Autumn has arrived in my neck of the world. The last of our flowers are wilting and the sunshine is starting to loose it's warmth. I have to admit it wasn't a particularly warm summer here in England anyway, but now in the morning and evening there is a decided nip in the air. Soon the leaves will turn and the descent towards Winter will have started in earnest. The wonderful colours of Autumn will be my compensation for the colder days to come.
One of my last garden blooms
About now most of us find we have stacks of photographs from summer piling up to add to our album pages. With this backlog in mind, I had some of my layouts printed to clear my PC for the new ones to come. I was proudly showing them to one of my friends when a chance remark made me stop and examine my pages more closely. It made me think...yes, I do occasionally indulge in thought, lol.
Irene doesn't scrapbook herself, but she was really interested to take look at mine. Imagine my surprise to hear her ask why scrapbook pages gave so little prominence to the actual photograph!!
Being artistic and crafty herself, she's looked before at scrapbooking on the Internet but decided that she preferred her photos as they come. Whilst she agreed many of the layouts she had seen were beautiful and extremely artistic, she did feel that they were more a showcase for the persons skills or artistic expression than for photographs.
Okay, by now she had my FULL attention!! What..she thought I was not giving centre stage to the lovely Lilly in my pages!!!
As an illustration of what she meant, she mentioned pages with one small photo with cluster/s behind or around it, the rest of the page using lots of white space. I have to admit, I for one, love these sorts of pages. I tried to explain that those really can have a dramatic impact because of the space the eye was led to the photo and made it the star.
She was not convinced!! Rubbish..was her loud rely!!! It merely meant in years to come when fashion and fads had moved on, people would peer at our pages and wonder why we had made the gorgeous photograph so small and left so much blank space.
I have to admit, by now my feathers were extremely ruffled. Then the realisation of how she saw things started to dawn. I stepped back and thought about what she had said...she was in some ways right. Some of my pages didn't have journaling and the photo was a very small part of the overall layout. At first glance they do appear to be more artist expression pieces than memory pages for the future. Eeek!! What have I done!!
It raised the question in my mind should the photograph be bigger or more prominent on our pages? I know that we all have our own style but if you look around many, not all, layouts don't give prominence to the photo or journaling. Often they tell us more about the scrapper and their skills than they do about the person or event in the photograph. Many...like me...are guilty of no journaling at all on some pages, to note the event, date or person.
Bettina sent me this beautiful page of her granddaughter Lili and perhaps she has got the right idea...photo prominent at a good size, plus an indication of who and when. The fun wordart conveys the emotion behind it. I love it, for me it ticks all the boxes!! A great example of an album page with loads of style.
Credits: Lilly's Quilt Freebie Cens Stuff, Wordart by Bethanie
No the example below of one of my pages is just the opposite!! Loads of fun but not good!! No name or date just a sentiment that I felt about the lovely lady in the layout....oops!! Rethink needed!!
Credits: Cens Stuff, Kite by SammyD at Scrappin Digi Kreations
The next layout was for my brothers 50th birthday album this summer. It' s got names and dates plus it says in the park, but I should have put where the park was perhaps and little journaling. I should also have put the names in the top picture in the order the people appear on the photo!! It would help!! I know who they are and where but others won't, so perhaps a few more facts on this heritage one.
(Yes, the child standing up on the swing is me!! The boy is my brother and the dark haired girl is my youngest aunt.)
But that still left me begging the questions.....
Should the elements and white space play a less prominent part in our pages? Should the photograph and journaling be the stars? Have we lost the plot on this and we can't see the wood for the trees? Are we more concerned with showing off our own skills than preserving the memories? I am guilty of at least some of the above!!
So many questions..so little answers!! This needs some more thought!!
As a family historian I can imagine the frustration of future generations at the lack of journaling and questioning why we choose to utilise the space the way we did. But....the albums will pass on something else to them as well, they'll let people see the scrapbooking style and fashions over a period in time. They'll show the talent and skill of the person who made the album and illustrate the technics available at the time. So, perhaps our album pages will end up conveying different or incomplete information about us and our memories but they will still be marvelous records to pass on.
That chance remark has certainly made me think and look at my layouts differently. I've looked and reexamined what I'm doing and why. I'm not saying I'll change the way I do everything but I certainly will think more about how I preserve my memories.
What are your thoughts on this? Should the photograph be bigger or the journaling always present?
Check back tomorrow I have a little something for you!! Until then take care have fun!!
