Lesson Colour Blocking

 Lesson Colour Blocking 

Tools needed for this lesson:
Paper
Paper trimmer
Adhesive

Lesson:
Overlapping Blocks - Simply cutting large blocks of paper, and slightly overlapping them, divides your page and helps to provide a base for your photos, title, journaling and embellishments. The sizes of the blocks can be specific sizes that you choose or can be random blocks of paper. The blocks can also be a variety of vertical and horizontal blocks, rectangles and/or squares.

Leaving a Thin Outline - Another version of colour blocking is to leave a thin outline around your blocks for the background colour to show through. A popular thickness between blocks is about ¼”. This also creates a matted look for your blocks, as well as provides an easy mat for your photos.

Making Strips - Strips of paper, used as the background of a layout, are another nice variation of the colour blocking technique. Vary the thickness of your strips, as well as the distance between them for added interest. Also try overlapping them for additional depth.

Fill in With Blocks - Filling in the background space around your photos with blocks of colour creates a mosaic look and a perfectly filled page. This technique works best with a variety of sizes of photos. It is also a great way to include several photos on a page.

To create this colour blocked mosaic for your layout, first crop your photos to the size you want them. Then adhere your photos to the page with reposition able adhesive. This will allow you to adjust them later if necessary, but will keep them in place while you measure for your filler blocks. Space the photos out so that there will be room for colour blocks in between and around them. Next, choose a few different colours of paper and decide if you would like to use small blocks of colour or larger blocks.

You can then start filling in the empty spaces between the photos with strips and squares of colour  leaving a thin border between each block where the background paper can show through. Rather than measuring each strip of paper, make a pencil mark or small indentation with your fingernail where you would like to cut and use your paper trimmer to cut straight lines. By using the pencil mark or indentation as your cutting mark, you'll have blocks that fit perfectly in the spaces on your page, without having to pull out a ruler. Alternate the colours and vary the sizes of blocks to create your colour block mosaic. Continue cutting strips or squares to fit until the whole page is covered.