It's All In My Head

I've just had a bit of a light switch go on.  When I scrapbook, or even quilt, I spend major amounts of time just thinking about what I plan to do.  I'm not quite sure if this is a waste of time or not...

I know there are people out there who sketch out the layout they want to have before they physically scrapbook. 

I don't do that.

I know other people who can just grab some photos, find some paper they like and then just start cutting and sticking and it comes out just beautiful.

I don't do that.

Then there are those who will find a layout in a magazine or online and copy it exactly (although with different photos and papers). 

I don't really do that either.

( I do find elements of a layout in a magazine or online and incorporate those, but I've only scraplifted an exact design a few times in my life).

When I want to scrapbook something, it starts in my head.  Like days... sometimes weeks... before I ever get to the projects.  And yet, I don't know what the end product will look like.  I plan on colors and photos and papers and embellishments and even sizes of photos.  But I have no idea what the end will look like until I get to, well, the end.  For example, the All About Me  blog hop I participated in earlier this year.  I said I would participate, and had no time to actually scrap... but in the meantime, I knew what chipboard book I was going to use, and what papers that I was hoarding that would be perfect for the project.  Then, since I knew how many pages I had to fill, I started thinking about topics for each page, and once I came up with the appropriate number of topics, I started thinking of photos to fit the topics.  Once I found all of my photos I had to find appropriate sizes for them to print them in, since the book was a "mini" 6x6 album.  Then, as I mentioned to Mel, I threw it all together last-minute.  I love the outcome of it, but I had spent a week or more just planning it in my head, with no real layout thoughts, sketches or ideas... just the elements. 

I find myself sitting, even while reading a book, and coming up with thoughts like that... a certain photo will pop into the eye of my memory and I will think, Oh, that would go well with this paper, or this title, or this [fill in the blank].  Or, I think of a topic I want to explore, in the good ol' "explore your inner world" way of SFTIO... and I'll even remember a photo that I'll have to seek out that would fit the topic perfectly. 

Sometimes I write these ideas down.  Most times I don't.  Those that I do, I often lose where I wrote it.

But I never, ever, ever have the end product, the outcome of the layout or project, as a clear picture in my mind.

Does anyone else do this?  Or am I just weird? 

That's okay, really... I'm okay with weird.