.....One more thing........lol!

I did post a quickie below - but just found today’s blog prompt on UKS:

Ok.. So... Who's layouts made you "stop and go wow!" in 2006. We have all spent time reflecting on what experiences we have been through in 2006 - but what helped shape you as a scrapper? We all look at other peoples work and see ideas that we think" gosh.. I HAVE to try that like now! but we don't always give credit to the creators, or those who inspire us.. If you had to compile a list of top 5 Layouts of 2006... would the all be from diff people? or would they be one or two designers?
Firstly - as I only really started scrapping in October 2005, little over a year ago really, I've mainly been finding my own feet in the scrapping sense and trying out all sorts of techniques and products to find out what I like and what can be done - sometimes it's been a good experience and other times it's been, well, disastrous or at least less pleasing to the eye, but I see everything as a learning curve and the main point is that my memories are being recorded and preserved.

I find Inspiration in absolutely every piece of work I see – whether it be cruising the gallery on UKS, admiring books and publications by “Scrapbooking Royalty”, or just looking at the work by scrapping buds online or at crops – I always seem to find some tiny piece of inspiration in every page I see. Maybe a colour scheme, a page layout, a title or journaling style or nice embellishment idea.

I’m a lucky gal - Inspiration’s all around me! So thank you for that, everyone :)

But as for the “out there” and famous dudettes, I can actually name five (didn’t think I would be able to!), who, although their work may not have already directly influenced my own – I hope to take greater heed of their style in the coming year. For those of you who regularly read – I’ve gone over some of this before – so yawning is permitted!!!

Firstly – although her style is nothing like mine and not exactly my taste –I adore Elsie Flannagan’s “slap it on”, happy go lucky style. She just goes for it and comes up with cool results. Her paint is sloppy, her circles are roughly hand cut (no painstaking measuring or compasses for this gal!) and her hand stitching is uneven – but it all adds to the charm of her look and I certainly think I lot can be learned from this attitude towards scrapbooking – I certainly want to a more relaxed approach in 2007 and just go for it, after all, it’s the memories that are important. I did give this approach a little go on “Busy Doing Nothing” – and it worked for me then!

Secondly – I love Shimelle Laine’s work – I guess in a way it’s got a similar home grown look and cobbled together feel as Elsie’s, mixing clashing patterns and surprising colour combinations, with touches stamping and off cuts of lace, giving her style a cool, arty and somewhat sophisticated feel to it! Although it’s got the thrown together no cares look, you get the feel that the process behind creating each of her pages was just the opposite!

Thirdly, as I’ve banged on before, I really want to take a leaf out of Ali Edwards’ book. Her style is neat and timeless, and she records not only the big things in her life, but the little details close to her heart – all helping to tell her bigger story. And she only ever spends around an hour on each page. I would LOVE to be like that! Each of my pages takes around a week of inconsistent stash shuffling before I start to get anywhere!

Something else which rings home when I look at the work of the girls above its that quite often I see them using old paper lines and products, effortlessly blending old with new– it’s so refreshing to see this. Sometimes I feel more often than not in Scrapbooking it’s all about who’s got the latest products and gadgets and all about keeping up with the Jonses. While of course I am totally addicted to stash (!) I’ve never really been one for keeping up with style in any sense of the word, and I think in 2007 I will take a leaf out of these ladies books and embrace my old collections more often – it will certainly be good for both my dwindling bank balance and the tidiness of my house! I’m sure I’ll still find some time and little ways to get the odd patterned paper and chipboard fix though!

And finally, over the past couple of months I have been becoming more and more drawn to the work of Stacy Julian and Cathy Zielske of Simple Scrapbooks fame – I love the real graphic feel to their work and the focus on recording those memories. Their pages appear to come together effortlessly and are adaptable to all sorts of situations, and I hope that, along with the above influences, in adopting a more similar approach to theirs, I will be a more productive and efficient scrapper for 2007!!

Thanks Scrappyfairy for the prompt :)