To plan or not to plan, that is the question...

Simon Says make a plan which for me is quite easy because by nature I am a planner, I not take comfort in methodical research & planning out of anything in my life.  I find it very difficult to just "let loose" and allow things to fall as they may - this applies as much to crafting as it does to other areas of life, I just can't throw paint/ ink/ paper down & "see what happens".  From the time I started scrapbooking up until my eldest was a young toddler I carefully sketched out every layout on graph paper.  I selected the pictures I wanted to use & printed them out on basic printer paper to refer to as I was designing.  I bought specific paper & embellishments for each layout and printed out pictures in the specific size I had drawn out on the sketch.

Sketch & photo selection circa 2008

Then only after I had everything planned out, I would create the actual layout. I say "create" but really it was more assembly since I never-ever deviated from my carefully constructed sketch.

Completed layout circa 2008 (title is only different because my mom found the pre-made die-cut somewhere)

By the time my son was born in 2010, this much planning had become very tedious and quite frankly boring.  I had such limited free time with a toddler & newborn (with health issues) that I just couldn't bring myself to spend so much time sketching every layout.  I tried to craft in a more free-form fashion allowing the pictures to dictate the layout & paper on the fly but the lack of a plan/ direction drove me crazy.  And so I hit a slump that lasted well over a year until I discovered pre-made sketches & the radical (to me) notion that you could alter said sketches for several different layouts. By using pre-made sketches I cut out the time-consuming part (for me) of scrapbooking and could focus on the actual creation of art & preserving of memories.

These days I order standard size 4 x 6 pictures in 100+ batches and cut them down as the layout and/ or story to be told dictates.  And I buy paper & embellishments just because I like them without a specific layout in mind.  After selecting pictures, I often start with Mid-Week Mojo sketches because they're convenient (& who doesn't love the chance to wing goodies? ;-) ) and then pull out paper & push it around until it looks right.  Since I very rarely stick to the provided sketch exactly, this is about as close to open-ended creative play as I get ;-).

Since I made a layout about Crystal Palace for my son's album, I of course had to make one for my his elder sister as well ;-).  The pictures are very similar but I wanted a more feminine look & to play up the classic architecture of the restaurant.  My first thought was Teresa Collins's 'Family Stories' line, but the black paper was way too dark for the colorful pictures & dominated the visual space.

After I switched it out for a cream-colored floral paper from Teresa Collin's 'Tell Your Story' line, the rest of the layout came together easily.  Taking cues from Mid-Week Mojo Lilac sketch #4, I inked & layered more paper & embellishments from 'Family Stories' and stamped the floral design in the upper right hand corner.

The journaling is hidden in the envelope down at the bottom.  The envelope came with a plain white card so I stamped it for interest & embossed the sides.