I am a terrible perfectionist and i think my style stems from that. I painstakingly ensure every element, patterned paper and photo in a project is arranged in its rightful place. I can spend hours - sometimes days - trying to put things together on a layout. I like to try different techniques and products but at the same time I like to make them fit into my style of scrapping.
While I'm not a big events scrapper, my pages always portray a message. The first step for me in planning a page is to choose the theme or the message I want the page to portray so I set the mood of the project. I then pick the photos that will help me tell the story. Once I have that sorted, I get to do the fun bit and pick the different papers and products I will use to embellish the layout. I guess my approach comes from not being a big events scrapper (birthdays, zoo trips, holidays etc) but more of a thoughts and feelings scrapper.
For me, scrapbooking is a creative avenue for communication. Sometimes I think its pure madness or lack of sleep that drives what I do - but I'd like to think it's more the healing and comfort that I get from scrapbooking. It's not only a creative avenue, but it lets me say lots of things to those I cherish that may otherwise remain unsaid if I had to say them out loud, face-to-face.
I also like to document what I feel about people, places and times more notably than just recording the facts. I think that remembering a time, place or event is easy enough but often we are left clueless about what people thought and felt, so I want to make sure that I leave that in my scrapbooks. I want those that see my scrapbooks to understand who I am, what I feel and what I think. Most importantly I want my loved ones to know what I feel for and about them.
You should scrap everything - the good, the bad and the ugly! Scrap the whole picture including the happy times as well as the sad ones - and the bad photos too. Life isn't perfect so it's important to be able to record and reflect on all the different experiences we encounter. These experiences make us who we are and should be equally represented in our albums. Everybody loves a happy ending but a little drama between pages keeps things real.
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