Go figure, it's Friday Night Again!

[Nevermore]

:D I am trying to settle into my new computer. It has some good things but I sadly miss my desktop. Even though it has twice the RAM, I don't think the processor is as good and it often sighs and whines as it chews through my work. I find that slightly discouraging and often annoying. Tonight it completely refused to finish a transformation for me and froze. I had moved 8 layers into a smart object on my Irony layout and was working on making the woman into a ribbon with frayed edges. Got nearly all the way done (and it took forever!) before the program froze. By the time I got it going again, I gave up on the frayed edges because the Smart Object was lost and I was just too darn tired to start from zero.

I have about 5 pieces in progress and am chuffed about it. Feast or famine. Ever since I started quirking, I scrap a lot less. You would think that would make me unhappy but it doesn't. I spend a lot more time fooling around with stuff. You will even notice I have started calling my layouts "pieces" instead of layouts. Yeah, I can be a moron but I think it is good for me. I think in my mind I am making a shift re what I do. Until recently I said I scrapped. Now I say I muck around with digital graphics. Not quite 100% true because I still rely heavily on kits and design elements made by scrappers but I think my focus has become sharper. I never was into preserving memories, I just did it because that is what scrappers do, no? And I always thought of my other stuff as faux scrapping. Now I think of my other stuff as the real stuff and scrapping is my faux hobby. Okay, stop yawning. I realise that this is well trodden ground for many here but I am SERIOUSLY impressed that I am thinking like this. And putting it out in public. It just makes me so darn happy.

I realised when I responded to AmyK's post re family that I have not given a single soul the link to my gallery here. I really feel free. I don't have to use pictures of my kid and I don't have to worry about input (I never worry about the kindred, their comments are always either supportive or funny or useful).

I am trying to relish this as much as I can because I don't know if it can get any better. I don't know enough to be hyper critical of my stuff or to have unrealistic expectations, I have tons of stuff simmering in the pot, I have kazillions of different raw materials and tons of totally nifty tools. To top it off, I have a name. Jeez, do you think I should buy a beret?:cool:

[AmyK]

Raven, I am SO glad to read all this from you! I remember just a few weeks ago, you were feeling stagnant. So I am very glad that your creative juices are flowing again. (Bummer about the lost frayed woman, though.)

I could have written your second paragraph. I am beginning to seriously rethink what I do too. I realize that I am doing the scrapping thing for me, and not for the kids. Will they really look through all their pages when they grow up and feel so glad that I made thousands of pages of them? I doubt that the moment they first touched their toes will seem so important when they are 17. But I know I like looking at it, so I will continue to do it for me. And maybe now I'll get some of my memories on the page at the same time. So I look forward to seeing what you've got stewing in your pot!

When you get your beret, you must make a piece with it. :)

[happyrobyn]

Yes I agree as well! Scrapping really comes secondary to me these days. I get bored on the cute and meaningless layouts. I see so many scrappers scrapping every single day of a kid's life! It sometimes gets monotonous! This artform is for me more than the kids but I hope they will like what I've created!

[Nevermore]

Yeah, Amy, it is a mental turnaround--laughing that you remember my whining. I was in despair there for a little while! Cannot do the beret piece until I finish the challenge I started (your best aluminum foil headgear used to prevent alien voices from taking over your head).

I hope it didn't sound like I am anti-scrappers because I am the opposite: compared to any other group I have ever been associated with on the web (and I go back to Mosaic days!) they are consistently positive, upbeat and supportive. Not to mention gobsmackingly generous. I think that they are wonderful. My point is more that my stuff is often dark and non memory related compared to the average layout. Case in point, I was the first person I know who designed a kit for scrapping death. And not a cherub or angel in it. Many of my Max layouts are dark: Max as an itinerant sailor, as Hansel, as a Midwich Cuckoo, as sandwiched between reality and fantasy, as falling off the edge of the earth. I think that a lot of these were emotion evoking rather than memory saving. And now that I know that that is what excites me, I can leave off the memory stuff altogether if I choose. It just gives me a whole new frame of reference because I can jettison the scrapping. I have started doing things at whatever size I feel like: and it doesn't have to be square.

I saw your response on the other thread and was a little chilled to hear that your folks "follow" you. That doesn't sound very nice (hope I am not offending you).

[Vania16]

Your thoughts sound very familiar Nevermore. From the beginning, I took to digital scrapping as an artistic outlet. I always felt like an artist, but never had the skills to really create anything. I couldn't believe that I could actually create these little works of art (as DH calls them :) ). I was completely addicted to learning everything I could - that's how I'm feeling now again - just playing around with a bunch of different stuff (although not finishing much yet LOL) and creating. It's very freeing not to have to hunt around for a good photo or some big memory to record. I still enjoy making layouts of the kids for my family members and documenting little pieces of my life, but it's great to just create and make the statement I want to make - not necessarily to preserve anything, but just because I feel it in the moment. This place has definitely opened up a whole new world of digital art to me and I'm loving it!

[Kazadoodle]

I'm so glad you've found your artistic freedom.

I came to digital scrapping after doing digi art and I'm finding the scrapping after a year a tad restraining - nay, make that boring - how did I put it someone else - oh yeah - slap down a photo, add some stuff, say some words - sigh.

I prefer to do more off beat scrapping - like my Sad Fairy but that piece was very unpopular in the galleries I posted it in - mostly because it used dark colours and grunge - for a toddler girl! Instead of pink and/or pretty - bleah. But my girl isn't the pink and pretty type all the time - she has her dark moods, just like everyone else, and I'm not talking the usual kiddie tantrums either. A friend of mine did this really awesome LO of her DD throwing a major tantrum, which she entered into a comp - needless to say, she didn't win even though her work was heads and shoulders over the winner - why? Coz no-one wants to see a photo of a temper tantrum throwing kid - crying cutely is different - that will win.

Sorry for the saga and rant folks.

[webchyck]

I think we are all in this place. I'm still going to scrap...but my goodness it's mostly been about ME this year. And I'm fine with that! But finding out that I am truly a CREATIVE, VISUAL, ARTISTIC person that can actually create a mood or a feeling or send a message via my digital art? WOW! That is empowering! Liberating! Cathartic! Therapeutic! And to have a place where something other than Mommy Scrapping is applauded and encouraged, well, that is just icing on the cake. I made that shift from "layout" to "art piece" or "artwork" recently, too. It's this affirmation within myself: THIS IS ART! I CREATE ART! And I never, ever, ever thought of myself that way in my whole entire life!

And yet, there is this creative thread that runs through my family. My grandfather was a caricaturist of sorts, really cute portraits and doodles I've found in his sketch books; plus later in his life he got into painting on fabric--I have a great quilt of airplanes he did--they are very realistic; my mom has a flower one he did. Plus, he was into making duck decoys, too. My aunt and cousin are both incredibly gifted in the visual arts and she musically (though she never did anything with any of it). My brother works in event production, heavily involved in creating the lighting (so visual, eh?), and my mom used to do a little watercolor painting. And then our son is a musician, our daughter is a writer, actor, and singer--so YES we are creative people! I just never really thought about it relating to ME before.