Little Miss Imperfection

I have a secret to share...I am a perfectionist.  It's just been the way of things for as long as I can remember.  Always had to have straight A's in school.  Everything had to be in it's place and couldn't even be moved a smidge out of that spot.  Dishes have to go in the dishwasher a certain way.  I've even been known to realign chairs in public places that are not lined up correctly or rearrange packs of meat in the frozen counter at the grocery store, if they have shifted out of place!!  Crazy, I know.  So naturally, when I started Scrapbooking, my perfectionism tendencies followed me to my layouts.  When I first started, the ruler was my best friend.  Everything on my page had to be measured within an inch of it's life and photos had to be exact sizes 3.5x5, 4x6, 3x3...you get the idea.  But now, after 7+ years of Scrapbooking, I can finally say I am letting go of perfectionism on my layouts.  The ruler stays in my craft bag 90% of the time and I've even cut a few shapes lately (free-hand), without using my Cameo.  Now the imperfections I am embracing on my layouts may not be visible to your eye, but I can definitely see them and I am okay with that.

Let me share some examples with you, to show you where I'm going with this:

First up, a layout for the 5/26/13 Challenge Sunday at Chic Tags, using Washi Tape.

I was able to sit down Tuesday and whip this page out in about an hour.  Not too many years ago, a page like this probably would have taken me close to 3 hours to complete.  My perfection self would have wanted to measure all of the strips of Washi to have alternating sizes and make sure the spacing on either side of the photos was even.  And I even started off with no idea what the design of this page would be.  I just stuck my photo on there and kind of went from there.  I had a few little spots where my Sharpie got a little off track when I was tracing the Triangles from my mask, but I just took a deep breath and went with it!!

Supplies:  Patterned Paper:  Pebbles Inc. & Fancy Pants; Washi Tape:  Love My Tapes, Pebbles Inc., Freckled Fawn & Recollections; Tags & Printable:  Chic Tags; Wood Veneers, Badge & Stickers; Studio Calico; Embossing Powder:  American Crafts; Font:  Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold; Mask:  The Paper Bakery

This second layout is one I created for my Introduction Post that was up on the Paper Issues Blog yesterday, using one of my favorite new collections from October Afternoon, Travel Girl.  

My perfectionism horror on this page, is that it's going a little downhill.  There's just that touch of crooked to the design.  When I edited this layout in PhotoShop, I had the urge to Crop it and try to straighten it back up just a little, but I resisted and let imperfection win out.  I loved the way this page turned out and just wanted to keep it as is...imperfection and all.

I have discovered the more perfect we try to make our pages, the more stress it causes.  Creating layouts or projects should be fun...and let's face it, we are creating...not doing rocket science or precise blueprints for the perfect Scrapbook layout.  Scrapbooking should kind of be like coloring outside of the lines or getting your fingers dirty with finger paints.  So next time you drop a big splat of unexpected mist on your almost finished page (which I have done, by the way) find a way to work it into your layout.  You will most likely be pleasantly surprised with a touch of imperfection in the end!!

Supplies:  Patterned Paper, Stickers, Tin Pin, Tid Bits & Buttons:  October Afternoon; Wood Veneers:  Freckled Fawn & Studio Calico; Washi Tape:  Freckled Fawn; Thickers:  American Crafts; Punch:  EK Success; Mask:  The Paper Bakery; Other:  Shipping Tag & Acrylic Paint