LOAD round up

Another LOAD has come to an end and it's (mostly) back to normal again :-).

I travelled back to the UK straight away (more about that in another post) and then directly back to work so getting back into the rhythm of blogging, scrapping and fitting in a bit of housework here and there has proved a bit more of a problem than usual. Hibernation has followed... but those who know me, expect that!

But just to finish off, here are the last three layouts of the month...

May 29th

Today's prompt was just to scrap something about why we scrap.

I was definitely running out of steam at this point and wanted to make something simple and pretty. I have done several pages about why I scrap and decided to just focus on one aspect.

Picking out some gorgeous Maddie and Isabella photos, some Emma's Shoppe that Libby had bought me as a surprise pressie ;-) and some Prima that I had been finding difficult to use, I created something easy that made me happy. I added a Reason # thinking that it might be fun to make some sort of series and as it happens, that is exactly what came about on the next day too.

May 30th

Today's prompt was just to follow your heart - just do your thing.

No problem for me. I mostly only ever do my own thing and follow my heart when I am scrapping. But to be given such a free prompt was lovely. I wanted to break into my oh, so precious For The Record (EP) papers that have sat untouched since I just HAD to have them as soon as they came out.

However, there was a second prompt that I decided to follow too here as my lovely, adorable LOADster friend, Whimsical Nature challenged us all to scrap a page about ourselves. She had created a wonderful page that created a storm of wonderful comments approval and comments and she decided that we should all follow her lead. Also no problem for me. I scrap about me a lot but it's always great to be given the push to put yourself centre stage. I took inspiration from her journalling and used it as my title.

It felt great to use that paper. And it was nice to make something a bit simpler than others this month.

And yes, this became #6 in my newly created series of why I scrapbook. I love it when a plan comes together.


May 31st

Create a page about the beginning or the end of something.

It has become a bit of a tradition for me over the last few LOADs to make a summary page about the layouts I've made. I've talked about the pile, the community, the lessons learnt so this time a simple page just listing a few numbers seemed the right way to go.

(Can you tell which letters I'm running out of from my favourite AC alphas??? I'm trying to get creative for creating letters out of others!)

Just for the record, during May I made 33 layouts (LOAD plus one for a magazine and one as a present), one of which was a double spread. I used 69 photos - 18 of which were on single photo layouts.

I have just realised that the journalling on this last layout is a little bit off with regard to the number of photos I used on my LOAD layouts, but I'm not going to change it now!

There won't be an official LOAD now until next February for one reason or another, but I will be trying to do one on my own later in the year and I think my fellow LOADsters are talking about creating an informal one too so watch this space for mega-productivity.

Let It Sew!

Wednesday again? Oh my! Where does the time go?

I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently as I was away for the weekend and back to the reality of work so watch this space for catch up posts over the next week or so.

But in the meantime, this week's Jingle Belles' challenge is "Let It Sew, Let It Sew, Let It Sew!"

It freaked me out a bit as even though I used to be a serious sewer (as in wedding dresses and evening gowns!) but these days, not so much. I don't even have a working sewing machine (one of which is definitely on my shopping list for the future so that I can sew on my layouts!) so this week's challenge was a bit of an "eek" moment.

In the end, I kept it simple (for a change!) and fished out a sewing template that is seriously underused and got busy.

Making a page one bite at a time

A fellow LOADster friend, Kim Byrns recently contacted me and flatteringly asked if she could use a layout of mine as the featured layout for "Bite-sized Scrapbooking" which she has set up to help scrapbookers get pages done at a steady, doable pace.


Bite-sized Scrapbooking is all about

"the old adage, "How do you eat an elephant?" One bite at a time, of course!

Scrapbooking can seem like the proverbial elephant. You have so many photos, products, tools, ideas, and sources of inspiration. Where do you start? What should you use? What do you want to work on, right now? It can be a bit overwhelming—especially when you don't have a lot of time to spend on scrapbooking. And perhaps when you finally have a few minutes to scrap, you find yourself spinning your wheels and not accomplishing very much. Sound familiar?"

Kim sends out emails during with week with single steps to take which will build up to make one layout a week based on a sketch and inspiration page. So, for example, the first email would tell you how many photos you need for your layout and the story, second email would prompt you about the tools and supplies you need and so on. You are only concentrating on these single decisions which prevents you from feeling overwhelmed with all those choices!

Sounds like a wonderful, enabling concept and I am delighted to have been chosen as the inspiration this week with a layout I created last year:

If you'd like to find out more about Kim's innovative concept, the site can be found here (Bite-sized Scrapbooking), on Twitter (@kkbyrns) and Facebook (@bitesizedscrapbooking), and their gallery is hosted over at Flickr (bitesizedscrapbooking).

