The Arrow is a Trendy Motif That Works on Your Scrapbook Pages

by Debbie Hodge

why are arrows trendy?

Archery made a big showing in pop culture last year, with Katniss in The Hunger Games, Miranda in Brave, and Hawkeye in The Avengers all using bows and arrows to achieve their ends.

Archery has become a newly popular activity with bigger audiences watching it in the Olympics, Groupon discounts for the activity appearing, and even a NYC sports club offering a class for “training like a tribute.”

With this interest in archery comes the arrow motif. It’s on textiles, surfaces, paper goods, branding, and scrapbook products. The arrow’s popularity has also been fueled by its connection to the also-popular chevron.

ideas for arrows on scrapbook pages

Amy Kingsford says, “This page is about my son’s changing personality: no day is ever the same, but that’s what makes it an adventure, right?! I’ve used a variety of  wood veneer arrows to make borders and embellish.  Arrows naturally guide the eye and sprinkling them about my page and paying attention the direction in which they point lets me make sure no bit of my page goes unnoticed.” 

Techniques that strengthen the power of the arrows here include:

• deep shadows to give them a realistic look
• a pop of color with one red chevron arrows in the grouping at top. (Digital howto: Amy selected the single arrow within the series, filled it with the color and applied a linear burn blending mode.)  

Marie-Pierre Capistran says, “This page is about remembering and cherishing the good moments and setting the not-so-great-moments aside. I used three chipboard arrows  (Heidi Swapp and Dear Lizzy) with hearts to create a love symbol. Two of the arrows point toward my picture.

Techniques that strengthen the power of the arrows here include:

• one arrow is sewn with silver thread, and the remaining thread is swirled around the arrow
• Color Shine mist and Heidi Swapp resist paper create a shimmery, vibrant, yet soft, background 

Amanda Jones says, “This page documents that despite ups and downs at school, things are looking up now for my son. With my Silhouette Cameo, I created a background of cut arrows alternating between up pointing and down pointing and between two different patterned papers. I used a bolder green with a star pattern to back the up arrows to emphasize those over the downs. I echoed the theme with a balloon-shaped journaling spot drifting up the page.”

Barb Brookbank says, “I used a circle and arrow to point to emphasize the frog in my grandson’s hand, since it is so small in the photo.  I added two more arrows  for repetition. The chevron washi tape also looks like an arrow.”

Leah Farquharson says, “This past year has been filled with many changes for me, and has included a lot of introspection. On this page, I journal about some of the things I’ve been working through.”

“Because I was journaling about introspection, I used arrows to pull everything to the center of the page, trying to give a feeling of looking inward. I started with a background paper that had a chevron/arrow and pointed it to the center. I repeated the motif using the wood veneer pieces, a fabric tag, and the diecut arrow.”

Rosann Santos-Elliott says, “This page tells the story of how much my son loves his grandmother, my mother. Arrows are often associated with love and cupid. I tried to have the arrows in the circular punches mostly pointing toward the photograph. I used a cluster of arrows to emphasize the point that the love between the two people in the photo is never ending. I used a border punch that mimicked arrows pointing toward the photo.”

Deborah Wagner says, “I used arrows to draw attention to the darling face of our dog, Bugsy. I clipped a dog themed paper to one of the arrows, and cut a paw out of another to reinforce the dog motif.”

Katie Scott says, “My husband dislikes having his photo taken so I was amazed to find 55 photos of him playing the drums (during his Friday Night “Band Camp”) on his iphone! I used a huge arrow to lead the eye from all the camera embellishments at the top to the photo of my husband playing drums. I liked this big arrow because it kind of implied “gotcha!”  I also used a smaller arrow in a chipboard circle embellishment to highlight the title “Secret Band Camp Photog.”

Ashley Horton says, “We live fairly close to New Orleans, LA, and love to visit and go to the Zoo and Aquarium and enjoy the good food.  My photos are travel themed, and since arrows are go for showing direction and movement, they fit my subject.  There are word arrows, arrow-patterned washi tape, negative and positive-cut arrows.”

Tara McKernin says, “This photo is of my oldest son from 2004. It was a random snapshot from that day that I love.  I used arrows to draw the viewer into the picture of my son and the word love. I paired up my thin arrows and then kept the large arrow alone.”

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