I'm a weird person and I don't like looking at other peoples faces, especially in photos. So instead of that i like using other things to fill that layout space.
Personalty my favorite things to use depend on the medium.
If its pages im printing out to work with I prefer using postcards
If it is 100% digital I like using art i have drawn. (I'm not the best digital artist but i will share a page or two if asked)
Sometimes I also just design an embellished page without photos or anything to replace them
Anyone else like to occasionally just leave photos out, or tried to use a stand in for photos?
I personal suggest trying to make an embellished page without photos it is quite the challenge!
I find this hard to do unless I'm doing a two-page spread and one page is a journaling page. Then it's a snap. Doesn't make sense I n't find the inspiration to do so otherwise!
I've tried a few times, but like Susan, it's sometimes hard to be inspired. I've thought about trying with my favorite bible verses so I can hang them around my bedroom, though.
For me, scrapbooking is all about the photos, and telling a story,; however, when I first worked as a member of a Creative Team (CT), I often created page layouts without photos but with space left for the insertion of a photo at a later time.
Your photos certainly don't have to be people, Ari, I've done layouts with photos of my environment, food and other inanimate objects.
I find it difficult to do to sometimes unless i have a good idea on what kind of theme I want to have going.
I'm not religious but the bible verse pages sound super cute, Christina!
I haven't thought of using pictures of food or objects before that could be quite interesting to! I will have to give it a try! Thanks Rose!
You're welcome, Ari; I'm in the process of digging out my old layouts in order to provide examples for you.
Here's one I did of objects (although the is a photo of a person here, it's actually an object made with a photo):
Here's another with photos of my environment and a short story.
i was actually thinking about this the other day...i think i may do some with fav song lyrics that i can hang on the wall by my desk for inspiration!
Hi Ari, sometimes I too like to scrap without using any photos...I have tried with quotes & info bits (not exactly sure how to explain the second...will add my lo & you can see what I'm struggling to say!!!
those are incredibly beautiful!
I haven't tried with word art before but I definitely will give it a shot.
Good! Waiting to see what you come up with...all the best!
I was sharing little stories on a weekly basis for two years. The plan was to document them in pages, and since those stories didn't have photos to go with, I would just do something like these:
and
@Chitra David
I absolutely love the first layout in this post! I love the use of the frames and different papers and stickers. It looks great!
Hi Carole, I digitally journal so I really like how you've put little stories on your pages of scrapbooking. I use something similar in my diary posts.
them 
Chitra those are Beautiful! I save pictures from online into a folder for me to use the photos later. Some are Faith inspired and others are Garden and Floral inspired but I have not had time yet to Scrap them LOL.
Thanks, Melanie!
Thank you, Patricia!
Carole, I love your pages! Stories are a great way to do pages without photos. Art journaling is another way--using digital elements to express an emotion, with or without words. I've done a few poetry pages, too.
Except for family photos, I rarely feature people--I have a ton of landscape photos. It's less jarring sometimes to use a photomask to clip photos to instead of always using a frame--photomasks allow you to blend the photos more delicately into the layout. That obviously is mostly for digital layouts, I guess.
I'm with Rose--to me, it's all about the story, and you know what they say about a picture telling a thousand words. That being said, I'm constantly making pages without photos, telling stories of memories from childhood or, like Melanie, some pages are akin to diary posts...just thing I want to "discuss" in my own scrapbook.
I began paper scrapbooking in 2000, when my son was born, and was instantly hooked. I went kicking and screaming into digital scrapbooking--after all, there was no way it was going to be as pretty as paper, right--in about 2005, when I discovered I had actually learned the basic techniques of it after working on graphics for our 'Cruces Croppers and Stampers Yahoo group! We lived in Las Cruces at the time, and NM was not a place with a lot of scrapbooking stores, and it was also difficult to locate other scrapbookers, so I started that group. We grew in size and had some legendary crops! Ladies would drive from several counties away--even from AZ--to attend. And all the while, I attempted to "dress up" the site...and fell right into digital. I printed out a few pages that I had completed for challenges hosted by one of the many digital scrapbooking websites back then and took them to one of our crops--they were an instant hit, and it was at that point that I fell madly in love with digiscrapping.
I look at my scrapbooks as more like storybooks, and when some memory hits me, or there's an old story I want to share and leave with my son, I either go photo-less or online to dig up a photo or graphic which relates to the idea/feeling I want to convey.