The Problem with Patterned Paper

Before I unabashedly tear down the foundation of creative usefulness that patterned paper is resting on, I would like to pay homage to the decorative, tree born entity.



My discovery of patterned paper signaled a shift in my scrapbooking (a mental break, if you will). Patterned paper, by it's very virtue, allows the scrapbooker to bestow his/her pages with a virtually weightless, 2 dimensional decorative accent that can be used to tie other elements of the page together as well as reiterate the theme of the photographs, if they so choose.



With so many different weights, colors and patterns available, it is very plausible to believe that one there is a perfect paper for every layout...if you have the time to search it out. Patterned paper is definitely one of scrapbookings' "good things"...



Unless you have too much of it...



In my minds eye, there are different types of patterned paper collectors:

• The efficient collector who buys for each project. She is a picture of control as she restrains her greedy inner child enough to enable getting out of the store with only what is needed in their shopping bag.
• The opportunistic collector who buys for life's many opportunities. You never know when you will be called to captain a ship across the Atlantic only to have it pirated...so the opportunistic collector buys papers for what could be a special moment in their lives. Ever bought Disney papers knowing that you'd probably never step foot in the magic kingdom because of your child's unrelenting fear of 6 foot rats? How about those papers that depict lovely snowy ski theme for people who know good and darned well that they have no intention of taking a trip to the mountains in the winter, let alone throwing themselves off a perfectly good hill with popsicle sticks on their feet and toothpicks in their hands?
• The paper hoarding collector. Destined to make it on the Most Wanted list in every fire department within a 50 mile radius, this collector buys what is pretty. Sometimes she does go into a store looking for a particular theme of paper, but rarely walks out without taking some intentioned 'extras' with her (sometimes she even manages to get the paper she came in the store for as well!)
• The doomsday collector. She buys only what she needs...but she has a slightly pessimistic view of what those needs are. Every opportunity to buy a particular paper is viewed as possible the last opportunity so she tends to buy in multiples...just in case. 3 or 4 of everything makes for a very secure scrapping experience for this collector who can sometimes be found huddled in a corner clutching the last sheet of a particular pattern in her white knuckled fists. Approach with care.

I'm not going to admit which kind of paper collector I am...but I will say that I have a lot of it. I'm not bragging...believe me, I'm not proud of the position that I've over-obsessed my way into! If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, the presence of overwhelming possibility is an open door for indecision and stagnant progress. I'm stagnating.

When I start my layouts, I tend to start with the pictures and my color wheel for back up support. I then choose my patterned paper. Let me reiterate, I then start looking for my patterned paper. I have 7 CH paper files full of paper and a drawer of 'special' papers. I have to go through every stinkin' last one of them to find the paper that I feel will do justice to my pictures. I've tried every organizational trick known to scrappers but it doesn't seem to matter how I organize my papers, every search is going to result in sweat and paper cuts!

My problem? I don't really know what I have and I can't come up with an organizational system that will allow me to search what I have without constantly getting up, sitting down, and getting up again! I currently have my papers sorted by manufacturer for the most part (left over from my contest/dt days when that stuff mattered). I'm thinking about filing only sets by manufacturer and individual papers by color/pattern.

It never fails that I start a layout and wind up spending 30 minutes (and much of creative motivation) looking for the perfect paper. Mind you, when I start with the paper and work backwards (searching for a photo to scrap that matches the paper) I have a deal more success, but I have a hard time picking the picture because a part of me knows that I have "better" paper that will better suit certain photos somewhere. This is pretty much where my kit idea failed me. I have about 8 kits but no pictures that I want to use with them.

I remember the good old days when I only had a couple hundred sheets. I only had a limited amount of options so my decisions were made pretty quickly. Those days have gone the way of the dinosaur unfortunately. How could something so pretty do so much damage?

You want to know a secret? Patterned paper is very fertile too! I've given away/sold over 1200 sheets of paper but my stash always looks the same. Paper is like lays potato chips to me, you can't have just one, well you can...but where's the fun in that?

