Scrapbook Process: Learning to Trust Your Scrapbook Style

Do you have a certain style, a "go-to" that you seem to repeat in your scrapbook pages?  I do. Even though I try various styles and use different sketches to help me change things up a bit and to expand my art and knowledge of this craft, I tend to lean toward the balanced, classic and clean style of scrapbooking. Maybe it's because of all those years on the yearbook team in high school!  Even when I will follow a sketch, my chosen result, especially if I want to do more journalling, will become a simple style for a two page layout.  Here is what I mean:

This was a sketch for a the current challenge over at The Memory Nest:



And here is the two page layout that came from this sketch:

No mixture of patterned paper or embellishments like on the sketch, but you can see a couple elements that inspired me.  This project was finished with a paper kit that had great paper choices, but no embellishments.  The paper was two-sided, with decorative designs on one side, solid on the other.  From this photo, you can see that I chose two different backgrounds, but mirrored the same dark blue strip on each page, in addition to the red across the bottom that continues to bring the two pages together.

Although these pages are not fancy, and there aren't any embellishments to speak of, I am happy with how this turned out.  These pages are telling a story, so in this case, I don't want extra items to take away from what I want to say.

To make meaningful scrapbook pages, remember: It is definitely okay to use a basic style for your pages. You don't have to be an artist, spend lots of money for embellishments or incorporate all kinds of techniques to get a wonderful result.  Go with what you know and do with what is most comfortable. When my youngest son looks at this layout someday, I want him to enjoy looking at the many photos and reading my memories of that day, and not necessarily  how I incorporated color and style together.

Here are close ups of each page:

So if you feel pressured to finish fancy pages that you see in the magazines or on the blogs, don't.  Take inspiration from it, but it is more important to get it nicely scrapped so that your family will have those memories.

If you want to know more about the sketch challenge I completed, be sure to visit the The Memory Nest's Sketch Challenge.