a thought on GROUNDING

Good Morning to our thoughtful friends!

Have you ever heard the saying “S/he is so grounded”, and not like when our kids are our past curfew, but the other kind of grounded—If I described someone as grounded you would probably think they have it together, she has direction or purpose right? 

Today we turn our thoughts to grounding.  In scrapbooking, grounding is the art of creating a foundation for our layouts.  Grounding gives photos visual weight and gives our element in our design purpose.  Grounding is a wonderful way to pulls our viewer’s attention to what we want to be the focus of our page...the photos.

To draw attention to your photos and have them appear to be the highlight of your layout without being distracting to the viewer’s eye, you will want to design your layout so that the focus shifts to the area that you intend.  If you have one photo, you don’t want it to appear to be floating on the page.  In the case of multiple photos, you want to create a place for them to be visually tied together.   Action photos can be particularly at risk for getting “lost” if they are not grounded.

Sketch by Becky Fleck for Project 12-Scrapbook & Cards Today

source:  scrapbookstudio.typepad.com, April 11, 2011
 Additional Becky Fleck Sketches can be found at Page Maps

In the sketch above, the photos are "grounded” with an implied strip of patterned paper that continues behind the elements on both pages of the layout. Using one element of the sketch is connected to (or ground) all the elements of the layout together into one unified design. When the elements are grounded, each appear to have meaningful placement.


Other concepts to consider when grounding your photos:

• Color: Darker colors often visually appear to have more weight than lighter colors. Often using darker colors can aid in ground your photos and embellishments.
• Size: Consider that size adds weight (the larger the element the heavier it may appear).  Therefore, if you wish to add more emphasis to a smaller element it can be helpful to use a larger grounding element to help the smaller item stand out.
• Location: Grounding does not have to be “under” your elements.  You can use elements to ground on the side, above or through the middle of your focal elements.  This is demonstrated in the sketch above. Proximity can be a very effective way to ground images and elements together on two page layouts.
• Clustering: Using a cluster of elements the corner of your photo, title or journaling can add weight and visual interest, thus giving the sense of purpose as well as giving your reader a defined focal point.

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Joni's thought

Joni’s thought: I wanted to ground my son in this photo, so I let the busier end of the photo hang onto the busy patterned paper so it blends in.  I utilized a large grey area to vertically ground my son on the right side.  I added a lighter color to give the eye a place to rest.  I also added all my embellishments to "his end", to give that side some visual weight and draw the eye.  I also kept the vertical theme by adding my title vertically.

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Colleen's Thought

Colleen’s thought: Grounding is something that I really struggled with when I first started scrapping.  I look at some of my first layouts, and my pictures, although matted, seem to float on the page.  I probably would not be scrapping today if it were not for sketches and scraplifting. By using sketches and scraplifting, my pages gained structure and I inherently learned about grounding.  I still rely heavily on sketches or lifting, rarely making a layout of my own design. Therefore, I challenged myself to see if I could truly ground my photos without referring to any other aids. It took a lot longer for me to scrap this page than it normally does, but I am pleased with the result.

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Devra's Thought

Devra’s thought: I did not begin this layout with the purpose of our 'thought' of grounding photos. I was just doing my thing, when it occurred to me that the photo looked lost on the page.  It was too similar to the colors of the papers.  I knew I had a transparency that may work well. As soon as I laid it over the photo, the photo appeard to stand out.  I really liked the way it looked.  I tried to splatter mist to give the layout some shimmer. I felt as if I had almost ruined the layout. The drops did not come out as I had planned.  I tried to brush the splatters hoping the result would look "frosty".  I decided to try brushing and misting some white paint over the black to lighten it up. When I sprayed the white mist over the mess, the mist clogged, resulting in larger droplets.  That 'mistake' turned out to work in my favor.  I think it helps further ground the photo by drawing the eye from the top, directly to the photo, then to the bottom of the page. Phew! Crisis averted. As we say here at t*t*d there are NO mistakes, just creative opportunities!

