Journal your Christmas 2013 x

So today Shimelle Laine has announced the new JYC 2013 class. I have completed this class for about 6 years now I think and it is always brilliant. The cost is £22.00 this year which you may go ''Ooh not got enough money'' but that is £22.00 this year and NEVER again but you take part for FREE every year. So if you JYC every year for the rest of your life that'll cost you pence.

I won't give you more details here as Shimelle has completed a post with everything you need to know and thensome HERE. Here are some images from my previous Christmases to give you an idea of some of the things we journal about...........

reindeer parades, Mum's selling mulled wine in antlers, Christmas lights and Santa  

Christmas trees and ornaments.

Do come join us from 1st December until 6th January 2014 it is always fun and Christmassy and if you'd like to know what my journal looks like for this year there might be a post over on Kristin's Holiday Extravaganza to wet your appetite this Saturday.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas................. x

OK I know Christmas is still 2 months away or as my iphone app says 66 sleeps but for those of us who like to Journal or decorate our homes DIY style it is not that far away.


Like many people I do a yearly Christmas Journal with Shimelle Laine called Journal your Christmas. You start on December 1st and finish on 6th January, or 12th night. I have done this for about 5 years now and love documenting the things I do with my friends and family, and by myself. It gives something else to focus on and celebrate the time itself. Since I have been diagnosed I have found December time a real struggle so journalling helps me remember what I am meant to be enjoying. The really special thing about this class is that you buy it the first year and the following years are sent to your inbox free. It is a wonderful class to take part in with loads of ideas and support. Shimelle will be posting the latest information about this year class next month.


There is also Ali Edward's December Daily project which is a short duration but thousands of people complete the daily pages every year. There is loads of information and tips on that link page about the project and I know alot of scrapbookers who blog and teach take part every year so again there is a great community spirit and alot of support and inspiration.


 I have already begun collecting my Christmas scrapbooking supplies together to make my album for this year and will share those nearer the time.


For today I wanted to highlight to great blog events happening next month which should help you get in the mood for journalling, DIYing, crafting and generally having a great time for free.

Firstly, Jeniffer Grace is hosting ''Frosty Festivities'' on the weekend of 8th -10th November.

Here is what Jennifer says about what she has planned......................

Over the weekend there will be posts every hour from 4pm-10pm Friday, and 10am-10pm Saturday and Sunday (GMT), including crafts, tutorials, challenges, tips, a blog hop (with a mix of old and new faces in the hop), and many, many giveaways! It will all be on the theme of Winter and Christmas, so we can get nicely in the festive spirit and share lots of ideas to see us through colder days.


Secondly  Kristin Tweedale is having a blog weekend running the last weekend of November 29th and 30th called ''Holiday Extravaganza''

Here is Kristin's description of her plans for that weekend of fun....................

What is it?

An awesome holiday-themed blog party with challenges, games, tutorials and giveaways. It’s a great alternative to Black Friday/Small Business Saturday shopping with a fun crafty twist. So hang out with us and get your craft on!

How it works:

Starting on Friday, November 29th @ Midnight EST there will be a new blog post each hour — continuing through Saturday (Small Business Saturday). Among the posts will be challenges, tutorials, games, and more.

Kristin is also looking out for inspiring guest posts so if you would like to inspire Kristin with your proposal the details can be found on this post. Having worked with Kristin's class Find Your Voice as a blogger and crafter, Kristin is very supportive and professional. She would love to hear from as many people as possible with great ideas. Go be brave and pitch your idea.


If you want any Christmas inspiration already then head on over to Pinterest, there are pins flying everywhere for just that as we speak.

Break it down............the finale x

Thank you all so much for responding to my layouts inspired by Shimelle's class at UK Scrappers. It had really inspired me. So this is the finale, week 6.

The first challenge was to use a photo of a couple. You could decide how that word ''couple'' was defined but only one picture. So I chose one from a calendar my friend made for me of her boys a couple of years ago. These 2 boys mean the world to me and I wanted to use the photograph to explain why.

The next challenge was to use lots of things on the layout that you loved. Because it was about love I chose hears, I have also been using my stamps alot in this class so I chose an arrow stamp with a phrase in it, I alos chose gems, banners and stickers which I have lots of. I also used some glimmer mists and cameras.

The next thing to think about was colour and Shimelle gave us some guidance by sending us links to colour sites which explained what colours meant. We then had to think about the feeling we wanted to portray. I wanted love which is pink and red but ultimately all the colours of the rainbow were perfect for these two, so that is what I went with. A real array of primary colours although the two main paper, title and stamp colours were red, blue and yellow. This links in with the colours they were wearing in the picture.

