Finding Your Own Style

Good weekend to you all! The new schedule is falling into place nicely. I think that I have found that Saturdays will be a good time for me to update with new lessons, ideas and such. I have something fun to share today. . . a discussion on finding your own style!

I’m going to use the new page kits from Express the Moment as an example today. Page kits are new for 2011 and they are great fun. At $9.99 they are a great value for making a two page layout as everything is included in the kit. Most pieces are pre-cut or ready to cut with a few simple instructions. These designs, by Amanda Gibson are very fun and quick to put together. I just did mine this morning. . . here, I will share!

Above is a photo of the page as it is designed by Amanda. I love it! As I was putting mine together, I had a few thoughts in my head. (ouch) I was thinking a lot about personal style. As you can see, Amanda has a fantastic gift of penmanship. . . you can almost instantly recognize Amanda’s designs by the swirls, doodles and hand-written sentiments. What a talent! And although I really admire this gift that she has, I wanted to make my layout. . . my own. So today, I will discuss personal style.

One of the things that I love best about these kits is the opportunity it allows you to create or exercise your OWN personal style. What does this mean exactly? It is perfectly OK to create your pages and make them look EXACTLY like Amanda’s example. It is perfectly OK to CASE, scraplift or copy any of the cards on my blog, to look exactly like mine. But isn’t it fun to add your own touch of personality. . . defining the project as uniquely your own?

Maybe when you craft with friends, or admire the work of others, you notice that you can always tell who created it? On card day, for example, I can always tell who made each kit. My friend Tiffani has a great love and talent for distressing. Everything must be distressed! Deb is a beautiful seamstress, and a lot of her creations include stitching, and the use of ribbons and buttons. Stephanie is the queen of the Cricut machine and can make ANYTHING with her Cricut! And my style? . . None of my layouts or cards would be “Me” if they didn’t look like they had been recently cropdusted by a fairy of some sorts. I always have to have sparkle, glitter and bling!

And so although I love the hand-doodling on Amanda’s example, I finished the layout and set to complete the pages in my style.

Rather than doing all of the doodling on the page, I added a few of my own finishing touches. Instead of using the doodled “love,” I took advantage of the opportunity to use my new favorite letter stamps. (CTMH – Bohemian Alphabet, E1019)

I also doodled on my hearts with glitter gel pens in pink, green, blue and clear star glitter. I outlined all of the lettering “all u need is…” and the “love” letter stamps with clear star glitter too.

Now when I add my photos and place the pages into my album, I will really feel like the finished project is my own. A great combination of Amanda’s awesome design talent and a little personal touch of  “me.”

Uniformity is ok. Sometimes it is preferred. But allowing the creativity of your own unique, personal style to shine through can be a beautiful, enjoyable thing. And that, is all I have to say about that for now.

What is your personal scrapbooking style? Have you developed one? Is there the use of a particular product or technique that repeats itself in your work? Leave me a comment, including some contact information. Tell me about your personal style. Next Saturday, I will pick a random comment and send out a little RAK. This is something that I also would like to do more often.

And now to address this week’s emails and questions – there are a lot of great things coming up! Don’t forget the ETM Crop next weekend, Feb. 19th in Idaho Falls! February kits (Moments, Expressions, Page and Recipes) are all available at Express the Moment and they are fantastic! The Spring /  Summer CTMH Idea Books are also released. You can see an online version here. All of my old video tutorials can be seen on my Youtube Channel here. Yes, I will have new videos this year too! There is a blog hop for Operation Write Home coming up in March and I will be working on some troop cards tomorrow!

I have also been asked a lot recently about how long I have been Scrapbooking. It just so happens, that this year is my 20th High School Reunion and so. . . I was searching through a few odds and ends looking for old classmates and such. My Mother has always been one of those OCD people who keep EVERYTHING. I have an entire box in the garage of old school papers that she kept, neatly filed by grade AND SUBJECT. (clearly, she did not have to work outside the home!) Right inside one of the folders for my 5th grade year, I found a real treasure. It is an autograph book that I made at the end of the school year. Inside are notes written by my 5th grade friends and doodles that I drew. The entire book is made of yellow construction paper that I cut (not so neatly, I might add.) and stapled together into a book. On the cover, please note the use of markers, sticker and stamp. Oh, I remember my Nancy stamp! Haha. . . enjoy!  And thank you for stopping by!