White Space...March life{365}

Ins and Outs of Life {365} for March

This month we are going to work on embracing the white space. What is white space? It is the open background on any layout. For this month I used white cardstock as a base so you could really see how this works. Sometimes the background becomes so busy we lose the focus of our layouts...the pictures! This month I really tried to keep the backgrounds simple and let them truly be less visable.

In the layout below I used some strips of various sizes to draw the eye to the photo mats. This is the kind of technique that you will either love or be more ambivalent about.

This next layout moves to a filled background. I wanted you to see the difference and to have a clear example of how a filled space demands visually arresting photos to be able to draw the eye to them. I love this layout. It has so many possibilities for me. It would be easy to lose the pocket and tags on the bottom right area and add a cluster of four square photos to fill the space.

This layout has almost equal parts open background and filled background.  The filled area is slightly less. I did this on purpose. If I were to make it even the layout would not have the visual interest. It is the difference along with the strips of color that keep the eye moving back and forth. I could have left the tag in the bottom right off but I liked the sentiment so I left it in place. 

The title itself stands out because a) it is a horizontal element on a predominately vertical layout and b) because the horizontal band across the bottom is not in color but in black and white.

This last layout is my favorite and has the most white space. The paper itself has the scooter and balloons on it. I add only two small vertical strips to mimic the horizontal balloons and then just three horizontal elements in the mat, the descriptive words and the title piece.  This will really be striking when the right picture is added.

One more note on this month's layouts. Because of the busy colors I chose in the papers themselves it was really fun to add the bold black and white prints to pop the colors!

I hope you have fun with this kit. I would love to see what you do on your own embracing white space!

always,

michele

A huge thank you to Jodi and Jared Sanford of Fancy Pants Design for getting these beautiful papers to me so quickly. This is one of those amazing companies that deserves our support!