I did the layout below for Sketch Insiration's latest challenge and DH had a good laugh remembering the incident with our little dog Molly, who is no longer with us. We also reminisced about her funny antics with different things that happened in her life. She was such a faithful, loving little pooch who played a big part in our lives for 12 years.
It's so important to be grateful for everything that we experience because life is so full of wonder and discovery ... yes even when things aren't going as we wish.
I discovered this video on my internet travels that I'd like to share with you today.
I have been contemplating doing 8 x 11 layouts instead of the customary 12 x 12 and this weekend I took the plunge and got started.
With the smaller page size I decided it was best to keep the design simple, thank you to Nicole S., Fran Tynan and Leanne Stamatellos for giving me the inspiration to create simply.
I'm looking forward to continuing my relationship with this size!
It's certainly been chilly in these parts! It's so cosy to stay indoors and potter away with my scraps and paper. I even got to re-organise some of it and discovered things I'd forgotten about!!
I'd really like to get my christmas cards done well before December this year - so, with 21 weeks to go, if I want to make 100 cards, I need to complete around 5 per week - quite achievable! Just need to get myself organised - I'll keep you updated!
I've been continuing on with my creating and here are some of the things I have done -
I love doing these vintage cards!
This was one I started at the SIA Trade Show 2 years ago!
It has been a busy week or so and I didn't get any scrapping done last weekend but I am certainly on a roll ... and loving it!
It's been quite a cold winter in Melbourne so far - we've been spoilt over the past few years with only a few cold days - but I am so thankful for our wonderful heater that keeps me very comfortable.
Even though I have lots to do, work wise, I find that being able to get out of my left brain and into my right brain to create, helps me to be more productive all around! So, work doesn't suffer, I don't suffer and the rest of the household doesn't suffer!
It's a funny thing isn't it - creativity! There are times when it seems such a struggle to get the juices going and to happily create ... and then there are the wonderful times when everything seems to flow and it's all too simple!
Well, thank goodness my mojo has returned and I am delighting in being able to get out the photos and go with the flow. Perhaps it is also to do with the early nightfall and the cold nights when it is cosy to be able to set myself up in my room, keep warm and potter around to my heart's content!
Anyway, enough of the sentiments, here are some of the layouts I have created for the NCJS challenges ...
... to do some scrapping again. I must have been on a roll as I have completed 6 layouts in the past 3 days - not at all like me! The challenge at NCJS has inspired me to do something.
I think I am getting back into the swing of things with my room setup - still not enough space to store things and it does take me a while to find things sometimes - but it is feeling good.
Maybe the cold weather is enticing me to stay inside and create rather than wandering down to coffee shops for a Latte or Flat White!
Here are some of the layouts I have completed - my camera battery ran out before I took photos of them all.
The NCJS group had its monthly Cybercrop two weekends ago and I finally had the opportunity to get some scrapping in (even with a trip to the country on the Saturday!)
This one is a double page using more than 5 photos. Keeping it simple and uncluttered was my goal.
This layout is based on a monotone design - the photograph of my Great-Grandfather is in beige tones so I decided to keep with that colour in different shades.
I thought I'd save time and do a Digi Layout - not as simple as I thought. This one took me about 2 1/2 hours (I did lose my work once when Photoshop crashed!) It was a bit of a play - not quite turning out as I imagined but I learnt some more things along the way.
I've had a play around with some digital scrapping today and I've come up with my new header and this layout ... admittedly it was a pre-designed one (Lynn Griffin - A Mother's Love), but I just needed to have a go! Not bad if I say so myself! Till next time ...
Well it's taken me longer than I had planned but I've finally finished some layouts. I've also had to 'fiddle' and 'tweak' with my HP scanner and my old PC 'cos my new Lexmark scanner does a very mediocre job. I printed some photos a couple of weeks ago with my old HP scanner and realised that they are heaps better than the ones from the Lexmark - they actually dried really quickly also.
And I have re-discovered my ArcSoft Panorama to stitch my layouts - so I have been re-organising my PC (although I still love my iMac) for my scanning and stitching. I seemed to be loading, uninstalling, re-loading, cleaning up and so on and so on for ages - at least 2 days worth of fiddling! But it's been worth it!
So here are my latest layouts - I've decided that simplicity is much easier and quicker too!
The heart is actually a soft pink Heidi Swapp Mirror but it came out black with the scanner :-(
Well, it has been ages since my last post! It was such a busy time over Christmas and New Year - lots of family events; I de-cluttered and cleaned 90% of the house (not Rob's Office though, too hard!!); I ate lots; I did very little exercise (at the gym anyway!); I enjoyed the company of my beautiful eldest daughter and 3 grand-daughters and I even managed to get in some creating time!
I felt very inspired after Heidi Swapp's workshop and I made Grace an a to Z mini-album for Christmas - lots of fun doing it! I used a Making Memories 6" x 6" Cloth Album in a stunning lime green colour (my favourite colour!) and the base pages were from the 6 x 6 Basic Grey Collection Pad. I added lots of inserts of varying sizes and used lots of embellishments through out the album. Luckily Grace has a zillion photos of her - self portraits - that gave me a great stash to choose the main 26 from. I didn't start till the week before Christmas and the only thing I didn't finish was the ribbons on the spine.
I was over the moon as she was really wrapt with it - even dropped a few tears. I didn't think that Grace was really interested in my Scrapbooking - but she did show one of her girfriends my albums the other day and talked about them as though she has been listening to everything I speak about the pages and the scrapbooking.
Here are some of the pages ...
I started (but still have to 100% complete some scrapbook pages and here is the one I have finished - I will post more at a later date. The colour in this is not very good - the white, red & black are much more vibrant.
I have also started the Project 365 which will support me to be more creative with my photography (and learn how to take better photographs!!) I have decided to start a new blog - 365 Days a Year - specifically for that one. Keeping everything up to date will be a real challenge - but then that's life!
I know, this is too crazy to believe - but I have just finished 100 pages (6" x 6") for the Southern Cross Kids' Camps designed to create happy memories for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. Julie Stone - Making a Difference - has taken on the mammoth challenge to provide, literally thousands, of pages to be made into albums for all the children who attend the 7 camps around Australia and 2 in New Zealand.
I think that this is just an amazing thing to do for these kids who are "over the moon" to get these albums, with photos taken at the camp, presented to them on their last day. Check Julie's blog entry from earlier in the year to see the finished albums.
It feels good to be able to contribute and I urge all you crafters out there to spend some time, even in this crazy time of the year, to create, and send off, some very basic but colourful and inspiring pages. She needs them for the camps to be held early in January. It's a great way to use your scraps and all those extra bits and pieces lying around. You can contact Julie for her postal address.
Here are the pages I made - they are basic, as they are meant to be, and are just to show you how easy they are to make! The campleaders add the photos and a bit of journalling so there needs to be space for these things.
Here is what a pile of 100 looks like -
I also managed to get some Christmas cards completed last week - I spend a wonderful week with my eldest daughter and 3 grand-daughters getting some TLC after my bout of the flu. Being an avid crafter, she has a space set up for her paper crafts and I made good use (and a big mess) of it and made these cards (my camera is being repaired and I've used my iPhone camera so the photo's are not as sharp and crisp as they should be) -
Well they are my shares for now - hope to get some more creating done this week - meeting up with the gorgeous Dorothy on Wednesday for a social crop. I have an album to complete for my rebellious but beautiful youngest daughter, for Christmas - will be a push!
