Could It Be,,,

...that the scrapping mojo is returning? It may be too early to say for sure, but in any case I have Layouts Fourteen and Fifteen to post this week. Here we are:

This page wasn't actually the one I had next in line to scrap, but the other one had been sitting on the desk for two weeks without any inspiration whatsoever. So I let this one jump the queue, and I think in the end it was one of the quickest layouts I've ever done - maybe 15 minutes, total. You have to love cooperative photos! (Although it's faintly disturbing that this is one of the very few photos of all five of us together...and I'm wearing Aaron's jocks. Glamour eludes me once again.)

And here's Fifteen:

Credit where credit's due: photography by Joel Krivan :)

I quite like this one. Went the "instinctive" approach that I tried with No. Thirteen, and just pulled out paper and bits I liked, without worrying too much about whether it fit the footy theme. So there's no real justification for using orange and teal other than that I wanted to. The paper's from Kaiser's Technologic collection (as is the yellow on the first page, come to think of it), which I really like - fantastic boy colours and patterns. I'm always on the prowl for great boy paper...

Have the next layout half-assembled on the desk. It's a double, so depending on whether I'm feeling like going easy on myself re catching up, I may count it as Sixteen and Seventeen. We'll see!

Have a wonderful week :)

Officially Behind...

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, as we come to the end of Week 16 of the year, I am Officially Behind Schedule. Or, to put a slightly more positive spin on it, I've been on Scrapping Hiatus. Either way, I've just got the one layout to post this time. Here's No. Thirteen:

Doing this page made me realise how differently I work on layouts now than when I first started scrapbooking. Back then, I used to plan everything before I dared to cut out or stick down anything - mainly because I was so worried about making mistakes. (It was for Posterity, after all...ho hum) Now, I have no idea how a page is ultimately going to look as I begin it; it's all down to experimenting and letting the thing evolve. It's less a case of "but what if it doesn't work?", and instead a focus on "I wonder what would happen if...?"  Much more satisfying! And besides, there's always another page.

I'll try to catch up a bit over the next few weeks, but in the spirit of 2012's jettisoning the "should do's", if it doesn't happen, I won't beat myself up over it. There are always peaks and troughs in Creativity World; next month I may be so inspired it's all I can do to STOP scrapping... We'll see!

Have a wonderful week :)

It's been an interesting few weeks in this corner of the world. It's funny how, often, just as you get used to doing life in a particular way, everything seems to change at once - and you have to learn how to negotiate and juggle and order all over again. I don't mind changes, not at least when the foundational, fundamental things - family, faith, friends - are unaffected, but transitioning from one phase to the next can take some concentration. So far I think I'm doing okay; everyone's had clean underwear in their drawer and fruit in their lunchbox, anyway!

The upshot of all this is that I haven't had much energy left over for high-octane scrapping. I did, I confess, find myself just starting to reproach myself for that, but - hip, hip and a big fat hooray! - this time I managed to catch myself before I slid into a scrap slump. (Frankly, I call that a giant leap forward in personal growth...)

Had to remind myself that scrapping is meant to be enjoyable, not another thing on the to-do list. I really do want to do a layout a week this year, but I really don't want it to become a burden. So I took a slightly different approach this week. I usually leave bits out on the desk for a few days so I can see how they work together and evaluate objectively. This time I gave myself 5 minutes or so to pick stuff - purely going by instinct - and then 15 minutes to put it together. (Although I gave myself an extra 5 minutes since I'd picked alpha stamps. Why can't somebody invent self-cleaning stamps? Why? Why??)

You know what? It worked. While I wouldn't call it my favourite layout ever, the satisfaction of completing a page - and quickly! - snapped me out of the reluctance and got me buoyed up to do another page. Which, incidentally, is sitting in bits out on the desk for a few days, so I can see how they work together and evaluate objectively...

Anyway, here 'tis:

Here's to not over-thinking it!

One last thing. I don't usually post anything that's not scrap-related, but since I mentioned my knitting fever last time, I thought I'd show my latest finished project. This was for a friend's new baby grandson, and I'm quite proud of it. Had never knitted a toy before, or done anything in the round, so it was a challenge, but one I loved doing. Can't imagine being able to come up with the pattern for this. Aren't people clever!

Have a wonderful week :D

Two Weeks in One

Well, hello to you all. I didn't quite get a post or a layout done last week; had a couple of other projects on the go instead. (There's something about Autumn and cooler weather that makes me want to break out the knitting needles.Yes, knitting. Actually, my sister once gave me a fantastic birthday card that read, "You can't help but love a lady who is not afraid to do nanna craft." Sums it up, really :) )  Anyhow, this week I've played catch up and have no.s Nine and Ten ready:

Nice and simple, these ones. I find I usually veer toward (even) simple(r) after an (for me) involved layout like the sewn tree one. (Although that one set off a bit of an idea for an upcoming page. I'll have a play and see if it works.) The second page has been sitting on the desk for weeks - nothing I tried was really working. I actually wanted a vertical row of photos, but despite repeated efforts, the page wouldn't cooperate. Eventually it stopped speaking to me altogether, so I put it aside until it had finished sulking.

Ultimately they ended up being two versions of the same layout, but I'm okay with that. After all, why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

Have a wonderful week :)

New Interests and Some Experimenting

Here are six words I never thought I’d write with any degree of conviction:

I think I’m becoming a gardener.

Not a particularly knowledgeable or proficient one, but a gardener nonetheless.

I say this because a few weeks ago I walked out of my local nursery, a bag of pea straw mulch under each arm, and felt as happy and satisfied-with-life as if I’d just bought a pair of shoes.

