It's 14th February...

... which means that it's Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is filled with love and kisses and lots of chocolate!

Top 5 Projects (2010 in Review pt 5)

2010 wasn't really a busy year for me as far as non-scrapbooking projects went. Or so I thought. 

I did try to make cards (and I made quite a few actually) but still think I have a long way to go on that creativity. And there were a few older projects that I finished off - some years after I had originally started them (here or here or here) and I loved that feeling of completing something that had been sitting around, unloved, unfinished for so long. 

Again, when I look back, there are lots of smaller things that I made over the 12 months but really, I was so busy with scrapbooking, that they slip into the background. So in the spirit of highlighting those projects that particularly appeal to me, here are my top 5 of the year.

1. Valentine's Day card. This was inspired by something I saw online if I remember rightly and was so pleased with the result. It took me ages because working on such a small scale is really hard for me but it was worth it.

2. My December Journal. Ok, so in reality, I completed it this month, but I did a lot of the leg work in December and started it on time. Although it's a bit of a disaster (!!!!), I still love it - proof of a relaxed, enjoyable Christmastime 2010.

3. Photo A Day albums. I have been taking photos more of less every day since January 2007 and have been trying to find a way to showcase those I choose to represent the day. I had various ideas and this one won out. These two albums are not perfect and I learnt a lot about how I want to do them other years but I still like the format and the concept. I will get around to making them for every year - just a matter of time!

4. Halloween banner and decorations. I had great fun this year pepping up my Halloween decorations and using up some of the wonderful papers and bits and pieces I have lying around. I loved the results. 

5. Anniversary card. I was pleased with this card which took me a long time but came out even better than I had envisaged. 7 years is copper so I used a lot of of copper wire and kept the rest simple. 

My heart will always be with scrapbooking, but sometimes it's great to step off the page and try different things. I have a list in my head of things I want to try this year including improving my card-making. Deb is so inspirational and I want to learn from her and join in some of her challenges.

What about you? What off the page projects do you want to try in 2011?

Creating for Halloween

Halloween is not big over here in Germany. They don't really know much about it and only think it's something commercial imported from USA to get kids to spend money they don't need to - I'm trying to educate them about this!

But I have introduced it to my German family and what is really good here is that November 1st is All Saints' Day which is a Bank Holiday and therefore, always a day off. And that means that we can do something every year on the actual day, and not worry about getting up for work the next day.

For years, we kept it very low key with just a family dinner, but we have been building up the spookiness and the decoration and the whole look and now it's become a tradition that the Hausmanns will host a Halloween dinner and everyone should come along - in a costume! They do so well, and humour me in my attempt to bring a little bit of home over here. ** Actually, I think they probably only come along for a piece of delicious pumpkin pie but at least they come!

I have been building up my decorations recently and last year I made this banner (here) and this wreath (here) that I have talked about before, as well as this banner (here) from early Bellaboo days. But this year, I really wanted to go a bit further and use up some more of the bits and pieces that I have collected as well as some of the papers that are filling my Halloween drawer but are rarely used on a layout. I mean, how many layouts can I make about a single evening, once a year!?!

And I decided that my poor under-used Cricut needed some attention and an idea for a simple banner came to be. Serious inking, glitter and Stickles add to the mix:

** Sorry that the photos are not so good but it's a loooong banner and I struggled to get a good shot - and difficult light these days.

And I had a leftover wreath that was just crying out to be used up and I had an idea to use black feathers and make some felt roses. These roses were just so fun to use and I love the effect - I added in some Stickles and glittered up those horrible spiders and the bat:

I painted some candles for my large candelabra and added some black feathers and lots of spider webs:

And last but not least, I decided that my mantlepiece was screaming out to be Halloweened up so I got some black candles for here too, added some candy eyes (they taste as disgusting as they look apparantly!) in a glass and glittered up some decorative pumpkins and a potted spider, mixing these in with mini real pumpkins which are all the rage over here:

** Couldn't resist taking a flash photo here to get the sparkle showing! Soooo pretty!!!

And costumes? This year, we are trying to create a Frankenstien's monster and a ghostly "bride" (we'll see how we get on - costumes are always thrown together in a matter of minutes, shortly before everyone arrives!)

I hate to think what the neighbours think of me - several of these items are outside the flat door - in the communal stairway and they must think I'm mad!!!

100 sheets!

Quite some time ago - back at the beginning of September - I decided to join S on her "School of Scrap" challenge which translated for me as "Cut into 100 sheets of patterned paper". I decided to include any 12x12 sheets of journalling cards but not to include any sheet of paper that had already been cut into - even if it was only half an inch. S added any sheets that came into her studio via kits back into her numbers but I decided that would be too demotivating for me!

