What are your signature touches on a layout?

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What are your signature touches on a layout?

Most of us have some kind of unique signature thing that we do - that people can identify our layouts without seeing our names. Some people use a lot of buttons, some a lot of flowers, others add a lot of punchwork, some do a lot of journaling...

But what do you always seem to fall back on the most in your layouts?

I have two things - I love to journal. Whether it be historical research on my pages, funny stories on my pages or telling the story to go with the layout, or just doing my pages diary style (use this a lot for travel albums).

The other thing I'm noted for is used restaurant menus. My favorite thing to scrap is probably restaurant layouts and nearly all include the menu worked into the background, often with circle, ovals or arrows pointing to what we ordered!

It says no htmls allowed in the rules, but links are okay - here are a few layouts using menus menus.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YFKUA7Gb4zT6BKbm9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KGmiZJXaAXFhymPu6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1rEh74FinQcg1N77A

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zn3MEgzJBsSGzAVD9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AUhZNXc9tPJhb93q6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/k6KFEC5Vpd8pqxvm6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EPRZTzX7avBr8upE8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rcgWPBabMggGAfQi8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Uiza8qfVeNkQP1dz6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gAyC8mhna1RiTafMA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ynFsXb47YeuQP9Zs6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/FFk4bibfw9zsgCz68

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9UsQTZCNfYmLhhWC7

Sorry there are so many samples using menus but I kept finding more and more and adding them to the list. Actually, there are hundreds more.

Now, please show your layouts using whatever technique or style, or elements or something that is kind of a trademark for you!

What a cool idea! I think I am most known for my pocket style layouts which are fairly unique to me.

I like this style a lot! I like layouts that you can look at for a while and keep seeing new things. This is one of the layouts where something you did see before keeps poping out at you. Love it Marisa! How did you get the picture to show up here? I'm still learning! (Obviously!)

I was going to put them in the gallery here but have not figured that out yet.

What an excellent idea. I think I'll start taking photos of menus as soon as they lift our mask mandate and open up my favorite restaurants. smiley

Oooops, I forgot to mention, my favorite layouts are rather simple so the eye is drawn to the picture(s) first. I would share something here but I'm still learning how to scrap digitally, so nothing a the moment to post. Soon though!

Sharon, I pick up a takeout menu and scan it and sometimes work both front and back into a layout like background paper.

I also go to google images and type in "Harry's Ocala logo" or "Harry's Ocala menu" or any other restaurant and sometimes I can get a good high quality that someone else has already scanned. I sometimes to to the restaurant website and can sometimes get a nice copy of the menu. I typed links above of some samples but I don't know how to put actual photos here.

Our restaurants only closed for about 2-3 weeks when all this stuff started, then opened right back up. Surprising enough, family eat-in restaurants opened almost as quickly as they closed, but it took fast food restaurants a long time to open back. So I could go to a family restaurant and sit down and eat but it was over a year before we could go into a McDonalds or Popeye's chicken and go into the dining room at eat.

Our local Red Lobster never closed for more than a couple weeks, then opened up with small tents/canopies all over the parking lot and a table for up to 4 people under each tent. I thought that was kind of funny to see people having dinner out in the parking lot under the tent-canopies, but people seemed to be enjoying it.

Yes, dining in a tent in cold weather with heaters on was quite the experience for one of my daughters and I at the Cheesecake Factory. Fun & memorable. Oh, and tasty!

Several of the Mom & Pop restaurants in our tiny town are too scared (still) to go against the governor's orders. It's sad for them, but it's ok for me because I like to cook. smiley

Those are good suggestions regarding snagging pics online. I could check Yelp too, I suppose. Thank you for responding!

Since you are the one that introduced me to this wonderful world of digital scrapping you know I am known by my maps - I like to know where in the world I am! smiley

https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/pat-wells/gallery/lima-peru-lighthouse-layout-travel-navy-blue-white

I'm probably best known for cramming a lot of photos on my pages. smiley I also gravitate towards bright colors, teal/turquoise has probably ended up on about at least half of my layouts somewhere, and I use paint/scatters and sewing-related elements (strings, buttons, stitching) pretty often.

Hi,

yes, I find that interesting too, how the scrap style of us here came about. It probably also has something to do with our interests. I love variety, 3D-Look, but I still want to achieve harmony between photo, theme and colors along with, very important for me, matching fonts. I like it sometimes lush, if it fits the theme, feminine with lots of lace or shiny ornaments, pearls, gems, but I also like it elegant minimmalistic and even masculine metallic. I love beautiful design on cars and motorcycles. So I also once created a birthday freebie with lots of metallic parts from the car when I still had a blog.
Otherwise you can see that also in my Gallery

I tend to be a white space scrapper and I never use a kit to make a layout, (unless it was a CT LO, and then it was required) I feel stifled by getting everything out of one matchy matchy kit, but I also know most people prefer a matchy matchy kit to scrap with. So my designs are very matchy matchy, but my layouts are almost the opposite, and I use a lot of green.

I'm very drawn to minimalist pages from other scrappers but I end up adding more "stuff". I do pretty clean layouts but with some element clusters or scatters. And I like an accent color.

