Do it your way, not the way you’ve been told you have to do it

Do it your way, not the way you’ve been told you have to do it is a quote from the SDL Blog I discovered today. He was talking about blogging but it can relate to anything really can't it?

I went to scrapping and card classes for a long time. About 6 yrs, at the start we all followed our teacher by doing exactly as she did like lil sheeple. But as I grew into my own artistic skin more ( I never believed I had any art in my soul so it took sometime to get believing) I started to mix up the elements we were using and do them my way. 

A lot of people like to make exact copies or as close to as they can.. I saw this a lot on 12 tags of christmas with all the linked in tags. So many looked just like T!m's. I thought that was pointless. T!M said countless times he wanted to see what we could come up with utilising his techniques.

Some people just like to do the exact thing as others for fear of having to think up their own stuff. Some people are too scared to change anything for fear of failure, or making their teacher unhappy or a whole host of other reasons. 

When it comes to my projects though I always want to do them my way... Maybe it's the Leo in me lol. What has happened though is that people express themselves less and less and just constantly copy. That is just so damn boring.

Be yourself! If your in a class with anybody from T!m Holtz to a class at your lss and there is anything from an element to the entire layout you want to change, DO IT! Don't let fear stop you. I always wanted to make a pretty pretty l/o the one I made wasn't what I originally envisioned but so what. I think It's beautiful and that's all that matters! If you think your work is beautiful then that's all that matters!

We all have different styles and preferences in the way we create and what we create. If we didn't the whole world would be a single colour boring as bat ^%$& monotonous place. Any form of art is about self expressing! Don't be a sheep. Have an opinion, have a style all your own, Don't be scared to let it shine! 

I started this blog for several reason. One was to create more. I also just wanted to start sharing. I have found so much inspiration online, if I can inspire just one person I would be ecstatic! Another reason was to create more in my way and shake off the cobwebs of past lessons and my own thinking in what I create is not that special. The fact is a lot of people love my style. But the most important thing is I love my style and am finally finding out what that is...

As a matter of fact a lot of things I have been creating lately have challenged my perception of what exactly my style is. Forcing me to face the fact that I am not as scared of bright colours as I thought I was... I still love the pastel colour palette but now I know I can work a wide range of colours and quite successfully at that! IMO anyway haha. And in the end THAT'S WHAT COUNTS!

No matter how many you should do's I hear or I would have done it this ways I just do it my way. Success or fail I tried my way and am going to be far happier with myself for giving it a go rather than letting people push me in directions far removed from my original plan. But I am also flexible. If someone has an idea I like I will incorporate it :) 

It's ok not to like everyone's style, it's ok not to like mine even so long as you find and are happy with your own.

Also if you don't like what someone makes SHHHHHH don't rain on their parade. Smile politely and say it looks like you put an awful lot of work into that! Be non comittal lol it's better than saying no I hate it or bloody hell that's horrid... Think of how hurt your feelings would be if someone said something nasty to you about something you made! If it's on some random blog don't say anything at all! Just leave!


I hope people are not too offended by post. I was a sheeple. I am freely admitting it. It's a great way to start when you are new. But there comes a time to say I'm a butterfly and break free of the protective coccoon!
I will do a post  on the page inspired by this at a later date :)

Sorry didn't mean to get on my soap box! But the words just sent all this tumbling from my fingertips... lol Rant Over!

I do have a challenge though! If your attending a class or have bought a kit with the thought in mind to copy exactly what was done with the kit in the first place, take a moment to consider how you can change it in some small way... Seriously start small if you cannot think of how to change big things don't worry it will come! I started by changing the placement of one or  two elements to make things more pleasing to my eye. From there things bubbled and brewed til I completely changed whole scrap pages. They still retained the main essence of the lesson but I did it my way!...

If you take part in my challenge link me up. Show me your work. Tell me what you changed. Even if it is as simple as one flower! I promise to look at every one. Small changes can lead to great things :)

Happy Scrappin'

Purple