Take the Scrapbooking Bull By the Horns

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Sep 7, 2010 | View Comments

Sometimes you have to take the bull by the horns.

I wrote last week about the fears I had about my daughter starting a brand new school.  Needless to say, I was dreading the arrival of the first day of school.  As the day grew closer, I began to realize that I wasn’t the only one who was starting to get nervous…my daughter’s nerves were starting to get the best of her.  That night before school began was a tense one, and I went to sleep wondering what the next day would hold.  The next morning was rushed…as you can imagine, seeing that all four of us started school on the same day.  I barely had a minute to think about how she would react to the change.  It wasn’t until I was halfway through my first class that I thought about it.  I put it out of my head, fighting the urge to call my parents to see how it went, fearing the absolute worst.

Want to know what happened?

She was fine.  In fact, she was great.  She was a brave, brave girl walking to her class with no fear.  In the midst of all the nerves, the nerves of all the people around her, she pushed forward and was brave.  Later, when I asked her how she managed to be so brave, she said to me, “I knew I just had to do it Daddy.”  At six years old, my daughter took the bull by the horns and faced her fears head on.  I’ve never been so proud of her.

It got me thinking…how many things are we afraid of, and not willing to face?  Why are we always so reluctant to look our fears in the face and say, “You don’t scare me.”  I’ve decided, that for the rest of 2010, I am going to try and live by my daughter’s inspiration and take the bull by the horns.

It didn’t take long before I was face to face with one of my biggest fears.

I love pattern paper, and I especially love pattern paper backgrounds.  I am always reluctant to use a pattern paper as a background because I can never figure out how to add the journaling to the layout.  I don’t usually journal on tags or such, so I need a good space to journal right on the page.  Well when I went to make a page about the first day of school, I the pattern paper v. journaling fight came up.  I had a pattern paper that I was dying to use as a background, but it would prevent me from journaling right  on the page.   I tried everything.  I tried journaling on it, I tried using a solid instead, I tried journaling somewhere else.  I was reaching frustration, and then it came to me….

take the bull by the horns

I put the pattern paper back, and layered a solid directly underneath it, so you could see the pattern paper, but not the solid.  Then I took a distressing brush, and set it at a low opacity.  I took the brush, and I started to lightly erase the pattern paper in the journaling spot, revealing the solid underneath.  I did it very lightly, until I had created a block that would be good for me to journal in.  When I was done, the effect was something like taking a piece of sandpaper to a paper and wearing the paper away in that space.  This is the completed layout, which I have fallen in love with.

What Scrapbooking fears will you take head on for the rest of 2010?  Are you ready to take the bull by the horns?  We’re here to help…just let us know how.

Let’s talk in the comments below.