Well, it has happened again. I have had a bout of creator's block! You see, I sat down to work at a scrapbooking page for one of my two new scrap books. I have all these ideas running through my mind about how I want the pages to look, and they look great (at least in my mind they do). But, I sat down and pulled out all of my supplies and looked at them, sifted through the different colours of paper, trying to decide what colours to use. Finally I chose the mauves and purple colours to use (which is typical for me since purple is my favourite colour!). I figured I would start on the scrapbook that I want to have as a family tree sort of document. The first page I was going to do would be on myself. This is where the creativity failed me.
I am basically a beginner at the art of scrapbooking, so I have purchased a few magazines and checked out some websites to get some ideas of ways to put my pages together so that they would look attractive and not put together in a haphazzard way. I think part of my problem is that I have a lot of various cardstock papers (both plain and patterned) which I use in making cards (using rubber stamps). I am trying to work with what I have on hand so that I don't have to go out and spend a lot of money that I need to be saving.
What I am finding, is that I need the "extras" to make the pages look more attractive and put together. By extras, I am referring to the stickers, brads, the word transfers, tags, etc. These items help add to the page. I think the best idea is to have your pictures together in a theme and then work from there. Figure out what colour scheme you want to use and what accessories you want to add to the page and then go get them...unless you happen to have some on hand from other projects (things like brads come in little containers with several in them and can be used on several projects).
Part of my problem is also fear. No, I'm not afraid of cutting myself with the scissors or anything like that. What I fear is that I will get the page all completed with what I have in my mind of how I want it to look, and then once completed it will look utterly horrible. What if the colours I use don't look right because they aren't in the same category (such as pastels)? What if the layout I thought would look great looks stupid? I suppose with craft projects like this it is more of a learn from your mistakes...or use layouts that others have done. You could also, I suppose, use the same layout for several pages and just use a different colour scheme to get a different look/effect. The possibilities are endless.
My perfectionism is getting in the way of this, and it holds me back from many things. I know that I can overcome this problem. Perfectionism is wrong because I will never be perfect (until I am with the Lord). Only the Lord Jesus Christ can help me to overcome this sin. It is something which I need to pray about. However, until this is removed from me, I will just have to work on my scrapbooks and learn from my mistakes.
