Thursday 13 August 2009

Outside My Comfort Zone

It's funny sometimes that you're stuck for an idea, then inspiration hits you from an unexpected place!
I've been thinking about doing a layout called 'crafting too much', and sort of had the journaling I wanted to say ready.. but I didn't have a photo to use on the page and was therefore stuck about where to start.
Enter the T-shirt I'm wearing today. I like the applique flower detail (which is why I bought it in the first place) and I suddenly realised that the flowers are cut from a piece of striped material, very similar to a sheet of paper I have in my stash from Hot Off The Press .
Now I knew I wanted to use striped flowers on my page, and I just had to use up a sheet of white cardstock (from my American Crafts box of 60!) and I'm in a blue and brown phase at the moment. Things were starting to come together. I chose some bird stamps from Graphicus and a small flower from The Stamp Man and got to work.
Here is the resulting scrapbook page. I agonised over whether or not to put it up here for the reasons below, and I'm not sure the journaling is clear in the photo. Click on the image to make it larger.
This layout is way outside of my comfort zone!  It is actually a First!
I have never put together a page without a photo. I have never used white for the main page. I dislike my own handwriting, featuring it as little as possible, and this is the most handwritten journaling I have ever done. I just don't 'do' doodling on pages (too modern). I rarely stamp onto patterned paper..... I could go on about how difficult this layout was for me to make. But I won't.
I'll put it down to experience and file it in my 'Things We Do' scrapbook.
I hope you noticed that all the branches on the tree are not full. 
Obviously, I'm still not crafting enough!

4 comments:

  1. Blimey, talk about tackling all your non-comfort ideas at once! It worked though - love the addition of the patterned paper. I'm a handwriting junkie and feel that even if you don't like it, you should use it now and again in your scrapbooks - it's your life signature, after all!

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  2. Thanks for your kind comments, Julia. I know you're right about handwritten journaling - I just find it hard to 'ruin' pages with my scrawl!
    But if, as you say, I can tackle all my non-comfort ideas at once, I'm sure I can try to write on my layouts more often!
    Ann

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  3. That is an amazing LO. I went in close and it was so worth it ...it was magic ... your writing is so much neater than mine ... I rarely write on LO's ..even my hidden journalling is off the computer !! Maybe I should atleast do the hidden stuff but I really HATE my writting, which has got worse with age and the computer use lol

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  4. This is brilliant - you must be a bit worse than me as I'm really not fussed with QVC so have never taken a day out to watch their craft days *g* And I'm on a stash ban between the twice yearly Ally Pally dates so am not so bad with the parcels anymore :P I know how you feel about journalling in your own writing as I am the same but do try and force myself for the reasons Julia said. You should have no worries though - your writing is lovely.

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