Get that Palm Leaf Background in your Vacation Scrapbook

During the warmer months, many of us take vacations with our family or friends to soak up the sun and live it up. From group to group, there are many areas that are perfect for vacationing. You may go to the beach, take a cruise, go fishing, go swimming at the pool and that isn’t even half of it.

You’ll definitely take a massive number of photos during these vacation days, and later fix them into a scrapbook. Choosing a great background for your vacation scrapbook is detrimental to ensuring the theme is accurately portrayed. A palm leaf background is a great background dynamic that brings vacations, sunshine and tropical breezes to mind. Use the palm leaf background as a starting point, and place your photos in spots that don’t obstruct the background.

Palm Leaf Background Ideas

Palm leaf backgrounds come in a variety of styles. You may find abstract ones, or you might find patterns of palm leaves. You may find them in bright summer greens and blues or in autumn shades of orange and red. Some may be intricate, others simple and sparsely patterned.

The way the pattern is formed is a great way to add some depth and dimension to your main focal points, while incorporating different thematic values, such as motion or change, to the scrapbook page. Enforcing your theme starts with the chosen style of palm leaf background images. Bright colors can add a softness, bubbliness or childishness, while darker ones can bring a thoughtful, somber air to the photos.

Palm leaf backgrounds can come as preprinted scrapbook papers, or you can create your own palm leaf background using a number of mediums. You can make stamps using real palm leaves, painting over them and pressing them down on the paper. You choose how your background looks, from a single palm leaf to a wide range of sizes and positions.

You can trace different palm leaf onto the background, bringing a hand-drawn, sketchy feel to the page. To create a realistic palm leaf background, you can use a leaf to stamp the skeleton of a single palm leaf into a neutral, earthy background color. Use nature-inspired brushes or stamps to decorate the border and edges of the page.

Use palm leaf punches to create leaves that can be displayed across the scrapbook page. You can sprinkle them across the page to create a freshly fallen feel while adding to the tropical theme. Use the cut outs to direct attention toward the most important photos.

Lay the palm leaf against the background around the photos, or create swirling affects that flow towards the photos on the page. Palm leaf background templates can be found online, though it is often best to consider from an objective standpoint the best means of directing your viewer’s toward the most important features on the page. Use the cut outs to create thin, flowing borders around your journaling elements, or make them chunky and blocky for a bold look.

Things to Remember when Scrapbooking

When you scrapbook, it’s wise to keep a few things in mind along the way. Choosing your palm leaf background does take some time and thought. Consider the colors that are reflected through your photos, and try to use contrasting colors to make those photos really pop.

Use motifs that can tie your palm leaf background to your photos, such as beach embellishments in the shapes of umbrellas or little drinks or beach balls. By maintaining an overall theme for your vacation scrapbook, you avoid the problem that many people struggle with: a uniform look for your scrapbook is far nicer than a bundle of mismatched patterns and clashing themes.

Place your photos in spots where the palm leaf background can further enhance your photos. Choose spots that allow for journaling space while creating an affect with the background that can aid in drawing the eye.

Place down neutral shades to create backdrops for the photos without interrupting the flow of the palm leaf background paper. Place down accents, stickers and other decorations to strengthen your theme and storyline. Don’t use too many different embellishments, as you can create an overly busy background that causes immense distraction from the main attraction.

Consider creating dynamic backgrounds using stamps and layers of other palm leaf background papers. You can pair strips of paper with other patterns to create a different look while providing more depth to your overall scrapbook pages.