Scrapping my way out of a slump

I don't know about you but sometimes I find it REALLY hard to scrap.  And when I say hard, I mean literally pulling over every single sheet of patterned paper, cardstock and photo I own only to end up packing it all away again. More often than not, these slumps happen when I actually have an opportunity to scrap or have specifically made plans to scrap with friends.
Not only is it very frustrating but in some ways it is a bit humiliating to be sitting surrounded by gorgeous layouts and talented people only to feel like an EPIC failure. I know that 99.9% of this is totally my head playing games with me but at least I have lots of memories of great times spent with awesome friends.  Plus there is the simply joy that comes with being with like-minded people and NOTHING beats that.
My latest slump came at one of those *really* inopportune times - Donna and I packed our stashes and headed out to Lauren's place for a weekend of scrapping.  Lauren and Donna were churning out the layouts like there was no tomorrow while I sat there ratting through the stash. I lost count of how many times I attempted to start a layout, only to pack it away again.  In the end, I think I managed three layouts for the weekend and while not a waste (because layouts in the album is never a waste), it definitely wasn't the weekend I had anticipated.  Over the coming days, I will be sharing the layouts I worked on while at Lauren's and a few that I have done since then (most of which were the 'rejects' from that weekend lol).
Layout One - A Boy and His Chook.
Not in love with this layout - was experimenting with layering but I think it is proof that I need to work on that technique some more lol.

Layout 2: Our Little Mate is based on the October Sketch with a Twist Challenge over at Scrapbook Savvy.  I have changed up the layout a bit with the size of the banner strips but still very similar all the same. The photo I have used is one of Mitchell in one of the paddocks of wheat that Tony has grown this season.

And a close-up of some of my current and long time favourites: Greatest View Chevron Badges, a felt star from Charm's Creations, wood veneer embellishments from Studio Calico and vintage Heidi Swapp verb stickers. 

Layout3: These Beautiful Girls is another one of those hmmmmmmmmmmm layouts - one where you know that it is ok but still not what you were thinking. On the upside, it is another wedding photo scrapped.  Maybe I will have scrapped them all by our 20th Wedding Anniversary lol. Loving Echo Park's 'This and That Graceful' Collection:

Ok that is it for now.  I will be back over the coming days with a few more shares.  I spent part of the weekend focused on scrapping as it will be the last of it for a while I think.  I am scheduled for shoulder surgery in less than two weeks which means lots of work to do ahead of then to tie up all the lose ends at school.  If only the late nights ahead of me were going to be spent with pretty patterns instead of blue lines filled with responses to exams and assignments lol.
Thanks for stopping by.
S xoxoxo