Last night, my number went over 100! Yoo hoo! Go me! S's incentive for herself was that after 100 sheets, she could go shopping again but I just wanted to see how quickly this would happen for me. Of course, doing LOAD has helped (didn't date my usage but let's face it - every day, new sheets have been cut into!) and so has my goal of using up my Scrapagogo kits as well as joining Deb on her Create Free mini book. But 100 sheets is 100 sheets... if I could just get them totally used up now!

I kept a list of what I have used and it gives a few clues about where my scrapping loyalties lie:

BasicGrey - 39 sheets from 9 different collections
Cosmo Cricket - 24 sheets from 6 different collections
My Mind's Eye - 8 sheets
Crate Paper - 8 sheets (but all included in the Scrapagogo kits - I don't buy much of this myself)

And I can also see that I have used up (or at least cut into)14 sheets of Christmas paper (I have whole collections which are untouched) and just yesterday, started attacking my Halloween papers (only one of which is counted as this was #100) and in total, made inroads into papers from 16 different manufacturers and 35 different collections. Makes you giddy just thinking about it all!

 So, BG it is for me then!!!

Ok, so enough of the numbers - the main thing is that it's day 25 and I am still in on the daily layout (LOAD) and my pile of layouts this month is looking good!

I'll post some more layouts soon but in the meantime, I will leave you with this sneak peek of what I have been up to as well recently.

And 21 months late

Yep, here's yet another unfinished - now finished - project left over from Libby's Bellaboo days!

We all celebrated Bellaboo's birthday back in September 2008 and Cleo came along for three, fun, very Cleo, classes - a layout, a wall canvas and a mini-book.  

True to form, the mini-book involved much complicated folding and of course, true to form, I did it wrong, needed to start again and ran out of time! And so it sat, and sat, and sat on my shelf until the weekend when I picked it out and left it in the way in order to encourage me to FINISH it!

I had all the photos printed - retro, teenage, 80s photos of me and my wonderfully, poster decorated bedroom and a whole load of album covers that sum up that era for me. 

I cut them all up and slapped them on. Wrote out some strip journalling and worked out where to put it, popped on a few embellies, squeezed a title on the cover and have called it quit! 

Now, I have just looked up my reference photos of Cleo's original book and of course, it's much more detailed and wonderful than mine! Bits and pieces, flowers and twirly bits as well as Dymo strips here and there (should have thought of that!!!). Really cool and much more interesting than mine. It's unlikely I will go back to the book and spruce it up a bit now that I have seen how cool the original was, but you never know....

In the meantime, I am calling it done. Another one off the shelf. Gold star for Lisa!

Oh, and by the way, I really was pretty cool in the 80's ;-)))

Sense of achievement

So, I finally got around to finishing yet another 2007 project.

I don't really know what I was doing then but I seem to have a whole pile of half-done albums, mini-books and projects from '07. The phrase "biting off more than I can chew" springs to mind.

I signed up for an online year in reveiw class that year and it came with a kit and instructions and everything from the very talented Nichol Magouirk. I adored the project and it kicked off with a fun extra - this photo frame that you might remember from way back when.

I even got around to fixing up the album cover, and then months later, I started the pages.

Then, nothing, nichts, nada, zilch. It was all put in a bag and put on the shelf. Into the scrapbook waiting room of my mind. I thought about it every now and again, feeling guilty. After all, it had cost me money and effort because the kit had been stopped by the customs check and R had to call them up and persuade them that the package was full of "bits of paper" and worth nothing much! All that, and then it was neglected.

And I love the idea of these year in review albums. I have a great one for 2006 and had intended to do one for every year (yeah, best intentions!)

But in the spirit of "ahead" and my good intentions for using up my well-earned supplies, I have finally got around to finishing it. And I adore it! 

I have realised that I am not really very good at those projects where everythng is perfectly measured and aligned and I ended up with little gaps and spaces all over the place that I needed to trim or cover or camouflage! But it is such a sweet little book. I added a couple of extra pages in to fill all the pages and the back has some space for a few pieces of memorabilia, when I track it all down. (yes, need to get ahead of that too)

Here are a few of the pages, and I have added a little album on the side with the whole album.  

It was so good to have a trip down memory lane and remember all those fun bits of 2007. Like how much thinner I was then, how I like my fringe (!), how tiny Isabella was way back when, how much we travelled, how much we saw and what brilliant celebrations we had. It was a brilliant year and I bet I would never remember all those good times if I hadn't done this. 

Have you got any unfinished projects lying around? Go on, fish them out and get them finished. Take it from me, it feels GOOD! 

