Not Every Page Can Be a Masterpiece or OMG, My Eyes!

Just avert your eyes if the ugliness becomes too much to bear.


[People at My Party 07: The pictures weren't horrible, but I had a layout in my mind that never came out. The patterned paper was the final blow.]

Sometimes pages don't turn out quite like I imagined them. That's OK, my books are filled with lots of pages that would never win a contest or garner comments in the online galleries. They are still good pages that I am proud to have share our stories.

No this post is about those other pages. These are the ones that make it into the book, but cause an involuntary flinch every time they are revealed by the turn page. These are the ugly pages. I made them. They are mine. While I do own up to them, I also admit they are disasters. There can be lots of reasons for it. But it's usually one of two things: a good idea that just never came to be or bad stuff that left little to work with.

Layout Disasters: There are those moments when I am inspired by some awesome technique or layout, and feel like I should definitely give it at try. This often requires a shopping trip for some new tool or special supply (that I convince myself is worth the money because I will use it often). Once I have the new purchase, I start putting it all together. I agonize over the measurements, or the placement, or the construction. Most of the time I can see the disaster looming early on. Yet, once invested, I don't look back. I finish it up, get it in the book, and try to salvage what scrapbooking dignity I still have left.



[Ready for the Water 08: Scraplifted this one. Trust me, this random collection of odd embellishments was stunning on the one in the magazine.]


[Pisces Girls 07: 52 Sketches #26. This sketch and the pages others submitted were adorable. For some reason I picked the ugliest combination of papers possible and never quite recovered.]

Awful Pictures: Then there are the times when I look at the pictures or the papers and try to find some spark of inspiration. It's tough when you look at photos and realize none of them are that great. None deserve to be a focus. I try to find some way to organize them and hold onto the story. I have taken the coward's way out and filed the pictures away forever.


[Cookie Time: This paper was incredibly cute until I decided it needed to be saturated in pink and red. I committed to the stickers, and then realized too late they weren't doing a thing for me.]


[Another Birthday 08: The paper was beautiful and glittery. The pictures were less than mediocre, but everyone was so sweet to celebrate my birthday like this, that I wanted make sure I captured it in the scrapbook. To make it worse, the titles and journaling are impossible to read.]

Either way, when I see these finished pages, I reassure myself that not every page can be (or has to be) a masterpiece. Telling my family's stories isn't a contest; the scrapbook is supposed to capture the memories, not showcase the techniques. While today they may be cringe-worthy, thirty years from now people will want to see the faces and revel in the memories. Guess that means every page, even the ugly ones, are part of the bigger story of my family and part of the story of my scrapbooking journey. Read More...

All That Glitters...

How did I end up OWNING my own jars of glitter? I am really a cardstock and ribbon kind of scrapper. I want to blame Kit, the Glitter Queen, for my descent into the shiny side of life, but the truth is I glitter because my daughter's pictures beg for it. I am not sure how she got to be such a "girly-girl." But there's no fighting her desire to be FANCY and SPARKLY. So we just let her be who she wants to be. She is our princess in every way.

[Princess Through & Through, 2008]

This means that I have given in to glitter. It started small, with a few stick-on jewels here and there. But a couple of years ago, while working on a Diva layout, I was sitting across from the Glitter Queen. She just couldn't let those pictures of the girls all blinged out go without at least suggesting some glitter. I pooh-poohed the idea. Me? Glitter? How absurd. But Glitter Queen just made it seem so simple, so normal, so NECESSARY. I succumbed and had my first tutorial. The page really did capture the sparkly story.

After that, I dabbled in more jewels and stocked up with glitter paper. I mixed the glitter paper in unlikely pages, like the Big Fish page. Then I found Bazzill Bling cardstock. OK, you're killing me with this stuff. It's shiny and sparkly. It comes in all colors. I had to own all of it. I used it for the Cinderella/Halloween page - nothing else would do.

[Big Fish, 2007]

[The Updo and the Upchuck, 2007]

Now I have jewels (circles, hearts, flowers), glitter patterned paper, Bling cardstock, and a set of silver and gold pens I picked up along the way. Then I bought these great metallic pens from Creative Memories. They are terrific for journaling and doodling with shiny touch, especially when paired up with the glitter patterned paper. It seemed like a good match up in The Dolphin and the Unicorn layout.

[The Dolphin and the Unicorn, 2007]

I was heading down that glittery path faster and faster. I bought glitter rub-ons for Halloween AND winter. This layout for Snow Time was perfect with glitter-paper snowflakes and glitter rub on snowflakes.

