Curious.. What do YOU do in this situation?

So... you have planned your layout and created all the pieces spending several hours or maybe even a day or two working on it. You get it all laid out and UGH.......... You don't like it, or you don't like parts of it. All that time, all the trouble, all the materials you used. So???? Do you scrap it and do something else, or do you use it anyway and just deal with that you don't like it? I am curious to see how you all handle that. I have found myself in this situation as we speak and am going back and forth on what I want to do. LOL....

I have gone ahead and finished the LO only to find that I never like it. Now, I just don't do it. I would rather do it over and find another way to use what I have created.

Yes, I agree w/ the above statement.
And I have also done the same.
I would rather start over then to complete a layout in a way that I know will make me hate it later...

I have learned that if I don't like the layout when it is "finished" then I will never like it. There are plenty of times that I have rearranged layouts that I have posted here because I never did like them very well after seeing the photos! Even more recently a few of the layouts from last week........
the original
Wicked Lightning By Sewflake
reworked
Happy Halloween By Sewflake
Wicked changed By Sewflake

Not major changes but enough that I like them so much better!! There are others that I don't bother posting the changes. There is also one that I never did change and still hate the layout to this date!!!!

So......... my advice, make changes or start over!!

If I really don't like it then I recycle anything I can and start over. One suggestion: put your layout together without adhesive: glue it down when you are in love with it.

Yep, I don't glue anything down until I'm happy. Since it usually takes me several days at the very least to finish a page, I often use my phone to take pictures of it in process so I can compare different ideas and think about them. And remember how I'd laid everything out in the event that everything gets disrupted!

Yep, I don't adhere anything till I'm sure, after I've moved things around a hundred times! My friends and I always used to say " ready to commit" - then we'd bring on the adhesives!
But sometimes no matter how many different placements I try, I may still not be thrilled with the LO. I know it's just time to make peace with it and move on. It happens, they're not all going to be stellar!
Sometimes it's my choice of paper that throws me off.
I need to pay more attention to that and switch the pps before I get to far into it.

About half way through most LOs I think I am going to hate them...especially the ones that I am winging it without a plan or concept. But most the time by time I am done I am usually pretty happy with the out come. You timing is impecable, though. I am going through this right now. I have a LO that I started and just can't seem to get into. I am going to try to finish it anyway. I haven't commited with adhesive yet, so I still may try to make small adjustments. But I really want to finish it today no matter what...so onward I go.

I just would redo it, but still save all the stuff you have already done. Never know you will probably use it somewhere down the line.

I just deal with the fact that I don't love it and move on. There are lots of other pages to make, so there's a good chance I'll enjoy the next one. I don't like to spend too much time stressing over something that didn't turn out quite like I had planned.

Tiffany

As I create a layout, I move things around like crazy until I start to see it come together in a way that is pleasing to me. Then I walk away for anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day. If upon my return, I still like what I see, I then pull out the adhesives. If instead I see things that I now don't like, I remove or continue moving things around, adding a different picture, etc. It's always a process for me.

I have no issues with getting rid of an entire layout and starting over. I need to know that when I look at the layout months later, I am going to be happy with it even with little mistakes.

I've made one LO that I hate. It was DT work for a challenge, and everyone else politely said they had no idea what my problem was. It's still in its place in my album, and I still cringe when I come across it. I love the photos, the LO, the journalling and the title, it's the embellishments and colour craziness that I don't like - and they were the challenge part. I might remake it one day or I might accept the fact that I'm probably the only person who cares.