Because of the theme of colour, I was struck by how much these boys bring light and colour into my dark and dingy depressive world, and have done since they were little babies. They have grown up understanding as much as they can about Jo's moods. So this led me to the title ''You colour my world'' because in all honesty they really do.

I then went to my embellishments and found this fabulous sticker of colour from an old Sassafras sheet. I had stamped some banner shapes and then used these Jenni Bowlin banner stickers in other spots, I also chose the star sticker as it seemed to fit well with the fact the boys are in Scout and Beaver uniforms, the brother sticker is self-explanatory and I then used lots of little arrows from Studio Calico and stamped the word ''thankful'' in the spaces too.

I used 2 shades of glimmer mists in red and blue and then added gems and hearts plus some stamping.

Finally I added my journelling which is very personal and heartfelt but I am going to share it with you because in all honesty I share most things with you all, I'm never afraid to be that person and also I want everyone to know just how special these boys are.

I hope you have enjoyed joining me for this series of posts and I look forward to sharing more scrapbooking fun soon.

Break it down week 5 x

Wow week 5 already and by the time you read it class will be over. Anyway I have really loved doing Shimelle's free class, it has made me consider my photographs and stories in a different way.

So week 5 challenged you to find a picture of people where they were ''in action''. Shimelle gave us free reign on that part but gave some great ideas. I knew from the minute she said couple and action the exact picture I wanted to scrapbook. It is not my picture, it is copyrighted to Friend Movement and their photographer Ryan Forbes, however it is truly a couple of friends taking action in the antibullying project.

So after months of tweeting and chatting this finally hit the Internet and loads of media outlets in the USA last month. The picture of my friend Ronnie and his friend Elliot as co-founders of Friend Movement is very powerful and some people have taken quite a stance against their use of what in America is called ''giving the bird''. In the UK we are more straighforward and give it a different name. I for one think it is a very powerful photograph and gets people talking. Anyway this is really about the layout itself so I'll get right back to that.

Because the guys are standing in front of a red backdrop and are wearing very neutral colours, I chose to stay with those so I used a red polka dot paper as a framing piece but used greys, black and off-white. I purposely made the photograph big because it is after all the focus of the layout.

Shimelle's next challenge was the title which she suggested should be a word ie girl/boy and then what was happening. Because Ronnie and Elliot started as friends and because the whole premise of Friend Movement is the word ''Friend'' I chose that as my key word and then added ''get proactive'' to complete the title. We were also encouraged to use washi tape behind the title and in other key places.

For the embeliishments I stuck with the colour scheme of red, black and grey and found some Jenni Bowlin tags, an old red label, some Studio Calico cameras and some old stickers to make my embellishment points. As the campaign at present is about getting the image and the celebrity photographs into the public domain, I found some camera words too. Then comes the bird image. Because in the USA this blurred image is called ''Giving the bird'' I emulated that by using a bird stamped image the label above had a bird on it too.

For the journalling, Shimelle gave us the challenge to write sentences using that one word to begin each one. So I chose Friends and friend. I asked Ronnie for his input and so the first few sentences are his and I then added my writing using some of the key concepts from the campaign. I used some Jenni Bowlin stars in red as bullet points and to bring some more colour into the piece.

I hope you enjoy learning about my process for this layout and that perhaps you might go and find out about Friend Movement for yourselves. This lovely layout is going to it's new home in the Friend Movement office in LA. How exciting. x

Break it down week x

I am really enjoying Shimelle's free class with UK Scrappers and have made some layouts I am incredibly pleased with.

Week fours challenge was to use a photograph you kept trying to scrapbook but ended up putting away. So I had a look through my ''difficult'' pile and found one of my friends Sarah and Graham. Now this picture wasn't difficult to scrapbook for any reason other than that it was from an event where it was the only picture, it doesn't really represent that event and  I just hadn't found the right inspiration to scrapbook it. However, the minute I found it again I thought ''I could talk about them as a couple''. And this began the process of making a layout about them.

The second part of the challenge was to work with the edges of your cardstock/patterned paper using stamps. The idea was to stamp some images in three different places on the cardstock right at the edges and going off the edges and to use these to anchor the layout and the embellishments. I found a really simple floral stamp which I stamped in a pink chalky ink and then I added some splashes of a Rose glitter mist by Dawn Bibby I found in my stash. Once this was all dry I could start making the layout proper.

I layered up the photograph onto a pink polka dot paper along with the journalling card which is below the photograph. This was also part of the challenge, to use a coordinating journalling card. I had to cut the photo down but this was alright as there was alot of dead space in it anyway.

The photograph was taken in Hyde Park when we attended Proms in the Park on the Last of the Proms. I found the Amy Tangerine cut apart Polaroid frame and thought it would be a good place for a quote and as the photo was about a couple and they were at a music event what better quote than Shakespeare this quote is from Twelfth Night. I had the heart badge and one of the other elements for this layout was to use a sprinkling of similar designs, so I chose hearts.

