The more I think I know the slower I go!

[Spinning]

I am totally amazed at myself! LOL! Doesn't take much! But when I first started to scrap I had sissors, glue stick and a 10 inch paper cutter! Some plain paper and I would sit crop and glue and journal!
Now that I have a ton of stuff at least 600 different pieces of paper several types of glue stickers....die cuts...and more! it takes me forever to complete one page! It took me almost 2 hours to complete 2 pages!
Anyone else with this problem....funny thing is when I look back at my simpler pages I like them...But I love the new ones! But think maybe the old way was better! Faster, kind of the same end product, memories nicely preserved! LOL But I know I won't go back!

 

[Beanie]

LOL Spinning! I hear ya! When I first started, I had a glue stick, a couple of pieces of paper, a few photos and a pair of plain scissors (The kind you cut everything else with!) Now I have 5 different pairs of cutting scissors, 100's of sheets of paper, 4 Albums, many glue sticks...and of course, I now know what Die cuts and templates are...LOL...Something I didn't know back then...My next big purchase will be the Xyron...I really want this as I love to use stickers in my albums!

My first few pages, I think 10 or so of them, are just very plain with journaling on them...No die cuts or stickers or anything...everything was cut with straight edge scissors...Now the pages in the back have different fonts, stickers, beautiful journaling...I agree, I like my first pages, but I definitely love my ones in the back now!

 

[chessie]

My first pages were so bad I redid them. Thank goodness there weren't too too many of them. I hated what I was doing and I didn't like doing it because I didn't like the look of my pages. I kept plugging at it though. By the end of an 8 1/2 X 11 album, I finally got it. You could really see the difference in my pages.

I sometime put several pages together quickly and other times it takes hours to do something quite simple. When I'm scrapping for myself I have to feel the layout. The colors and textures have to give me the same feeling I had when I took the photos. When I am doing gift books I can do them much faster.

 

[ilovebelle]

PHEW! Man, am I glad I'm not the only one who feel like this. I finally finished a two page spread that took me probably 8 to 10 hours (including the paper piecing!) The page looks fantastic, but it just took me so long!

When I started my very first book, I did it all wrong- used rubber cement, etc. When I started getting into the scrapbook fad a couple of years ago, I started off with double stick tape, some printed pictures of scanned photos, and a few stickers. Now, I don't even want to list all the (um-hum) "stuff" I have!

My pages now are more complicated, but also more interesting and less muddled with excess stickers, etc. It is just funny to see that I'm not the only one seeing that time and knowledge is causing a slow down in my working instead of a speed up!

Take heart, everyone (especially Spinning). We will get through this with awesome pages that we will love forever!

Kristin

 

[lisaschu]

Ya know, I found myself graduating to more "frou-frou" pages and was frustrated that I wasn't finishing more pages. So, I went back to the simple page idea. Obviously I have more tools so my pages look better than when I first started and I'm ok with that. In fact, I pretty much figure when I'm dead and gone my family isn't going to go through my scrapbooks and say "look at this cool embellishment." They're going to be looking at the pictures and words I leave behind for them. And to me that's more important than spending an hour doing one page! At this point I'm so far behind I don't even think about doing fancy pages. And that's with completing over 100 pages so far this year! I'm all about a basic border and perhaps a few stickers, but my goal is to get those pictures preserved with some journaling to go with them. If someday I ever get caught up I may think about doing more complicated pages, but for now that isn't going to happen!!

Lisa

 

[bananiem]

Lisaschu, you and I have the same philosophy. I sometimes wish I could be more creative and use more embellishments but I just wasn't born with a creative bone in my body!! I do think I've gotten better and I'm generally happy with my results. I still wish I had an LSS closer than one hour away. Sigh...

 

[Spinning]

Glad to see I am not alone! I don't do a lot of embellishments more use of paper! I do like die cuts and stickers but not a ton on each page.
The one area that is making it slower for me, I am really try so hard not to put a ton of pictures on each page and that I really need just the best that capture the mood or event!
O would love to use eyelets and things like that but at this point I think 1. I would go over board on spending!
2. Too far behind
But I do love plugging aways and making head way!

 

[abbyndrewmom]

I think there is a happy medium between the two extremes. I hate my first pages, I think who ever suggested people cut their photos with decorated scissors should be shot, what a great way to ruin a picture. I can't stand all the shapes the pictures were cut into. I still can't see any reason for a cutting a picture into the shape of a star. Now I keep most my pictures in the original 4X6 I occassionally will do an oval or a circle to fit more on a page. I love my punches (i have 300+) so I do alot of punchart on my pages. I use alot of premade titles and embelishments. I still do elaborate pages when I feel like it or when I have a great idea. I keep a bunch of page kits on the go when i feel like doing something quick I pull out one of the kits, I have everything already picked out including paper, photo, title, and any embelishments. I put it all in a 12 X12 page protector then when I am ready to scrap all I need are my cutter, hermafix, scissors and black pen. Works really well for me and lets me get alot done when I have the time. I did go through a phase where every page took multiple hours but then I looked at the growing number of pictures and realized that I needed to move faster. I do have to remind myself that the reason I am creating these books is for my childern and their children, so they have a record of their childhood.

Allison