Sometimes things just don't work out

My mind is hammering the fern blossom story to death. Day and night, asleep and awake, I keep going over papercuts, blacks and whites, oranges and blues, on top of tunnel book techniques. It's consuming me. I have various styles floating in my head, too, which also haunt me and affect the upcoming outcomes. The inspiration keeps pouring in from the beautiful use of photography by David Hochbaum, the fascinating tunnel books of Andrea Dezso, the paper cuts of Hans Christian Anderson, the use of Lithuanian folk art symbols-legends-myths, and of course, my own collage experience. How...how how to meld these influences together, and make them my own. That's the question. That's the goal.
So I vacillate, back and forth lately, between a collage that is more painterly than collagey--unfamiliar and strange-undone, and a collage that is more typical of my former work--comfortable, but clone like. It's a struggle to grow and to find new paths of working. I have found a formula that works, but unfortunately, I tire of it. And also, I have discovered a formula seems to create similar results. I seek growth and a change in perspective. In fits and starts I plod along.
Sometimes things just don't work out on the table and what I come up with bores me and doesn't even come close to the visions dancing in my head. For example, this piece here.

Not all work is a masterpiece (poorly cropped. it didn't deserve another scan!)
Using a family pack chicken meat tray, I made a drawing in the styrofoam with a pen. Then I inked it up with magenta acrylic and used it to create some prints. I am exploring print methods for SUNY Cobleskill (there's an etching press there dying for some use!) and decided to use some of this in my own artwork. The print worked well, altho my drawing really kinda sucked. It was a 2 minute sketch of the view aross the street. I liked the print, and decided to challenge myself to use it in Yet Another Solstice Fern Blossom picture. Unfortunately, I kept trying to cover the printed portion with collage! (In the end, I still put some pink photo blobs on it.) The outcome is pretty lame, barely speaks of the solstice and truly, I don't think it worked out. Not all pieces are the masterpieces. I am hoping all this experimentation will lead to something grand. Meanwhile, I am enjoying the journey.