Scrappers Muse (and no, not Ronee's blog)

I am at a scrapping nexus. It started yesterday with some news that I can't wait to share, but must bide my time, and then grew with a Digi Shop Talk thread asking to see early digi layouts and then recent ones to see your growth. Wow, my first one looked flat, but it was of my niece and daughter together, so how couldn't I be in love with it? People were talking about finding their style and how it really showed in their current work.

I've been watching my comments to my layouts lately. I noticed that I got a lot from the simple one I did of Bella in a filmstrip with simple journaling and a bold title block. But, I also got a lot from the one that is now my current favorite layout that is busy and has a lot going on. People talked about their preference for one or the other so I suppose what I need to do now is go see if the same people who commented on my simple layouts also commented on my busier layout. And, if I have extra time, (I know, right?!) I should compare galleries of each set of commenters. To me, the photo or photos I want to use set the tone for my layouts. Sometimes the photo dictates serene and other times they are crazy and deserve more "loud" bold design.

Ronee Parsons said when she decided to apply for Memory Makers Masters '07, she asked a few friends to critique her work and they told her they really couldn't. Her stuff is so different leaving them unable to give her any criticism. I love that. I want to be that. I want my stuff to be something unique. Something that no one has seen before. Then how do I begin to ask for critique? And am I able to take it personally when no one comments out of politeness which reminds me of my mom's saying- if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all? Not everything anyone does is stellar. I imagine even Ronee and Rhonna and Michelle (I'd mention Sarah but I don't see many of her lo's! hint, hint!) have layouts that they'd prefer to hide in the digital closet and not copy to disk when the time comes.

But not everything can push the envelope, right? And, sometimes return to the basics makes your out of boundaries work seem even edgier.

I am going to force myself to do more challenges and contests. In doing so, I will be forced to push my own boundaries, think outside my own boxes, and I get the added bonus of learning from those who had the same guidelines and seeing what they did with it.

And with that, I'm going to go find a challenge....