Negative Space Layouts

Have you ever said or heard someone say, "don't be so negative?"  Well, guess what?  With scrapbooking, you can be as negative as you want - and it's a good thing!  In fact, it's another hot trend.  Check out these negative space layouts by our On Trend team - I am positive they will put a smile on your face and give your creativity a jump start!

 

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat used a Some Odd Girl Circle with Arrows Cut File and had lots of negative space with the arrows.

Practical Scrapper Cathy created her negative space layout with a Fancy Pant's Silhouette File and Fancy Pant's Good Life collection (and photos of the cutest little fisherman ever!)

Practical Scrapper Charissa used a Silhouette Cameo cut file and backed the negative space with a variety of patterned papers from Carta Bella's Hello Again collection.

Practical Scrapper Malika used her Silhouette to make subtitles for her layout. Instead of gluing each little letter down she used the negative and backed the strip of patterned paper with black card stock.

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix created a negative space title and backed it with pattern paper.

Practical Scrapper Lisa Peeples fussy cut some of the arrows out of her paper and placed embellishments inside. She also used chipboard pieces and backed the negative space with paper to create her title piece and little heart at the top.

On Trend- Negative Space

What exactly is negative space, and how does it apply to a card or  scrapbook page you ask? Well, according to Wikepedia:

 Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image. The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition. 

Our designers have done a fantastic job of showing just how you can use the negative space created using punches and die cut techniques as well as how to focus on the negative space around the main subject itself (aka whitespace).

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat Siehl

used negative space cut from the blue paper to create chevron arrows and as part of her title.

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix
created a fun effect using a star punch on her base white cardstock.

Practical Scrapper Nicole Laha

created negative space by leaving the background blank and without texture.

Practical Scrapper Malika Kelly
loves using her Cameo to cut out letters and then using the leftover piece (the negative) as part of her title or journaling.


Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager
 cut some snowflakes from chipboard for a project a long time ago and saved the negatives to use on a project.  she used it as a stencil first, to create the snowflakes on the bottom left of the page.

 Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson
 used negative space made by her star and circle punches, she then used the punch shapes as embellishements through out the layout. Doodling inside the negative space, she added some depth.
Based on Creative Scrappers sketch #242

So whether you're looking for a new technique to play with on your projects, or just looking to focus on balancing the empty spaces around your subject, try playing with concepts of negative space and find out what you're "missing".

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