Tuesday 11 October 2011

Two Little Monkeys

A few days ago, my son asked me how long it takes me to make each scrapbook page and I couldn't tell him. I guessed at two hours but I usually work in small bursts so I don't really know how long each one takes. As I have the house to myself today, I decided to work on a layout from start to finish and time myself.

10.50 - I started from the latest Scrap Whispers challenge, inspired by this picture, to use orange, brown and grey on a layout. To me, this means autumn so I found some pictures of my children from September 2006.

11.00 - I sketched a rough layout and collected together some papers, ribbons, alphabet stickers and a chipboard leaf. This part was probably quicker than usual as my colours were dictated by the challenge.

11.10 - I cropped my photos and cut my papers to size, assembling the layout, but not sticking anything down yet. I also coloured my chipboard leaf with two colours of brown ink.

11.30 - Now for a problem - that leaf was going to take some time to dry, so I had to take a break. Never mind, 40 minutes so far and I thought that I had made pretty good progress.

13.40 - With my leaf almost dry, I began to stick everything together. I decided that my grey background was too pale, so made it a bit darker with chalk.

14.05 - On to the title, another problem. The brown letters I had picked out were too pale and lost against the orange. Tried some Thickers, but they were too big and I couldn't fit my title inside the circle. Aargh. Searched through my letters and rejected them all. Eventually, I decided to stamp the title (with my new Pebbles stamps). This was the first time I used them so I took a little time to practice on scrap paper first.

14.40 - Title finally done, I realised that I had forgotten the edging I wanted above and below my horizontal panel. I rejected the ribbons that I had pulled out earlier and went with a tiny strip of paper that was on my desk. I do mean tiny - just a few millimetres that I had cut from a layout on Saturday to make it fit the page protector better. I don't know why I hadn't thrown it away but it was perfect for this.

14.50 - Final touches. I printed out the date and location and layered it in the bottom corner.

15.10 - Finished. 

Hmmm. 2 hours and 10 minutes. My guess wasn't too far out after all. But I wasted a lot of time with that title. It's been an interesting process and I think that I will time myself again another day.

Sorry for making you read such a long post (if indeed you read it all), but here is the bit you have been waiting for, the finished page:

Supplies
Paper - Chartwell Studio (Grey), Basic Grey Indian Summer, Sandylion, Pebbles Fresh Goods (reverse)
Chipboard Leaf - SIL
Ink - Versa Color and Papermania
Letter Stamps - Pebbles
Chalk - Readicut Crafts

1 comment:

  1. Now that Blogger is behaving, I can post my comment at last!

    LOL That was an interesting exercise. The biggest time waster for me is deciding which photos to use, and then fighting with the printer to get them printed. Once I've got that sorted, it all flows.

    Love your autumn theme and your photos are beautiful. Thanks for playing along at Scrap Whispers, and please join us later today for another challenge!
    Rosey x

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