The One About the Mini Book...

Last week I had a really horrendous week, and nearly had a melt down.  But luckily my friend helped me out despite having lots of her own work to do.  So I decided to make her a mini-book using photos of her two grandchildren as a thank you.  So last Friday I asked her to send me some photos, but without telling her why!  Saturday afternoon I got started, and finished it all up by Sunday evening, ready to give to her on Monday morning.  She was really pleased with it, and I seem to have my mojo back!

The One About my First Use of the Craft Area...

Last night I actually got to scrap at my new scrap desk!  It was so much better for my back, I had a TV right there, and I had plenty of space to spread out!  As I said in yesterdays post I can't really put everything away where I want it yet as there is still painting to be done.  Today the ceiling has had a coat of white paint, but it has dried patchy and will need another coat.  So until all that is done I'm not risking my scrap stuff getting paint drops on it!  For now I will have to pack everything up when I have finished!

Last night I finished off the LO I started last weekend, and which I got no where with.  I was inspired by Shimelle's May 4x6 class where she uses 5 photos.  As soon as I saw the layout for this month I thought I could use that for my photos from last weekend.  Although I had 5 photos printed out, they weren't 6x4 they were all slightly different, but I think it still looks ok :)

After realising last weekend that I have a huge amount of brads, I decided to start using them up, and use more than just one or two on a LO!

At the moment when I scrap I'm having issues with my journalling.  I'm trying to put more journalling on my pages at the moment, but struggling with how to do it.  Sometimes I do journalling strips, and other times I write directly on the card, but this doesn't always work if I'm using lots of patterned papers.  If anyone has any ideas for how to do large amounts of journalling on their LO's I would really appreciate it.  Leave a link to any of your own LO's in the comments section if you have any that would help.  I would really appreciate it!

Don't forget that as tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month, then its Storytelling Sunday over on Sian's blog.  I've written my story and it's all ready to go in the morning.  I'm warning you now, you will probably think the story a little weird!  Bit it came about from a conversation with M the other day, and I just thought, that could be my story for this month!  You'll see!!!

Oh and for anyone who is interested, my books for studying arrived today, but still no sign of my stash order.  So I'm getting further behind with my Document 2011 that I wanted to start last weekend!

The One About Having Scrappers Block...

This weekend has just not gone as I'd planned.  The idea was that my new supplies would be here by Friday and I would be able to start my new project.  Unfortunately for completely unknown reasons, despite my supplies being posted first class on Tuesday, they haven't arrived.  I sat in yesterday waiting for the postman, and only moved when M's dad turned up to postie watch whilst I had a shower.  I was in a strop all day!

The new project I want to do is Document 2011.  I've seen what lots of other people have done both for 2010, and for the start of 2011, and I thought I'd like to do that.  So as part of my treat I ordered some supplies that I could use for it, intending to make some headway into it this weekend.  I've been back through my emails and text messages and diary and put together some of the things that I did January through to MArch.  Then of course I started blogging so April and May will be a lot easier.  So I'm ready and waiting, and not able to get started.

So I thought rather than waste the opportunity, I would do some other scrapping.  So I printed off some photos from when Mum and I went to Speke hall in April, and some photos from a wedding we went to last summer.  And I just couldn't get in the groove.  I chose the card, and the papers.  The problem was the layout itself, and how I was to do the journalling.  I conscious that my LO's seem to be quite samey, with the title at the top, and the journalling in strips to the side or one the right.  So, I've put it all away.  Maybe having slept on it I'll have a better idea for how it should look tomorrow, but I didn't want to force it, and I just wasn't having fun.

It must be the thought of new stash!  Up till now I've been quite happy rooting through my old supplies, and always finding something that will work. So... I'll see what tomorrow brings.

In other news, today might just be the last time that I scrap on the living room floor, so I though I'd share a photo before I packed it all away.

The reason being, my craft area is very nearly done.  All the wood has been varnished this afternoon, so tomorrow all M has to do is fit it altogether, and screw various bits in!  Yey, so I might just have a finished craft area tomorrow!  These are a few of the pictures of what has been done today:

The top of the unit in the process of being varnished

The varnish went on it different layers, three coats of deep mahogany, with one layer of maple on top

This is the fold down work-top

These will be the legs

This is the unit that goes behind that fold down bit, and can be used to house little bits and bobs if I want it to.  It would involve crawling under the table to get at them though!

So... has anyone else ever had scrappers block?  And what do you do to combat it?  I need help!

The One About More Weekend Scrapping...

I think I may have well and truly caught the scrapbooking bug again!  After my late night scrapping on Friday, Sunday afternoon turned out to be another scrapbooking session.  This time I focused on using photos from my Race for Life last Year, and M's Bupa Run last weekend.

I knew all along that I wanted to use the pretty pink butterfly paper for the Race for Life page, I've got a thing about butterflies at the moment.  Plus I needed to get last years photos scrapped before we do this years run in July!

For M's page, I went rooting through my paper supply, and I couldn't decide what paper to use until I came across this blue one with the birds on.  I've had it for years.  It came in a scrapbook kit from Scrapagogo a long time ago!  I love how this LO turned out, its one of my favourites I think :)

I'd be interested to see what your favourite LO's are at the moment please leave a link:

The One About my Late Night Scrapping...

So last night was my scrapping night while M was out at boys night, and goodness I really was up late - for me anyway.  I packed it in and went up to bed at 1am, and by that time my back was really sore, because for now I scrap on the living room floor, and it doesn't half hurt after a while bending over on my knees!  Luckily though I have a yoga mat that I can sit on as we have laminate floorboards in our front room!  (Fingers crossed it won't be long until my craft space will be ready - M has been dispatched outside while the weather is dry to do some more work on the wood :)  I think all it needs is some sanding, then the worktop and leg mechanisms need varnishing, and it all putting together).