Jen, thanks for sharing those layouts. I see what you mean about a simpler scrapbooking style (That's what I lean towards also).

And Pat, that is a great layout with the map. I love the perspective of looking down onto the lighthouse. What a great picture.

Oh, n i c e pages @Jen Conlon. I have been told here in this forum that I was not a scrapbooker but an art journaler. Whatever you call it... I guess I have a soft spot for texts and stories and clearly for photo focused pages. Recently I have discovered DL format and make more pages in that format. I find that starting out with a layout in DL and then moving that DL layout onto a big canvas 12x12 really makes everything much faster.

Ok... What's DL, Bina? smiley

I am mostly drawn to a simple graphic grid style layout on my pages.


I guess I mostly like to Journal my pages. I am just beginning digital scrapbooking, but in the past, I have done paper scrapbooking, and I always feel the need to tell the story. I have only done one digital page so far, and it is my grandparents wedding. I didn't put much information in that page, but my next opposing page will have much more information.

What a cool thread! Thanks so much for starting it, Henri Jean. I love seeing all the different styles and approaches to capturing memories. I can find something to love about all scrapping. I just love the idea of it so much that however you are doing it, works for me.

I've just started digitally scrapbooking my own photos but I've been a scrapbooker off and on since high school, forty+ years ago. To me, it is all about the photos. I am always a bit conflicted though because I love all the decorations and wild papers and I so admire those that can use a lot of those but still manage to not lose the focus on the photos. I am not that person . . . yet. : ) So far, my style seems to be one or maybe two larger photos, a nice title and a bit of journaling to spark my memories or explain the page to future viewers. To me, there is nothing sadder than old photos that have no context, no names, no dates and no one left alive to tell anyone the rest of the story. I also think I am enjoying the ability to fill a page with a photo, now that they are digital and high resolution and I am thrilled to not be constrained to 3 by 5" or 4 by 6" photos like I was when I was working with physical printed photographs. I know I could have gotten enlargements made, but they were expensive and I was usually too impatient and disorganized to make that happen regularly. Scrapping supplies were dearer to me back then, too, so it made sense to me to get as many pictures as possible on a page. I feel like digital scrapbooking is much more economical and I can be just a bit more extravagant with fewer pics on a page.

Sooooooooo, I guess my style is fewer photos, larger photos and maybe one or two judicious decorative elements and journaling of at least the bare minimum of facts.

i'll say i'm known for scrapping 8x10 layouts or rectangular ones. also i almost always use templates. i get a lot of scrapping done that way. ๐Ÿ˜€

I've not physically dined in a restaurant for more than a year now but when I do i include the food in my layout and sometimes its name

What a fun thread! Thanks for starting it, Henri Jean. Let's see, I think my "signature touches" change from time to time depending on the phase I'm in. For the most part, I have a lot of stuff on my pages. Back in the days of paper scrapping, my pages were relatively heavy and my albums pretty thick because of all the paper layers and 3-D embellishments. hahaha

In this digital scrapping world, my signature touches include: journaling (a story or a quote), title, date in the bottom rt hand corner, lots of layers & embellishments (basically, lots of stuff), bright colors:

I love to dabble in other styles - simple & clean, grid/pocket pages, multi media, artsy collage, etc. - but whether I'm scrapping one or many photos, or whether I'm using a layout template or creating from scratch, I typically include the stuff I mentioned above.

What a fascinating thread but I can see that we do have scrapping signatures. I think mine changes with my moods LOL but I do lean towards blending and soft elements so struggle to make a page from just one kit. Lots to learn I can see

These layouts inspire me! Thank you for sharing them. I need to get busy!

Anxious to see some of your layouts!

Hi Pat - so good to see you here - and was even better to spend the day with you yesterday together on our computers! You are the one who got me using maps on so many of my pages. I think the maps add a lot to the layouts - you and I both do a lot of travel layouts and I love the use of maps!

I agree Becky - I always prefer to use a lot of photos on my pages. Once in a while I have a granddaughter page to do and just one photo and nothing else that goes with it, but nearly all of my pages have multiple pages!

Love all the metalic elements you used on this layout. Its perfect! Cute stop sign!

Your layouts are beautiful Jen. I love the simple look where the attention is focused on the photos. So clean. I love your picture sequence in the top layout!

Love your layouts Michelle! You do beautiful travel layouts, which are my favorite to do! You Disney California adventure is awesome and The point Reyes Lighthouse is beautifully scrapped - love the large photo and the design of the page!

Dawn - I love to journal too! I often tend to go overboard, but the story is so important. I love that when my oldest son looks at one of my albums, he will spend an hour sometimes reading every word.

Your pages are beautiful Annette. And I agree - when I have just one or two pictures on a page - I make the pictures larger too! Your pages look like they could be used in a magazine - you have a real flair for graphic design!

I love using templates too Marlyn. Templates are scattered all through my albums! They are fast and easy for me, once I decide what papers and embellishments to use. That is what I spend most of my time doing - selecting backgrounds, fonts and embellishments.

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