[Snowtime, 2007]

Then it happened. I went all in. I had Glitter Queen order actual jars of glitter for me. A set of five. I own them. I rearranged my supplies and storage to make a spot just for them. I got spray adhesive. I glitter to do justice to my baby's natural sparkle and shine. I glitter because my baby girl is a princess who deserves to twinkle and shimmer.

I glitter because I can.

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Scrapper Interrupted

I love getting away for a scrapping retreat weekend. The group that I usually get away with was planning for the August 1-2 weekend. I knew months ago that I wouldn't be able to make that weekend work, so I did a different weekend with a small group in July. It was two and half days of relaxed time dedicated to scrapbooking. I worked on my daughter's school scrapbook. She is starting kindergarten this year, and I figured I should probably get that thing done. It took up most of the weekend so I didn't get many page layouts done.

[School Years Scrapbook]

Because I didn't feel like I made much progress on my pages, I went ahead and decided to try the August weekend. I thought an all day Thursday and Friday would allow me to get back on Saturday afternoon for the family activities we had planned. Ah well, the best a laid plans of mice and men.... Instead I got caught up at work until noon and didn't get up to CJ's Cottage until almost 3 pm. Then I got distracted with job hunting. Since I am one of many of the casualties of the economic slowdown and I need a job to finance my scrapbooking habit, it was important. Once I had that stuff under control, it was almost 4:30. Just looking at my stuff and knowing I needed to head home to take care of my daughter at 8. I did finish Family Snow Day and, except for the demise of my white paint pen, On the Ice.


[Family Snow Day 2008]


[On the Ice 2008]

Friday was another stop and start. Got up to the Cottage about 9 am and worked until 2 pm. Was able to crank out the Pisces Girls and Winter's Day (While the idea for the pine cones was Lisa's, it was Mary who dug deep in her stuff and came up with the perfect stickers to cover my mistakes. Thanks, ladies!). Must have had some circle thing going on in my head. Then had to take my daughter to the doctor for kindergarten vaccinations. No fun, but had to be done. Headed back up to the Cottage for the night.


[Winter's Day 2008]

Put the finishing touches on Winter's Day and dug into Egg Delight. It was a such an odd color palette-not Easter or springy at all. Could be because there was 3 feet of snow still on the ground for Easter. The odd colors made the flower embellishments a real struggle. I just couldn't find the right tone. I compromised with Cricut cut flowers out of the patterned papers.


[Pisces Girls 2008 - sketch from 52 Sketches]

I was almost ready to put the Pisces Girls page on my "ugliest pages" list (what was I thinking with that polka dot paper?), when I got a call from my husband. Minor family emergency required that I drive up to meet my sister-in-law 45 miles north on the freeway. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to do it. Lord knows I owe her a hundred times over, and this was no big deal. Just, seriously...while I'm scrapbooking!? By the time I got home with her and my niece, it was past midnight. Decided to spend the night in my own cozy bed and shoot back up to the Cottage early in the morning.


[Egg Delight 2008]

The next morning I was able to ease back in and put together the Lots of Bunny Love pages with the Easter laser cut template I bought two years ago. Not good enough to have the template to make the page quick and easy; no, I had had make the tag on covered chipboard. Why do I do that? Sure the tag is cute, but I honestly think I need a reality check (or a smack upside the head) when I choose these putzy things.


[Lots of Bunny Love 2008]

As my time started counting down, I was able to whip together the Zoom-Zoom layout. Love my little baby girl all dressed up for snowmobiling with her daddy.

[Zoom-Zoom 2008]

Then it was time to pack it up and head home. Just felt like I never quite got my scrapping groove on. Probably should have followed my instincts and skipped the weekend at the Cottage. But it's such a temptation-how could I miss all this:

• the awesome show and tell moments from everyone (Does Bev even remember where she bought some of that stuff? And Roxy is sure quiet, but has more stuff than all of us put together.)
• the glitter queens working on the front step (Yes, Marie did get a splinter in her butt, but she was glittering outside in her pajamas. What did she expect?)
• Amy with her glue gun, giant roll of 3M foam tape, and three packages of black paper (Johnnie says, "It's not really scrapbooking until you can smell the glue gun!")
• the strict enforcement of the "no naked scrapbooking" rule

It was tons of fun. Just wished I could say I got more done. Wait, did I hear there is a special discount weekend right after Halloween?

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