Like it?

I LOVE it! And I know that must sound a bit conceited but I think this is totally adorable! You might recall that I made one of these gorgeous altered magnet boards last year to celebrate sweet Isabella's Christening and I have been itching to make one for myself ever since.

Of course, this is totally different from Isabella's - in every way - which was important for me because I did not to make just a copy and anyway, Isabella's is totally wonderful and so pretty.

But for the organising class I am doing right now, we had various projects to help us with our inspiration - collecting and displaying. I decided that an altered magnet board would be perfect for me as it was already hanging and I was not really using it for anything in particular and hey presto!

And then there was also a small inspiration clipboard which is simple but still so pretty. I adore the Infuse range of papers from BG and am so pleased that it was suggested in class that we made everything coordinating. It is such a simple suggestion but one that has made a big difference to how I feel about how it all looks. I think that left to my own devices, I would have made each item in a different BG range which would also have been lovely, but this coordination pleases me. I will also use Infuse for all the labels and other decorative bits that are bound to follow. It makes me smile and isn't that what it is all about?

Product? Technique? things to think about

Following on from last entry's discussion, I continued with the challenge of starting somewhere different for a set of layouts.

The first is product first. And this was much more difficult than I thought it would be! Maybe it was because I did not have a "kit" to work with - I just decided that I wanted to use Periphery because it has been sitting there patiently waiting for me all these months and I was really looking forward to jumping in with it. I would make stylish, effortless layouts like those I admire so much on the galleries. Mmmm, not be to. Was it me or was it the product - I took out all those gorgeous papers and looked at them and .... nothing, blank, void! But I had an idea that it might work with architechtural details so I fished some out and forced myself to make the layout. But I am unsatisfied with it - it is uninspiring, boring even. What is wrong with it? But what else could I have done? This is frustrating.

I was flumuxed and surprised because when I get the Bellaboo kits, I HAVE to work product first and the ideas come quite easily (well most of the time LOL) and often I have a complete layout before I have even sorted out the actual photos because I am working on more of a feeling of what I want and know roughly what photos will fit.

Anway, enough moaning...

And then there was the tool/technique first.

This was MUCH more fun! I was thinking about what I could do and then realised that I had the BasicGrey notch tool that at the time, I just HAD to have but really, when have I used it over the last 18 months - not that often let me tell you! So out it came and I liked the idea of the semi-circle. But decided to move away from the idea of scallops and make a stamp edge instead - just on a big scale. Once I had the basics in mind, I needed a stark contrast paper and the brown Chatterbox was perfect. Mixed it in with a couple of other brown tones (colour - another blog post coming on that one!) and I was away.

Apart from the fact that it took me ages to notch the edge with the tool and it was quite hard work, it all came together really quickly and looks very much like the idea I had in my brain. Much more satisfied with this one and once again, journalling round the edge of the page seemed ideal. More Chatterbox in the form of these wonderful olive letters and it was all finished.

I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would and may well use this technique again to get me out of a rut - it really made me think about it.

Only one more to do from the challenge prompts - my "natural" way. I actually think that this does not really exist - each of the methods has made me think, yes, this is it. Maybe I will just go with the flow and see how it works out.

By the way, the spell checker here on Blogger seems not to be working for me any more so apologies for any typos or spelling errors - don't understand why it isn't working any more. It was fine a few weeks ago....

So, are any of you brave enough to rise to the challenge? Shall we do a round of this again together?

Different starting points

I'm doing an online class right now over at Big Picture Scrapbooking (Get Organised Be Inspired) and one of the tasks was looking at how we scrapbook - what is our method, what order do we do, what do we reach for first.

Each day we were to start at a different place and create a page given a specific "prescription".

Design first

Story first

Photo first

Product first

Tool or technique first

It has been really interesting so far (although I am not through them all yet!) as I STILL cannot say what I do on a regular basis - I think I might be a mix!

Anyway, you already saw the design first (Get a LOAD layout January 27th) but here are my story first and photo first. They are not brilliant layouts but once again, important to get the memory down and recorded. I am still playing around and trying things out - not always successfully!

I had written up my Joe story some months ago in rough and this was a good incentive to get it down on pretty paper at last - I love the story although I think you maybe had to be there to "get it"!

And I had printed out these self-portrait photos thinking I might use them for the Bellaboo Floral Frenzy kit but somehow they were not quite right so i quickly got them down on a layout as part of this photo first process.

I think that I mostly do the next process - product first - as most of the layouts I have been doing recently have been focused around a kit - either a Bellaboo one or one that I made up myself out of my own product. But I still have to do this process and then lastly, the tool or technique one.

By doing this, it should help us identify how it would be best to organise our product so that it aids us in the way we naturally work! Still trying to figure that one out but getting there.

How do you work?

Flowers a plenty

Just finished up making some gorgeous flower filled stuff using the Bellaboo March kit - all pretty and floral and soft and gentle. Really lovely to make some spring inspired projects.



You need to check out the site (http://www.bellaboo.co.uk/) to sign up for the kit which is being released a little earlier than usual because of Mother's Day (and there is a sneak peek of the kit in this month's newsletter).



Here are a few sneak peeks of mine!

Photo update

I have been continuing with my photo a day challenge to myself - started last January - and have just got around to updating the blog with pictures from November, December and January.

While, if I am honest, I may not take photos EVERY single day (so much more difficult in winter with terrible weather or horrible light), I certainly take hundreds of photos across the month. Where I have a day with a lot of what I consider to be good photos, I might use some of those to fill those sad days when inspiration just was not there - cheating? Not at all - this is just a challenge for me and I get to make the rules!

I have lots of ideas about photo themes for the months to come - any further suggestions from you? Let me know and I will add it to the list. February is just a "whatever takes my fancy" month. Themes are easier when the light and weather are better.

You can find my albums to the right - thanks for looking!

The rest of LOAD

I'm back! Hectic few days (or rather two weeks) since my last post and I have been a busy scrapping girl.

Yes, I did actually manage to complete the "Get a LOAD of this" challenge in January - 31 layouts in 31 days - although I must admit to having to add in the projects I completed for Liberty over there at Bellaboo (have you been yet??) for the fabulously wonderful February kit.

But anyway, without further ado, here are the rest of the layouts for January...

17th January

18th January

19th January

20th January

21st January

22nd January

23rd January

24th January

25th January

26th January

27th January

28th January

29th January

30th January

31st January

and just for good measure here are the rest of the Bellaboo February "Classic Cupid" projects:

Clarity

February Inspiration Card

30cm x 30cm altered canvas - this was SO much fun - will definitely be doing this again - the painting of the background was interesting to get the colours right and then just making something simple to go on the top. One of my favourite wedding photos. This kit is seriously lovley, you really should have one.

yes, and I know that I use "that" photo of Ralph over and over - but it's just too good not to!