Today I have a page to share with you- a page that started a massive shift in the way I'm scrapbooking now.
This is that page.
Not too long ago I made this layout, and then sat back and said "ugh." Not necessarily because it's ugly, but because it felt so uninspired, uncreative, and definitely un-me. After cranking out a few more in the same vein (many of which I've already complained about not liking on this blog), I finally determined that perhaps the string of constant multi-photo, straight-line layouts really isn't for me.
I felt just like Lara Croft in that scene from Tomb Raider on the morning after the bad guys completely demolished her
This revelation prompted some soul-searching and serious studying of not only my layouts, but also the layouts of many, many scrapbookers that I admire- scrapbookers whose own style speaks to me on a level that's something beyond just scraplifting or even emulating their style, but instead inspires me to create something that's truly my own. I'll share some of those scrapbookers in a later post because I could write volumes on what I've learned just by looking through their blogs over the last couple of weeks.
During all this pondering of the future of my scrapbooking, I discovered that there were a few layouts that I've made in the last few months that I really do adore. I'll share a lot of those in my next post, as well, and one of them is posted here in an article I wrote for Scrapbook Update. That particular layout only took about 45 minutes to put together and came totally out of my own head instead of being one of my usual scraplifts. And I love it. Completely and utterly love it.
I think that I've finally found a style that I'm good with calling my own. One that means I'll no longer be scraplifting everything. One that will let me have fun and play with lots of one- and two-photo layouts on one hand while still incorporating lots of shots on the other (if that seems like an impossibility, then stay tuned for details on how I'm doing it!!). One that has settled once and for all the kinds of embellishments I really do like to use a lot (who knew I was a basics girl at heart?) and should save me from buying the wrong kinds of items in the future.
I want to take a moment before really jumping in to all of this to mention a wonderful class- Finding Your Way by Karen Grunberg- taught at Big Picture Classes earlier this year. Taking Karen's class was the catalyst that opened my eyes to the possibility that I *could* find my own style. She walked us through her very specific method that she used to find her scrapping groove, and I gained a lot of ideas and insight from taking the course (if it's ever offered again, I highly recommend that you sign up!!). What I didn't end up doing, though, was following her method. I took a very different path to finding my style, though she very much inspired me to do so in the first place. I'm mentioning all this because I don't want you to think that I'm simply regurgitating what I learned in Karen's class or somehow copying her ideas as my own- this is simply my perspective on the journey and my own methodology.
If you'd like to follow along with my style story, I'd like to invite you to come back and visit this space over the next couple of weeks as I share my journey in a series of posts about my style "reboot." They may not come one after the other since I'm writing them as I have time, but they will be fairly regular and there will be several of them before I'm done. A lot of the items I'll cover will be very, very specific to my style, but I'll try to share a few general concepts and tips that might just help you discover your own along the way.
What do you say? Are you with me? Have any burning questions before we get started? Leave a comment and ask away!!
Now, let the adventure begin...