Out of the box, cupboard, ordinary….

In October, I went away for a long weekend of scrapbooking. This year, I’ve bought very little in the way of scrapbook papers. Compared to previous years, that is! It’s important that I tell you that bit so that you don’t collapse under the imagined weight of my next sentence. I took every sheet of 12x12 that I own with me to the ‘retreat’. It’s quite a pile, about 10cm deep in plain colours and about a 20cm deep pile of patterned. I haven’t done nearly as much scrapping this year as I have in previous years, and the October getaway was more lovely for that, because it was really concentrated scrapping. 

Basic Grey..I love it, but oh boy, you can see why I was scared of it. For about ten years.

I set myself a promise to move slightly outside of my box. I noticed, going through the piles, that some of the papers waiting patiently for me were terrifying.I bought them because I really liked them, but boy, they were busy and intimidating. So…I pulled them out into yet another pile, and decided that by using them, I was working out of the box. 

It wasn’t difficult, I mean, it’s just cutting and sticking isn’t it, but  it helped that I didn’t stray far from my usual one photo and cluster formula, just had very loud backgrounds to try to cope with. I also used a few old photos…but not many, I’m still very much into scrapping the more current stuff. Although by current, I increasingly seem to mean within my memory span, and that’s not necessarily even my lifetime! 

So did I learn anything useful? I did actually. I learned that actually, I don’t have to stray far from the box to challenge myself, I’m not sure if that proves how set in my ways I am or not! It also shows me that actually, just adjusting one thing really changes the way you do things. This might be a life lesson that you have experience of and I’ve been slow to catch on. Or, and I think this is more like it….I’m overthinking this scrapbooking lark. Cutting and sticking is fun, full stop!