This layout is a do-over. I don't do a lot of do-overs but occassionally I do a layout and it just bugs me like something ain't right and then I feel compelled to rip it apart. This was one of those layouts that bugged me. This was one of four layouts I did at the crop I went to on the 11th....actually it was the first one I did and it went rather quickly. That should've been my first clue something was wrong. I never do quick layouts. I have to move stuff around over and over for hours before I call a layout done. Just how I roll. Anyways...this layout...it was one of the kits I've been toting around since May and I have totally not been inspired one iota when I've tried to work on it before but it just so happens that at the crop I picked out some new paper at the store before I started to crop (surprise right...i bought more paper) anyways I found this paper I really liked and put it in my pile o'stuff to buy. Then I sat down to crop and took this kit out and realized that one of the papers I picked out would be perfect for this layout...the colors were fab and it had just the right "feel" KWIM? So going with the new paper I did the layout. Cut, glued and voila! Done. Or almost done. I still had to add my journaling which I always do at home. Anyways I put the layout away. 2 nights later I pull out the layout to journal and ick. I mean major ick. I'm looking at it going really...this is ick. So I look at it for a while trying to decide what's wrong with it and I realize that its just boring. I wish I had taken a before pic to show you but I didn't so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was icky boring. I had the photo in the same place but right next to it I had the paper I liked so it was one linear block across the layout... another clue that this layout was wrong...I don't really do linear. So anyways...i have photo and paper across the middle and this big punched border all the way across the bottom of the block. In the top left corner I had 3 strips of stickers with 3 tiny heart accents. On top of the patterned paper I had my title...happiness together...the "happiness" was the same font as the "together". Boring. Right under the title I had the rick rack border and the round chip embellishment is pretty much where it is now. I tried to tweek it without taking it apart by adding buttons and such but nothing seemed to work. So I decided to just basically gut the layout. I took off the patterned paper I had loved so much and replaced it with some journal paper which I like so much better because it looked more fun. I then replaced the "happiness" sticker in the title with "happy" in another font which was WAY better...mixed fonts are so much more fun. Then I used the colors in the patterned paper I liked so much to find other papers to use for the strips. Was very happy with the strips...love the movement and again just way more fun than one solid block of paper. Lastly I moved the sticker strips and added some staples and buttons and that cute die-cut heart. SO much better. Hated having to do a re-do but it was worth it. At least now when I look at it I won't go "ick" anymore.
I always have a lot to say..always. No matter what the subject is I usually have a lot to say about it. It's my thing...I babble. It's just part of who I am...I spew words...lots and lots of words. So being that I am a big fan of the babble it should surprise noone that I journal on all my layouts. I feel compelled to. I have to tell who's doing what and why and what I thought and what they thought, etc., etc., etc. After all I scrapbook so I can tell a story and I can't tell the story if I don't tell the story...right? So considering all that it is really unusual for me not to journal on a layout....even more unusual for me to do two layouts in a row that are sans words...but that is just what I did..back to back wordless layouts. They aren't completely wordless.....I did add a title...and of course a date..and on one I did write 4 words saying when it was...but that was it. No she did this, he did that, she liked this but I didn't...blah..blah....blah. I guess I figured the photos in these layouts were much pretty much self explanatory...not much need for me to elaborate. Gotta say it's really bizarre for me to look at these layouts and call them done without a litany of words...but done they are. So without further babbling...here's my mostly wordless layouts...
Oh yeah! That's right! I busted out the Smooch last night and it was a Smooching success! It took a while to Smooch but it was worth it. Just like last night I did all the prep work...mask...practice...etc... but this time I was super overly ridiculously cautious cause I did not want to screw up yet again. And after every spray I got more and more cautious because it was actually going good and I was freaking I was going to wreck it and have to do another do-over. I made one itsy bitsy ooops but it happened after I sprayed..I was a moh-ron and I had wet ink on my hand and put it on the paper....grrr...but only a little grr...luckily it was someplace I could cover up the ooopsy. So after a lot of anxiety...success! Unfortunately as it turns out the Smooching was actually the easy part of this layout compared to what I did next... a ridiculous amount of pen work. I had the idea that I wanted colorful doodly flourishes a-la fancy pants for the background of my layout but the fancy pants paper I had with doodles didn't work cause the doodles were all in the wrong place...soooooo.... genius me decides to make my own. I repeat...MOH-RON. Talk about nerve wracking. OMG. And time consuming too. First I had to sketch the doodly dos which wasn't so hard...at least I could erase anything I didn't like. Next I had to do the center of the doodles so I used my White Signo pen (LOVE this pen!) to color inside all the pencil lines so the Smooch wouldn't show. After that I was dry I busted out my Gelly Roll pens to do all the outlining. After about the 3rd doodle I was trying to figure out when I decided this would be a good idea cause it was such a pain. It took forever to sketch, fill and outline all those doodles and stars. And just like the smooch, with every successful doodle I would get more and more stressed out that I would eventually goof the whole thing. Amazingly enough I didn't make any major goofs...probably because I was going so slow....really slow... 2 hours later I was finally done. It didn't come out exactly how I wanted but close enough. To be honest I was just happy to be done with it.