So after nearly 4 hours of scrapping, I finished one LO, and one DLO.  (It took me a while to find the photos - some are on my PC, some are on M's laptop, and some are on the portable hard-drive.  It turned out that my PC doesn't recognise the hard-drive which was a bit of a pain as I had over 200 pictures from our holiday in madeira that I wanted to put on it.  I know this all sounds rather complicated, but the printer is currently downstairs and I print from the laptop).

Anyway, back to the LO's.  The first one was of our trip to Alton Towers shortly after we first met.  I had completely forgotten that I had taken photos whilst we were there, so it was a nice surprise to find them!  I took inspiration from Shimelle's 6x4 Photo Love class, and the LO came together really quickly.  I had a bit of an accident with some glue, but managed to cover it up with a co-ordinating red circle embellishment!

Next up was the DLO of our trip to the rugby league final of Wigan Warriors versus St Helens last February (?), so can't remember the date, now that I'm blogging hopefully I won't forget things like that now!  M's dad printed photos off from the trip a while ago, so I just decided to scrap them (all that faffing about with the printing of photos, and I only used three that I printed myself!  What am I like!  Think it was the wine that I was drinking that had something to do with it!!!)  Anyway as it was a special occasion and we didn't know whether the Wigan Warriors would make it to the final again, P (M's dad) decided to make a proper day of it and go to one of the hospitality suites first.  It was fab!

Bit of a dilemma about what to wear (well we were advised to dress smartly, but then I had to factor in we'd be sat outside in the cold to watch the match!), but after a yummy three course meal, we went out to find our seats.  We were up in one of the corners, quite high up, and with a good view of the screen to see the close-ups.  I can't pretend to understand all of the rules, but I got quite excited every time they scored, and cheered them on.  And it made our day that they won!  M and his Dad are season ticket holders so they try to go to all of the home matches, and some of the away ones (means I get to scrap on a Friday night!)  and sometimes, for exiting matches I tag along, or if there is an away trip somewhere nice I tag along there too (last year I went to the game in Hull, and we had a nice look round the town before the match).  Only if it's in the warmer months of the year, during the winter months unless it is going to be a really spectacular game I stay at home in the warmth!  Not really a cold weather person!!!

So I was thinking about how long it took me to put just two pages together, and I wondered... how long does it take you to put a page together?  And does it bother you that it might take three hours to do just one SLO?

The One About Scrapbooking Day...

Those of you who scrapbook will know that National Scrapbooking Day was yesterday, (for the record it's always the first Saturday in May).  Well yesterday I was studying, and then due to not feeling well I spent the afternoon on the sofa, so I wasn't able to participate until today.  But better late than never!  Unfortunately, I realised too late that I had run out of photo paper, (I've always printed my own photos, I find it easier that way to print them at varying sizes.  I know that a lot of people have theirs printed professionally, but don't they always come back 6x4???), so I had to use photos already printed, and wasn't able to do the page about last year's Race for Life (post about this to follow soon).

Yesterday Shimelle posted some challenges on her blog, and this one inspired me to do this page:

The challenge was to scrap a page directly onto some patterned paper.  This page actually came together really quickly, far more quickly than normal.  And I'm wondering whether it was due to starting out with a piece of patterned paper.  So I will try it again sometime soon, and keep you posted!  The page is about a photograph I took some time ago, whilst out with Mum at Dunham Massey Park.  I loved the photo so much I had it blown up onto canvas and now it is displayed on our living room wall!  I have another picture that I took, of the Eiffel Tower when we visited Paris in November 2009 that I also want to put up on the wall.  But I just haven't got round to it yet!

Next up is a page about a PJ Party that we held for our Brownies.  This wasn't for a challenge, just a set of photos I had always meant to scrap!  Due to the pictures being of lots of little Brownies, I don't feel it right to show the whole LO here, so I've tried to take photos of it, whilst not including their faces.

The journalling reads:
'At the end of every term we liked to do something different to mark the end of term.  And Spring 2009 was no different.  I came up with the idea of having a PJ Party, (I think I was more excited than the girls were!), where we would all wear our PJ's to Brownies that night.  We played the chocolate game (you know, the one where you throw a six, put on hat and gloves, then have to cut the chocolate with a knife and fork), we had a story with the girls' teddy bears, and had lots of dancing.  (And what was even better was when Alesha Dixon's song 'Wash Up, Brush Up' came on, the girls grabbed the brooms and started sweeping up!  Less tidying up for us leaders!)'

I was very lucky to have been a Brownie leader for three years, with this unit, and was really sad to say goodbye to them last Summer.  Unfortunately as I moved in with M, it was too far away for me to commute back every Tuesday.  I did try a Brownie unit closer to home, but I didn't agree with the way it was run, so gave it up.  It was run by a lady that must have been in her late 50's, who had obviously been running it her way for years.  After coming from a unit where the eldest leader was 30, where we had a vision of all Brownie meetings being fun, it came as a bit of a shock!  I just didn't agree with the way the Brownies were made to work!  I know it was activities in their Brownie book, but even so, Brownies is meant to be fun!!  I'm sure that I'll go back to being a leader again the future as I got so much out of it, and it never failed to put a smile on my face (and it allowed me to be a big kid, which was a bonus!)  Has anyone else got any thoughts on this?  Or have you ever been a Brownie leader?  Or even a Rainbow or Guides leader?  Do share :)