by Ethan Johnson
July 28, 2007

(Updated below.)

Hey! I finally finished a one-off layout. I uploaded the nearly finished version to scrapbook.com, where it was met with cricket noises (as of this writing). Oh well. Good thing I'm not in this for the glory. Here's the finished layout:

I did this layout partly as a confidence booster, since all of the uber-creative layouts I dig up online and in magazines are really intimidating to los n00bs like me. Considering that art was my "thing" for many years, I'm feeling really removed from anything artsy these days and am having difficulty expressing my visions tangibly. The other reason was, despite this being an intentionally silly exercise, I managed to twist the "nothing" concept into something of personal significance. And what do I say all the time in my layout roundups? That's right, everything and everything can be expressed as a scrapbook layout. Here's proof.

I see this car around our neighborhood all the time, and after noticing a rash of beige Beetles around town all of the sudden, I went on a mini-rant to Mar one day and declared that someone CHOSE to drive a beige Beetle. It's not like the good old days where beige means you bought it used and you were stuck with it. As told in the journaling block (click here to view a larger image):

I really struggled with the title. Actually, considering how sparse this layout is, it took days (!!!) to complete because that's the joy of creative pursuits, and I'm a fool for production. Ask me my opinion about how important production was to The Dark Side of the Moon sometime. I knew going into this that I wanted to do a fairly monochromatic color scheme, to play off of the "beige is boring" theme. I used plain chipboard letters and glued appropriate patterned paper to the top of them, then cut away the excess to help the title blend in and stand out all at once.

To fill in the lower left-hand corner without overpowering the sparse layout, I had cut out some embossed hearts to try our new embossing die and I layered the two cuts to add character without being a distraction. Since this is a Manly™ layout (you can tell because it is about a thing, and not people/pets), I thought the hearts would look too corny or feminine, but I think they work in the context of the journaling block.

Anyway, I think it turned out OK as a first effort in working with 12x12 paper. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged.

Update 8/1/2007: Wow, my layout was featured on the front page of scrapbook.com. That's only going to encourage me to make more! Gaaaah!

And there are some comments now. Hooray! (end update)

Since the sight of a man in the scrapbook section of craft stores, or in a scrapbook supply store is apparently very unusual in these parts, and considering the sheer volume of dirty looks I get from the other customers, I think I'm going to have to come up with a series of "LOLmen" to kindly and gently assert my right to shop at Jo Ann Fabrics and Michael's while retaining my Man Card. For those of you who aren't in the know about LOLcats, here is an example:

Here's my contribution to society:

Supply list:

Paper: (Plain) Bazzill Basics
Paper: (Patterned) American Crafts, Lasting Impressions
Lettering: (Chipboard) Basic Grey Mini Monos
Lettering: (Computer) Trebuchet MS font + Macromedia Fireworks 4
Journaling Block: My Mind's Eye
"Just Be You": My Mind's Eye
Brads: Making Memories
Embossed Hearts: Sizzix
Corner Rounders: EK Success

See you in the craft room, like it or not! <EM>

(Want more scrapbooking articles? The full list may be found here.)