What if your Go-To Design is more like a loose recipe?

Alexandra Otte

All these awesome Go-To Designs on the blog (see below for a list of previous posts) and in our membership's "Scrap School" got me thinking. Do I have a Go-To Design? Not really, I thought. But with a little more thinking I realized, I DO have something like that. It just doesn't consist of choosing a certain number of photos or cutting beautiful paper in specific sizes. For me, it is more like a Go-To Style.

Perhaps we can think of it as a loose recipe. So what are our ingredients?
I have combed through years of traditional and digital layouts to find some clues. Here’s what I found:

1. Pictures at an angle

If not using a sketch or a template I almost always put my pictures at an angle, straight pictures just aren’t for me.
I’ll show you some traditional and some digital pages for each ingredient, just click on the images to enlarge. Although, since these are my go-to elements you will find more than one of them in each layout shown. 😉

2. Mixed Media

It can be subtle but I dare say each and every Layout I ever made has a little bit mixed media on it. In most cases, it is the background. I really don’t like plain cardstock that much, especially the white ones. In my book it just lacks that spark of interest and depth. So even if a background is single-coloured, it usually has some texture or shading.
However, it does not have to be homemade. There are tons of absolutely stunning mixed media papers out there, even in the digi world.

3. Torn Paper

Torn paper is definitely my go-to for combining different papers on a page. In the paper world it might be the easiest way, too. For digi scrapping you can use masks or elements with torn edges to get that specific look. Of course, it goes perfectly with a mixed media approach.

4. Evenly distributed elements

I tend to spread my elements evenly across the page to get a nice balanced look. The exact opposite of clusters. 😉 Although I love the look of these, too.

5. Die-cut letters

This is only for paper Layouts, but I use it ALL the time. I love die-cutting in general and especially for letters and titles. Such an awesome way to include more pretty papers!

The whole recipe in one page!

And here some Layouts that have it all, the whole recipe: The photos at an angle, the mixed media, the torn paper, the wide spreaded elements and the die-cutting in the paper ones.

Do you want to know more about Go-To Designs and get a ton of inspiration ?

Check out these gems of our design team:
A Closer Look at Go To Designs by Alison
Hate editing photos? Try this go-to layout design! by Misty
Go To Designs-The Magnificent Grid by Claire
What Goes Around Comes Around: Circular Go-To Designs by Lindsy
Question of the Month – What’s YOUR Go-To? by Misty