I am really interested in knowing how others go about organizing their papers and how they make that initial decision concerning which paper to use. I'm getting my butt kicked by my paper and it's no longer what I considered a 'good thing'.

Outdated Scrap Stash... Project Rejuvenation

I scrapped this weekend!

I created 2 layouts and I love them to pieces!

I'm almost certain that, were I to put them online, someone would balk at my use of older Chatterbox/Foofala/3Bugs papers, metal hinges, eyelets and die cut swirls.

I really don't give a hairy rats behind either!

There is nothing more laughable to me than to hear people criticize layouts for utilizing older product. When scrapbooking got it's start, the idea of trends and such nonsense were non existent. Why? Because scrapbooking was a personal thing, a soul searching record of memories and events. Today it's become just another main stream trend that offers potential financial growth for anyone who dares to exploit it.

Buy this! You have to have this! This is the latest craze! Take your craft to the next level with this! Ride this wave! Jump on that roller coaster! Buy! Buy!

Well, with all of this buying and trend watching... who has time to scrap with that kind of product influx! When we (the scrapper) finally come to are senses and stop stock shopping, we are faced with product that became outdated a week after we bought it! Somebody has to use it!

Is there really such a thing as outdated product in scrapbooking? When you think about the history of scrapbooking and the basis on which this craft/hobby was founded, one would be hard pressed to see the concept of outdated product as more than a marketing ploy to convince the overladen scrapper that she needed to keep buying! It's all about the dollar isn't it? If use of vintage (i.e. any paper greater than a month old) product were sanctioned by the industry it would be equated to chopping off a limb, so I'm not going to hold my breath for any sensible revelation out of that particular peanut gallery. Mags often provide articles about using your old stash...nestled neatly amidst 100 pages of trend watch articles and advertisements for the latest and greatest. Which message do you think is going to get the consumer vote?

The really sad thing is that the industry's pimping of products has changed the mindset of the scrapbooker in a not so good way. Take a look at insults that are slung at scrappers who dare to be different; Suzy has been told to go back to her room and play with her decorative scissors and stickers...Pages that fail to showcase the latest trends/product offerings are labeled 'boring', 'beginner', and 'CM style'. Just last week there was discussion on a critic/critique blog about the Pea Garden being inundated with boring "Suzy" layouts that didn't carry much aesthetic worth with 'seasoned' scrappers! Yes, a lot of people jumped in and defended the right of all skill levels of scrappers to post their layouts in the gallery...but amidst those voices of reasoned protest rang a shouts of elitist agreement. Comments were made about how they (Suzy and her posse) need to stop putting those ugly, outdated layouts in the gallery! Some scrapbookers were called praise whores for daring to post the layouts and expect praise, and what praise was given was devalidated and discarded. It seemed that the argument that everyone has a right to scrap the way that they want to scrap, was lost on those who were campaigning for a Stepford gallery.

Alas...I digress...

Just as you are only as old as you feel, your product is only as outdated as you allow yourself to think it is. I have some 1500 sheets of patterned paper and almost as much card stock, I can't afford for it to be outdated! I completed those 2 pages while consciously forcing myself to ignore the little voice that was telling me when I bought each element I tacked on the page. Tonight, I am going to go through some of my older magazine's and look for layouts to breath stale life into with my older stash. I plan to keep on scrapping this way until I've diminished my stash significantly. I'm not going to buy anything new until I do. I haven't purchased scrapping supplies (outside of basic tools) since November and I don't feel the urge to now that I've found a way to squeeze scrapping back into my life. Hopefully, but the time I get around to shopping for paper again the industry will, hopefully, have gotten over itself and started to present products that every scrapper can make use of... not just those that reside out of their boxes or on some artistic island fringe. I'm not going to lie, my moratorium is made that much easier by the industry's current offerings and the pretentiousness that is running rampant. I'm making my scrapping all about me and what I like...outdated or not.