How long does it take you.....

to do a LO and what do you find the hardest?

It always seems to be the papers with me. I started a LO at lunchtime, and I put it away at 10.30 tonight...nowhere near finished.

I got my pics printed and for probably the first time, actually had papers that perfectly matched colours in the pics. Usually, it takes me hours to even choose the papers. I've spent hours and hours moving 3 sheets of paper around. Cutting layers, moving them, removing them, putting them back and so on and so on...........I got absolutely nowhere again. I think I'm going to have to choose different papers, but as I went through every sheet and book I had, gawd knows what I'll do.

Every single LO I do, I start with the same problem.

I'm the same, Lorraine. I'm always in awe of those scrappers who seem to be able to put together a whole 12 x 12 album in a matter of days or weeks.

I've actually started to force myself to be quicker, because I manage to say to myself that if it isn't too good, so what? It hasn't hurt anyone, I can still see the photo and the story that goes with it (I always have SOME sort of journalling on my pages) and it's DONE.

I still don't scrap much at home though. I tend to do mine at crops. Maybe the pressure is greater, so I'm forced to get on with it! Lol

Ive got quicker over time, but it is defintiely choosing the photo and papers togehter that takes most of the time, and then how to arrange them.

I have a box of photos to be scrapped and if i have say a sketch, I can spend an hour deciding which photo to use and then it takes another age to decide a paper and how to put it.

embellies and actually sticking it all together takes no time.

a layout used to take me 2-3 days (yes really) but now I suppose about half a day all in all. I rarely do it all in one bash - i walk away from it, pop on here for spells etc and it oftne looks different when i go back.

and the other thing is that despite havign two enormouf folders of paper an card I have never got the right colour (of blue in particular)

I tend to only scrap at crops and as I only take a few papers with me I find that less choice makes it easier to start. I choose the papers by colour and just kind of hope it falls together although in some case I have a specific set of papers in mind for a particular picture.

I watch people at crops and they layer everything, mess around with things and take hours to make one page, maybe I just don't have enough artistic insight to take that long, maybe I like a wide variety of styles, I don't know. Time spent usually results in a spectacular layout and I do envy people who seem to be able to do that type of layout. I just don't have the patience, maybe because I only scrap at crops. Then of course there are those who scrap relatively quickly, do brilliant layouts and talk and sing at the same time (I sit opposite Cal at most crops!!!)

well Ruth, your layouts are great, so i should carry on liek you are. I think my problem is exactly that - all my scrapping has to be done here and so i have full choice and its just too much choice.

the layouts I have been most pleased with have been either kits (where i didnt have to decide what went with what) or ones where i have sepnt ages on a particualr item say, the lettering or stitching or something. ie NOT the layouts where i spent hours moving and removing everything.

some i take ages over and some i throw together in minutes , and i dont really have a favour for which i like the best .

I'm like Kim - some can take days if I am faffing about, and the longer I leave them, the harder they get, but others I can put together in an hour or so (not minutes).

Yes, me too. Sometimes at a crop I simply whizz on and get it all done very quickly, but my biggest problem of course is colours! I am colour defective so there is often a problem when I think I have a blue bit of paper and it turns out to match all the leaves, so I know it really must be green!!! I do have difficulty though actually getting started and often waste at least two hours moving paper, embellies and most of all photos round and round on my worktop. My aim next year is to do layouts immediately I start and not pranny about so much - I am like you Bobs - it is for me, and me to enjoy, so why am I so paranoid about something not being quite right??? It is so good to know everyone else has problems too though! Why should I have them all?????

for me it is the journalling can never decide what to put. If am at the crop will often ask kim's advice - though she can come up with some funny ones

Well I got my LO done without changing the papers, but I'm really not happy with it.

Finished it about an hour ago, so that's 2 days.

If it was a complicated LO I could understand the time, but not something as simple as what I've done and even worse....I'm not happy with it at all.

Mind you, I have even more trouble making cards now. I used to zip through those when I first started.

Firstly does it matter, as long as you're having fun?
I've just done a LO in about 1.5hrs start to finish, BUT, big but, it was for a challenge that had to be done today, and there was a sketch, so all I had to decide on was pics and papers. Needed 3 photo's so that narrowed it down, and also needed scraps of papers so, that meant finding a colour scheme from my scraps box, but the quickest bit was probably me not looking through all my backing papers, then whittling down to 10 or so, then again. I didn't use any embellishments either (a bit scary a brad free LO). A deadline is what does it for me, and how special the photos are, if it's run of the mill stuff I can do it quickly, but favourite/special photo's take longer.
I actually enjoy sifting through all my papers though, and have twigged that if I get papers lined up for 3 or 4 LO's at a time then just bag them up, then they're ready for a crop or getting done when the urge takes me.
Some croppers take everything brads, ribbons, sketches, I've seen someone with a notebook and pics of LO's she scraplifts, each has a list of requirements with it, so she can work very quickly. So I think the answer is being organised, particularly having a plan/sketch in mind. Something that just doesn't happen for me.
Still, I enjoy it, and that's the point.

Well I did a very simple 8x8 LO tonight for the start of my Gatlinburg scrapbook. Took me about 45min to an hour to do.

The hardest part for me is lettering, however now I got my hippychick lettering to run through my sidekick that's all anyone's gonna see on any of my LO's now till I can afford another set

Wise words Alison. As long as we enjoy them. And, you don't have to
worry what anyone else thinks - they are for you and your family.
That's a good idea about selecting papers etc for 4 pages or so. I don't
go to crops but even to do them at home it could work for me.

Lorraine - If I'm not too happy with something, I don't stick it down until the
next day then I either think, I've slept on it and I like it, or I need to do something
else with it.

Takes me years to sort mine out, lol.