Repetition...Sometimes Repeating Yourself Is A Good Thing

Hi everyone...Casey back again to pick back up on our design principles blog series.  We are now on R of the ECBARF acronym.  R stands for repetition.  If you are like me you find yourself repeating what you say way too much...whether it is No to the little one or just about anything to the husband I repeat...a lot.  While this is rather aggravating in conversations it is a unifying principle in scrapbook design.  Repetition of shapes, colors, lines and the like in layouts help provide a cohesive appearance.

There are several ways to incorporate repetition into layouts.  You can repeat shapes, colors, elements, and even motif.  Take a look at how scrappers have used Sugar Pie Scraps designs to create layouts that use repetition...

Ok lets look at this layout from lnewhouse.  Notice how the blue color is repeated numerous times but there are lots of other colors mixed in too to break the repetition up a bit.  The blue tone is repeated in the alpha, elements and papers and yet is not overpowering or boring.  Notice also how the green button, red paper punch, and blue paper punch are repeated...creating several visual triangles that lead the eye and also provide unity via repetition!  What a great layout that showcases Sugar Pie and Connie Prince's great collab Build, Destroy, Repeat.

Moving on to this lovely layout from Bobbie76.  Look at how she repeats the purple hues but also adds hints of green so the purples are not overpowering or like we said earlier...boring.  She has also used several rectangles providing shape repetition. Check out the five paper rectangles...some are narrow, some are wider.  Her ribbons give two more and then three rectangular photos and three rectangular frames.  Wow that is a lot of shape repetition but doesn't it look great!!  Also check out how she uses the purple flowers...all this works together to create one beautiful finished product!  

From purple girlie to bright and boyish!  nof007750 also creates awesome layouts that use the design theory of repetition.  Take this this one for example.  Note her repetition of orange and yellow...the striped paper, blocks and ribbon.  There is also shape repetition present...her shape of choice was also the rectangle...her photo, title paper, striped bottom paper, blue background paper, and the green and orange blocks are all examples of shape repetition.  The angles are different for some elements but the shape is the same...pretty crafty...muwhahaha!

OK lets talk about one more type of repetition...thematic or motif.  This can be achieved by using elements and colors that correspond with the subject you are scrapping.  For this lets look at beckyroy's layout Hunter's First Snow.  Her photos of the little one out in the snow are awesome and notice how she continues that cold outside theme with the heavy coat, mitten, hat, and snow flake elements.  This use of theme or motif is also repetition...not overpowering...but way awesome!  She also repeats shapes via her photos and the color scheme repeats the brown and blue tone with splashes of yellow.  A beautiful layout that is another great example of repetition and Sugar Pie Scraps awesome products.  

To read a more in depth discussion of repetition in design be sure to check out the Digi Files blog.  And to see the products used in these layouts and more from Sugar Pie check out her Polka Dot Plum store.  Until next time...happy scrapping!