I have been itching lately to make scrapbook pages. It is kind of odd for me to want to do pages, I really lack confidence in my ability to make them. I think it comes from a time when I got dropped from a design team because they only wanted page people and I wasn't a page maker, or so they decided. Now mind you, they didn't ask me if I could do pages, I am not sure if they had ever seen any from me. I was added to their team to make stuff and since I was a stuff maker they no longer wanted me. It probably sounds silly now, but I think I walked away from that thinking that my pages weren't "good enough".
Lately I have been thinking about the importance of scrapbook pages. I love that through a scrapbook page I can preserve a memory and some thoughts along with photos. It really doesn't matter if anyone else loves what I make, it only matters that *I* like them and that my family smiles when they look at them and read what I wrote. I guess that is part of the problem of being a professional designer. You get so caught up in creating for others and wanting them to be pleased in what you do, that you sometimes forget to take a break and just create for yourself and for what is in your heart and to not care if it is the greatest page or card or project ever made.
Since I have gone to being a full time artist, designer, and teacher I find that I struggle with what constitutes my work day. I pretty much work all day every day and pretty much all of it is designing classes or assignments or other things that go along with the development and promotion of them. I have decided though that I am going to give myself a day off to just do and create whatever I want. I am going to play and create because I love to. I am going to use whatever products I want and not worry about how much of one brand or another is used, if it will be picked up for a class, if it is publication worthy, etc. I am just going to play.
I am happy to report that yesterday on my first Sunday Play Day I created two scrapbook pages and one altered art piece for no reason what-so-ever except that it made me happy. Those two pages, which featured my wee girl Emma, made her smile and feel like a rock star because mommy made art about her and wrote about her love of Duff. Her little smile reminded me that I need to make pages and preserve more of the little moments in our lives. They don't have to be masterpieces, they just need to be little glimpse into our lives created with heart just "because'. So with all of those deep thoughts shared, how about a peek at one of those pages?
