I was recently working on a layout and I pulled out my circle cutter to make a ring. This required the cutting of two circles; the first was the inner circumference of the ring, the second was the outer circumference. Everything went reasonably well until the time came for me to complete the outer circle and the starting and end points didn't meet. I thought to myself, "This is the second *&%#@! circle cutter I've purchased and it doesn't work either!" And no, I'm not chalking it up to "operator error" because it should not take a rocket scientist to use a circle cutter.  So I gave it another try. And again, I ruined my ring. It needed to be perfect. Or did it? Rather than waste my precious patterned paper, I asked myself, "What would Elsie do?"

   Now I realize that Elsie Flannigan's free and fun style doesn't suit everyone. It doesn't always suit me but the subject of this particular layout was my son, Justin. He was hanging upside down on a bar and smiling broadly from ear-to-ear. He was being carefree and having fun. If this wasn't an opportunity to get funky and fancy free, I don't know what was.  I proceeded to make more perfectly imperfect graduated rings to frame Justin's face.  Next I inked the inner and outer edges of the rings. Then I inked the perimeter of my 12 x 12 foundation paper. I added an arrow, dangled a star, and added a few more impromptu touches and the result was a layout that I love.

Epitome of Joy Layout by Tracy Marshall

   Since it turned out so well, I've tried to channel my inner Elsie on a few more layouts. It's kind of fun to take a liberated approach to scrapbooking from time to time. It's kind of fun to not worry about straight lines, symmetry and balance, or the elements of design (whatever they are). It was also kind of fun to not rely on tools that don't always work the way I expect them too. So, even if the current unstructured and unconventional scrapbooking trend didn't initially appeal to you, give it a try. You might like it more than you ever thought you would. And by the way, if you know of a fool-proof accurate circle cutter, let me know!