This picture shows the close up of one of the stamped areas on the layout with the addition of some pale pink pearls, another tiny element we were encouraged to add, you can see some of the small punch heart images in the design as well.

The final detail I added was another rub on from the Prima collection I found. This element has musical notes and again fits perfectly with the theme of the layout and the actual event.

I am so pleased that I have at last found a way to scrapbook this picture and I think really do it justice.

Break it down week 3 x

Hello and welcome to the third layout I have completed for Shimelle's free class ''Break it Down'' over at UK Scrappers.

So week 3 brought with it a photographic challenge, namely to use a photograph on your layout of hands and to tell the story. Luckily, as part of Project 365 I had had some fun with my friends one day taking photographs of their hands in different shapes and so I found the one I had actually chosen for that day's challenge and used this as my inspiration.

The second part of this challenge was to try and scrapbook using just one colour. One colour. The only colours in the photograph are the wooden table and the skin of the hands but luckily my glamorous friend Lucy was wearing deep blue nail polish, so I went with blue. I didn't want to use dark colours so went for paler blue shades. We needed to choose 4 patterned papers, washi tape/s, embellishments and 2 types of letters for the layout. The third challenge was to use glimmer mists and stamping techniques on a separate piece of cardstock and then use a variety of circle punches to cut out circles to use on our layout. Again I did this with a teal glimmer mist and used some blue ink on the stamps. However I didn't actually use these pieces in the end and I will explain why in a moment.

Anyway here is my layout...................

I love the way all the different tones of blue have worked so well together, I haven't actually used a primarily monochrome colour hue before and I think it really looks great. It means that the primary focus of the layout remains the picture and none of the other elements seem to detract from that. I find this blue shade very calming and it draws your eyes into the layout.

Now about the embellishments. I tried, honestly I really tried to like the circular embellishment idea but I just didn't feel it worked for me. Perhaps if I'd chosen different stamps of a different ink colour it might have gelled better but I did try. What I did in the end was use some circular doilie stickers and a blue crocheted piece I found to place my embellishment clusters and work from there. I had layered the photograph onto two layers of card stock and then found a cream lace square from a packet of die cut squares which I cut in half to make the piece come across the full page. I then used my embellishment clusters to layer up a variety of sticker and some camera pieces I had found in my stash.

The fourth challenge was to use washi tape and twine/ribbon in the embellishments. I used 2 shades of washitand a pale blue twine. I twirled the twine around my finger and secured it with some strong double sided clear tape. I also added some cream roses, some butterflies cut from the spare paper pieces and then added some blue gems.

Ok so we were meant to stick with one colour but one of the patterned papers had small amount of pink in it and so I cheated slightly and added some very small hints of pink into the embellishments by using some pale pink gems, some pink stickers and some pink letter stickers. I actually like the extra bit of colour this brings but it doesn't detract away from the blue.

I then added in my journalling which basically explains that it was one of my friend's birthdays and as we were all together we thought we'd have fun taking the photographs then.

I hope you have found this an interesting insight into how I am working with this class and I will be back with more layouts for this class and for ''Find your voice'' later in the week.

Break It Down Week 1 x

Has anyone else been following Shimelle Laine's latest free class over at UK Scrappers? Well I have because a. Shimelle's classes are always full of great themes and ideas, and b. because it is a free one.

Each week begins with a discussion about a particular photograph to use usually with a theme. The first weeks was ''Then and now''. Over the next next 6 days Monday through Saturday Shimelle guides you through making a layout using your chosen photographs, identifying your colour themes and how to use them, adding embellishments and journalling. All the posts have the added advantage of having a downloadable pdf and often Shimelle has added in a supporting video or two.

So for this first weeks layout I chose 2 photographs of my friend Ben who is a Royal Marine and looked at the day I was invited with his family, longterm friends, to attend his Passing out Parade and then a photograph he took while out in Norway undertaking freezing cold activities.


I took my colour combinations from the photographs and especially from Ben's uniform and primarily used dark blues, yellows, golds and white. I found some wooden letters and painted these gold to use in the title and I also used some Studio Calico wood veneers: arrows and cameras which I also painted gold.

Because the bottom picture has several other Marines in it, I wanted to highlight Ben specifically and I found a sticker frame which I added and then placed arrows and ''Now'' next to Ben. The yellow thickers are his surname.

Here you can see a detail of the title and embellishments in the top left corner................

Forgive the terrible photo of me, but the embellishments here are highlighting the picture of Ben's Passing out Parade and this picture is the ''Then'' picture.............

