Gaining

I went to Fayetteville yesterday for a doctor appointment.  While there I planned to hit JoAnne's and the TM rumoured to have a much better inventory selection for scrapbooking supplies.  Imagine my surprise when TM was located in the same mall strip as HL!  Well, that works out just fine. No doubt about it; the Fayetteville store was all promised... and more!

At present, I'm collecting as many Basic Grey paper packs as possible.  (Only at greatly reduced prices, of course.)  They had two large packs.  Wow-za! The current passion for BG is that the company puts out an unique array of colours and patterns hard to find elsewhere.  And the paper quality is great.

I love Tim Holtz products, but most large box stores charge exorbitant prices and the rare times put up for sale, it's less than a significant margin. Until yesterday my Tim Holtz inventory consisted of four distress ink pads, and about five Sizzix Bigz dies.  I found two paper packs, a small and gigantic mask set, and a package of round cut out grunge board that I have NO idea how to put to use, but will eventually.  There might have been other items, but it's all put away and nothing else comes to mind.  (Oh! a butterfly border die!)

The grand find involved 7 Gypsies (yet another line tending on the expensive side).  They had a super-sized stamp set, 64 individual stamps, with every warning one could ever think of stamping on a page or envelope when mailing.

Note:  I need to rethink haul strategies.

Finally, though it's not related to scrapbooking, we stopped at a little antique/junk store I've wanted to visit every time we drive past it - 4 times every weekday.  They had quite the assortment.  Of all wonders, I found three history books published in the late 1800's, and a world atlas from 1937; pre-WWII era.  They weren't in perfect condition, but still!  While on the subject of books, the doctor gave me an outdated medical book for the asking.  There's real scrapping potential with this one.

Now to the meat of this post.

One would expect a difference in quality between a new scrapper and one with six years under her belt.  I can spot the difference in less than a second when browsing LOs at scrapbook.com.  I suppose an innately artistic brain probably differentiates, also.  I'm putting a great deal of effort trying to decipher the differences between amateur and professional work.  So far, I've only been able to learn more advanced techniques, but haven't gotten the hang of combining these to make a WOW piece.  They happen occasionally, but it's mostly by accident.

While browsing through more professional LOs today, I stumbled across Dusty Attic, a blog with blow-away tutorials.  Maybe this will be the place, and ones similar to this, I can learn the tricks of the craft.

What would be absolutely wonderful would be to recruit a few semiprofessionals to not encourage the scrapper, but to critique works submitted.  The submitters would put out their best examples and find where room for improvement exists.  It would not necessarily be put-downs, but a place to learn, "this is good, but some shadowing would make a difference."  The concept is good.  Implementing it, another.