Hi Everyone.

Denise here to bring you another Saturday Special….and I am excited to be talking to you about white space (or negative space or empty space).

I LOVE white space. I think one element of my personal scrap style is the use of white space…and I love it because of what it can do for you layouts.

White space is the portion of your layout that you leave empty. It includes the space between your photos, margins, edges, etc. The white space on your layout is an important design element and key to good composition.

If you don’t have enough white space on your layout it will appear busy or cluttered…and if you have too much your layout it will appear unfinished.

White space…gives your photos space…to be featured, to be admired…and adds style to any layout. But, your layout doesn’t have to be ALL white space to fit into this category…you just need to have some.

If you don’t normally have a lot of white space in your layouts I know you are thinking…oh no  I have to do a layout with just one photo and almost no elements. And, believe me, those kind of layouts work and are so beautiful, but you can have white space in a layout with five photos and 20 or 30 elements.

Don’t believe me?

Well, here’s my layout…showing off white space.

There are many things that you can do to utilize and maximize the white space on a multiple photo layout. You can pull your photos off to one side, leaving the other side free. The way that my photos and my elements are grouped adds drama and style to my layout…but still plenty of room.

Here are some other examples of using white space with multiple photos from the creative team.

Stacy grouped her photos together and pulled them off to the sides. She took advantage of two sides of her layout and still left plenty of space in the middle for breath and flow. I love how her white space really creates a fun movement across the page…and you feel like you are actually in the trees with her daughter.

Christy grouped all her photos and elements together and pulled them into the middle. This cluster is dramatic and interesting without being overcrowded or busy. Her use of the cluster and the added white apace really conveys a sense of fun and highlights her beautiful daughter.

Krista used the same techinique as Christy…but she took one of her elements all the way across the page…so that her white space is above and blow her cluster, rather than surrounding it.  And since her layout is open relaxing and openess…her theme is reflected not only in her photos and her journaling…but in the actual composition of her layout.

Melanie choose the center cluster, but she also used the space on the side of her layout for journaling. ..and the journaling becomes its own element…but again…lots of space to add drama and focus to her layout.

Finally, Christine choose to group her photos and use paper to really anchor her layout down. But, rather than being heavy…the added white space creates interest and focus and on her amazing photos.

So, your challenge is to create a layout using white space and multiple photos.

If you are new to using white space…start small. I would suggest grouping your photos and your elements together to create a cluster…and place it in the center or on the side of your layout. If you are used to using really big photos…try making them a little smaller and giving yourself a little room.

And, a few housekeeping details:

There’s no double dipping. Your layout must be unique to this challenge.

Everyone who completes the challenge will get a point in the Matter of Scrap Challenge System.

You do not need to use ScrapMatters products, however, if you use something new from the ScrapMatters store (within the first seven days of a product’s release), you get an extra point.

And, I will choose my favorite layout to get one more point at the end of the challenge.

Don’t forget to upload to the Saturday Gallery here , and link back to this thread with your layout image and link.

You have until the end of June to complete this challenge.

Happy scrapping!

I’m here today with a HUGE announcement! Many of you may know that Scrap Matters has been running a month long challenge to find the “Queen of Scrap” and the “Princess of Scrap”. This is our second year running the contest and we are amazed at how much it has grown!

This year we had an amazing 107 fantastic women enter the challenge and complete at least one layout. I am certain that they are all very anxious to read about the big winners. These women were amazing – they completely blew me and the rest of the ScrapMatters.com Team away! Not only are they fantastic scrappers, but they are quick! I am in awe at the number of layouts that they completed. Collectively, they scrapped 4,705 pages during the month of May. That is a LOT of pages!

They scrapped about their kids, and their families, their vacations and celebrations, their joys and their sorrows. They truly poured their hearts and souls into their creations, gave us windows into their lives and showed off their artistic talents.

Each and every one of these princesses should be very proud at what they accomplished. Most of them scrapped significantly more layouts than they normally do during a month. Now, their families may not have been too excited about this, as I heard lots of chatter about dirty house & extremely supportive spouses! We even had a few scrap related injuries this year! Don’t worry though – everyone is on the mend now that they can rest their “scrapping arms”

Our competition had two parts to it. First, we were looking to find the person who could scrap the most pages during the month of May. Each of the participants could receive prizes at 4 different levels. We had 95 people complete at least 5 pages to reach level 1. 80 of those reached level 2 and scrapped at least 20 layouts for the month. Level 3 was to scrap 35 pages, and 45 women reached this level! Level 4 was to complete 50 pages – we had 33 people reach this level. We couldn’t believe how many scrapped more than 100 pages for the month – 13 people! We even had 2 people scrap over 250 layouts for the month – isn’t that AMAZING!!!

The person that scrapped the most pages for the month is to be awarded a $50.00 gift card to the ScrapMatters.com shop. That amazing and very talented scrapper scrapped an astounding 260 pages during the month of May! WOW!!! That speedy scrapper is Becky (photomom1216)!!!! Congratulations Becky!

Now I mentioned that our challenge had a second part to it… one of these lucky ladies is going to be crowned ScrapMatters Queen of Scrap! Two lucky ladies will also be named the “Princess of Scrap”. The princesses will receive a one month guest spot on our CT. The Queen is to win a three month guest spot on our CT. To qualify for this part of the competition, the participants had to be in the top 10 posters with the most layouts created for May. These women worked hard to get into those top 10 spots. Each of them created over 100 layouts each! Each of these princesses should take a bow – I’m sure many scrappers struggle to make that many pages in a year! You can truly tell that they are very passionate about this craft and the subjects of their layouts.

Well, it would have been way too hard for one person to pick a winner, so we put the fantastic ScrapMatters Creative & Design team members to work! We poured over their galleries and each of us voted on who we thought should be the winners. It was such a difficult choice to make but…

We actually had a 3 way tie for the “Princess” spots and have decided to give each of them a one month guest CT spot!

These lucky ladies are:

Cristina (cristina)

Krisi (krisi616)

Jan (QuiltyMom)

They all worked SO hard – be sure to stop by their galleries to check out their hard work. You can click on their user names above.

Get your curtsy ready readers …..

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….. here’s the part where we announce the Queen…

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The Queen of Scrap is Erica (princess.erica)!!! Congratulations – the team at ScrapMatters.com is so very excited to have you join us!!! We would love to have you take on a guest CT spot on our team – allowing you access to our shop to scrap your heart out!

Not only is Erica a fast scrapper (she entered an amazing 140 pages!) but, she is very talented with her page designs and is an all around sweet gal with a great sense of humor!

Here are a few of our favorite pages that she has created. Click on the pics for credits:

Congratulations to Erica, the Princesses and everyone who participated!