how do all my pages end up looking the same?

Another week passes by in a blur, but Monday seems to be my day to catch up on all things crafty. Probably because i have the house to myself so i feel that i can lounge about and do what i want. 

On UKS this week the blog bits talk about 'clean and simple'.  I do like this style but i have noticed that over the last few months my layouts all sort of look the same, probably because this is the style I default to when inspiration deserts me.

In an attempt to vary my layouts I thought i would have a look at Shimelle's sketch of the week but as i have just printed off 150 photos, none of which are bigger than 4x6, the sketch didnt work for me this time. Not to be defeated though, i read down to her post about her early years album where she takes you through one of her albums which documents her childhood. What I found interesting was that not only were there pages made recently but there were pages from her earlier scrapbooking years. I didnt find the same layout/style/look in any of the pages that she displayed.

I think one of my problems is that i pick up a lovely patterned paper and feel the need to use it as the whole sheet. This ofcourse limits the position and sometimes the number of photos you can use. As i looked back through Shimelle's layouts she seemed to have used plain backgrounds, then blocks of the patterned paper as accents or highlights. Think i might try this approach, and ofcourse use some of her previous sketches as a starting point.