Product? Technique? things to think about

Following on from last entry's discussion, I continued with the challenge of starting somewhere different for a set of layouts.

The first is product first. And this was much more difficult than I thought it would be! Maybe it was because I did not have a "kit" to work with - I just decided that I wanted to use Periphery because it has been sitting there patiently waiting for me all these months and I was really looking forward to jumping in with it. I would make stylish, effortless layouts like those I admire so much on the galleries. Mmmm, not be to. Was it me or was it the product - I took out all those gorgeous papers and looked at them and .... nothing, blank, void! But I had an idea that it might work with architechtural details so I fished some out and forced myself to make the layout. But I am unsatisfied with it - it is uninspiring, boring even. What is wrong with it? But what else could I have done? This is frustrating.

I was flumuxed and surprised because when I get the Bellaboo kits, I HAVE to work product first and the ideas come quite easily (well most of the time LOL) and often I have a complete layout before I have even sorted out the actual photos because I am working on more of a feeling of what I want and know roughly what photos will fit.

Anway, enough moaning...

And then there was the tool/technique first.

This was MUCH more fun! I was thinking about what I could do and then realised that I had the BasicGrey notch tool that at the time, I just HAD to have but really, when have I used it over the last 18 months - not that often let me tell you! So out it came and I liked the idea of the semi-circle. But decided to move away from the idea of scallops and make a stamp edge instead - just on a big scale. Once I had the basics in mind, I needed a stark contrast paper and the brown Chatterbox was perfect. Mixed it in with a couple of other brown tones (colour - another blog post coming on that one!) and I was away.

Apart from the fact that it took me ages to notch the edge with the tool and it was quite hard work, it all came together really quickly and looks very much like the idea I had in my brain. Much more satisfied with this one and once again, journalling round the edge of the page seemed ideal. More Chatterbox in the form of these wonderful olive letters and it was all finished.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would and may well use this technique again to get me out of a rut - it really made me think about it.

Only one more to do from the challenge prompts - my "natural" way. I actually think that this does not really exist - each of the methods has made me think, yes, this is it. Maybe I will just go with the flow and see how it works out.

By the way, the spell checker here on Blogger seems not to be working for me any more so apologies for any typos or spelling errors - don't understand why it isn't working any more. It was fine a few weeks ago....

So, are any of you brave enough to rise to the challenge? Shall we do a round of this again together?