Repeat Layout's..........Get Out Of THe Same Old Rut!!!!!!!

Well I have been given a challenge from Jessica Bree over at CREATIVE SOUP http://creativesoup.forumotion.com/t1298-i-small-challenge-for-all-of-you

She urged us to take a look at our projects and see the things that seem to keep popping up in each of the layouts we create. This is a great challenge for me because I can definitely say I am horrible at this. I create 1 layout that I love and I recreate the hell out of it over and over, until it looks as if that's all I know how to do, lol. So I am going to except her challenge and examine my recurrences and see if I can push myself to start scrapping outside of the box a little less in my comfort zone! My goals from this challenge is to change up my pages, to give them a fresher look and show that I can do more than just one type of layout, lol use ALL of my supplies instead of hoarding them and to possibly find new products and techniques to work with so that I expand my options!!!

Here is a link to her blog where she has blogged about her own recurrence's: http://jessicabree.typepad.com/weblog/2011/03/what-things-are-part-of-your-style.html

This might be interesting so let's begin! I am going to look at just 35 of my pages and see what re-ocurrence's appear over and over. (Sorry in advance a handful of the pics aren't the best quality, but I'm to lazy to rephoto them right now and you can still she the obvious from the images)

First off I wanna start with the obvious....FLOWERS, my pages these days don't seem to stand a chance without them. I love em and I pile as many on as I can fit and when I can't use them I get the same feeling as you would walking down main street naked, lol!!! The few pages that I do create without flowers I usually end up HATING! However there has been a few pages I've done recently without flowers that I love, but not many. I'm not even sure if I have one GIRL layout in the last 5 months that omit flowers........

SEE FLOWERS FLOWERS AND MORE FLOWERS!!!! I even stuck flowers on my poor husbands page!!!!!

Here are the few non frilly pages that I do happen to love:

Another trend I notice is that I have to have black or brown as my base. You hardly ever see a white or soft color base on my layout's.

There's actually even more but they are either CT project's or out for pub and I can't post em sorry!


Another reoccurring trend is that I seem to place a photo in one or the other corner, flowers grace the edge and then more flowers at the opposite corner on top to balance out the page.

Doilies seem to be another go to for me, I love them so much, they make everything so soft, girlie and frilly.

                                     

I also have LOVE LOVE LOVE me some ribbon and a pretty bow, what screams feminine more than a bow???

Last but not least out of these 35 layouts I wanna divide them up by color to see what color(s) I go to most.


PINK'S

BLUE'S

BROWN'S

GREEN'S

ORANGE'S

OTHER

Ok so this was definitely an eye opener for me!!! I knew there would be alot of repeats on my pages as I said above, but there was MUCH MUCH more than I expected! I definitely plan to try some new stuff!!!! I hope I've inspired you to examine your own page's for reoccurring trends and maybe even blog about it too! I'd love to take a look if you do so leave me a link! Thanks for looking!!!!

Thanks Bree for the inspiration!

I've been in such a scrappy mood!

I went to an all weeken crop last weekend, I only got 6 things done (good for me) but some ladies there finished 20+ pages!!! What is your average finished pages at a crop or when you have free time to scrap?

Here are a few of my most recent projects:

This LO was a lift inspried by the amazing and talented Gabrielle P, here is a link to her original layout:
http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/84905/view/3103835/-1/1.html

I didn't have some of the same supplies Gabby used so I had to create some of my own....see there I go with my DIY's again! Her background is from the Echo Park Be Mine Collection and mine in just plain black Bazzil cardstock so I gave it a similar look by using a white gel pen to create a few messy doodled lines. This deffinately made my page pop a bit more. Gabby used that same Echo Park line for her music sheet pp, which is another I didn't have so I used a stamp and carefully created the same pp, I love the way my paper turned out and will definately be doing this again. Try this in the future with a stamp you really love, just get your supplies out and go nuts! I don't know how you are, but I tend to buy buy buy supplies and then never use so much of it. Lately I've just wanted to dig right in and get my hands in it all, I feel like a kid in art class again!!! You'd be amazed at the pp's you can create with a piece of cardstock, an ink pad and a stamp! I'm not sure What Gabby used as a scalloped edge around her circle, but I just used a white scrap peice of lace which I altered with blac Smooch mist! The flowers on my lo the Petunia Collection by Prima which I loved working with! And last but not least the beautiful bling is more from my stash I purchased from Stephanie walker's Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/scrapashopaholic!!

I also wanna give my DH a big thank you for being the handsome subject in this lo, he is in fact my true love! But seriously he hated the idea of having such femme colors for his page, but he was a good sport anyway!

This is one of the pages I was able to complete at the crop last weekend and all the ladies just loved it! The flowers are actaully just plain ole' silk hydrangia's I purchased on sale at Joanns's. I used silver Glimmer Mist to color them and give them that blingy shimmery look! I used a silver ink pad to distress the edges of my paper which helped tie in the silver flowers. Lastly the GORGEOUS butterflies came from Angelica Franssen's Etsy Shop! You must check it out here's the link
www.angelicafranssen.etsy.com

Here is another page I finished at the crop! I LOVE LOVE LOVE bright rainbow colors, I know this is an older line from Sassafrass Lass (Zoo Balou I believe) but I still just love it! The bright colors and scallops are so fun to work with. The alphas were all just cheapies from Target which I painted with acrylic paint. I used the Create a Crtter CRicut Cartridge for the rainbow and clouds and the 2 center hearts are actually just cheapie foam stickers! I used a McGill punch (I believe) to create the butterflies and the just folded them in half to give them that deminsional look and finished them off with bling inthe centers! Hope you love this lo as much as do!

Last but not least here is yet another one of the pages I completed at the crop. I feel I don't do boy pages near as good as I do girl inspired layouts so when I do happen to create an AWESOME boy layout, I get SUPER EXCITED about it, lol! I love this one and it was actually pretty quick and easy....just some inking, water distressing and some more ofthose nifty learning letter tiles from the thrift store and there you have it!

Thanks for taking a peek at my blog, I hope you visit again!

Also a quick reminder CREATIVE SOUP is hosting a finish it up crop March 17-20 so you can get all those unfinished projects you have lying around done, so please join us for some fun and scrapping!