More of a kind

Wednesday always means Jingle Belles these days.

This week's challenge is "We Three Kings" or use at least three different papers in your design.

Well, I'm under a bit of pressure as LOAD has only just finished and today I go home for a few days (yipee) so there's a lot to do and not a lot of time!

I kept it über-simple this week, just taking some Eskimo Kisses and lining them up. A chipboard element provides the sentiment et voila! Another week is done.

It would have been so easy to skip it today but I am so glad I didn't :-)

Thanks for dropping by and have a great hump day!

What words will you use?

LOAD is almost over :-( but our last week was all about journalling which proved to be quite challenging. I don't have so many problems with design or embellishments but sometimes, different styles of writing can be a bit difficult for me.

But as you know, almost all my pages have some sort of journalling - sometimes relevant to the photo, sometimes not - and therefore, I embraced this week and really tried to fulfil the prompts as far as I could.

It was a fun week bringing the month nearly to the end.

I noticed that it's been a bit difficult to keep the pace going through the whole month which made me bit sad. But when I look at my pile of layouts, it makes me feel good to have made the effort and not to have thrown in the towel on those days when it felt a bit much.

June will be a slower month for me but I am looking forward to putting together another Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit and playing along over there too. Somehow, I just couldn't get my act together to get involved there and LOAD at the same time.

Anyway, here's the last week:

22nd May

Journalling - use just one word for your journalling

Page Maps sketch

Now, this was a difficult one! It's almost easier to find a photo that doesn't need any journalling at all rather than a single word! I decided to support the idea with a single word title too and this photo of Cam just seemed to fit the bill. There is a bit more of the story than the fact that he had been waiting a loooong time for his first tooth to come out, and therefore, there might be another layout to come. But this photo just says it all for now!

BG Archaic is perfect for Cam with his wonderful red hair and these wonderful shades really bring out his hair and eyes - isn't he gorgeous?

23rd May

Journalling - journal hard times

I am not afraid of scrapping about the not too positive but I have been trying to put a more positive spin on everything recently so I was a bit nervous about this.

Then I saw photos of my school and the idea of contrasting the good and the bad of those times came to mind.  There was a lot of journalling so the design was kept simple.

24th May

Journalling - scrap your dreams, hopes, wishes

I have a lot of photos that I like too much not to print out but that don't really have any sort of reason to scrap them. Every now and again, I like to flip through them and find a meaning in them so that I can put them on a page. This is just such a photo. I loved the fact that the sun is peeping over the frame of the windscreen and the pretty blue sky and fluffy clouds.

It just made me think of sunny days.

Do you ever use photos that are a bit more metaphorical in meaning on your pages?

25th May

Journalling - create a page that gives a "telling detail"

This page didn't really turn out as I had wanted but I knew that this month, I wanted to scrap this photo. My MIL took the photo out of the front window of their mobile home while we were driving in Alaska during our Yukon adventure. And honestly, that is really OUR mobile home there at the end of the rainbow! What a catch.

I wrote about how luck was shining down on us during the whole of this holiday and that spur of the moment decisions we made turned out so perfectly. This is a little bit of the story of our holiday that I haven't scrapped before so I am pleased to have done it, even if the design is a little "off"!

26th May

Journalling - make a page about a small detail

Based on a Page Maps sketch

I've had these asparagus photos for ages and have been meaning to scrap this bizarre German tradition for some time. Today was the day. I have since reworked the last but one line adding the fact that I have now joined them in on their obsession! We are right in the middle of asparagus season and I need to stock up on it before they stop harvesting on 24th June!

I used papers from a Studio Calico kit I bought last year and some old MM felt letters (which tore apart really too easily and I had to piece them back together! Does that ever happen to you?!)

27th May

Journalling - use an older photo and journal about the different story that you can see when you look at that photo now that you couldn't see before

What I find about the prompts is that some days, as soon as I read them, I have a picture spring into my mind and I know exactly the story I want to tell. This was such a story.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Ah, I was young and tanned and naive! Funny to look back and see that my life had only just begun!

28th May

Journalling - make a page about something you are passionate about

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am passionate about R and pretty passionate about our travels. We don't have many "real" holidays but try to make the effort to do mini-breaks and to make the most of any time away that we have. When I look at the list, it's pretty impressive! 

Again, another photo that's been hanging around for some time and another example of finding a reason to use it on a page. There's nothing really to say about the photo itself except that we were in Nova Scotia and that was an amazing holiday. 

It's been a great week and I'm surprised at how many one photo layouts I have made - not my usual style. I have broken into, and almost used up, an old kit as well as a lot of older products mixed in with some newer stuff.

A successful week I think. 

Journalling? How do you feel about it?

