This is another fabulous "traditional with an artsy twist" post by AnnaTeamer, Amber Ries.
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I love to use AnnaArt to spice up any traditional page. Combining artsy with traditional can be intimidating for the pure traditionalist. I know this, my style has always been traditional. Creating traditional pages with realistic elements, photos in frames, a nice title and blocked out area for journaling is the style in which I feel most comfortable. At some point in my scrapbooking journey, the process of creating purely traditional pages became somewhat of a chore. I was feeling that “I have to create these pages and record these memories”, instead of “I want to create pages and record memories”. I very close to giving up scrapbooking when I saw the potential in ArtPlay.
When Katherine and I introduced Artplay meets Traditional, we threw a lot of ideas your way. ArtsyTraditional is a series of tutorials that will be shared over the coming months to help you expand on those ideas. So wherever you are in your scrapbooking journey, whether you are scrapping because you feel you have to, or are just interested in spicing up your traditional pages, join me as we delve into the wonderful world of ArtPlay!
In this post, I’d like to talk about working with a template or sketch. Templates give you a head start in the design process. You are more freely able to play because the design basics have already been laid out for you. So let’s get started.
1. Open your template (I used MultiFoto Single Template No. 18) or create your sketch.
MultiFoto Single Template No. 18
2. Build your layout, whichever way works for you. I start with the blank sketch and then added my pictures. I prefer to add the photos first, because I always have more than I need and this method simplifies the selection process. In fact, in this particular case I had enough photos to fill in every photo clipping mask of this template, but decided ultimately to leave some free for embellishment.
3. I add the digital papers to the template. In this case, I used Artplay Palette Pumpkin Patch for my background paper and Artplay Palette Autumnal No. 2 for my accent papers. One of the methods mentioned in Artplay Meets Traditional, was to think of each ArtPlay paper as a sampler of patterned papers. I could have used just one piece of patterned paper from this kit for all of my paper embellishing, but I chose to clip a different piece paper to each square photo mask, moving around the paper on each mask until I discovered a part of the paper that I wanted to showcase.
For example, here's a paper from Artplay Palette Autumnal No. 2 on which I have highlighted the area used in my layout.
4. After clipping the papers to the template, I moved each one to a layer above the white frame and tilted them to add energy, motion and depth. I also added black strokes from FotoBoost Templates No. 2 to bring out my focal point photos, and build in a visual triangle:
5. The next step is to add embellishments! Stick them on there, move them around, re-size them, add shadows... Allow youself to go a little crazy. Notice how I have grouped elements together to create clusters which are placed in a contrasting diagonal arrangement to the linear design of the layout.
Don’t forget your journaling, your title and your date!
6. With the tradional work done we start having fun with a little ArtPlay. I can spend literally hours playing around with brushes and transfers, not that it need or should take that long. It's purely a matter of enjoying the process.
Here are a few ideas for you to try on your next layout:
- Add brushes, always stamping each brush on a new layer to ensure easy edits at any time: change the colors, sizes, opacity, and apply differint blending modes and fill modes to each brush layer.
- Play with masks and transfers, tuck some behind your photo mats, re-size, rotate, layer and experiment with the different blending modes. Did you know that masks and transfers can be used in a similar fashion to brushes?
- Adjust the blending Modes, then layer some brushes on top of your photos
This is my layout with the added layer masks, brushes and transfers (I removed the photos so you could see what was going on, you won’t see anything behind the frame when the layout is finished). I used a number of fall-themed brushes and transfers, changing the blending modes to: Overlay, Soft Light and Color Burn. Some of my favorite Go-To Art: LoopDaLoops, FotoGlows, and themed brushes.
And this is my finished page:
Artplay Palette Pumpkin Patch | Artplay Palette Autumnal No. 1 | | Artplay Palette Autumnal No. 2 | Artplay Palette Fall | FotoBoost Templates No. 2 (black strokes around frames) | Fotoglows No. 5 | Different Stokes 6 | MultiFoto Single Template No. 18
Were you keeping track? It only took us a small number of steps to create a traditional layout and give it a artsy twist. By starting small, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you will build the confidence necessary to strike out and create a layout that is pure art, and you'll soon find it impossible to create layouts without ArtPlay.
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Thanks Amber for sharing your talent with us!













