Scrappin' Old Skool.

There was a time, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, that I scrapped without the Silhouette. I will need some time to re-acclimate myself with this strange way of doing things. I'm trying, but it's slow going.







Now, in the name of full disclosure, the white border-y thing was cut with the Silhouette. And damn! I love that border! Just when I started noticing it being weird I was doing some systematic cutting to see what it was messing up, and this was the laaaaaaaast good cut I got from her.



Two things of note here. I have always been a 12x12 scrapper. Yes, I'll do the occasional mini-book, or odd sized project, but my albums have always been big and square. I have no idea what made me do it, but a year or so ago I bought a We R Memory Keepers 8.5x11 binder. Last fall I did a Halloween layout and that's been the only thing in there. I've been seeing more and more 8.5x11 layouts and there's something really appealing about them. They're...tight. And that's such a non-word for what I'm trying to express, but they have a different feel, they seem more concise. Maybe they flow in a more familiar way because we're accustomed to that format from magazines? Who knows, but it's got my interest piqued.



But I'll tell you what, it's a weird thing to go from 12x12 down. And for the most part I am a single page layout kind of gal, and I don't tend to use a ton of photos. In fact, LOTS of my pages are single photo layouts, and I know that's something that a lot of more prolific picture takers hate, but oddly enough, I'm not a prolific photographer. And either I'm a really good editor, or I hate to use anything that's less than my version of perfect. You know what? I'm going to go with "I'm a good editor". While typing that I realized that yes, I won't use cruddy pictures, but I still have plenty of shots that meet my standards. There's just no urgency to use them all. I'd rather pare it down to 1 or 3 that tell the story AND THEN TELL THE STORY, rather than use a whole bunch and then not say anything. I'm certain there are a number of reasons for this. Jana Lily's voice still echos in my head about redundant pictures (ha! The mags are FILLED with redundant pictures now, and boy do I think she was right!), and my memory, like everything else on me, is starting to fail a bit. I see the words as being something I *need*. And oh, the irony that I'm waxing poetic about the need for words on a layout with a mere 4. But truly, I don't have anything to say. It was a hella hot day, my kids had fun playing on the playground. What I remember most about this day was wishing I brought more water. This isn't compelling journaling, so I left it out.



I started that last paragraph with a point: While I thought that my one photo/lots of journaling style would easily adapt itself to this smaller format, it hasn't. I've been "working" on this layout for over 2 weeks. There was supposed to be a right page, with a couple of pictures and journaling, but I just couldn't make it work. So after daaaaaays of shuffling things around and trying to make it fit (and I was using a sketch! How come I can't get it to flow even when I'm using a sketch?!)(A: I may be severly scrapping disabled) Anyway, last night I just picked up the right page, moved it far away and asked myself: Do I really have anything that I need to say about these photos?? Do I actually need the two photos I'm losing? Obviously the answer was a resounding NO to both, and instantly I was able to move forward.
Second thing of note here is the use of some insanely old product. That, my friend, is Magic Mesh. Remember that? It was all the rage. I have like 7 (mostly ugly) colors of the stuff. I've used it twice. Including this layout. I think I bought that in like 2003. And the Scrabble tiles...whooo...again, maybe circa 2004? The felt flowers are only a year old, but the weird lumpy stuff in the middle is something I got from Magic Scraps, probably in 2003. They're little lumpy balls, they're waxy looking, not beads. Anyway, they're held in place with a 4 year old bottle of GLOO. There's also some little flower gems from KI sprinkled on there. Why am I telling you this? Because today I feel a little less guilty about all the sale items I compulsively snatched up. I do miss Cord... Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

But less you think I'm not occasionally still pumping money into the present day economy, the paper is new, as is the fabric covered brad. Both of those were purchased in January for the calendar project. I didn't use any of the brads on that project, and I MUST find a way to use them. I think I paid full retail for them (GASP!) and I've never actually used one - I mean EVER, so buying them was silly. So I need to use them so I don't feel guilty(er) about that purchase)

Good lord. I can write this much about a totally Eh layout? I must be lonely. :P