RealCrappy - DIE, Di-cuts!!

It's hard to say which element of paper scrapping I miss the least, but I think di-cuts are in my top three. I think most paper scrappers have figured this out, because it's pretty much gone the way of the dinosaur. I don't know--am I wrong? Do paper scrappers use them anymore? There MUST be such a thing a cute page using di-cuts. There MUST be a reason we used them. They were good for lettering I suppose, though you were so limited in your fonts.

This is the very first page I ever scrapbooked. Though the pictures are from as early as 1993, I think I actually scrapped it in 1995 or so.

Now, believe it or not, I have pages that are much worse later on. I remember when I first did it, I was quite proud of it. Now I'm a bit horrified. I need to do a whole 'nother post on cutting pictures into stupid shapes. But the di-cuts in this are just plain stupid. Why the fire-cracker, WHY? I guess I can understand the multi-colored dancers, but what is with the 70's hearts? This thing is just full of di-cuts.

Oh I remember it well. Going to a scrap store--but only after I had called in advance and reserved a time with the di-cut machine. Apparently in 1995 there were actually LINES of people waiting to destroy their memories with tacky di-cuts. I was no exception. I'd go and make a whole ton of di-cuts of various things, with no real plan of what they would be for and just a vague hope that one day you'd use it. Which I guess would explain why there were so many erroneous di-cuts on my pages later on--I was just trying to get rid of stuff. I have a massive fear of wasting stuff--I'm even worse now that I'm older. I often sacrificed art for the sake of not wasting a 10 cent di-cut.

Ok. This was my FIRST page. Of course I sucked. IS it possible to do a cute page with di-cuts? I'm gonna go search my stash and see what I can find...

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...I found one! This has a lot of di-cuts, and it's still kinda cute! This is from much later--I probably scrapped this in about 2002. I have a HUGE book from my 18 months in Africa as a missionary. And I must say I don't cringe on most the pages--they are still pretty cute. Paper scrapping got SO much better in the 2000's. That's a whole 'nother post too!

Ok, here it is:

I think with this one, more sophisticated di-cuts were now available, and I'd learned the chalking technique, which made di-cuts look a little less flat and boring. So I guess di-cuts aren't that bad--just the ones from the 90's!

Well, perhaps it isn't fair of me to pit against each other layouts that are seven years apart--I had gotten much better, and so had the scrapbooking industry. And that's one thing about it--scrapbooking is always improving. We are always finding way to fine-tune it and make it better. To me, doing it digital is one of those ways!