Beautiful Oops

Let me first say that I'm a rather messy scrapbooker/crafter, always have been, but now that I've added stamps to my repertoire it's a little more of an issue. I finally finished up Carina's July layouts, but in doing so, managed to have an 'oops'. I left a stray ink line from the edge of my block on the cardstock when stamping one of the letters in the title. (It's the line on the left side of the 'r'. I wish I had the presence of mind to take a picture of the oops when it happened, but no luck there.)

After venting a fair amount of frustration and annoyance, I went about trying to correct the problem. First I tried sanding, but the line was too dark to do this. Then I thought, why not make this part of a random pattern. So I proceeded to stamp a series of lines on the header using the edge of my block. I also sanded the edges of the paper so that the area around the 'r' didn't look out of place.



I really liked the effect and ended carrying it throughout the layout. I really like the subtle pattern/texture it gives the cardstock, and you really can't tell it was an oops.

And, I was reminded of Barney Saltzberg's book 'Beautiful Oops'. This is a great book for kids who get frustrated when their projects don't turn out the way they planned, but it's a wonderful lesson for the rest of us as well. You can see the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZjMYdQjGM

You might also want to check out Jeanette Lynton's blog (the founder of Close to My Heart). She has a series called Weeks of Wonder, and in February did five posts on how to fix stamping mistakes. The first is here: http://www.jeanettelynton.com/2011/02/week-of-wonder-oops-stamping-flubs.html.

So, want to see how it all worked out in the end?







Not too bad, right? I also wanted to share my other July layout. No stamping, but I had a lot of fun playing with circles in putting this one together. I like my layouts to lay relatively flat, but for those of you who like the dimension, CTMH's circular dimensional elements would work perfectly with a layout like this.




Hope you enjoy these and they spark your creativity and inspire you to create your own beautiful oops. :)

CTMH Products Used:
Stamps: Friendship Alphabet Large, Happy Clusters
Inks: Tulip
Papers: Tulip, Bamboo, White Daisy