The journey...

From my last post, I was asked if I always scrap in the 8 1/2" x 11" format. I love this size and I feel very comfortable creating with the perimeters it gives me. But to be honest, I have only started doing layouts in this size from around, maybe...May?

I was converted from the 12 x 12 by Belinda. I stumbled across a step by step project she was teaching in Scrap Therapy. I was very nervous about not only trying this size but going through with the cutting of the card stock! And so it began with this.

The question however, has given me a chance to go back through some of my older work and re-evaluate my journey into scrapping our family history. Looking back, has given me the confidence to go forward. Does that make sense? I can clearly see my style developing and the elements I continue to use.

"So knowing" was one of my first attempts at scrapping. Even on the larger size I tended to use only one photo and colour. Basically, I just threw down some paper and left it where I liked the look of it! I do like to have white space on my layouts and my own hand writing usually played some part.

"The Gumboot Story" was an early example of wanting to have a funny story written down for posterity. My Mum used to tell an exaggerated shopping trip tale to Tahlia, about what she did in a shoe shop one day. Funnily enough, Mum also had her camera that day, and took a picture of the particular incident.

This layout is extremely simple in its design, still leaving the white space around it and including lots of colour. I felt that the text here, needed to be neat and ledgible to provide a storybook feel, and since my handwriting is neither, it was important for the mood page!

"When I grow up..." was a probably a scrap lift from somewhere, but it left me with the love of clean lines and the commitment of telling the story. Computer fonts still played a large role for a while.

"2nd Birthday" brought home to me the use of my own handwriting to make the page feel personal. To put all the details on and not be concerned about the look of hand written text, like a birthday card. And it had to be personal when writing about that cake which took me nine hours to put the details on!!! I'm not kidding! Lol!

I know all the layouts here are of Tahlia, but I haven't been doing this craft for that long... and I'm playing catch up! But that's the other thing with the smaller size. It helps me get things completed a little bit faster! And I'm no longer bothered about doing things in chronological order!

So, thanks Leanne for the question...(simple that it seemed at first!), but it has allowed me to explore my own work and style in a little more detail, than I would, if I were just flipping through pages in an album.

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my work on a bigger scale!