Hi there!
A friend has sent to me this really funny link on facebook, and I´d like to share it with you: Specially the designer mates that had been trapped in the middle of this battle before. I honestly don´t know whether I prefer flat or realistic stuff for digiscrap. If you asked me one year ago, I´d say "flat" for sure, but I learned a lot this year, both working with kits from different designers and trying to design my own stuff...
Haha. Pretty cool. I think I'd have to say I prefer flat currently.
but sometimes I use flat more or realistic more,
it depends of the theme/design,
but I always try to use both at the same time in my kits
& I already asked my fans which one they prefer?!
and most of them said that they like how I combine both in my kits!
Most of the time I definitely prefer flat design, even outside of digiscrap. But when it comes to digiscrap I love a mix of the two, still heavy on the flat design side.
Flat design can be really charming - just remember Candy Crush, the game...
But I have a feeling that there is a demand for realism in scrap - specially in terms of textures and "clustering ellements" like flowers, buttons and ribbons.
When I first starting seeing a lot of "heavy" embellishments - like chunky frames, thick flowers, etc - I thought to myself why would they include stuff like that in a kit. Nobody in real life would make a paper layout that heavy - at least I certainly wouldn't and haven't seen much of it. But the craze has caught on, so I usually go with the flow and will be adding more of that kind of stuff to my kits.
@Cat: Do you think they shouldn´t because you´re used to american style of scrapping. Here in Brazil most of paper scrappers do use lots of heavy things (clustering with expensive ellies on paper scrapping here seems to see a demonstration of power of some kind - what I never understood as the albuns become so ugly and fragile with all that volume). But I confess I took a long time to understand what´s the appeal for lots of textures and popping ellies on digiscrap... Now I like it too
Here's my funny take: with digiscrapping I like fairly flat - but what I mean by that is hyper-realistic paperlook. Just like "Flat" in the cartoon in the link. In paper scrapping, I like an almost popup-look, but I'm not very skilled. So, it's just something I admire in other's work. Right now I have a whole album of mementos that I need to scan or do something with. (lots of invitations, cards, hotel keys).
Its not that I don't think they shouldn't, but when I first started digi scrappin' it was all about making it look as realistic as possible. At that time, I didn't see those types of embellishments or heavily embellished layouts. I've noticed that it is more "international" to do layouts in that style. If I do a layout that I consider heavily embellished, its usually with flowers clustered. And yes, paper albums get very large and bulky with thick layouts. I tend to keep my paper layouts on the flatter side. I admit I haven't done a digi layout in quite some time, but like to experiment with putting lots of embellishments. At least I'm not spending a fortune on embellishments with a digi kit and ending up tearing the layout apart because it doesn't look right. As for texture, when I first started digi scrapping a lot of papers didn't have texture, but that has gone to the opposite end of the spectrum now. Sometimes, I find there too much texture. And since I'm what I would consider a hybrid crafter, I don't like papers with too much texture (actually prefer without) so I can print them and then use them as I would any other scrapbooking papers.
I've never understood those paper layouts with so much stuff on them that they don't fit in an album! So I don't digiscrap that way, either. But the ones I see in galleries that are done that way are usually gorgeous. It's such a toss-up!
I like a mixture of the two.
ummmm... I guess I'm different as far as paper scrapping, I use a lot of "bumpy" stuff... not huge but yes bumpy for sure... like charms, epoxy, flowers, pop dots, etc Now with digital I'd love for it to look as close to IRL paper scrapping but like someone else said above, I'm not as skilled at making that happen with all the shadowing effects just yet.
I think I like both. It just depends upon the kind of feeling I'm trying to create. It's the same with actual paper stuff, sometimes I like all the dangly, fluffy stuff and sometimes I prefer more of a flat look.
I love the pop of a realistic embellishment here and there!