Strong Contrast

I love reading the articles on design in scrapbooking magazine.  I still have burned into my brain the advice to match the color of the clothing in the photograph to the color of your background paper.  This advice, however, comes from a time when we also believed that if one person was wearing blue and the other person was wearing red, you had to make the photo black-and-white because the red and the blue clashed too much in your photo.

Times certainly have changed, haven't they?

I'm always delighted to break the rules and have a little bit of fun.  But I do think being aware of the rules is important.  Otherwise I never would have thought that brown, orange, blue, red, and white could look so good together:

The blue in the photos is popped forward by the strong contrast with the orange and red paint.  (Blue is opposite orange on the color wheel.)  The white (photo backgrounds, title, date, and journaling) is also in high contrast to the dark brown background, as well as the red and orange.  The combination of the high contrast and having grouped all the white items (other than the journaling) together creates a strong and identifiable focal point.  Finally, because the focal point is dominated by white, the miscellaneous strands of journaling feel very much a part of the page, rather than miscellaneous floating pieces.

All of that may seem really complicated to you or it may seem like second nature.  If you're not a person who instinctively gets design, take a class (I have two online classes on design), buy a book, scour the web, and practice.  Once you've got the rules down, it all become instinct and you can start creating good design unconsciously.  It's like learning to read.  At first you have to sound out every word.  After a while you simply recognize words, and finally it becomes second nature.

Here are the rest of the page details:

I didn't have an "n" or a "g" so I used an upside down "u" and a "9."  I don't think you can even tell!

Thanks for stopping by!

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P.S. Answers to two questions from yesterday's post that I thought might be of interest to several people:

Q: How do you sticth a pattern so perfect? Lots of patience? I recently found the "reverse" button on my machine (shame on me, lol), and maybe it will make things easier, but your stitches are so perfect! - Carla

A: Thanks, Carla!  A few tips: (1) yes, practice does make perfect; (2) my stitches are not actually perfect and when you're okay with that it really helps; (3) go fast - so many people stitch slowly trying to be perfect, but I've found that free motion stitching is easier when you just put the pedal to the floor and get going! 

Q: What kind of foot did you use on your sewing machine when you were stitching those flowers? - Marta

A: I use a free motion foot, sometimes called a darning foot.  And I put my feed dogs down so that I can manipulate the fabric in any way that I want.