Adding More Style To My Pages

One of the two main reasons that I've been pulling apart many of the pages that I created when I first started scrapbooking is that I really want to add more style to the pages that I create.  Documenting and storytelling as the main goal is fine but that does not mean that it can't be pretty as well.  Pretty is what makes this a hobby for me.  Otherwise, my photos could just get stuck in a box with a note on the back for future generations to look back on. 

For me,  right now, it's all about making our stories come to life.  Bringing the smiles before you even know the whosits or the whatsits.  Decorating our life memories so that every single time we look at one of our pages (yes, even though I make the pages, they are ours) the moment comes back almost as real as when we lived through it.  I don't know if that statement makes a bit of sense.  What I do know is that although photos make me happy, my scrapbook albums with page after page of illustrated stories swell in my chest and make me go back in time. 

How am I adding this style you might be asking?  One way is with more dimension.  My pages used to be very flat.  Flat colors, textures, journaling and flat photos.  Now I use bolder colors in more interesting ways.  Cream with white or navy with blue to create interesting shadows without creating a ton of bulk.  I sew on my pages.  My photos are better lit and more candid.  I don't tell my kids to stop what they're doing and smile for the camera.  Like the photo on this page about the day my daughter sent me a random text saying that she was at the starting line of a marathon getting ready to start.  The picture doesn't even feature her face.  But it sparked a long conversation between my daughter and I and later lots of my thoughts before bed focused on how bold she is when it comes to doing the things she wants to do.  Later still, this page.....

I also add style by not boxing my pages in.  There are so many shapes out there and so many ways to use them!  My kids know how much I love Disney so they will send me random photos of Disney stuff along with a text or a call about how it's not a sign that we should take our next family vacation there lol.  It is such a random thing but important to me.  I documented it by using triangles to point to this random picture of Disney balloons that one of the kids texted me.....

I could go on and on but I won't.  Since I started to scrapbook with more "style", I am much happier with the pages that I create and with the time that I spend creating.  Why do this if its boring?  Even if it is important family history preservation.  Saving family memories can be done with a box and a notepad in its simplest form.  What I do takes hours so I have to love both the process and the results.    

My last 2 pages to share are both Disney pages.  Shocking right?  Tree of life.  Still blows my mind every single visit..... 

One more page to go before I'm done with my August Hip Kit.  This is the next to last and I'm just about done with all of the paper even though there are still a ton of embellishments and alphas left.  Oh, the alphas.  They are really becoming an issue!  I actually had to use the packaging for the background here.  It was cute so it can't count as a hardship:).  I'm going to print the journaling and place it above the "love this" later.  I'll post another photo of this page with the journaling tomorrow.  Maybe.  This page is so festive it may not need journaling......

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic Day!