Planned pages vs. grab a pic and go

hmmm...I'm not sure what power-type LO's are...but usually I take a picture, decide on the colour scheme and then either just follow my gut or if I'm in a scraplifting mood (*eg*), I look through mags, sketches or at other scrappers LO's for inspiration. I do enjoy the "gut-feeling" LO's the best, but I must admit that the scraplifting LO's do look more "professional" :)

Judy, SA

Deb, is "drive by picture picking' a new term? LOL Thats too funny!! I have done power layouts before, usually when I plan on going to a long day of cropping.But it does take a bit of time to pre-pick the pics, and then pick out all the paper, cardstock, embellishments, maybe do some journaling ahead of time..etc.... Funny thing is, I do get a lot of pages done that way, but a lot of times I find that i excercise my womans' perogative of changing my mind once I get where I am going! LOL This especially happens if i go to a LSS to crop, and they have more way cool stuff to pick from than what I brought with me originally!! Cant pass that stuff UP ya know! hehe

I'm with ya Deb, on the feeling more challenged by the drive by pic picking...lol Linda C

I guess I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the "grab a pic and run with it" style. I am pretty sure that by power layouts you mean CM's power layout system of organizing and planning layouts, right?

For me, I choose a group of pictures then scrap them. I have had the power layouts explained to me but I just can't wrap my head around it. I make so many modifications and change my materials so often while scrapping one layout that setting up for the power layouts would be a waste of my time, lol.

I tend to choose quality over quantity which is why I can't think in the power layout way. I am in no way implying that people who use the power layouts aren't creative, it's just that scrapbooking a layout is more of a

*process* to me. I never know what the finished outcome will look like until it is done. JMO.

JennP.

Sorry to get you thinking Deb;>)

I definatly have more luck winging it than I do preplanning.

I've only "power scrapped" once. When I got to the crop, I ended up working on other pics instead, & the "power packs" are still sitting there waiting to get scrapped a year later. So I've never tried that again.

So far this week, I've done 2 single & 3 2page LO's & this is just reaching in & grabbing pics:>)

The only ones I've put back are ones that I know belong to another set that I have elsewhere. The ones I've already scrapped are going in an envelope marks as such & the ones I'm not going to are being put in a different envelope, also marked.

I'm actually really enjoying this process:>)

Good question Deb:>)

My version of power-layouts is to match up my pictures with a background and paper/cardstock for mats.

Well, I figure if we can come up with FLASS, floozy, GOBUSTER, etc, then why not "drive by picture picking"? LOL You might also blame it on the lack of sleep over the past couple nights. I know I'm tired when I'm wanting coffee in the afternoon.

Sometimes I simply pull a group of pictures, or single picture, from the photo box and start scrapping. (Hence the grab a pic and run with it.) I've never seen the CM power layout organizer, but it was discussed here some time back. When I do use the power layout idea, I just match up my pictures with background paper and paper/cardstock for mats. That's the closest I get, I think, to power layouts. LOL Even then, it's not surprising if I change my mind once I start on the actual layout.

LOL Thinking gets the mind working...or it's supposed to. Of course, in my case, I have to have a mind first. :-)

Sounds like you're also getting your pictures organized, too. WTG!

Good topic, Deb. I do a lot of stuff off the cuff. But when I'm working on a whole album, I usually power layout it so that the whole book has a look and feel to it. Usually it works well for me, though the prep work is often agonizing! However a while back I laid out a whole bunch of pages and then had to put the whole project away for a while. My reaction when I got back to it was "what the heck was I planning on doing with this stuff". So I put it away again! It is the next big project for me and I hope I have time to get to it before Xmas despite all the other stuff I've got going right now! For those of you who want to know more about power layouts, there is a section about on the RCS website. Look under Meet US and "Our Scrapbooking Tips, Techniques and Research"

M-C

I'm kind of a fly by the seat of my pants scrapper. I just thumb through my boxes of pictures and do the ones that tickle me. I've tried to do power layouts as Creative Memories suggested, but by the time I get to them I can't remember what I wanted to do with the paper and the stickers and the card stock. I think in order to make it work for me I'd have to sketch the LO too and when I've gone to that trouble I may as well make it. I'll have to read through the directions on the RCS page and see if there is a better way to keep the memory jogged. With the way I'm losing memories cells one would think I could just toss a few of those in the Power Layout box.