Inspired by fashion

I'm still in the midst of LOAD madness so I thought I would just leave you with a very quick blog post with some layouts I haven't shared yet.

Well, they were shared in The Scrapbook Magazine but of course, I wait until they have been published to show them to you here.

I was asked to create two layouts inspired by fashion. What a great prompt and my mind went off in a million directions.

I instantly knew that I wanted to make a layout based on this window I had photographed at Christmas.

You might realise that I am ever so slightly obsessed with Chanel - if only I could indulge in real items other than perfume! But I fell in love with the window display while I was window shopping in Düsseldorf and thought it was so typically Chanel. Understated, classy but modern all at the same time. The combination of colours which are always connected in my mind with Chanel - THAT cream, black and just a hint of red. I knew that I wanted to use this as the basis for the first layout.

It was lovely to create something with these soft creams and natural beiges, with just a flash of bright from the photo and the title. The layout was very calming to make and I put a lot of work into finding just the right elements for my cluster.

The second layout was proving difficult to decide on until Liberty told me it was a total no-brainer and that of course, I should do a layout about our Prêt à Portea in London when we went for mum's birthday. It would be a bright, fun layout and a great contrast to the first one.

Thanks, Libby, for the push to make this one - I love it! It was a great feeling to just let go and chose all those elements relating to the colour and the theme. It took me ages, but I was very happy with the result.

What would you decide on if you were given this prompt?

The children were nestled all snug in their beds...

... While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.

I adore that poem. It sums up everything wonderful and special about Christmas, so when Jingle Belles posted this week's challenge from Amanda Profumo (Crafty Paper Girl) with the title "Visions of sugar plums", I knew it would be a wonderful prompt.

But to add even more scrumptiousness, we were given this style board that Amanda had discovered on one of her favourite blogs, Paperdoll Romance:

We could use any or all of this style board as a type of photo inspiration for our cards and there was so much to take in, I felt a bit overwhelmed. If I could have incorporated every single one of the photos into my design I would have. However, I was drawn to the colour, the name of the board itself, the old gold colour here and there, the bead droplet earrings, the snowflakes and the overall prettiness of all the photos together. I was disappointed not to have any tulle and will have to add it to my shopping list next time I am in town. 

Anyway, here is Jingle Belles challenge #21! 

I even added ice glitter to the letters to make them look a bit like sugar! 

Yippee for an already HUGE pile of cards!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Embellishments are like scrapbook sprinkles and I love them. Which is why week three of this month's LOAD has been so much fun - each day a different embellishment prompt. The prompts are not your everyday, ordinary prompts and therefore, each day it got us thinking about how to interpret them.

It was a great week!

May 15th

Lain interviewed Stephanie Howell (have you checked out her amazing style here?) and I always think it's interesting to hear how others approach their scrapping and their inspiration and even their process. Stephanie was very inspirational for me and when I checked out her blog, I was blown away by the gorgeous layouts she creates.

Our prompt was to scraplift something from her blog or her TwoPeas gallery - what? only one?

It was hard to decide which one to use but in the end, this is the one I chose and I loved the simple layout, the banners, the doilies.

I have scrapped this photo before (probably more than once) but I thought it would look great against the woodgrain background. I finally broke into the last untouched Scrapagogo kit for this (sad that this is the last one!) and was thrilled with the products in there - gorgeous!

May 16th

Take a plain photo and match it with a plain background, then jazz it up with embellishments that help to support the emotion you wish to convey.

Ok, so you know that I don't really "do" plain. Just not really how I work but I tried! I chose a single photo that said something to me and then I matched it up with a selection of pretty papers from the Scrapagogo kit which then formed the basis of the layout.

I made a long title (something which seems to be a bit of a thing with me at the moment) and clustered a selection of embellishment goodies. I chose word stickers and then added a flower with a little camera, a window frame and a little wooden heart counter to enhance the "seeing the world" emotions. 

May 17th

Good page gone bad! 

Now this was a lot of fun. Lain suggested that we go back over some older layouts to find a layout that in principle is good, but somehow, the embellishments have turned it bad! 

When is the last time you looked at your older pages? Well, from experience I can tell you that some of them will make you cringe! But don't dispair, they were lovely at the time and this isn't an exercise to remake all of those pages but rather take one that can be enhanced by a bit of rework!

Although I think the original is a bit embarrassing (!), if you really want to look at it, you can find it here from when I first did it as part of a class. When I looked at it, I realised that the photo was a special one for me but the layout said NOTHING! The embellishments were totally superfluous and don't support what I wanted to say in any way and when I looked at it, I realised that I just hadn't told the story I wanted to. 

