School of Design – Creative Clustering 2
Last week, we learned about the definition of clustering. I have shown you different effects of clusters by showcasing a bunch of layouts made by scrappers who love to do this kind of style.
This week, we are going to learn how to do the basic – the photo, the elements, the layering. Scrappers tend to have different methods to scrap a page. Some opt to place a photo after the page is all done (choosing the kit first), others place a photo and chooses a kit to scrap it with. It definitely is your call.
The Photo
For the purpose of this tutorial, I want to start my page with a photo I love so much. I placed it in a transparent 12×12 canvas. The photo is big with the kind of page I want to achieve so I resized it. (TIP) When resizing your photo (or any objects) make sure to hold the shift key to keep the object’s proportions. And since I can’t get started without my background paper, I need to add it first, just choose the one you initially want to work with, you can still change it later. Here’s my starting page:
The Elements:
Identify what objects or elements you want to include in your layout. Then choose your base element, it can be a frame or a set of leaves. The base will be your focal point in placing your elements together in the page. It can be a leaf branch, a frame or anything you want. For my layout, I used a frame, resized it so the photo fits perfectly in it.
And whenever you’re ready, go to your digital stash and select the elements you want to add to decorate your page. My initial go to elements are flowers and leaves since they are the easiest to cluster.
Your elements vary in sizes, so depending on the page you are working; you have to resize your elements if you want to achieve a more realistic touch to your layout. Imagine having a button bigger than your frame. It will look awful, isn’t it?
Take a look at the flower and leaves I added. You don’t want that humongous leaf to cover your entire page right? Yes, it needs to be resized. Don’t be afraid to play with the sizes! The best thing about digital scrapbooking is you can redo everything without wasting any of your stash. Here’s how it looks like after resizing and a little rotating of the leaf.
I made my leaf smaller but if you’ll have a closer look at the rolled paper flower, it still is very big compared to the size of my subject so I resized it too. Upon getting my desired size, I started adding a few more leaves and the same flowers around the frame. I used those 3 flowers as my focal points – that is where I will add more elements.
Now, don’t be afraid. Put more flowers and leaves on those focal points. Remember to resize as you see fit. Rotate/flip your objects if needed (like the leaves). Let’s take a look at our progress so far. I added a few different flowers and more leaves. We are slowly getting there.
The Layering
We are making progress so far but still it doesn’t look good, isn’t it? One factor to remember when doing clustering is your layers! Combining the objects simply on top of each other doesn’t make a good cluster – you have to properly arrange these objects in your layers. If you are using Photoshop, go to Window>Layers to display it. You should be able to see something like this.
Play around the layers by dragging one up or down, moving your elements around, rotating and flipping them.
Here’s our progress so far:
We’ve done the basics, are you ready for more? I’ll be back next week to show you another technique on how you can achieve an even better look for this page.