Getting ahead

One of my objectives related to "ahead" is the push to finish projects that have been lying around for, oh I don't know, let's say months..... Such as my Yukon Sep 2007 travel journal, my 2007 year in review album (an online class I even paid for), my Photo A Day project (since Jan 2007), the Bellaboo music mini-album designed by Cleo from back in Sep 2008...  You get the picture??? 

So many things started and not seen through to completion. So many projects that are sitting collecting dust rather than being out for me to flip through and enjoy.

Enough.

As part of my Photo A Day, I started putting together a simple (or rather two because of the number of photos) album to showcase them. Hours were spent planning it and putting it together, only to run out of paper, steam and enthusiasm.

Well, yesterday I finished it/them!

A simple concept: two slip in albums. A monthly header, dated photos, a few pockets of pp here and there. A cover title and a label on the outside. 

It took HOURS to do but the next one will be even simpler. I learnt a few lessons along the way. 

AND I found time to go through all my photos and pick out my Photo A Day for all of 2008 and 2009. I even have them all printed out. Those albums are already in the planning. 

Most of my daily photos are just for me - not really suitable for "showing" or for use on scrapbook pages but I love the fact that I can now look through this album and really remember my 2007. There are loads of nature photos which highlight the seasons; there is a month of Recklinghausen photos, which captures a lot of the places I love in my *hometown*; there are close ups and landscapes; events and even a few people thrown in; a few of my favourite Yukon memories and lots of experimenting with my camera shots. 

Fun.

Just trying to decide what is next on the list...

Remember this?

....

....

Well, I am well-known for not seeing through projects I start. But this one is one of the exceptions.

Each month throughout last year I spent time looking at the pretty picture I had picked out from the year before. Then when the month was over, I chose three photos to sum up what had happened and wrote a few notes about what had gone on including memorable dates (weekends away, celebrations etc). Hey presto! 12 months later, I have a mini reminder of what happened in 2009 including highlight photos. Add a book ring, some ribbons and a label and I have a completed project. 2009 remembered.

Will I make a more complete review of the year? Maybe but probably not.

I might just move on to yet another unfinished project: my goals box....

In the bat of an eye

And then October was gone! Wow, how did that happen? I have no idea but it is well and truly gone.

I can't even profess to have been wildly busy with work and creativity making the days fly by. I have been rather uncreative if the truth be known and work was decidedly quiet. There were two weeks of school holidays here and that makes lessons few and far between because everyone seems to be away (insert jealous feelings here...) and out of the office.

There haven't been many high points to the month (an Elton John concert

and a trip to my *local* scrapbook shop but not much else) and luckily no low points (in contrast to Libby and my mum - poor things). So I can't really complain, apart from the fact that I do, in fact, complain all the time! LOL! Too busy? Moan. Too quiet? Moan, moan.

It's been a hard month for me with regard to my words of the year from 2007 and this year - POSITIVE and CALM respectively. I have had to remind myself of them over and over again. I guess it is very much a work in progress.

Must. Stop. Moaning.

Must. Start. Smiling.

Must. Control. Temper.

Must. Count. Blessings.

However, it's not all doom and gloom and I really am smiling here. I know how I am and I know what I have to work on. You have to take it with a pinch of salt, don't you!

I really haven't done much creating which on the one hand is a bit of a shame, but I have been busy organising some details for R's birthday party which is actually quite a lot of fun. It's reaching the final stages of the planning and it's all very exciting. So many wonderful people are coming over from the UK to see us. It is very humbling to know that people want to come and help us celebrate our milestone and when I stop and think about the fact that more than 20 people are planning to come over (Jac is even planning to come from Dubai!), I get a lump in my throat.

It means such a lot to us and I want to make sure the party is a success. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone, and am really excited to see the little ones! They are growing and growing and growing and it seems like a LIFETIME since I last saw them even though it will actually only be 5 months compared to the 14 months for R. Let's face it, that is an eternity when kiddies are growing up.

Anyway, I did actually manage to remember and complete my 12 on 12 (finished the layout on the 13th, can you believe it?). I think this is probably my least favourite layout of the series so far due to my choice of papers even if the photos were still fun for me. I have to find a better way, though, of getting a self-portrait. From month to month, they are getting worse! I guess in 10 years, I will look at them and have a different view of myself 10 years younger but right now, they have to improve. I ought to get the big DSLR out and work out how to use it!

Ooo, just noticed a real hightlight of October there on the layout - our fireplace! It's so wonderful and we totally love it. We light it almost every night and so far, we haven't needed to use the (fantastically cosy) unfloor heating at all, apart from a little in my room. The fireplace kicks out a sensational amount of heat and we both love it. I guess that is a layout for another day. And romantic? Yes. And soothing? Most definitely! Although I still miss living in the city centre of Re, this fireplace more than makes up for it. I need to get myself a little reading light so that I can sit next to the fire and just absorb the beauty and the warmth. Mmmmmm.