Smooching with smooch spray that is. The other kind of smooching I am pretty good at...at least hubby thinks so ;). But the with the spray kind...not so much. I had the darndest time using that little bottle last night. Maybe it was in part because I was already majorly aggravated that I couldn't find the little bottles in the first place. And when I finally did find the spray..the smooching just went horribly wrong. Like I said at first I couldn't find it...I went to the rack where my glimmer mist and smooch spray co-exist and all the glimmer was accounted for but the 2 bottles of smooch I own were AWOL...which is so wierd...I couldn't remember using them and it's not the type of thing I pack for crops. And as you know I live by the mantra "a place for everything and everything in its place" the fact they weren't in their place was just majorly disturbing. I mean the whole place for everything thing is for one very good reason...I have a memory like a seive...I would seriously forget my name if someone didn't call me by it once a day. So if something ain't where it ought to be that's an issue...that means I have to rely on my noggin to deduce where it could be and that so ain't good. I tried real hard to remember the last project I used either of them on and it was a while ago and I only used the one. So why were they both missing. I definitely don't remember using them up and I was pretty certain I hadn't. So I did the whole search and rummage thing and came up empty handed. Bummer. Now since none of the colors of glimmer were going to work and I was now smoochless I had to move onto another layout. So as I'm working on this other layout I reach behind me to grab a paper pack out of my basket and I feel something that is not paper. I couldn't see what it was but it was small and glass so I am super excited and just hoping it was the missing smooches and it was! I have no idea how they ended up where they were...maybe they were trying to make a break for it ...I don't know...I was just glad to have located the little buggers. So now that the smooches have been located I can go back to working on my layout. With smooch in hand I am all excited because I have this vision in my head of what I want the layout to look like and how I want the spray to look and I can't wait to see how it comes out. Of course I want it to be awesome so I do all the necessary pre-smooching prep...I begin by masking off the areas I don't want spray on and then I figure out the best angle and distance to hold my paper to get the look I want...then lastly I do a test spray to make sure the smooch is working right. All good. Feeling confident...done what needs to be done...I go for it...SMOOOOCH! AARGGGH! One spray is all I did and it was a disaster. Apparently the nozzle wasn't pointed where I thought it was so instead of spraying downward to the right...it sprayed upward to the left. GRRRR! Stamping my feet hissy fit GRRRRR! No idea how the heck that happened. But I have my guesses...see unlike my bottles of glimmer mist which have this wonderful little curve on top of the button so you know your finger is resting right...my smooch doesn't. :( So I have to put my finger on the pump button and actually look to see if I have the nozzle facing forward. Which I did...but I guess I didn't. :( Somehow without knowing it I either shifted my finger or the button turned or both. Another factor could be that smooch bottles are super small and sleek....which makes them super cute to look at but not so easy for my big man hands to handle....they just don'tt sit right in my hand and it always feels awkward. On top of that the smooch has a plastic label on it...it's not a sticker though...it's a sleeve...and because it's a plastic sleeve and the bottle is glass the sleeve actually slides around actually making it more difficult to handle than it already was. After the first botched attempt I ditched the label. So if you add all these factors together it basically equals a smooching disaster...like locking braces when locking lips kindof smooching disaster. The wrong way smooch looked totally nasty so it basically wrecked the layout...Phooey. So tonight's project will be a re-do. So like a gawky teen after their first real smooch I'm hoping the 2nd smooch is going to be way better cause I was so not impressed.
So way back in the spring I planned a crop. Way back in the spring I made 40 kits for the crop. Way back in the spring I packed my crop bag full of paper and embellishments and tools for the crop. Way back in the spring I went to the crop. Way back in the spring I did a couple LO's. Way back in the spring I decided to leave my bag packed so I could crop each weekend of the summer while basking in the beautiful Vermont sunshine. Way back in the spring that sounded like a good idea because way back in spring I had high hopes and good intentions. Well it ain't spring no more. Fall is just around the corner and the dog days of summer are quickly coming to an end and here sits my bag...still packed. I wish I could say that since the spring I lugged this bag to Vermont every weekend and scrapped kit after kit but the only truth to that statement would be the lugging part. Because I did lug this bag. Over and over again. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth over the state line to Vermont. Every weekend. 15 weekends. 