Combined Tradtional and Artsy Scrapbooking on Your Layouts

I love the look of Art Journaling. Painted artsy elements, a little bit messy, perfectly imperfect. It’s beautiful. But as much as I love it, I am a traditional scrapbooker at heart, with layered papers trimmed into neat rectangles, 3D embellishments, and photos taking center stage. If you ever feel like I do, take heart. The best thing about digital scrapbooking is that it’s easier than you may think to introduce new techniques and styles into your “comfort zone.”

Art Journaling pages are often photo-less or only have photos blended into the background. However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t have more traditional photos/frames on them. One trick that can help combine traditional and artsy scrapbooking is to apply an artsy filter or style to the photo before using it on the page.

In this example, I applied the sketch action from the Action Pack: Ultimate Artist by Brandy Murry. Then I added a traditional white stroke (outline) and drop shadow to the picture. Painted and doodled embellishments with no shadows complete the page.

Picking a collection that features a lot of Art Journaling-style papers and embellishments (painted, doodled, drawn) makes the process a lot easier. Layering and overlapping these elements is what gives the page that artsy look.

In this second example, I used the watercolor action from the Action Pack: Ultimate Artist. I placed it in the background and then placed the same photo, cropped differently and framed, on top. Next, I used the brush included in the Action Pack: Ultimate Artist to paint some blue on a new layer. Combining that with some stitching from the very traditonal-style scrapbooking Effortless Collection Biggie by Angie Briggs and some artsy word art from the Lively Word Art by Amanda Frajio-Tobin made some unique embellishments that worked perfectly with the color scheme and combined the two styles.

Don’t get hung up thinking you have to stick to one style. Applying artsy filters, styles, and actions to your photos is an easy way to combine Art Journaling and traditional scrapbooking.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Stretch yourself a little and try something new! And then post your layout in the Scrap Girls Gallery so we can all get inspired!(Click on image to be taken to product page)