Making Use of That "Empty" Photo Space

Have you ever had a great photo, but also had extra space which you can't crop off due to subject placement? While doing a recent layout, I had this reoccuring problem. I had some great pictures, cropped them as much as I could, but still had places in the photos that were "empty", and needed a little bit of something... the space needed a little "pop". I came up with a fun idea which is SO simple, and it turned out pretty cool. Thanks to my sister-in-law who saw this layout and technique, told me how much she loved the idea, and said I should post this idea online!

Here is the overall completed layout:

Using a punch (in this case I used a circle punch), I punched a semi-circle into the empty/negative photo space. Then using a slightly smaller punch, I used some scraps to punch out a circle that would lay just inside the original punched out area. And the cool thing is that this area can be used for title placement, stamping, journaling, etc.

Here is a picture of my subtitle, using this technique with a circle punch into the picture, then a circle stamp inside of that, stamped directly onto the paper...

And here I used a circle stamp, punched that out with a circle punch, embellished it, than placed it into the other circle.....

It's a great, easy, unique and versatile technique to use on any layout. Try it on your next layout-I'd love to see how you incorporate this fun technique and make it your own.