SB: Do you just Eyeball it???

[poohbear1029]

I feel like I spend enough time already planning my pages. I try to at a minimum map out in my head how I want the page to look and on a rare occasion sketch it first......I was horrible in college...never wrote an outline, always just winged my papers!!!

So, then when it comes to positioning things, I just eyeball them to "reasonably" straight.

What do you guys do? Measure and line up, or wing it??

 

[SplshMtn99]

OMG - Cass (Timon) & I had this same conversation by email a few weeks ago. I'm sitting here calculating fractions & stuff.....and she (I quote) "adhores math".

I was asking her how she gets everything to line up so perfectly without measuring the elements. She's just got the knack I guess.

Cass, I didn't confess to you that my dad taught me algebra in 4th grade when I asked for help with my multiplication tables. He whipped out the slide rule. (you young folk may not even know what that is --- pre dates a calculator -- and my dad was an engineer ) Anyway, by the time I got to algebra class in 9th grade, I got a 100% for the year. They advanced me a year ahead in math after that, taking algebra II & geometry together the next yr.

So, SEEEEEEEE, it's ALL HIS FAULT that I have no creativity and I have to calculate everything to the umpteenth degree. LOL

That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.
Oh, BTW, when I worked at the bank....and HAD to use the calculator -- it was a RULE. No doing math in your head --- for audit reasons. Now, because of that...... I can't even add 1+1 anymore without the help of a calculator. LOL

 

[grover]

I generally eyeball it, but I HAVE to be standing up looking down on my layout when adhere so that they are not obviously crooked!!
Grover in Winnipeg

 

[poohbear1029]

I am amazed that Timon just wings it!! Her pages are so perfect! And an affinity for math is definitely your key!! Maybe that's why I "wing it"....I am a math moron!! DH is an engineer and there is a rule in our house that Tricia is not allowed to do numbers without a calculator!! LOL!!! When he talks refinancing the house (as he was analyzing last night), my eyes just glaze over and I go to my "Happy Place!" (WDW, of course!)

Trish

 

[jenjie]

I wing it too! Then again, precise measuring probably wouldn't help me much since I can't even cut straight. Usually I end up slapping stuff down and hoping it turns out well. I tend to think I have zero creativity or imagination. Oh I did get a ruler out one time, and that was when I tried color blocking.

Splash I know this is wrong but when you said slide rule I thought of - do you remember those little hard plastic pencil cases with a sharpener and some kind of math - maybe the times tables? on it? Or maybe it was just a ruler. I can't remember.

Speaking of feeling old, I went to a graduation party tonight. To keep it in topic of scrapbooking, the girl's parents gave her a "this is your life" scrapbook for a graduation gift. Ended it with a letter from her parents. Very nice. Now, to keep it on my point, this girl was born in the year I graduated high school! That made me feel old. LOL

 

[Timon]

Funny how we were just talking about this huh Splsh!

Yeah, not a math girl...abohr it! I just eyeball it mostly. Sometimes I will use a ruler if I MUST...like for shaker boxes, I need a 1 inch cover for it then I have to cut out the center, so...alas the ruler comes into play!

I rarely ever map out my layout either! I just go with the flow, sometimes it works out, sometimes not!

 

[pattyT]

on the formatily of the page and my mood at that given moment!
Usually Eye it...
I don't mathmatically calculate anything (I'm mathmatically challanged!) but I will figure out the middle letter - put it in the middle on a drawn pencil line, work my way out on each side, then erase the pencil line.
I heard that CM just came out with a special template thing to get your sticker letters on perfect though! It looks kewl.

PAttyT

 

[Lainy67]

Depending on the page, I do both.

If the page has to be symmetrical and is all rectangular photos, then I measure and calculate. If it has ovals and stuff, then usually not.

A cute trick to line up letters in a straight line is to get a clear 12 inch ruler with a beveled edge (it also helps if it has a grid work on it). Then place your phrase on it with just a tad of the letter on the bevel and all the rest hanging off of it. Then place the ruler where you want it on the page, lining up with whatever. Press the letters down on the page, then roll the ruler out from under the letters and press the letters down. It gets out of drawing a line for the letters, which for stickers I do not like to do.

Splash - - I remember when I was in Math UIL, they had calculator (which I competed in), Number sense (yikes) and Slide Rule (Triple YIKES). I think my dad still has his old slide rule.

PoohBear - - Refinancing -- sigh. We are doing that right now. It is going to help tremendously. Both my hubby and I have engineering degrees, but I can't add points in dominoes without a calculator.

 

[JudithM]

I generally eyeball the items that go on my pages. Having said that, I did measure my recent mosaic page precisely. It was the first mosaic I have done, & I followed the instructors suggestions .

 

[BevS97]

I eyeball nearly everything, but I can't cut straight to save my life (I blame it on my wonky paper trimmer), so I am constantly trying to shave a bit off here or there to get it straight.

I keep hearing about the perfect layers rulers on QVC and I thought I might try them out.

Bev

 

[Pammy jo]

I do a little of both. Depends on the layout. I just made a page with 9 pics on it lined up and those had to be perfectly aligned. Just putting pictures on, well my eyeball will do.

Bev, if the layer ruler is the one I bought last month it is great! All of my mats now are evenly done. I really like that. It's easy to use too. When I first bought it I hated it cause it never seemed to cut through my paper. Well the knife was dull and when I bought a new blade, voila!

 

[aurora19]

I usually just eyeball my layouts but I really like the look of the Deluxe Designs Color Blocking layouts using their templates (it appeals to that anal side of my personality ) so I may start using their templates and measuring...

 

[DMoss3377]

I just eyeball it too. I know a lot of people have had trouble with their 12" fiskars not cutting straight but I've never really had that trouble. I also just recently bought the new Cutterpede, and keep my fiskars with my stamp stuff now...and I love the cutterpede. It does everything my fiskars did and more, and it's extremely precise.

I also have a little trick for letter stickers...repositionable tape. It's the same principal as the ruler that Lainy mentioned. I also use a stickpotamus sticker book...the kind the kids use to collect stickers in...that way I can lay out my letters, overlap them, whatever and peel it off in one swoop rather than doing it letter by letter. I will also do sticker art in the book because I can layer and move things around with ease, then pick up the whole shabang at one time. Which is a trick I picked up in the SDU sticker class.

 

[Spinning]

I usually eye ball it too but lately I have had some spelling issues!
So I bought from CM their title topia which is really nice for letter stickers. It has a straight edge, curved and circle template. You use this other sheet and you place only part of the letter sticker on the curved piece and then when you are done you lift it up and place it where you want it. Great for those of us who need spell check at all times!
I also want to buy some of those color block template. I have one, which I haven't tried yet but I feel I need more! DH bought it for me at Christmast and it isn't exactly what I want!

 

[PamCo88]

I tend to eyeball everything except titles, for some reason when they are not straight it drives me nuts.

 

[poohbear1029]

WoW! I am so glad to see that I am not the only one who eyeballs!! I just think that I want it to look nice, but I dont want scrapbooking to become a chore! Then its not a hobby, its just like work!