And so LOAD continues...

I am loving LOAD this time around. Almost more than the previous times.

I think it's just because I am having fun and doing layouts that I love and sticking down photos that have memories attached and using up papers and kits and supplies and feeling the love of the community over there at Flickr!

I have even managed to make extra layouts, catching up with my 12on12's last Sunday (I made 4 in one day!) and today finishing up a commission for The Scrapbook Magazine.

11th February

Five Item Friday - 2 patterned papers, an alpha, something considered office supplies and a border punch.

I had these gorgeous paperclips that I bought years ago at Habitat and knew that I would find a use for them sooner or later. This was the day! Ok, so I added in some string and the little mini alpha but I did try to get creative with the embellishments with the papers including some serious "stealing the middle" of the papers to have enough left over to make my flower and leaves.

12th February

Use a colour scheme called Adacity (from the colour website Kuler.adobe.com).

I was rather uninspired by the colours when I first saw them - not really my taste, especially the purple - but then I got to mixing up some papers and the title really got me going. All I could think about what the meaning of the word and how it seemed to sum up Isabella. If anyone is audacious, then it can only be her!

13th February

Today's prompt was to "Kill Maybe". Make decisions and go for it. Don't try double guessing every decision we make when designing a layout.

Relatively easy for me as this is the way I try to scrap most of the time. I learnt it in my Heidi Swapp class back in 2007 - "Glue and Go". I used to be much more indecisive, wanting everything to be perfect but now I am more relaxed and mix and match until I like the look of it.

Since coming up with this simple grid design for my 12on12, I can run them off so quickly and so it was easy for me to catch up completely, finishing Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb all at once! I even got my Cricut out and cut some numbers (never have enough for all those 12's and years.) I made really quick decisions, using up papers that I don't love as much as I used to which was good to see them used up and put to good use.

14th February

Happy Valentine's Day!

Take inspiration from a digital layout.

I love to "favourite" the best layouts I see in LOAD so that I can be inspired later down the line which was perfect for this prompt. I found a gorgeous layout from February last year which I had been so impressed with and decided to see how far I could go down the white space way of scrapping! This layout is quite a close lift and it took me forever! Somehow, with all that white space, I needed to be more particular with spacing, measurements etc but I got it done eventually and was pleased with how it went. But I won't be making such a sparse layout again in a hurry. Too few products on the page - it would take me a lifetime to use up all my stash if I made layouts like this all the time!

The original layout can be found here

15th February

Product highlight - use ribbons in a new or original way.

I was still feeling the romance of Valentine's Day and decided that last year's February kit teamed up with Paris photos was perfect and I made three ribbon roses to go with it. I got covered with glue in the process, but was pleased with how they looked in the end. I ought to make more as I have so many ribbons in my stash and really struggle to use it up.

16th February

Lift a layout - whole, part or just an element.

We were given a beautiful layout by Melanie Louette but it was rather structured for me so I used the music paper on the layout as a starting point for mine. I had seen these photos when I fished out yesterday's and decided that it was now or never to record this odd little story. This sequence of cloud photos was taken over the space of two minutes and we literally could see the clouds forming and growing in front of our eyes. It's good to stop sometimes and take time to really just gaze up at the skies.

17th February

Use quotes to inspire: “It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most; it’s making a great deal out of the little ones.” –Jean Webster, Daddy Long-Legs

I used the end of the quote to think of the way that we don't take many real holidays but make the shortest breaks into holidays in their own right - be it a weekend in Switzerland visiting friends, or just an overnight in our local hotel here in Recklinghausen. I adore this kit from last year and am sad that it is almost gone :-( Totally my colours and designs. Sorry for the number of banners I am producing - can't help but make them at the moment.

18th February

Five Item Friday - use five pieces of patterned paper and a bonus item of an alphabet (It was Lain's birthday and she was feeling generous!).

I lifted myself for this layout which was in turn a lift from Maggie Holmes over at SC. I just loved the title of the layout and when I saw this photo which had been hanging around for ages, thought it was ideal. I really did only use 5 pieces of paper and in fact, they were only partial pages that I got from my scrap box. I decided to go with the punch for the butterflies and the scallops for the flower which is a bit cheaty but it needed more than flat paper.

19th February

Today's prompt was to get inspiration from things right in front of our eyes and offered a small bright coloured notebook to use as our inspiration.

To begin with, I thought about going my own way because I didn't get anything from looking at the notebook, but then I thought that the bright colours of the notebook were interesting and the stems, flowers and bird were something that was quite me. I grabbed a totally unused kit and dug in. I have come to realise that there is something good in every kit, I just have to see past the obvious. I used what is obviously the backs of several of the pages and cut out the stems from a particularly dull piece. I punched flowers from a spotty transparency and added buttons and a little bird to pick up the inspiration piece. I found these photos of Jess and thought a tribute page might be nice. I trimmed down four of the photos so that they just show details and added a few details.

20th February

We were supposed to embrace imperfection to the point of actually making a deliberate mistake. Mmmm.

I decided that I make enough mistakes on my layouts on a regular basis that it wasn't really necessary for me to do it on purpose. I often get splodges of ink right on my photos or globs of glue in the most inconvenient of places. And then there are the wonky photos and my handwriting mistakes!

So I just grabbed yet another of my unfinished kits and looked through my photos until I found some that could work with the more masculine elements of the kit. I kind of like this one - me but not me if you know what I mean.