Finger Pointing – July 6

Hello everyone from a hot, steamy east coast of the U.S. – it’s after 8 pm here as I’m writing this and it’s still 90 degrees F. Ugh. So glad I’m inside, in the air-conditioned comfort of my home to browse the galleries. Everyone’s been very busy, and that makes this so hard to just pick six layouts!

As we’ve just celebrated Independence Day here, I thought we’d start with a patriotic-themed layout that screams red, white and blue. What caught my eye about KimR+’s layout, Patriotic Kisses, was not just the color palette (I love the variations in the blue), but the design and how it mimics a quilt.  My Mum is a great seamstress, a skill I did not inherit. What a great way to incorporate so many patterned papers! The brushes are great in the background, adding more visual interest. However, still the center of the layout is that great photo … yum … chocolate (and notice how the “quilt” design is similar to the shape of the candy dish?).

When I saw this next layout come across my Facebook feed, I was hoping I’d find it in a gallery – and voila! I did! Life by dvhoward (Diane) has a much more subdued color palette than my first pick today. In fact, it very much reminds me of the Fall. The not-so-traditional brown/orange rose paper is intriguing, as is Diane’s mix of brushes and papers … but are they papers or just a background?  Wonderful blending of elements, both dimensional and flat, and I love the small tag. The details drew me in here, right down to the hidden letter R’s in the flower cluster.

As I scan galleries, it could be anything – or everything – that catches my eye. Of course, if it’s the latter, I’m in trouble, that’s for sure! At one site, in particular, I saw a lot of layouts that were top heavy with all of the emphasis in the upper third of the page; the rest of the page just being white space (most of the time). I love this way of scrapping, and it’s not as easy as some might have it look! I could have picked any number of pages, but tammybean04’s layout, Then & Now (Summer Olympics : Weightlifting) was just so striking that I had to include it in my selection for today. This scrapper certainly isn’t afraid of color, and that black/blue/white color combination is awesome, especially for a layout about this young man. Although there’s two photos on here, I really like that Tammy balanced them with some alphas/wordart on the left – do you see it? The hidden tape measure is a nice touch, too – it reminds me of a way to measure time … just perfect with the topic of the page.

Under the Sea by trzyludki is a great example of just what we can do as digital scrappers. The use of the circular frame is great for this page and I’m left wondering if the fish are in front of the swimmer or behind … or both? I would love to see the layers here, to see how this page was built. Oh, and that little turtle peeking out from the bubbles? So cute.

This next layout has a mantra that I think we could all live by: living in our own world – and liking it! My Own World by Chigrl is a photoless layout with a simple message, but there’s so much fun here. Paint, stars, and bright colors. The repetition of the arrows helps focus your attention on the word strip.

Rounding out tonight’s picks is Rock Star from Caliten that has a not-so-traditional shape to it – a vertical rectangle; an insert into an album. What a clever choice for this page as it really allows for the photo of the rock wall to be the focus with it being cropped just so, and it helps you feel the scale of the environment. I hate to imagine just how high the person in the photo was (I’m not a big fan of heights), but “brave” indeed.  With a limited amount of space for journaling, but quite a story to tell, writing on the picture was another great option.

Well, that’s it for tonight.  Remember to stop by the galleries and leave these scrappers – and others – some love on their layouts!