USING RECTANGL ES
AND
SQUARES
IN SCRAPBOOKING

The two photos above show a square and a rectangle. To help break up the monotony of scrapbook pages you may want to use various shapes: circle, triangles, octagon and hexagon.

As you design your pages you will find many opportunities to uses these various shapes to help in bringing focus and continuity.

Universally, we look at scrapbooks and scrapbook pages and see rectangles and squares. Also, rectangles and squares are the shape our photographs are generally printed in.

First, understand that all squares are rectangles, but all rectangles are not squares. The primary differentiation is that rectangles may have sides of different lengths...two opposite sides are always of equal length.

The use of rectangles and squares in building scrapbook pages will continue to be the backbone of the creative process, again, that is how our photos come to us from the developer. Softening of the right angles can help to modify the monotomy-- cropping and using corner punches will help.

There are benefits to the straight lines of squares and rectangles...keeping page elements level and parrallel. These straight lines help the eye to follow smoothly over the page's elements. The simple fact of squares and rectangles being so familiar is a plus.

Other functional reasons to squares and rectangles: to amplify a sense of organization; to create balance when other elements seem out of balance; they give a presence of strength and rigidity.

Given that we have to deal with squares and rectangles how do we soften them these much used shapes, to reduce the monotony of the right angles that make them up. The first option, and the easist one is to crop the corners with a good pair of straight cutting sissors. You may also want to try using a pair of paper edger scissors, or better still use corner edgers. Matting your photos can also change the shape and texture.