I’m very much an “anything goes” kinda gal when it comes to documenting.  Half the fun is playing around and seeing what you end up with.  But one thing is always in the back of my mind when I’m creating… and that’s BALANCE.

So, today I decided to walk you all through a bit of my thought process regarding creating balance on your pages.

This spread in my pocket album features two 4×6 photos on the left side so I’ll mostly be focusing on the right for the rest of this post.

The right side of my spread was all about mother’s day.  I had two photos to go along with it so I printed those out.  Additionally, I created a patterned accent card for another pocket with a cute little heart paper from the Smitten collection.  There’s just something I love about a little heart pattern.  For my journaling card I used a “Mom” PNG file on white cardstock.

Now that I had all my cards the next step for me was just moving things around till I felt it was balanced.

Generally I keep the following in mind…

1. Photo weight – Different photos carry different weights.  The size of the photo, the size of the subject in the photo, the colors in the photo… all those carry different weights.
2. Light and dark – I think I probably look at the balance between light and dark the most.  Dark items (photos, patterns, etc.) will feel heavier than lighter ones most of the time.
3. Pattern – Busy patterns carry more weight than subtle ones.  Look at pattern size and color here.

Here’s a little bit of how that plays out on this spread.

In this arrangement I feel like the right side of the spread is heavier than the left.  The red heart in the photo and the business of the heart pattern contribute to this.

Now let’s try moving the photos to the bottom.  I usually do then when the two photos are from the same event/occasion.  I like how the busyness of the flowers on the lower right balance the busyness of the heart paper on the upper left.

But let’s try another one.

So, here we have the two items with smaller elements on the top… the heart paper and flower photo.  I like the journaling card on the lower right.  We tend to view things going left to right so here we’ll be starting on the left page and then moving across before resting on the journaling.  Ending with your journaling is always a good way to visually turn the page.

Now keep in mind that none of these arrangements are wrong.  It just comes down to finding one that’s most pleasing to you.

And this is what I ended up with.

Strangely enough there’s also balance when a busy and bold item sits across from a light and calm one.  You’ll find that concept a lot in layouts that utilize white space, but here you’ll see it in the way the heart pattern card and the journaling card compliment each other.  Mimicking that diagonal arrangement again (but in the opposite direction) is the placement of the photos in opposite corners.  Even though they’re different, one photo having a lot of small elements and the other having one large element, they still balance each other. Although there’s more color on the top of the spread I feel that the criss-cross of the other components compensate for that.

Now, there was nothing terribly wrong with any of my other placements but I feel that this one is the most balanced.

Don’t be afraid to play around with your placement.  There’s likely more than one great combination!  Consider color, content and patterns when you’re balancing your spreads.  That’s the great thing about pocket pages… you can literally continue moving things around till you’re done.

xo Marcy

Supplies:  Smitten paper pack (heart paper); Dear Mom Word Art (“Mom”)