Peas. Can't live with 'em...can't smack 'em. There ought to be some kind of award for the most closed-minded pea. Today it could be awarded to the peas who seem to have forgotten that scrapbooking is a personal art and there's more than one way to do it.
I guess I don't understand why there's such an "us or them" mentality in the scrapbooking world...
--Events versus moments.
--People who use 10 pictures on a spread versus people who prefer 1 or 2 on a page.
--Scrappers who enjoy close-up photos versus those with mostly snapshots.
--Those who like enlargements versus those who only use 4x6 prints.
--Black and White vs color.
--Staplers vs non-staplers.
--CM vs the rest of scrap-dom.
--Creative versus self-declared non-creative.
--Digi versus paper.
--Digi versus film.
--Journaled versus un-journaled...or worse, single word journaled.
--Top-loading versus strap-hinge.
--8.5x11 versus 12x12.
--Eyelets versus brads.
--Computer-generated journaling versus hand-written journaling.
--Those who scrap for the noble cause of documenting for the future versus those who just enjoy playing with paper and pictures and basically ignore future generations.
--Bazzil versus cardstock
--Layouts about children versus child-free LOs.
--Stampin' Up! versus Close to my Heart.
--Matte versus Glossy.
--Documentarian versus whatever the opposite of documentarian is.
Why can't we be OK with all our options? Options are a beautiful thing, right? If options weren't a beutiful thing Bazzill wouldn't go to the trouble of creating 300 colors of cardstock. Ten colors would do, right? (gag, cough, choke, can't breathe...give me Bazzil or give me...)
Someone should remind the peas who've forgotten that there is more than one way to scrapbook. It's an imprecise, forgiving, personal art. Hence, the word "scrap". You don't have to personally adore or want to scraplift every LO ever created and published in a magazine. I doubt anyone does. Not every LO is going to strike your fancy. Why can't you still be respectful? Obviously someone likes it. Why can't you be OK with that? No one is asking you to do it in your books...just respect it. Take what you see in a magazine and let it be a place to start. Let it point you in a new direction. Expand your ...ok, now I'm starting to sound silly...but really.
Dissect. Discern. Duplicate. Discard.
Here's my four "D" plan...a mental process for getting useful ideas from *any* magazine or layout:
1. Dissect the elements of the LO. Consider the individual elements without the context of the whole.
2. Discern what appeals to you.
3. Duplicate that.
4. Discard the rest.
Scrappers are a creative bunch. You'd think we could all get out of the proverbial box long enough to appreciate each other for our uniqueness rather than expecting world-wide uniformity. Scrapbooking is one of the few places where we don't have to play by the rules. Let's enjoy that for a change. Shall we?
5 comments:
This same subject came up at a crop not long ago when a scrapper told someone else that they HAD to journal in their own handwriting! The discussion got heated! Finally, the asst. mgr and myself were talking quietly and we both agreed - there is no wrong or right in this craft. Everyone should respect the other's opinion if they feel so strongly - BUT it is strictly an individual craft. Chill out everyone! Thanks Sarah for your advice!
Extremely well said. Thank you,
Sarah.
Bravo! I agree totally with what you said. I post on the MB's on 2 peas, but I try not to get into those threads about "which is better." There is no "better," unless you define it by what CK wants to publish.
I am reminded of what Cartman (from South Park) said one episode -- "Screw you, I'll do what I want!" yup.
BEEEAutiful! You've said it so well. Now, if you could only post this entry and see how long it lasted. Great thoughts. thanks for sharing!
Sophia
I SO COMPLETELY agree with you, very well written! I have too often read things where people feel like their scrapping is "inadequate", heck, even I FELL INTO THAT MYSELF, thinking I wasn't doing something right because it wasn't a certain way, certain style, I wasn't doing things the way this person or that was...but I got over that and learned to love my simple style with a mix of pop here and there, my journaling AND computer fonts, my digital pictures AND my good old film, my B&W AND my color photos, my cropped versus not cropped photos, my mix of digital elements AND real 3D elements, I am, afterall, only scrapping for me and my family, not for the scrap-world's approval. Thanks for writing this! :)
Post a Comment