Scrappy * Persistence

Still diligently working on finishing up my 2011 album. It's not my favorite and I'm trying to finish it just so that I can get it off my desk for good and shove it into a closet. I know, I know. Life is short and I shouldn't be scrapping things that I don't really want to scrap but I'm just too darn stubborn and anal to let it sit around unfinished. Since I'm not all that wild about it, it's been a good place to experiment. Some experiments turn out good, others make me want to bang my head on my desk. This layout falls in the later category.

I really loved this layout by Ashli Oliver for Shimelle.com. So different from what I normally do and a good opportunity to really put my stamps to use. Ashli makes it looks so easy! Look at those pretty soft watercolors! This layout will come together in no time, right? Wrong.

First attempt. Ehhh... too dark. I was using black ink and it's just too jarring and bold against the white background.

 

Second attempt. Tried it with grey ink. Much better but still not really loving it. Stamping twice before re-inking gave it a much softer look but it still was too much. Too many different designs jumbled together.

 

Third attempt. Oh now this is just ridiculous. I didn't realize that I still had the safety pin stamp stuck to the same side of the block as the heart. Starting over!

 

Fourth attempt!! I reduced the number of designs and liked it much better. Enough to add the watercolor and then my photo and proceeded to write the story. And then mess it up royally. Now, I have such rubbish handwriting that almost all my pages have at least one or two words scratched out. But this was too much. GAHHHH! Definitely hating myself by this time. Why oh why did I ever try this??

 

FIFTH ATTEMPT! Complete! I de-cluttered even more by using only five stamp designs. The simple circles got it to that easygoing place I was looking for.  And I liked that it looked like bubbles (I may have been a bit delirious by this time). I didn't have a simple circle stamp so I had to take a stamp that had a circle with a word in it and put a tiny bit of tape over the word. Ink it up, remove the tape and stamp a neat empty circle. Now repeat that 12 times.

While I don't love the fact that it took me so many tries to get this right, I do realize that I learned something with each attempt. Every page showed me something that I could change to improve the design. But goodness, there must be an easier way. 

Thank you Ashli and Shimelle for the inspiration!