Old pages and the learning curve - the TWO PAGES MEME

A while ago I wrote a post about two old layouts.  I thought it might be about time for a follow up post.  

Now this was supposed to be published on Saturday, as my day #8 out of 30.  But my OH was hogging this laptop, which had all the photos on that I needed for the post. 

So lets just pretend I hit 'publish' last night and not today, OK?

Scrapbooking has changed incredibly in the years that I have been doing it.   My early pages were never 'good' even by the standards of the day, but we all did the 'plonked down' photos, the cut into shape photos and the random stickers across the page layouts (didn't we? *looks desperately around for someone nodding in agreement*)  Those with a little more artistic flair were aware of the rule of thirds and 'triangles' of focus.



If I dig out old sketches and inspiration pages I tore from magazines, the style of them is very different to what we see today.  Using paint on a layout was very daring, and ink was only for stamping.  The very idea of texture paste, mists or gelato's - unheard of!

You can see that I am making 'my excuses' in advance :)  As I already said, some of my early pages are cringe worthy.

So much so that I have resorted to re-doing (re-scrapping?) some of them.  However this causes the album to lose some of its 'flow'. 

The whole layout looks so different, with its newer papers and more structured composition.  I debate over leaving my old aka dreadful layouts, because that was where I was on my journey in scrapping, with redoing them so that I enjoy the pages more. 

Perhaps one day I will come to a decision regarding this.

In the meantime I am going to share a few more of those layouts that torment my decision making abilities (or lack thereof).

So this is a definite 'ouch' page.  At least these photos are square(ish) - unlike the surrounding pages!  But they are also 'trimmed' with purple outline stickers.  And that paper - it was a poundland pack, that came with those dreadful stickers and die-cuts. 

And what I have learnt, in the (almost) decade since I made this page, is that the embellishments SHOULD have gone in the same diagonal as the photos, then it would have 'worked'. 

*Well aside from the fact that the paper and embellishments are dreadful.*

Now, for me, this page works so much better - even if I did cut out the photo *hangs head in a mixture of shame and mortified embarrassment*.  And the style is quite geometric (basic?) but at least it pleases my eye.
 
Apologies for the over enthusiastic punching of starts - but they make a better photo outline than those stickers I was so fond of.
 
Infact, if I recall correctly, I used the stickers as it was cheaper than using some of my very precious paper hoard to matt the photos on. 
 
I was a SAHM at the time and my OH was on quite a low wage so I had very little money to spend on scrapbook stash.  Also the reason for the dreadful poundland papers - 8 or 10 papers AND embellishments for a £1 was amazing to me then.  The words 'false economy' spring to mind now... but usually I only had that pound or two to spend, so it had to go as far as possible.
 
And for some strange and masochistic reason I don't seem able to leave you without sharing some of those dreadful 'cut round the photos' layouts.  Hold onto your hats (or cover your eyes with it - you are about to receive some serious GBH of the eyeballs!)
 

 
This delightful layout includes outline stickers, a stamped See-D's (remember them on QVC - go on who else got some!) image that I have coloured in and MORE purple edge stickers.  At least my daughter looks cute!
 

 
 


And this delightful pair that I have actually redone once because the paper they were on was hideous - like I didn't choose something just as bad!
 
 

 

 

 

One other thing that I learnt from these pages was NOT to buy papers that looked 'ready embellished'.  I can never use papers with images etc (like the above one) without either covering up the image I bought it for, or ending up with my photos plonked haphazardly around the page!

 

 

Have a super Sunday *tomorrow* ;)

 

Louise x

 

ps - don't worry about finding something 'nice' to say about the layouts - I fully acknowledge how hideous they are - feel free to just have a good laugh at them.