This month’s
Scrap Girls Club: Bright Canyon is full of beautiful artwork from designer Melissa Renfro. I especially like the circle embellishments. The colors are rich and the original patterns are fascinating. One thing to keep in mind is that they are all “open artwork,” meaning that the background is cut away. It looks amazing, but it can be a little tricky to work with. Whatever you place behind the circle will show through, and sometimes that can make for an overly busy layout, plus you might lose the effect of all that detail within the embellishment if the background crowds it out. Let me show you how to maximize the artistic effect of these little gems.
In the unfinished layout above, you can’t help but love the beauty of the colors and designs, but as is, it’s a little busy for me. I think the inner designs of the circle embellishment are in competition with the horizontal lines of the background paper. Here are three solutions I’ve come up with:
- The simplest solution would be to use a solid background paper behind the circle. Grab one of the papers from this club that contrast beautifully. Melissa’s warm color palette is incredible!
- Brush work could easily tone down the background behind the open artwork piece.
- Melissa included some cool paint strips that work perfectly, too. They provide a solid background while adding texture and interest to the page, plus they don’t cover up too much of the patterned background paper. For my layout, that’s the route I chose to go and I love how it turned out!
Melissa’s open artwork embellishments in her
Bright Canyon Collection give you opportunities to highlight colors and patterns in so many different ways. I had a lot of fun playing with this club, and I hope that you enjoy it, too. Be sure to upload your work to the Scrap Girls Gallery for us all to admire!
Article written by Anna MansfieldUsing Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 with Windows 8
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