This is a closer detail of the bottom Now picture illustrating the frame around Ben and the arrows and other embellishments I chose...............

I used a white roller gel pen to write my journalling down the right hand side of the page. I won't write it all out here because it is personal but it describes my feelings at watching him pass out as a Marine and the struggles Ben has gone through to retain his Marine status.

I hope you are all enjoying Shimelle's class as much as me.

The London Marathon and 2 scrapbooking things x

Happy Monday everybody and were you glued to The London Marathon yesterday? Well I was. I was at my parents for lunch and secretarial duties and my mum and I were watching in the kitchen. Specifically we were looking for 2 people amongst the thousands.

One was this young lady, her name is Chelsea, she's in her 20s and when she was a week old I looked after her. She did herself proud by just completing the 26.2 mile run and I am so proud to know her. Here she is in her finish photo. Go girl you rock.

The second person is someone I've never met but sponsored, he's an actor and I should be seeing him a play next weekend if my Bipolar behaves itself long enough. His name is Chris and he is also amazing for finishing.

And now onto the scrapbooking bits. Firstly did anyone do Shimelle's newest class last autumn called Scrapbook Remix? Well I did and Shimelle is doing a re-run starting today for new purchasers and also the class alumni. If you haven't sent her an email yet then hop over here for the details. Here is Shimelle's class description:

 

 photo via Shimelle's blog

Scrapbook Remix is an online scrapbooking class that shares the secrets to mixing patterned papers of all kinds and then creating a range of pages with this combinations. We’ll talk colour, pattern, scale, size, technique and more. The class includes both PDF and video prompts: a total of twenty full-colour PDFs and eight videos over four weeks. In each PDF prompt, we start with a different paper collection, then analyse it and remix it with other papers and embellishments to create four or more different looks. The video prompts include a mix theory discussion (showing exactly why some patterns do and do not work well together) and the step-by-step process for creating specific scrapbook pages.

Hope to see you in the class forum and I will aim to share some work from the class here too.

Secondly on the scrapbooking front, this Sunday a group of bloggers and scrapbookers are having a bloghop called ''Pass the Page''. This was the brainchild of Julie and the premise was that she would design a layout and send it to the next person on the participants list, they would scraplift that page and pass it on the next person and so on. The trick is you only get to see the page you are passed and your page until this Sunday when all the pages are revealed. Interested? Then come here Sunday 28th April and see what we all made. 

So lots of fun things to look forward to this week and a secret event I'm attending, again if the Bipolar behaves, which I am so excited for you would not believe.

LSNED Part 2..................

Hi everyone, thanx for ur kind comments about Storytelling Sunday, the naughty lil sister liked it and I have put ur guest post suggestion to her.

For me Sunday was bittersweet as our local branch of Starbucks closed. Why?............... Starbucks have not deigned to answer my email as yet. So we the customers/friends staged a sit-in and enjoyed our last coffees and cakes together. Now they are emptying out the shop in readiness for it's new owners.................. Cafe Nero!!!!!!!

Tracey, Rosie, Phoebe, Evalina, Karl and their district manager.

Anyway on a slightly less depressing not, I have completed my minibook for LSNED 2012. I know I actually finished it. So here are lots of photos to prove it.

 So this is the final album, all tied up............

 despite my best efforts, I think I will again fail to read 100 books this year,

 The page above is all about the fact my bipolar played up and I hadn't got a Community Psychiatric nurse but then got a new one with lots of helpful ideas.

I want to learn how to make a quilt............

This was a daft one about life giving u lemons,

 Self explanatory I think.........................

 This was a spare page I just decorated so as not to waste the card stock................

 This page is about how I have conflicts about myself and sometimes I really don't like me.............
but on occasion I am happy to be me...............

 The button heart again was a spare page filler......................

 I like this page. I had had the typewriter for ages and new it would come out at the right time............

 These are three pictures from Rinda's scavenger hunt.....................

 This page is a brief one about the 60 Swans coming together at The Bishop's Palace prior to being auctioned off for charity. They actually raise £111,000 for Wells people and some are going to stay here...........

Self explanatory really, she is rather pretty although today she's wet from the rain xxxx

 Not a clear picture but this page is all about waiting 8 months for my car to be paid...................

 No writing here by me, my friend Steve's letter to the local paper...............

 This is my account being credited with the money for my tax rebate................

 The last day's page was about our family service in church. The morning was given over to Jesus being our Shepherd and random facts about sheep. Did u know that sheep have 4 stomachs? Did you know there are over 2,000 breeds of sheep in the world or that Australia does not hold the record for the largest number of sheep it's china or Russia?

 The final page is a summary of my learning. Nothing too heavy I might add but different feelings of fun, randomness, illness and challenge. I feel I am proud of my journey this September. How was your?