It’s funny; growing up, gardening was the Ultimate Chore, but now it’s become a whole new way to be creative. And given our new block didn’t have a single tree, let alone plant, when we moved in, it really does seem like a wonderful blank canvas.

It’s been exciting to see the kids start to appreciate it too. While I don’t think they’re enormous fans of weeding (but then, who is?), they’ve noticed the trees we’ve planted sprouting, and point out new buds and growth with excitement. It’s lovely to see.

All three have chosen and planted a tree just for them. (Well, two have, one’s still deciding). Week Eight’s layout is on one of them:

This layout had a couple of starting inspiration points. The first was this picture of kids’ wallpaper that I tore out of a magazine a few years ago (I think it’s by Catherine Martin, but I didn’t write it down at the time.):

 Sadly, I wasn’t able to convince any of my kids that they loved it enough to have it in their new room, so it’s been sitting in the ideas file ever since. I did try to draw some silhouette figures for my page, but wasn’t happy with any of them. Besides, they got in the way of the photos.

The second spark off point was a book I read last week on twelve incredibly talented art quilters. This group got together online and each took a turn at choosing a theme that they’d then all interpret as a 12” x 12” mini quilt. The results were phenomenal; so creative and clever. (There’s a website – might be Twelveby12, but don’t quote me)  I really loved that it wasn’t a competition, but rather a challenge in which everyone’s very different styles were celebrated and appreciated. Sounds like a pretty good idea for a scrapbooking group, actually!

There were a couple of these quilts that looked like they’d been painted, only using thread rather than paint. Thought I’d give it a bash on my tree here. I drew a tree (and grass) then cut it out and stuck some paper behind it. Then I used different machine stitches and coloured cottons and played till it looked finished. I was umming and ahhing as to whether to stitch some extra thinner branches and twigs over the cream paper to fill it out a bit, but when I started to sketch it out in pencil it all looked a bit fussy, so I stopped. It was a fun technique to play with though, and I think I’ll have to try it again sometime soon.

Have a wonderful week :)

Food For Thought

Last week I was browsing in my local book store (fancy that), and picked up a brunch cookbook to flick through. (I love looking at cookbooks – and this shop’s full of them. Just found the sublime Frenchwomen Don’t Get Fat Cookbook and a fabulous one on homemade icecream. Insert drooling sigh of delight here.) The first page I opened to proudly displayed the recipe for – I kid you not – “Baked Beans on Toast”. Returned book to pile immediately. Honestly…

It did make me giggle a bit though, so I messaged a friend who I knew would also see the funny side of it. That set off a flurry of messages, all suggesting similarly complicated dishes. Fairy bread…boiled eggs…jam sandwiches…carrot sticks…We decided if ever we wanted to make a quick buck, we’d publish “Cookery For The Morbidly Unculinary”. Perhaps we could market it to students… ;)

I mention this not only because I got a laugh out of it, but also because frankly it's a neat little segue into Week 7’s food-themed layout:

Putting this together reminded me of something I really love about scrapbooking – it’s so endlessly accommodating and versatile. One week you can be celebrating a Nobel Prize winner, the next, recording a funny little family moment like this. From the deeply significant to the downright silly, and everything in between – which, when you think about it, is a pretty apt reflection of life itself, huh?

Have a wonderful week :)

A Bit of Creative Play

Hello again!

I took a break this week from scrapping family and kids, and instead pulled out my own scrapbook/art journal/miscellaneous dumping ground album and started playing. The first page I’d actually begun a couple of weeks ago, but had put aside, what with the busyness of school beginning + Mike’s birthday + starting part-time work. (I’d forgotten the sheer bliss of pulling on tracky pants after a day of work :) ) But a child-free day or two gave me the chance to get down and play. Here ‘tis:

This page came about after reading “The Voice of Hope”, by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Prize winner. (Sorry, I still don’t know how to do links. Google her - she’s astonishing and will make you proud to be female. Or wish you were ;) ) I was so struck by her passion, intelligence, gentleness, humour and wisdom, that I felt prompted to put together a visual reminder for myself of something she wrote that really resonated with me:

            “Fearlessness may be a gift, but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions.”

The reason I love this so much is that it makes living fearlessly possible for anyone. It’s easy to look at someone like her and marvel, assuming she’s just somehow got it all together naturally, or that it all comes easily to her. Not a bit! She strips away the mystique – and the excuses – and chalks it up to choice. Fearlessness is a choice, or better yet, a lifestyle of daily choices. As a naturally fairly timid person, I find that inspiring! After all, if she, with the very real threat of arrest, imprisonment, torture and oppression can choose to live fearlessly, so can we all. Heady stuff.

The second page is also related to Aung San Suu Kyi’s book – that, and the book I read prior to it, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. You’d be hard pressed to find two more different outlooks on life! Interestingly though, they both touched on the theme of ‘greatness’, with (unsurprisingly) very different views. I thought I’d have a go at representing it visually, and came up with this:

I started off trying to show contrast with colour, but it was just too busy – especially with so much text. So I played around for a bit, and found that keeping the format similar for both halves actually emphasised the contrast in theme and pictures; less obviously, perhaps, but I thought more effectively overall. It’s been ages since I tried to sketch anything, so I felt pretty rusty. I did have trouble getting the proportions right, so eventually, when it occurred to me this was meant to be fun, not tear-inducing, I just traced the outer outline. (Note to self: next time use tracing paper, not vellum) I filled in the detail and shading though, so I think it still counts as my work…

This was fun – and a good reminder to make time to play more often!

Have a wonderful week :)