Spa Day

My goal when I started this page was to use a lot of layering and keep the page simple, in keeping with the relaxation theme of a spa day, by using neutral colors and solid cardstock. As you can see, that didn't exactly happen and the page got away from me as it usually does. Now that it's completed I can see where I went wrong. It would have been fine to do paper layering, it even would have been fine to use all the different prints instead of solid colors; where I went wrong is all the different types of layering. I used circles, squares, strips, and even started a sunburst pattern, however I didn't stick with any of these. I went wild with all the different types and the page looks a mess. That being said, there are some positive points that stand out for me.

I really like how these footprints came out. I have a foot paper punch that I flipped over to get right and left footprints. The glitter on one foot was a happy accident, and even though you can still see the glue on the page I still like that it ties in with the pedicure pictures. Since the page is so busy these small little feet get lost in the shuffle, however I think it's a positive aspect of the page. If I can ever reign in my scrapbooking insanity I may finally get some quality pages.

While I was taking these photos my kitten, Ninja, decided to try walking all over it. That's how I wound up with this gem. She's just delightful, I'm going to have to let her inspire me to do a page all of her own.

These three buttons and the flag are also something I like. I don't usually use buttons in my layouts but I had these from my Studio Calico kit and I think they worked out well. 

Admittedly these flags don't work with the whole page, only adding to its business, but on an individual note they look good. I can appreciate how other people manage to use this embellishment to success, I however have let it get lost in the shuffle of my way too busy page. One day I will manage to create a page that I am proud of, it will be clean and simple; it will have an overarching theme, and every element on the page will have a purpose and stand out because of it.

Hooray! to being on my way to greatness.

My First Pages

I'm trying to figure out which blog site I want to use to do my blog. My original blog was www.ericascraps.wordpress.com but I found the site a little confusing to use so I'm giving this one a try. 

I started scrapbooking again about a year ago and I want to document the changes in how I do things and hopefully show how I've improved. I'm optimistic that through changes in my processes, more attention to detail, and more options in supplies my layouts will improve and I'll be less and less embarrassed that my work isn't as good as all the other scrapbook layouts I see out there,

As a frame of reference these are the first 3 pages I did when I started back up. I was making a scrapbook of myself, my sister (Sam), and my cousin (Jillian) so I put together a page for each of us that included all of our elementary and high school yearbook photos that I could find and were each done in our individual favorite colors’. They came out with varying degrees of success, with my page of course coming out the worst LOL.

My Page: This is the first one I did, it’s my own photos and of course it’s in blue, which you will notice from many of my other layouts, is my absolute favorite color.

This is of course; me. Ta da!

I’m not all that happy with the paper choices on this one, but in my defense this was very early in my scrapbooking career. At the time I was very limited in paper choice and even more limited in those in the blue spectrum. I didn’t measure anything before I cut it and I didn’t have plan on how I wanted it to look before I started sticking everything on the page. I like dragonflies so I randomly stuck some stickers haphazardly on there and mostly it looks like I had no idea what I'm doing. As you can see it’s pretty awful; on the positive side there is plenty of room for improvement.

Samantha: This is the second one I did and it’s for my sister who loves the color pink.

My little Sammy Girl

I like this one better. I actually did a basic sketch before I started this one. I still didn’t measure anything or even attempt to mark it off on the page where I wanted everything to go, however the use of the sketch definitely improved the final product. I chose a “circle” theme for this one, which I think may actually have come out better if I’d put some kind of outline around so they would be better defined. I’m not a fan of the baby picture stuck down on the bottom because it looks just haphazardly stuck on, which is pretty much the case because I didn’t spend much time figuring out where I wanted to put things on the page; in fact I hadn’t even counted the number of images I was going to include. This wouldn’t be such a big problem except that I actually started gluing images down before I’d even worked out the layout of the page. I created the name tag myself with a piece of cardstock, markers, and sticky jewels (as I post more pages you will notice my love of all things glittery and sparkly). I think this page is a definite improvement on the first.

Jillian: Cousin Jill loves green and I love her page.

Jumping Jilly Beans

I’m not sure if it was her color choice or just the fact that I chose a better theme but this one is my favorite of the three, and even still manages to be one of my favorite pages even though I have improved my process. Again I did a layout sketch for this one, the difference being that I learned my lesson about adhesion and on this one I laid everything out before I started gluing away. I also used paper-piecing patterns from ScrapbooksEtc. I got the tulips here and thebutterflies here. I used sticky jewels to map the butterflies flight path and while I think it gets the point across I think I should have used smaller sized jewels and put the pattern closer together to make it look more obvious. The bottom green piece is another place for improvement because again I didn’t measure out the piece to make sure it was straight across and when I discovered my error instead of cutting a new piece (which I didn’t do because I was unemployed at the time and didn’t want to waste the paper because I couldn’t afford much) I tried to disguise the crookedness by cutting waves into the paper. It sounds like I’m down on it but I’m not, like I said I love this page, imperfections and all.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it more than you know!