I don't usually redo scrapbook pages. I have been scrapbooking since about 2006, and when I started, I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know about magazines until well after I begun my paper-crafting journey, nor did I know about online sources for inspiration and education.
I knew nothing at all about scrap-lifting.
Until I knew about the resources at my disposal, I learned by creating. I learned by jumping in and doing it. I learned what looked good and what didn't, what worked for my own style asthetic and what didn't. I created pages I did like, and some I didn't.
And for the most part, I accept all the work I did as creative play that taught me how I wanted to scrapbook.
But.
A few months ago, I was putting the pages I made about my niece into albums, and I came across a few that really made me cringe. While I value my creative process, I wanted to do these pages over so I would like them better.
Here's one I want to share today.
Now, I don't want to bash my attempt, here. There are some things I did right, particularly attempting the page in the first place.
I think I did a pretty good job matching the background patterned paper with the mood and colors of the photo. That's my little Mommy handing her baby granddaughter to my darling father to hold. He was ill with kidney disease and felt badly that night, but it was a sweet moment. A memory I wanted to preserve on the page, and I thought the photo went well with a poem I wrote about my father's brief relationship with his granddaughter that he only knew as a tiny baby.
I also like that I used acrylic paint to create a place for the journaling, though the spacing didn't serve the design well. The positioning of the elements leave awkward space in between, and then there's the big piece of card stock with the poem printed on it.
Technically, it matches the floral in the background, but it overpowers the whole page, and not in a visually pleasing way. The torn and inked edges only draw attention to the odd shape of that element, and the stamping, crooked and overlapping, adds distraction, rather than the intended subtle texture.
The title fails in both size and placement, and the ribbon further detaches the photo from the rest of the page. While the brads do create a visual triangle, they don't create a sense of cohesion, partly because they are the only embellishments, and they look isolated. Almost minimalist or like an afterthought.
So, yeah. Definitely a candidate for a scrapboook page redo.
What a difference, huh?
What I love about this page, first and foremost is the color scheme. I'm a huge fan of purple, and while it doesn't exactly match the photo, it complements it. I used the original journaling by cutting it out of the background paper and adhering it to the new background. I changed the title to reference the poem, and I cropped the photo down to really focus on the subject.
When I look at this page, I can tell how much I've learned since I created the first version. It isn't perfect by any means; I'm sure I could find more than one thing to criticize, if I chose.
But I definitely don't cringe when I look at it. In fact, it makes me smile.