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Jennifer's Thought

Jennifer’s thought:  I like leaving white space on my photos, then using the white space to "anchor" the photo down, either with title, journaling, or embellishments.

Since this photo is so large, I did not need to draw attention to its being the focal point photo; instead, I used the white space to draw greater attention to the subject: my son at the edge of the water. I placed the title and journaling on the right to balance the image of my son on the left.

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Steffanie's Thought

Steffanie’s thought: I think after scrapping for 10+ years, grounding photos finally comes naturally for me.  However, I have relied heavily on sketches and have definitely done my share of lifting ideas.  For this layout, I wanted to test myself and see if I could really do it without any kind of visual aid.  After selecting my photos and papers, I began by cutting a large block of patterned paper to be the main "anchor" for my photos.  I had a title in mind and knew that I wanted the key words to be next to the coordinating photo, which helped me decide to orient my photos vertically rather than horizontally.  To ensure my photos were grounded by the patterned paper. Additionally the orientation the paper, I felt, needed to be the same direction.  By overlapping my photos onto the patterned paper, I have achieved the first step in grounding.  I further grounded my photos, by cutting t a border strip and a stripe print to add visual interest to the focal point.    My layout felt sparse and I felt I needed to ground those elements to the foundational cardstock, which would help anchor my title.    I trimmed the light teal cardstock utilizing it help fill in the "white space" and found that it also helped to ground the left side of my photos. The final grounding element is the small horizontal strips of patterned paper. Each of these elements help to ground the entire layout and give it a cohesive feel.  I actually think I surprised myself at how easily I was able to ground my photos.  The process of thinking it through while creating really helped me to see the how and why this principle is so important to thoughtful design.  It was pretty cool!

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Carolyn's Thought

Carolyn’s thought: I love scrapping two page layouts and grounding is an essential tool when scrapping my multiple photo layouts.  For this layout, I used sketch #27 from Sketch Support, staying true to the design.  My first paper choice for my layout was the cloud paper from lime twist.  I planned to use a cloud theme for repetition, since by repeating a design element builds a feeling of connection thought out the design.  I chose to ground my photos with the lime green paper by Crate Paper that stretches behind and across the two sides of the layout.  I then matted three vertical and two horizontal wallets, overlapping them onto the other photos, to visually tie them together.  My final grounding for this layout was the repeat of the cloud element, which I layered and attached to the photos and background paper.  The cloud elements also added the design principal of a visual triangle.  For more repetition, I stamped a cloud image under my journaling strips and finished by adding a little bling with the black swirls. 

 

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Now that you have had time to give this design concept some thought, we would love to see the different ways that you choose to ground your photos on a layout.  We hope that you will share your work of he{art} with us by using the Mr. Linky button below.  

We have a facebook page where you are able to chat with us or suggest somthing you would like to see thought about!  Please like us and share with your friends!

Comments

[Cassie W]

Great layouts ladies and wonderful thoughts on the subject.

[Devra]

Sorry I was so wordy! I love everyones LOs! I learned a lot from working on this thought!

[Steffanie S]

You weren't the only one who was wordy, Devra! I never think it's that much until I see it in print, next to others. Anyway, great work everyone! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!

[csewy]

Great layouts and thoughts, ladies! The "thoughts" part of this has to be the hardest for me, but I think I got a little carried away....sounds almost like a lecture! I finally have mine up on my blog tonight.

[Erin Blegen]

Loved reading through the examples- beautiful work girls!! For me, grounding my photos isn't the problem- it's grounding my title- perhaps an idea for a future topic? I cannot stand just "putting my title out there"- I have to have something grounding that too- and sometimes I struggle...

Thanks for the inspiration and great advice!! :D

[Beth Hallgren]

Amazing layouts by amazing ladies! great job grounding :)

[Stephanie DiSabato]

In my layout I used horizontal and vertical strips of patterned paper to ground my pictures. I also used the power of three metal elements to ground the embellishments.

[Melissa Johnson]

I linked it up twice by accident! The first one didn't have a link to my blog :) That is where I posted my "thoughts".