Color Blocking

Color blocking: It’s one of the hottest scrapbooking techniques around—and it’s easy to see why! Blocks of rich, textured colors create a ready-made backdrop for your photos, journaling and embellishments. Even better, you can use them to highlight your photos in a variety of ways. Your color blocked layouts can be striking in their simplicity, or you can create elaborate collaged pages with color blocked backgrounds.

Use the Blocks as Guides. LeNae used the color blocking as a guide for her photo and journaling. Supplies used: Classic Color Block Papers; Tinted Words Fragments and Tinted Letters Fragments.

Designer LeNae Gerig loves color blocked papers because of their versatility and ease of use—they’re the perfect instant background for a Realistic Scrapper like LeNae. (A Realistic Scrapper is someone who wants to create great-looking pages quickly and easily—spending more time creating the memory than creating the page!) Even better, LeNae has great new layout ideas plus her own tried-and-true designer tips for creating with color blocked papers.

Use the Blocks as Guides

“The wonderful thing about color blocked papers is that they tell you exactly where to put your photos, journaling and other elements on the page,” says LeNae. “Yet you still have choices about what you put in each block.”

Interrupting. LeNae placed the large photo to span, or “interrupt” the red and tan blocks. Supplies used: Classic Color Block Papers; Definitions & Words Ephemera and Alphabet Tiles Cut-Outs™.

A 3” wide block on the side of your paper can hold journaling, or a series of ephemera or fibers. A 3” square block could hold a single embellishment or a small photo.

Interrupting

“Yet you don’t have to feel as though you must stay within those boxes!” LeNae advises. “One of my favorite techniques is called “interrupting”—this is when I place a photo to span two or more blocks. It interrupts the line dividing the blocks and adds interest to the page.”

Tiling. Tilted photos, torn-edge journaling and a mini collage of embellishments gives this layout a soft effect. Supplies used: Tone-on-Tone Color Block Papers; Heritage #2 Punch-Outs™, Travel Embossed Paper Charms and Buckle Up Treasures.

Tilting

“The blocks on the paper give you two very different effects,” LeNae says. “You can keep that very blocky, streamlined look by placing your photos centered and straight, with straight-cut photo mats. You can also loosen up the blockiness by tilting your photos, or adding a torn paper mat or torn-edge journaling.”

Using Embellishments. Vintage ephemera and red fibers create a patriotic page. Supplies used: Tone-on-Tone Color Block Papers; Vintage Ephemera and Strawberry Jam Fibers.

Using Embellishments

“I’ve really made embellishments a big part of my color blocked layouts,” says LeNae. “The paper doesn’t have a theme, the way Christmas paper has a very obvious theme. Instead, it’s up to you to create your own theme, which you can do with embellishments.”

Any other tips, LeNae? “Yes—don’t forget, because these papers are true 12”x12”, you can turn them around. If you want the border at the bottom of the page rather than the top, simply turn it. My other tip is this: Your double-page spreads don’t have to match exactly. As long as you’re using paper with the same basic colors, don’t worry about having the blocks mirror each other. A little variety is a good thing!”