Getting Out of My Comfort Zone

I'm usually a fairly clean and simple kind of scrapbooker.  I don't tend to use a ton of product clustered together on my pages, though I admire those who do this well.  I think those LOs look like works of art.  I do, however, LOVE learning new techniques, so when I saw that Mou Saha was teaching a class at Big Picture Classes that would show how to use multimedia products like modeling paste and India inks, I couldn't wait to sign up.

Boy is she taking me out of my box.

I've done 3 LOs so far, and only really like one.  Not because of the techniques, but because I don't feel successful with them yet.  It's like when I look back at my first scrapbook pages and just shake my head.  I've come a looooooooooong way since then.  And I know that with practice I will get better at this new style, too.

Until then, I'll just share the one I like.  :)

We used gesso and Faber-Castell gelatos to create the background.  The gesso primer allows you to do a reverse stenciling technique and lift the color off the page.  I'm really loving the gelatos -- there are a ton of ways to use them, and they blend so nicely.  This LO is pretty much a total scraplift of the one Mou did for class.

I challenge you to try a style completely different from your own.  And do it BADLY!  I mean, really make a stinker of a LO.  Because I believe that making mistakes is when learning really happens.  Then take that LO and cut off the parts that you like and throw the rest away.  Even if it's just a section of background that you could punch some butterflies out of.  That's what I did with my modeling paste LO. 

It was TERRIBLE.  But I liked the actual modeling paste parts.  So I cut them out and will try to use them on something else.  I still learned how to use the paste, and what colors of gelatos just shouldn't be on a page together.

In case you're interested, the class is Get Artsy at Big Picture Classes.