Friday, February 22, 2013

02/22/13 - Ugly Papers Need Love Too

Happy Friday to you!

I'm here today to extend some love to "ugly papers" and share a layout that I created 2 nights ago that I had a lot of trouble starting.
The reason for my troubles was that the dominant "color" in the picture I was scrapping was my husband's plaid shirt and I was having trouble finding a BG paper that made me happy.
The shirt is a mixture of orange, black, and white.
Sure I could have gone w/ just one of the colors and called it a day, but I just wasn't 'feeling it' when I laid my pic against each of the them. The 'one color' BG was just too boring and since I was scrapping a one-pic layout,  I really wanted something w/ a little "oomph"! 
 
It took me a while but eventually I gravitated to a "Fall Stack" paper pad I have had in my stash for about 4 years (maybe more!).  When I bought it I just "had to have it"! But when I got it home and tried to work w/ it. I found that only a small portion of the papers actually worked for me.  In fact after flipping through it I found a lot of the paper's to be pretty darn ugly, LOL!
So there it sat, with only occassional use.  After 4+ years it still looks as full as when I bought it depite the fact that I did use some of.
 
Anyway, I digress...back to my story.
As I was flipping through the stack I came across a piece of paper that I remember thinking was  hideously ugly the first time I saw it, however, this time I was drawn to it. 
Yes, it was still ugly but the colors and design perfectly matched my husbands shirt.
(Funny thing because my husband's shirt is not ugly, it's actually one of my favorites!)
 
I decided to use it, but I still had my doubts because I did not like the paper by itself.
 
Since I was also following a sketch...



 
I decided to put the BG paper aside and work on the other elements first.
I thought that the strips of paper on the side would be a good place to use the solid colors I was originally trying to use as my BG. I wound up needing one extra strip to really make it work and I substituted tan for white because the white was just standing out way too much!
Then I dug into my "Fall" embellie stash and another embellie stash that just happened to include a lot of Fall colors and arranged them around my picture to help draw the eye in. I also punched out a large circle in one of the coordinating colors, as per the sketch, and worked it in amongst the other embellies.

In the end this is what I came up with:



I am really happy w/ it!
I never thought that the paper I once hated would help me create a layout I truly love!

Now, go tell your "ugly papers" you love them!
LOL!


4 comments:

  1. That paper looks a lot like our family room rug! LOL! Isn't it amazing how "ugly" papers can look so good with the right photo and embellishments?! I love looking at the Ugly Paper challenges. It's so impressive what people do with seemingly hideous paper!

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  2. Ohhhhhhhhh that paper is PERFECT for his shirt!! I loveeeeeeeeeeeee this!! FABULOUS!!

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  3. I don't think the paper is THAT ugly. It's actually pretty masculine in a That 70's Show type of way. LOL Great job using paper that you don't really like. You rocked it out!

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  4. you did an awesome job with this layout and the stack! I have a similar story: just like you, I just had to "have" this stack back when it came out (& I really do think that it's way older than 4 yrs!) so I got it and I hated it pretty much immediately after I got home! I have used a few sheets here and there (mostly there) but it's still sitting on my back shelf. About a year ago, I took it out for a challenge by DCWV and made a double pager which is one of my fav Fall/Thanksgiving layouts now! :)

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Thanks for all your comments!!! They really mean a lot to me!!!

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