Test Your Skills 1

Test Your Skills

Quiz: Double Page Design, Part 1

I invite you to join me in a game of building a double page design from the ground up.

Should you choose to accept, please come equipped with your No-No PDF and a good dose of scrapbooking wisdom. We’ve got a lot of choices to make.

I’m building a double page design about a trip my family and I made back in 2013 to Busch Stadium in St Louis, Missouri. While there we saw the Cardinals beat the Reds, but most importantly we grew one step closer to our goal of visiting every major league baseball park in the American and National League.

I’d like to start by filling the background of the double page design with one of my photos.

QUESTION: Of these three choices, which would work best? Can you support your answer?

Make sure to take into account that I still need to add these to the page:

many more photos
a nice big title
journaling about our trip

See My Thought Process

I’m going to stick with choice B. Here’s why:

Choice A is a nice photo, but my page is not about my son and his dad.
Choice C is a beautiful photo of inside the stadium, which is what my page is about, but it does not leave much room for all the other stuff I need to add to the page.
Choice B not only shows the stadium, but it also provides for lots of room on the bottom half of the page for all my extras.

Let’s look at the title

I spent a fair amount of time creating a title I like.

QUESTION: Where do you think I should place it on my page? Can you support your answer?

TIP: When placing a title or anything of importance, make sure to keep an eye on the gutter. The gutter is marked by a guide at the halfway point.

See My Thought Process

I am going to place my title in the position of choice A. Here’s why:

The gutter in choice B is crossing an important part of the word Cardinals. If that R were to be hidden in the gutter, it might make the title hard to discern.
The photo itself is pretty busy and if I were to go with the placement in choice C, there would be no white space left on the page.
Choice A puts the title overtop of an unimportant part of the photo and the big @ symbol is only partly in the gutter. It’s a win-win.

Let’s look at Clustered Photos

I’ve added some snapshots from the time we spent at Busch Stadium. But now, I have a problem.

QUESTION: Which of the 7 photo no-nos do I need to correct?

For your reference, here is the list of photo no-nos:

Photos are too dark
The horizon line is crooked
Photos don’t match in color
Photos don’t fill a mask
Photos that would look better cropped
Lacking photo definition on overlapping or clustered photos

See My Answer

I was definitely lacking photo definition on my overlapping and clustered photos! Eek. I could barely tell where one photo ends and the next photo starts.

I fixed that problem with white stroke outlines, but I still feel a little wigged out by all the color everywhere. What do you think I should do about it?