Summer Voices | Lisa Dickinson

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We’re on summer holiday and we’ve invited some of our friends to share their voices and projects here over the next 2 weeks. Say hello to Lisa Dickinson:

When I first started scrapping back in 1998, many of those early layouts included photos that I had cut into various shapes. For the most part, I stuck to circles, ovals and the occasional hexagon, but I will sheepishly admit to cutting a few photos into more irregular shapes. And I just might have a snorkel layout with photos cut into the shape of fish. Oh yes I do.

Once I began to develop my scrapbook style, odd-shaped photos stopped appearing on my pages.  But lately, I've been revisiting the idea, and have challenged myself to incorporate shaped photos into my modern-day scrapping. And while I have not revisited the fish shape, I have found that photos cut into circles, ovals or even hexagons can look fresh, modern, and appealing.
One of my favorite design frameworks to use is quite simple - a circle of circles! On this layout, I've cut both my photos and patterned papers into circles approximately 2.5" in diameter. I've used papers from a single collection - the Jenni Bowlin Studio Modern Mercantile line - so I know the patterns and colors will mix easily. I arranged the paper circles to form a "wreath" in the center of my page. To visually connect all these circles, I added several rows of machine stitching before adhering my photos. It a subtle but effective way to make the ring seem more like a single design element rather than many smaller ones.

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Then I topped the wreath with smaller circular shapes - chipboard circles, buttons, and a watch face. And since a whole page of nothing but circles would be a bit boring, I've mixed in butterflies and overlapped the title letters to add contrast. These help stabilize the energy and motion of the circles and keep the design grounded.

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You could also use this framework with other shapes - hexagons, stars or even hearts would be fun! And if you aren't sure about shaped photos, you could use the wreath to frame rectangular photos, placing them on the interior where I've typed my journaling. Either way, I hope you'll challenge yourself to incorporate something new into your next scrapbook design!

ABOUT LISA | Lisa Dickinson is a graphic designer living in Colorado with her husband, Mike, and children, Hayden and Riely. Lisa is the author of the scrapbooking ebook Design Workshop from Ella Publishing. She currently designs for Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, Lily Bee Design and is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket. She recently designed her first paper line, Modern Mercantile, for Jenni Bowlin Studio.
You can catch up with Lisa at Gettin’ By, where she blogs about scrapbooking, motherhood, running, and her deep-seated hatred for the Comic Sans font.

CONNECT WITH LISA | Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest



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4 thoughts

  1. Karen Clinkinbeard says…
    08/13/2013

    I love this idea and it is fresh to me! Since I scrap in the digital world I can see this could easily be adapted to digital. I hope to try it out soon. Thanks for the article and inspiration.

    Reply 0 Replies
  2. Audrey V says…
    08/13/2013

    I love this layout, very versatile, it could be adapted so many ways. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply 0 Replies
  3. Paula says…
    08/13/2013

    This is beautiful!

    Reply 0 Replies
  4. GIS CT: Same Pattern Mixing | Heather's Adventures in Lesotho says…
    12/15/2013

    […] because they were so much more creative than mine! The layout was inspired by this layout by Lisa Dickinson on Ali Edwards’ blog earlier this year. I love Lisa’s style and even though she’s […]

    Reply 0 Replies