Anway, this year we are celebrating Halloween again. And I decided it was time to change up the decorations. Then I saw this wonderful project (here) on the Bella Blvd website designed by Jessica Ball and I just knew that I had to lift this idea and create my own spooky wreath. (And yes, I will be repeating this for Christmas!) Oh my, this project was just gorgeous and I loved the fact that it was really quite a simple concept. It was fantastic and I fell in love instantly. Check out the designer's blog here. Her stuff is lovely.

Ok, so my project is not perfect but I love it, even if I say it myself. I collected all sorts of silly Halloweeen stuff together and got busy with the glitter (glittering the whole flat in the process). Such fun! Such a fab project and it's not going to die while still hanging on the door. I used some of the new BG Eerie collection that I just picked up the week before which made me feel all kind of virtuous.

I was on a roll, so I fished out the CC lacing cards I had lying around and produced this cute little banner that is now hanging on the wall. It was great to use up some of the huge amount of Halloweeen papers and embellies that I have and here I used CC Haunted, some Heidi Swapp bits and pieces and some Doodlebug ribbons as well as other bits and bobs. I always forget how good it is to use up product and be able to see it out in the open.

(Photos are not so good - I need to find a better way of taking pictures of my projects now that the light has changed and the hours of daylight are limited)

Of course, my little Bellaboo banner from one of the first Bellaboo mini kits, Frighteningly Fabulous is also out and enjoying a bit of a comeback! Can't believe it's now two years since Libby created this kit and I got to work with it! Good times...

One last thing before I bore you to death here with a blog entry that is trying to make up for the fact that I have not writen a word for the last almost four weeks...

I saw this picture on Stacy Julian's new website, on her I Love Colour section and also fell in love. I need this colour combination somewhere in my flat. Isn't is gorgeous? It just fills me with inspiration and an overwhelming need to go out and find something in this gorgeous blue...

(Image from www.pillowsandthrows.com)

I feel a little un-blog-inspired. What to write about in the future? Any ideas?

Over

The holiday that never was is officially over!

We would have returned yesterday and would now be living off those memories! Life has a way of catching you unawares hasn't it? Instead of going away, we did lots of other things, details to follow soon.

AND I completed my little gratitude journal. Every day.

I have so much to be thankful for and even though I felt a little sad each day thinking about where we would be (and the weather was fantastic there the whole two weeks which is rather irritating), I also focused on what is good. From the little things like a strong, hot shower in the morning, to more in-depth thoughts about what the future might hold in store.

I love the journal and might even carry it round with me over the next few days for when the positive feeling starts to slip!

I will post a few photos when I come back. I am off home to the UK for the weekend to catch up with friends and family and fit in a bit of scrapping!

Working my way through outstanding projects!

When Libby came over to Germany in the Summer, she brought one of Cleo's wonderful kit projects. She had bought one for herself too and thought it would be fun for us to have a go at the same kit - Nostalgia. She even got mum to sort out some photos of the two of us when we were little. That gave us a giggle I can tell you! All those "fashionable" 70's brown knit jumpers, long socks and sandals and rather dubioius haircuts to name just a few! Of course, we did not have enough time to get them finished while she was here but we started them and then went our separate ways. Libby managed to finish hers weeks ago (blog entry here), and I kept thinking about it but no action!

Well, on Saturday I made myself a list of just those projects that I can remember that need to be finished off or made. I was quite shocked at coming up with 12 items which does even not include those ideas that I have that I would like to do but haven't got around to yet. No, that is just half-completed projects or outstanding class projects that I can think about (am sure the list is really double as long!) So, I sat down and got going again with the Nostalgia kit!

It's lovely of course. A great folded mini-book that opens out to reveal all sorts of treasures! and space for hournalling too which is always a bonus. I did not look at Libby's finished book so I do not know how similar mine is to hers which will be interesting when we really check each other's out. I had such fun doing it, even if I ended up with craft knife injuries on both index fingers and my leg (don't ask!), paint and glue everywhere and chaos in my workroom. It's all done and another thing off the list - check!

OMG - I just checked out Libby's blog to get the link to her project and she called hers Childhood too!!!!! I swear, after the first time I looked at this entry, I did not sneak another peek! I must have had it in my subconscious! Too weird! And just goes to show, I am not as original as I thought! But I still love it! (Oh yes, I actually did copy Libby's button stacking that I heard her talking about when I was over - also not original of me!!! )