I agree with don't adhere policy)

I also try to catch myself if I don't like it before I really don't like it. At that point, take a photo. Sometimes seeing it flat on the screen is different than seeing it on a worktable, and you get the impression of what's wrong. With me, it's usually one of the patterns doesn't fit, though the colors match. Or there is no visual triangle. Anyway, don't finish if you don't like it already - you'll hate it even more)

Thanks Everyone for the responses. Thank goodness I had not adhered anything. It is a cute little page that I had made some candies with a swirl in them and had put glitter on all the candies and when I started laying them on the page, it just wasn't doing it for me. I just bought a Cricut explore and am new to it and so also to the inking the edges and such and it took me a day and a half to do all the candies... but in the end I trashed them. I don't like them now and won't like them on anything else either. So working on new candies and I am so happy that I trashed the others. Going to take lots of practice on the shading the edges but that's the fun of learning something new.

to be honest...I would start over or use the stuff on something else.. I do not want any pages in my album that I do not LOVE. I had that happen many times.. I didn't finish the page unless I LOVE IT I had a drawer of unfinished hated layouts that I stopped. Lol

Hi! A newbie here to the forum but thought I'd just jump in! I would probably do a couple things...one is "call it good", two is "walk away and come back" three is " take a photo ". The last one is handy as you can actually get a different perspective when you look at the photo. I often take photos of my layout in progress to remember how it's laid out-especially since I like lots of layers. I may have tossed part of a layout and started over, but not often. I'M a slow scrapper, so call it good is ok with me:)

I don't have a page in my scrapbooks that I hate. Life is too short to have bad LOs in your books. I cannibalize the just-made LOs I'm unhappy with and move on and figure there's surely a page I can do that I'll LIKE!

But I also don't adhere until I'm happy with the design, even though I may change it in the adhering process.

And the idea, above, of a photo of the work-in-progress is a great one! I'm going to try it!

I just finished a layout that looked absolutely nothing like the image in my head. No matter which way I placed the pics, nothing worked. Now when I look at it, I see I used the wrong background paper. I asked my son (it's for his book, he's and he said he loved it. So I left it alone. I have to let it go and move on to the next project.

I don't think each page is supposed to be gorgeous. I'm finding that even if I hate my pages, my family likes them and in the end, that's all that really matters to me.

Good luck w/ your projects!

I do this same thing. I even had a piece of 13x13 plexiglass cut and once I've laid out my page (without glue), I lay the plexiglass over it and walk away. When I come back later, if I like it, I get out the glue - if not, I start over. At least I haven't wasted a lot of product that way.

Another thing to consider is that our tastes change over time and a layout we ADORE today may be cringe-worthy in 5 years! Then what?! LOL!

I never glue anything down until everything "feels right". Sometimes my finished layout looks nothing like my original concept. Recently I was working with an 8 x 10 photo of my daughter in a cream colored lace dress and I was having a terrible time with the background paper. I changed it 3 or 4 times before it felt right. Then the embellishments were giving me fits. It took me about 3 weeks to get it finished but once I found what worked everything fell quickly into place and I was thrilled with the outcome. I have given myself permission to not worry about "wasting" paper if an idea doesn't work out and that feels really good!

It may take me a while to come up with just the right elements and colors to make me happy; but, like a lot of others have already stated, I keep switching stuff around and adding and removing pieces before I ever adhere a single piece. I use a Page In Progress box with magnets to hold the various items in place until I'm satisfied. Some pages turn out better than others, but I have not had one that I hate since I started doing my LO's this way. If I don't like a LO I just keep at it until I do. Sometimes it helps to just leave it alone for a day or so and them come back to it. Sometimes it helps to go work on a different LO for a while, or even just go do something other than scrapping and sort of "recharge my batteries."

Yes, "leaving it alone for awhile" works wonders. Time gives you perspective.

It doesn't matter how time and money I've spent already, if I do not like it then I redo. I redesign and revamp it. That's what I do. I use my scrapbooking as living hobby but I'm always learning and challenging myself to get the best for each LO I create.

This is the one I was totally stuck on. I just pushed through...figured they can't all be winners right? But I actually like how it turned out.
Sunshine Beach(11) By Notanavgblond

Your layout is so cute!!

Oh, missuslucky, you are SO right there! I go back every once in a while and look at the first layout I ever did. Oh my! But I don't redo or change it because I want to be able to remind myself how far I've come!

Yes, my first layouts are horrific, but it really is fun to see the growth...