Inspiration found ...

.. so I wanted to do a LO with November's Scarlet Lime kit, I'd chosen the photo and was going to use Rough Draft's latest sketch, but I couldn't decide how to bring it all together until I saw this LO on UKS, which gave me the perfect theme and the chance to do some hidden journalling about my thoughts on this year and my hopes and dreams for 2009. The papers were created exclusively for Scarlet Lime and I love the colours, not ones I'd normally choose.

And here's the finished album for my sister, waiting to be wrapped up and given to her on Saturday. I'm pleased how it's turned out, there's a few more pages I could have done, but I can always add those at a later date.

Just for me ...

.. it seems ages since I scrapped a LO that wasn't for someone else or part of a project, and so with my last two Scarlet Lime kits feeling neglected, I pulled this together. Really like those Sassafras Lass and Crate Paper papers.

And continuing my Shimelle scrapfest, Journal Your Christmas starts on on Monday (can't believe it's nearly December!) This is my second year for JYC and I'm going to do things slightly different this year. All my pages are ready made, so on the day I can just add a photo and some jounalling, I also want to use it to keep more of a dairy of December happenings! It's such a great way of capturing those precious memories and helps you really appreciate the Xmas Holidays without them flying past and wondering what happened!

Everyone has a story ...

... and this is mine. So on Sunday I spent a lovely day in Gosport doing Shimelle's 'Everyone has a story' workshop. I met some lovely ladies, especially Lisa who was fab company on the day, and I also got to meet my teamie Pippa. Shimelle produced an amazing kit for the day including an American Craft binder, Thickers, AC stickers, lots of card and papers, plus 2 exclusive stamp sheets just for this class.

Here are the LOs I've completed so far (some of the journalling was done once I got home)
Title Page Roots LHS

Roots RHS

Growing Up LHS

Growing up RHS

Neighbourhood/home LHS

Neighbourhood/home RHS

Food SLO

Routine SLO

Declaration page (my promise to keep going with the project)

I've got another 6 LOs that just need journalling on (4 of which I did on my own at home yesterday) - so that's a pretty productive 48 hours, yes?!

I'm on a bit of a Shimelle scrapfest as today is also 'Scrap Your Day' so I'm also busily taking photos.

A couple of LOs to share ...

did these last week, a couple more for my Sister's album. The album is nearly complete now, just a few more LOs to go, and it's her birthday in 10 days time. We're meeting up in London and going to see The Lion King and then pizza after. I'm just a but nervous about taking the girls on the train on my own, but I'm sure it'll be fine! The LOs are of grandparents and her uncle.

I've spent the last week or so getting reading for one of Shimelle's workshops - 'Everyone has Story'. I needed about a 100 or so photos, starting from birth right through to the present day, so have been scanning away. The photos have been set off to print now, so just hope they turn up for Saturday. The workshop is in Gosport on Sunday, so I've booked myself a night in a Travelodge on the Saturday, will be a bit strange being on my own! Shame I can't have a lazy lie in, class starts at 9am.

Stories in Hand ...

started this week. It's essentially a binder and notebook which you use to spark and capture memories. The binder is full of about 1000 questions, split over Roots, Family and Self to help generate memories and then the notebook has journalling cards to capture them on. All the printed downloadables have been designed by Jessica Sprague and free of charge!

So I've been printing and chopping up an enormous amount of card! The binder is made from chipboard and book rings, with a covered card spine. I've used Jessica's title block but mounted it onto BG Offbeat paper.
These are the inside pages.
The front cover of the notebook I've laminated to make it more durable.
Tomorrow's prompt show us how to put 'the system' into practice.

Xmas Journal 08 ...

So for the last few days I've been chopping up bits and paper and collecting supplies for my Xmas journal. As I said below it's going to be a combination of Ali Edward's daily diary and Shimelle's Journal Your Xmas prompts. I've used patterned paper, cardstock, journalling cards, envelopes, acetate and I've also sewn pockets into some of the paper protectors that came with the album. I've also interleaved with a few word flashcards from Designer Digitals to add extra pages that I can move around as necessary.

I've used a Making Memories 6x9 album and the pages go from 1st Dec through to 6th Jan.

Here's a collage of a few of my pages, you can see the rest by clicking on the album in the side bar.

Not doing much ...

I thought with DH being away this week I would have scrapped more, but being on my own looking after the girls has left me feeling a bit flat. I did manage this one last night though, it's a scraplift of Laura's 'The best days are those spent with friends' LO. The photos are of my sister on top of Snowdon. I didn't do the walk with her, but my stepmum said she moaned an awful lot on the way up, so this LO is to celebrate her achievement, and it is also the closing page in her birthday album.

My thoughts are also turning towards a Xmas Journal. I wasn't sure that I would do Shimelle's again this year, I did struggle to keep up over the main holiday period and some of the LOs for the prompts this year would end up being duplicates. Then I saw Ali Edward's December Daily Diary and thought that might be a more appropriate to record December's events. So I think I'm going to end up with a combination of the two. I've bought some lovely October Afternoon Good Cheer paper and have a 6x9 album on order, so that should keep me busy

Oh, and I start this soon - Jessica Sprague's Story in Hand class. It's designed to record stories in your life that you may not necessarily want to scrap, but are still important.

Scarlet Lime Project

I have desperately been waiting for the arrival of Scarlet Lime's October kit, which finally arrived this morning (I'm sure I was the last!) I knew that I wanted to do the project kit straight away and have had the photo printed ready for the last week. It was created by Greta Hamond and I think it's super cute.

Another from Rough Draft ..

Am really enjoying the Rough Draft sketches - here's #4.DH has gone to Japan for 11 days - eek - but I have sent him with a request to look out for crafty items, not sure what, so if anyone has any suggestions - please let me know!