Going Through My Albums...

I'm not dead... just out of sorts.  Lots of changes have gone on here in the past weeks - like mom & dad coming home, MS flairing, school starting, etc.  But I have thought of you all often and missed you like crazy... I just couldn't blog, then I couldn't take photos, then I couldn't scrap - my whole mojo is so out of whack.  But I thought I'd just add a little something today to try to get back in my groove.

Every once in a while I have to go back through my albums. Sometime it's to add or rearrange layouts. Sometimes it's because I've got a new album that is just a little more perfect for the subject matter. Sometimes it's for a challenge to scraplift myself.  And sometimes it's just to see what I've done.  But almost all the time, these forays bring changes.  Sometimes they're small, like maybe a few more sequins or a little twine.  Sometimes they're major, moving objects around or adding entire embellishment clusters.  And always I am so much happier with the layout.

It's surprising the way just one change can totally revamp a layout.  For example, I did this layout back in the fall during the Shimelle Scrapbook Remix class.  I liked it well enough, but something always bothered me.  I wasn't quite sure what it was until the other day when I was moving some layouts around from one album to another to better organize my stories (this one was in completely the wrong album!).  Anyway, even though I knew I wasn't crazy about it all along, it amazed me when, as soon as I turned the page, I said aloud, "Oh that title has to go!".  And so it did.  Now, with the new letters in place, I love this layout and am proud enough to take it out of the "Hmmm." spot and put it smack dab into GiGi's album.

Before:

You see what I mean!!! It's not just the bad lighting on the original layout, but the dainty pink letters across the page totally change the 'feel' of the layout.  As a result of this one little change, I am carefully looking at each layout in each album to see if there is anything else that I am not tickled with.  After all, I actually let people look at my albums if they want to (doesn't happen often, but just in case!).

And while I have 'been away', some scrapping did get accomplished the first week or two.  Like these 'heritage' layouts:

Yep, that's summer of my SS I {heart} Summer mixed in with a little October Afternoon.  Those quilt looking squares just didn't find a place in my vacation album, but I think they're really appropriate for these types of layouts.

This has to be one of the most startlingly unattractive layouts I've ever done.  When it was finished, I thought twice about redoing it. But then, the subject matter was startling and so I think it looks very appropriate.  I want it to grab attention, for you to think about it, for the look to represent how I feel about that event.  So it is what it is, and it stays... and it's kind of growing on me. Hmmm....

Okay, hope everyone has been well and scrappy.  Stay safe and scrap on!

and that's all she wrote.

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun” ― Pablo Picasso