to improve the page?

SHOW ANSWERS

As you can see I fixed the two No-no’s: the background paper and the title. Here’s what else I did:

I removed three photos and used the space to put journaling, a title cluster, and a different photo. Why did I remove the photos? I realized they weren’t very good photos. I took them at the last minute when I realized that I wanted to make this page, and I wasn’t very happy with how they turned out. They were mediocre at best and difficult to “read” at worst.

So I asked myself, “What is this page really about?” and by asking the question I knew the answer: It was about Mom who was leaving a house she had lived in for 25 years. That gave me the clarity to make the decision about the photos. Along with the journaling and title cluster, I now had room to add a photo of the back entry to her home, where we and our kids often entered.

Now came the tweaking of the design. From here on out, the tweaks were pretty much just personal decisions.

I decided to try a dark blue background, and I liked how it made the photos pop more.

I also decided to try making the entire grid a wee bit smaller and adding a dotted stroke, one of the elements in the kit. I liked it!

Here’s my final page:

I decided to angle the journaling and make the elements a wee bit smaller. Angling something on a grid gives it a bit of fun and energy.

There’s one more thing I did that you might not even notice. I adjusted the color balance on the upper right and lower left photos. They had a yellow color cast, which didn’t look great and also didn’t match the other photos. Look at the previous image to see the difference.

So that’s how I go about creating my pages. I start with the photos, then the design, then the background, then the title and elements, and finally I work on the smaller details that aren’t necessarily wrong but that make me happy with the page!

Credits:
Photos by Linda and Charlie Sattgast
Page by Linda Sattgast
Kit: WorldTravel by HGD by LaurieAnn
Flower: Make A Wish by Kim Broedelet
String: Sweet Comforts by SMJ Designs
Fonts: Caleigh, Myriad Pro, and Orator Std

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