30 times crossing the state line. It is a well traveled bag. Unfortunately with the exception of a few of those 15 weekends it was mostly an untouched bag. A fact that my two wonderful (read: smartass) children took great delight in busting me on pretty much every weekend. The oldest one especially found my constant heaving and hoing (hoeing?) to be a gargantuan waste of time. More than once he said with a twisted smile ..."are you actually going to use this stuff this weekend" For some reason they couldn't see the logic in lugging 70 pounds of paper and other scrap supplies an hour away from home every weekend only to have it sit untouched. Apparently they could not appreciate all the good intentions, high hopes and grand plans that came with that bag. They couldn't understand that if by some miracle I became suddenly inspired and wanted to act on my good intentions then I needed to be prepared right? If Mr. Moojo came a knocking on my trailer door it would've been tragic to say I had nothing to scrap with. Right? So I lugged it and lugged it some more. And luckily I did. In May I had a minor burst of inspiration and a desire to make some cards ...boy was it a good thing I had my bag. In June my friend came to visit and we spent some time cropping...dang good thing I had my bag. And just 2 weeks ago I got a visit from Mr. Moojo and you guessed it...it was a good thing I had my bag. If I hadn't lugged it back and forth all those times I would've missed out on 3 very good days of scrapping. Now to my son 3 times out of 15 is not a lot... as Mr. Smartypants would point out that's a mere 20 percent. But Mr. Smartypants isn't a scrapper. So he doesn't get that even though 20 percent would not make good odds in Vegas, in the scrapping world 20 percent is pretty darn good. Right? I mean really if your a scrapper you know you have way more plans for your stuff than you have time, ambition or Moojo for...right? So what if my bag got some extra mileage on it....it was worth it. It's a few kits lighter than it was in the spring and it's still chock full of all those good intentions and grand plans. Besides if I hadn't left my bag packed all summer long I would've had to actually pack again this weekend when I went to a crop with my friends. Instead all I had to pack was some chocolate and some diet cokes and I was good to go. So that same bag that I lugged north all summer got lugged west. And believe it or not I actually used it. So that makes 4 out of 16 trips. Even without Mr. Smartypants help I know that's 25 percent. My odds are improving! Now that it's September I'm thinking maybe I should unpack it finally but there are still a few camping weekends left...and I still have all those good intentions and grand plans. Hopefully I get to use it a few more times....maybe I will...maybe I won't...maybe I'll get more done if I just stop lugging the kids back and forth.
mmmm, I get by with a little scrappy supplies from my friends, oh I can scrap with a little help from my friends. Don't you just love the beatles? I do. But I love my scrappy friend Tina more. We had a great time at our Friday night crop last week. We spent our time in her new scrappy space which I totally love....girlfriend got a new flat screen ...I'm mad jalous. She's also got a pretty nice collection of scrap supplies which she's recently added to thanks to her mad addiction to 2peas shopping. I'm normally not supportive of my friends addictions but in her case I'm going to conveniently overlook her problem and hold off the intervention for now since I found out her "little problem" is beneficial to me and my scrapping. Beneficial how you want to know...well as it turns out I got only one LO done on Friday and most of what was on that LO was pilfered from Tina's newly gotten scrapping booty. Yep that's right...I was that friend...the one you invite to your house and she uses all your brand new stuff...nice right? In my defense I have to say I had no intention of borrowing anything...after all I brought plenty of my own stuff...tons of my own stuff actually..it's not like a showed up with a stack of pictures and nothing else...that would be like showing up for a dinner party with nothing but a fork. For a 6 hour scrapping session I brought a tool tote, a rolling cart with about 30 kits in it and a basket of some of my fave embellies. Plenty of stuff to complete one measly LO. So if I had all this stuff why would I mooch from my gracious hostess? Well it was scrappy karma that made me do it. Just as I started working on my LO Tina pulled out some new papers she just got ... she was trying to decide what to use on her LO ...when lo and behold she flips to a sheet of 2 sided paper that is an absolute perfect match for my LO. I mean 100% spot on perfect match...no other paper could have matched any better. So there I was faced with this nasty dilemna...do I listen to the little polite me on my shoulder saying "it's not nice to mooch" or do I listen to the little hardcore scrapper me on the other shoulder saying ...very loudly I might add...."that paper is perfect, perfect paper is like scrapping gold, you have to have it, the scrappy gods want you to have that paper!" Well of course I couldn't argue with that logic ...perfect paper is just too hard to pass up...so of course I did what any other scrapper would do when the scrappy gods tempt them...I caved. So I told the polite little me on my shoulder to shut the heck up and I snatched the perfect paper from Tina's hands! Gasp! OK so I didn't snatch it...I asked for it...but I think I would've snatched it if she said no...thankfully she gave it up willingly and I didn't even have to threaten her with my paper piercer. I'm sure there are those of you who would tsk tsk me from the comfort of your computer chair for being so rude as to mooch but you weren't there. Trust me if you were in my shoes you would've given your friend paper cuts getting that paper...luckily it didn't come to that. I mean all you have to do is look at my LO to realize I did the right thing. I wish I could say the borrowing stopped at the paper but as any chronic moocher knows, once you start borrowing stuff...it gets easier and easier. So I "borrowed" this super duper cute sun journal spot from her brand new Bo-Bunny Journaling book...after all it was way cuter than the 200 journaling spots I brought with me and it was just perfect for my LO. Luckily for her the borrowing stopped there because the rest of the stuff in my kit matched perfectly with the stuff I pilfered from her. I'm sure Tina is thankful I'm not a faster scrapper or I might've borrowed more stuff. At the urging of the polite little me I did leave some goodies behind in an effort to repay her kindness so she might actually invite me back... after all she said she was working on another order from 2 peas ;) !
