Do you scrap by the rules? Visual triangles, white space,etc

I don't consider them rules...more like guidelines or suggestions. I do tend to follow them for the most part since that's what I like. If it's not working for me, they get thrown out the window. My page! My rules! 😊

This is the way I scrap.

Not all the time and not consciously. I probably use them more in card making if I'm honest.

This is a great question and my answer may seem harsh but it is only for the sake of dscussion.  I looked at the article but not all the fine points just yet.  I do think about design principles.  And I tend to be a very linear/boxy scrapbooker.  I don't often tilt a photo or leave much white space.  I tend to have lots to look at on my pages.

I have some scrappy pet peeves related to design.  I do not like when I see pages (usually newer scrappers or those with no sense about what looks good) where they put everything right up against the edge of the paper and have elements spread far apart - like a photo in each of the 4 corners and nothing to draw them in cohesively.

I also scrap with someone who is a TV worthy hoarder of everything, and she makes pages out of all the negative space of die cuts.  Instead of incorporating the negative space into a design she just puts it on the page as is.  This scrapper buys tons of kits and puts them together, so she knows what is eye pleasing, but she cannot for the life of her translate that to her own pages.  

Color is another design element that I pay close attention to.  I have said many times I am a theme scrapper, and while I am going to try hard to find theme elements for my photos without caring if they color coordinate, I am not going to pick a random color that is not in the paper or the photos.  The scrapper above showed me a layout yesterday - it was the negative space of 'Winter Wonderland' in navy blue, and she glued it down onto Christmas green cardstock.  Unless my photos had a kid in a green and blue snowsuit I would not put those colors together for a 'Winter Wonderland' layout.  She is single and constantly complains her family won't give her photos to scrap but they hate seeing what she does with them when they do.

I think some people have no concept of what looks pleasing, except to them.  I don't think you can teach it unless this type of scrapper sticks to kits and sketches.  I do think there are rules/guidelines to make pleasing pages.  Some people are 'artistic' and can make the unusual into something very interesting design wise.  Other people go with the no rules/my pages concept and make cringeworthy layouts.  That's why I redo my cringeworthy layouts.  Because now I know better so I do better.

Thank you for the link. I just printed most of those to .pdf so I can read them later even if I am not online (i.e. in the car waiting to pick up kids LOL).

I ignore the rules. I go with my gut. (I have a lot of that)

Awesome! Me, too.

I don't religiously follow the rules. Sometimes I have a triangle, sometimes I don't. The photos often dictate what works for my eye.

I kind of just go with the flow, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't..I'm going to read the link, never hurts to learn something new

This is totally me, right down to reviewing the rules when a page isn't working.

I consciously do rule of thirds and visual triangle, and I try not to have trapped white space. I like the article on deliberately breaking the rules on the Get it Scrapped site, though. Breaking the rules leads to some very interesting LOs.

I'm not inherently artistic or creative; I didn't attend art school; I don't "see" things; I read and learn and understand words and rules and I try to take them to heart and use them -- but I can't really articulate when and where I've done something that would fit within the generally accepted principles of design. But I know that I like my pages better when I've hit on a "good" combination -- and those pages usually comply with the "suggested guidelines"!!
I'm going to go dig out my copy of "Designer's Eye" now that I've been reminded!

Rules? What rules? I thought scrapbooking didn't have any rules!

Actually I do follow some of the design "rules". Especially visual triangles and using odd numbers when putting on embellishments. I feel like those "design rules" make my LO's look better.

Heck no, lol. I do whatever looks 'right' to me when I'm in the moment.