Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Some things I've learned...'bout scrappin.

So...I work part time at an LSS. LOVE IT. Love the paper. Love the ribbons. Love opening all the boxes and seeing what's new. Love my boss...nice lady who makes me feel needed.

Anyway...she got hired to do an entire scrapbook for a lady for Christmas who wants to give it as a gift to her son. I guess she did the same thing last year for a different son.

Lady doesn't want the album to be "pimped out." Just wants it simple and nice. (And, since it's for a 20 year old male, NOT froofy.)

Lady provides a STACK of 4x6 photos. Not even GOOD photos. Red eyes in a lot of them. Many out of focus. Some just random.

Anyway, boss asks me to help. (Our store does a HUGE amount of printing Christmas cards and wedding invites, so she was swamped.)

How hard can it be, right? Lady's not picky...not a scrapper. Should be able to just "slam" it out, right?

Oh. My. Heck.

Scrapping your average 4x6 photos is HARD.

Really, REALLY hard.

I am SO used to seeing (and using) nice, cropped photos that are sized for the layout design that I think I probably burned a few circuits trying to make my asthetics and the project parameters copacetic.

The number of photos per layout varied. Most groupings needed to be stretched out (or crammed into) a 2 page 12x12 spread. EVERY layout was a multiple photo layout. ALL the photos were 4x6. And there was NO journaling, NO outside information to work with. Occasionally I could use a title if one was included with the photo set.

The pages were plaaaaiiin. No flowers, very little ribbon and only a smattering of rubons. Most chipboard was used for titles...and hand die cut by little 'ol me...not premade.

The result was very "old-school."

Not that there's anything wrong with that....but I hadn't realized how spoiled I had become....with all my photo editing and cute trendy product. Without all that the result was....

Ugh.

Ugh for me, anyway. Not my style. Not fulfilling for me in a creative sense. And VERY restrictive.

But it is how the vast majority of people out there scrap.

4 x 6 photos. Lots per page. Grouped by events. Minimum embellishment.

And it. is. HARD.

Who'da thunk?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh. My. Heck..........You make me laugh!!!
Its really sad that she doesn't make the scrapbooks herself. I can only imagine how meaningful it would be if she had Journaled it!!
Its just a photo album with pretty paper.....kind of strange for it not tell a story. I don't know if I could scrap a 4x6 without cropping. Very interesting!!

Elizabeth said...

What a way to actually get out of your box or comfort zone and scrap the unimaginable!!! I bet it looks beautiful though!!!

Suzanne said...

To each his own right? Yay for you for being that restrictive and sticking to it! I think she would've hated me because I would've been full of suggestions. :)

scrappermimi said...

Boy, do I know what you mean...bet she loved it anyway!