Home Is Comfort

I always write on the back of my layouts. I right the date that it was completed, important info (where the picture was taken, the date it was taken, who is in the photo, how old they are) and some insight as to how it came to be. I don't ever know if I'll ever need to know any of the information that I write (although memories do fail over time, and it will be nice for future generations to be able to have this extra knowledge), or ever look at it down the road, but doing it gives me a sense of completion. This layouts insight started off with "let me first make a list of all the problems I had with this layout."

On your next layout: share the process. Let us in on the little secrets that made it to completion. What part of your creative process did you have to alter or change in order to get the layout done?

This layout started out as another half'-sleep thought. I invisioned layers of patterened paper circles on the left side of the layout held down by stitching. Kind of having a quilt feel to it. As I thought about it a little more, some of the circles were cut with decorative scissors (I'm really loving these lately).

My first problem started late one night (probably after midnight) when I first tried using my new sewing machine that my mum bought me for Christmas. It wouldn't seem to sew on the paper, the tension on the thread seemed to tight. I tried in vain for at least an hour, then finally gave up and went to sleep. The next morning I finally got it working; it was still gaving me grief, but was working okay. Then all of a sudden it stopped again, and at that point I gave up! I figured since this was my first attempt at sewing on a layout (and my first machine sewing session in at lease seven years), I was alright with only three rows of stitching.

There were four attempts at the journaling on this layout. The first time was horizontally accross the area above the photo; hated how that looked, there was to much heaviness with the big thick black pen that I used - I covered this section up with a paper that matched the original background. The second time involved strips of paper with my journalling, I decided to add demention to the layout, so I used pop dots to adhere the strips - I hated how that took away from much of the clean open space on the background, so I removed them all (in the process I tore a bit of the background paper, but was sneaky and very carefully glued it back down). I finally thought about doing my journaling vertically with my stamped lines - I loved how this looked, except I messed up a couple words (added an extra "s" to "was" and added an extra "to" in before talking about Lowie); I decided to use what I had learned in my pop dot experience and carefully cover up my mistakes - and it's hardly noticable! (See that third line down, the "have" is added onto one of those masks, which I believe is barely visable).

That line of redish-orange patterned paper on the right side of the layout, with the lace that is all held down with the pearl brads is only there? It's only there because of my first journaling mess-up (when I covered it up with a different paper)! I didn't like the seam that was left, so used a strip of the reverse side of the new background, but thought it didn't look right - felt too naked. So I was left searching for a textile that matched my page, and when I looked at some scraps of ribbon, I knew this lace was perfect. The brads were basically a method to hold the ribbon down more securely.

Journaling says: From the 7-16 Justin was out of town in High River running a job at Cargill. It was really hard on me to only have Lowie to come home to. When Justin came home a day early I cried realived tears of joy.

There you have it, if it weren't for all these little "mistakes", this layout wouldn't be what it is now. Most of the time we love things because of their flaws. Leave a comment with a link, and share with us what gave life to your design.