As it is, the journalling on the front of the reworked page is not the full story but I feel that a public toilet bonding story is perhaps best listed on the back! I have used more appropriate products and the little cluster at the top suggests some of what we saw on our trip while the little badge is perfect as my MIL spent the whole time terrified of the prospect of coming across bears!

May 18th

 Restraint. Keep it simple.

Yeah right! Me? No problem! Not!

Actually, this is another layout I fished out from my older albums as I felt the story wasn't quite what I had wanted to say. So I trashed the whole thing and just salvaged the photo and the small metal charms. 

I decided to use BG Capella with its soft colours to emphasise the soft shades of this white rose and just added some fussy cutting to the right as embellishment. I added the metal charms as a nod to the original even though I probably wouldn't have done this these days.

May 19th

Choose embellishments appropriate for the theme of the layout.

I don't know if I am running out of steam, but this week started to drag a bit and I was struggling to find photos that I wanted to deal with.

But after going through all my storage albums, this little story came to mind and I decided it was time to get it down on paper.

I deliberately didn't want to make this a Christmas layout because the "Christmas Tree Way" just refers to the route and it's the same whatever time of the year it is and even now as an adult think of it this way when I drive past it! So I used happy products and colours but added in the little string of lights from BG Eskimo Kisses that I jazzed up with multi-coloured bling (doesn't show up here because of the scan) and then some extra embellishments relating to time, travel and memories. 

May 20th 

Create a page by choosing the design first and making up the page before selecting and adding a photo and only embellish at the end of the process.

I decided to challenge myself to use this Sassafrass background paper which I considered to be a bit tricky. I really did make up the whole page including the photo mat before I went to have a look at the photos.

I wanted to create lots of layers and just piled stuff on until I thought the page was full enough! And there is a lot on this one, it's really quite a heavy one. Once I had found a photo which I thought could work, I added a small cluster and the banner title and called it done. The banner is a bit crooked which is something I need to work on - they always seem a bit skew-whiff.

May 21st

Use trendy products, techniques and designs but in a way that will not be out of date when you look back at it in the future.

Until I had started on this layout, I would have said that I wasn't such a trendy scrapper - somehow that sounds a bit negative - but it became clear to me that I must be.

I included banners, butterflies, doilies, clustering, ribbon roses, strip journalling, baker's twine and distressing. That seemed like a lot but it was all so natural for me - does this make me a bad person? 

I've decided that I adore this Scrapagogo kit - every little bit of it is gorgeous. (Actually, that's not strictly true - there is a piece of ribbon I don't like.) I shall be a bit sad when I get down to just the small scraps but I think I have a few more layouts out of it before I need to call it done.

And this week I've learnt that I adore embellishments and most of the time, can't get enough of them on my layouts.

What about you?

A Colour Reference

As part of the Nic H BPC class "Colour! or is it Color?", there were weekly handouts to make up a small colour reference book. It was such a lot of fun to create a small 6x6 page to go alongside a full description of the colour with all the emotions it creates. 

You would have thought that I could have kept up with this during class, but true to form, I fell behind and soon only had 2 pages done when the class was already over. Typically, it sat on the side neglected and collecting dust for a while (ok, ages!) until I decided to pull myself together and get it finished. 

It's such a great little guide to all the rainbow colours and I included some other handouts Nic gave us regarding the colour wheel and different types of combinations. 

The front and back covers got full colour decoration using up lots and lots of bright, older scraps. How refreshing it was to just mix up colours and patterns, and slap it all on together to make something that is really a joy to look at.

It sits on my window sill which is right above my scrap desk and within easy reach if I want to have a look at the different colour wheel options. It's not that I use it very often, but when I do, it's a small, funky, self-made resource that makes me happy.

That's what it's all about after all!

Other layouts/posts I've written about this wonderfully colourful class can be found here, here, here, or even here!

** And the class is running again over at BPC - info can be found here - and I would really recommend it. Nic is a fantastic instructor and the handouts, assignments, videos and interaction with Nic are fantastic. Such a fun class. I'd love to do it all over again!

More from LOAD soon. Watch this space...

St Nick is coming to call...

... well ok, maybe not for a few months but over at Jingle Belles he's making a guest appearance for this week's challenge, "Jolly (& lucky) Old St. Nick".

Something using Cosmo Cricket's sweet retro images and paper and within a few minutes, I was done!

When I look at that pile of cards ready to go, I am so excited that I will be all done and dusted by the time the nights start drawing in again.

In the meantime, enjoy the warmer, longer days and happy hump day!

ETA: I changed out the bottom banner to one stamped in dark brown instead of black - it looks much better. I am a bit annoyed with myself that I inked all the edges in black instead of brown too - the image is such a lovely shade that it would have looked better - learning point for next time! ;-)