Nuthouse News and a Freebie

Nuthouse-Quiz

Do you all remember the Nuthouse-Quiz we had with the Digital Scapbooking Day Week?

The winner is announced, contratulations Withnuts!!!!!!!

She won these prices:

$ 10 coupon for our store PLUS
1 scrap kit of choice from Acorn Designs
1 scrap kit of choice from Aquarius Design
1 scrap kit of choice from Debbers
Inspired Love kit by Little Bit's D-zynz
1 scrap kit of choice from ManuScraps
1 scrap kit of choice from Red Ivy Design
1 scrap kit of choice from Wilma4Ever

We can't wait to see all those great layouts made with these kits!!!!!!!

Sample a Nut Challenge

Do you like to win this Autumn is Great kit? Then go HERE to the Nuthouse-scraps Forum and join this challenge!

Layout of the Week

This week I was captivated by a LO made by Harmony.
She realy captured the winter feeling with Snow Fairy
Please go HERE to see more great layouts made by Harmony!

Christmas at Nuthouse-scraps!

There are some great christmas items added to the store lately, please go HERE to our Christmas section of the store

Digiscrapping With Debbers
Designer Layout Tips

Five Tips for Creative Composition

We've all seen layouts published and in our favorite galleries that practically leap from the page and beg us to drool over them. When you see one like that, study it. If you have to, turn it upside down to get over the WOW factor and actually look at the composition and structure.

Here's a few of my favorite tips to help you move on to the 'next step' to a WOW composition:

1. Don't center it. It's far more interesting and artistic when the focal point of a page is not centered. This is especially true when you are dealing with a perfect square canvas. Study the basics of composition with the Rule of Thirds, and the Golden Ratio

2. Use a Page within a Page. This is quick and can look glorious! Make your page. Take a finished, flattened version and slap it into a new image. Make it a bit smaller and turn it on a slight (not too much!) angle, then put a contrasting paper under it from the kit.

3. Less is More. You don't have to use everything in a kit. Not even a mini kit. Only the poor designer has to fit everyone on a page to show the preview! Carefully consider editing out elements if you just don't like the looks of something. Most of the time, less IS more. Currently, trendy scrapbook pages have boat loads of white space. Even without this trend, white space is always important and always a critical piece of your artistic layout.

4. Think Outside the Box. Use an element for something it wasn't intended for. Make a frame into an off-centered matte. Take any element and repeat it - see what it will turn into! Recently, I took a multi-frame, turned it on its side, copied it a bunch of times, and it became a fence. Journal on a leaf. Turn a tag into a little frame or matte. Turn a ribbon into a frame.

5. Literally, Outside the Box. There's always a great deal of drama and eye appeal when you take part of your photo that is framed by something and bring it "out of the box". It adds a dimensional POP that is sort of like a beautiful firecracker going off. When you do it well, the viewer will 'oooo' and 'ahhhh!' over it.

Like any technique, there's always too much of a good thing. Don't fall into a rut with your page designs, and don't overdo dramatic techniques.

And that's today's 5 Creative Composition Tips to help you to better page layouts. Do you have more tips for designing beautiful pages? Be sure to let me know. Drop me a PM (Debbers) at the NutHouse-Scraps.com Forum!

Freebie from Manu Scraps!

I have a great freebie for all of you! It is a sampler from the Sullivan Snowman & Ricky Reindeer Templates:

This Freebie is available at the Nuthouse-scraps Forum HERE

Note: You have to be a member and posted 5 messages to see our Freebie section!