Lynne

I definately don't plan ahead, but then, I do. I mean, I'm always spending money on embellishments and papers etc and I have something in mind for it. However it may be years before I get to that particular picture set. Other times I just by stuff that I like and then when the mood hits me I've got a ton to choose from. The project I work on is based on my mood, what inspires me in that moment. Today I did two

2-page layouts of my son when he was a baby. I've been working on rescuing these pictures out of a scrapbook I made at the time he was that age that had been quickly deteriorating because the products were not as advertised. SO, I am unfortunately stuck working in chronological order. And I wasn't thrilled with where I was in the album. The pictures were boring and uninspired. But than I noticed that in the photographs was a stuffed baby duck with a bright yellow tuft of hair on his head... he goes Quack Quack Quack Quack Quack. We all loved this toy! Immediately I knew I had the perfect embellishment. A 3-D baby duck with a bright yellow tuft of feathers coming off his head. I'd hit the jackpot and an hour later I was finished with a beautiful LO. I choose the colors, fly by the seat of my pants and exhale in delight when I see the finished product, all unplanned but much inspired.

Thanks for the topic. I thought everybody planned ahead and that I was the weird one. Happy to be part of the group.

Melissa in Seattle pages in 2005=141

I go more toward my own version of power LO's. When I buy new paper I tend to go ahead and match the cardstock (a couple of different combinations). When I get home I put what I bought together in a bag and slide it onto the shelf instead of adding it to my stash. I have also been organizing some of my stash this way - a little at a time. Then when I get ready to scrap, I take my pictures and look through the bags first to see if I have a match already - chances are I do. I then check stickers, fibers and embellishments which I add to the bag. When I go to a crop I just grab a few of the bags and go. Lots of times I don't use every piece of the cardstock, or all of the stickers and other embellishments I had put into the bag, so all of the extra supplies will then go to my stash. I also use a lot of post-a-notes which I draw a rough LO of the idea on and add it to my bag just to help refresh my mind. When I get into one of my moods where I decide to scrap holidays for a while (I'm into Easter now - don't ask why....I don't know) I fill up one of the

12x12 highsmith boxes with easter colors of cardstock, paper, fibers, stickers and embellishments. Add my several years worth of pics and go. Last month at a crop I completed around 12 LO's ( 5 years worth of Easter). The pictures I decided not to use go into a totally separate photo storage box to be divided up among the kids later.

Sandy

I tend to be the 'drive-by picture picker'. I get inpsired by a picture or group of pictures, grab some papers and off I go. It seems to be easier for me to work that way. I tried to do power layouts and wasn't very successful at it. If I'm going to do all that planning, I'm going to put the pages together at the same time.

I do most of mine by power lo technique. I however put more than one paper selectio with the pix, and even sometimes that causes me frustration when tying to do them. I am having that problem now with my pet pix.

than I had to laugh out loud at ya'll saying you change your mind after doing it this way!! I am SO glad I am not the only one!! In fact I have a fw pages that I have piled here that I just don't like ANY of the stuff I put for them and just can not stand to look at them right now. I was sorting elier today and looked at a couple of tm and well back inthe pile they went.

I MAY try the pick it and do it some day!1 After all I have about 7 of those shoebox ones full to choose from!!

45 for 05 5 cards 1 swap of 13 pages

OKC Dave

New day, new thoughts...

So today I'm looking at the website and see the September Alternative Challenge to Scrap a Back to School theme. So immediately I'm hot and ready to go. The specific pictures in mind (wasting away in a box) were of my now 5th grader on the 1st day of school in the 2nd grade. So I'm going through this box of pictures and I discovered that at one time I "thought" about doing a power layout. I found several hundred pictures, presorted and precropped. Boy am I behind! Anyways, now I know they're there just waiting for me to put them together. So I gotta say, Power Cropping lead to power storing... Ah, well. Now they're on top of the pile so I will get to them (from time to time.) I see it as new inspirations I never remembered I had to choose from. My challenge is done, photog'd but not uploaded as yet.

Melissa in Seattle pages in 2005=144

I usually flip through my pictures, find a color I want to use that day that coordinates with it and go from there. That is how my layouts start. Then I start placing the pictures on the page in the order I want them to go in, and then I think about paper, embellishments, etc. I need to start getting serious about using my patterned papers since I really want to get the Slab

Well for my kid's chronological albums, I'm definitely a grab a pic and run with it gal. Every page is different.

I did do a house album that would fall under power-type because I kept to a single theme for the background for every page and varied the embellishments.

For my wall grouping...that was a year of careful planning...colors, patterns, embellishments. Then RJ straighten me out. Keeping with my photos, papers & embellishments I bought for the project, I let the pictures define the LO. They came out much better that way.

I've watched RJ put together albums without photos. I think it is amazing to watch. I'm just not to that skill level yet. I need the photo.

-- Amy L.