Cycling

I was trying to think of a way to use up some cycle-themed 12x12 paper I got in a kit. I have very few cycling pics and they're entirely the wrong colour for this kit which is green and purple (with some plain red which I have used!).

As I have a couple of male family birthdays coming up I thought maybe I could use them to make cards, with some appropriate saying on them. Couldn't think of a saying then when I was watching TV last night it came to me...

...

...

Have a "wheelie" happy birthday!

Bring me my mojo!

OK I can take the pics
I can do the journalling
I can even choose the paper
So why oh why can't I produce a LO?

I have sat at the table and I just don't know how to start.

Dentists....

I guess we're back to "things that make you shudder". In a few more posts I'll have enough to create a LO from!

Dentists don't really do it for me: I just steel myself. Though I have had bad experiences - twice in my life the dentist has managed to inject the anaesthetic into a blood vessel and caused faintness and palpitations. The first time, he had to thump my chest to get my heart started properly again. Now that's as close to death as I have ever come! This last time the dentist said he would write me up in the professional journals because the anaesthetic is categorically not supposed to ever be able to have that effect! (But he does use a different anaesthetic on me now.)

But hairdressers - now the thought of sitting under a hairdresser DOES make me shudder. I just hate the whole thing - the atmosphere, being talked to, having someone else touch my scalp and wash my hair which I hate, the fact that my hair always looks horrible even just afterwards when I've paid good money!

Colouring-in your life: 2. Exploring colour

Colouring-in your life

This is the second in the series of journalling inspiration based on colour (see Thinking in Colour, Sunday 14 January, for the first one.)

2. Exploring colour

Jot down the answers to the following questions:

a. What colour(s) did you have at your wedding? (Bridesmaids dresses, bouquet & flowers, accessories, etc.; your outfit, if it wasn’t white)

b. If you had a party with a colour theme and a white church hall as a background, what colours would you use to decorate it – banners, tablecloths, flowers, crockery?

c. What is your favourite flower colour?

d. What colour car would you ideally like (or maybe you have it…)

Now:

e. Look up dictionary definitions of colour – eg

“a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect; "a white color is made up of many different wavelengths of light"”

f. Colour mixing is different depending on whether you are mixing light or paint…..

Naming colours is important in naming paint, lipstick and eyeshadow, lingerie, wool, cardstock… Look at the names of the colours in the Bazzill range, for example, and jot down your favourites (names of colours rather than the colours themselves).

g. Get out your colour wheel – or print out this one - http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~psyc351/Images/ColorWheel2.jpg

Explore some interesting colour illusions
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/col_lilacChaser/index.html

Colour is important in clothing/fashion, interiors, make-up and grooming. It’s even thought to have healing properties
http://www.colourtherapyhealing.com/colour_fun/

Colour is not an property of what we are looking at – it is something created in the brain as a result of the way your eyes interpret wavelengths of light. Colour is an invention of the human brain. Without our eyes, there is no such thing as colour – so everything must be in the equivalent of greyscale. Were there aliens, colour might not be one of their senses and they might have an additional sense or completely different senses from our five…

Things that make you shudder....

A post about ironing on UKScrappers got me thinking about things that make me shudder - the thought of ironing does that - most housework actually, except washing the kitchen floor, I quite like that!

What makes you shudder? Take a picture (for the final LO...), write about why you hate it - then start a new page:

I like XXXX because...

and see how you can finish the sentence!

I like spiders because they are God's creatures; they make beautiful webs that glitter when covered in dew in the mornings; they get rid of flies; they do no actual harm to me or mine; they have fabulous long furry legs; I just dread them falling on my face in the bath or in bed.....

Write it on Wednesday - Feeling groovy!

When did you last feel really GOOD about yourself?

And how do you celebrate your little successes (or your big ones)?

Make sure you do celebrate - in fact go give yourself a treat - tomorrow if not today!

You know you're worth it!

Today I'm over the moon about a successful project. I was so excited last night I couldn't get to sleep, but it's fantastic when you find out something that means you were particularly successful at something you aimed to do, and that happened to me once last week (a touch of schadenfreude there!) and also this week. If only I could bottle that feeling for the days when I'm feeling a bit low.

Scrap Challenge
Layout title: Celebrate
Number of photos: 3 or 4
Style: At least three patterned papers and embellishments in at least three colours

Colouring-in your life. 1: Thinking in colour...

Colouring-in your life

Here's a journalling exercise on colour that was part of our Team Cybercrop in 2006.

Part 1: What do colours mean to you?

There’s a condition called synaesthaesia in which people have their senses mixed up – they can “see” sounds and “hear” smells, “taste” colours…

Here, for example, is my take on colour:

blue - the moment just before waking, but also the pain of pulling my hair
red - the sharpness of cooking tomatoes, and heels stumbling on cobbles
yellow - Yorkshire cheese, the sound of a ship's horn in the muggy fog
brown - mother-love, buttered mushrooms and Guinness
white - the sound of silence, nothing but the ringing pulse in my ears
black - proud and strong, the tautness of chain, a clear bell chime
midnight blue - velvet to touch and deep knowledge of a lover
green - breezes gusting, and squirrels jumping from tree to tree

Take a colour – think about what it represents – jot down a few ideas…
Write down each of the following on a separate line and complete it as I did...
Post it here as a comment if you like. (Note that comments are moderated to avoid thiose horrible people who leave comment spam so it might take a little time for your comment to appear.)

blue
red
yellow
brown
pink
white
black
green

So what does this have to do with scrapping? Aah - more soon!

Daily planning

As a busy scrapbooker, especially if you have lots of other calls on your time (you know - family, job, even housework!) then it can be a good idea to plan your day. I find I often rush rush rush around and then at the end of the day feel there's still too much to do and I haven't achieved anything - and I never have time to scrap.

So I created a daily planner that reflects my priorities. The idea is to get MORE out of EACH DAY.


So there's a central circle that represents me, and here's where I put one or two words that sum up my hopes or ideas for the day - or an inspiring word, phrase or quote that gives me a positive start.

Then the "rays" that come out from the circle are different sizes representing my priorities. A lot of space is given to HOME BLESSINGS - chores, and things one needs to do in the home or for oneself - pick up drycleaning, phone the dentist - your daily cleaning routine can go in here, too. WORK comes below - for the key tasks that I need to do today - phone that contact, finish that report. KIDS are in the bottom right hand corner - write letter to school, wash PE kit - they are separate from Home Blessings - I haven't thought where to put Husband!

At the top right - of key importance - there's ME TIME. That's not for mundane things like hair appointments but for things I enjoy and that pamper me (which may or may not also be mundane things like having a bath!). If you like clothes shopping it goes in here, if you don't, that's a home blessing. Scrapping time can definitely go in here.

Finally the two smallest rays are for personal goals - they are small because a goal will be a big thing with lots of tasks, and perhaps big things are best tackled a small bit at a time - this is where the one or two daily tasks go that will put me one step nearer to my goal. If my goal is to lose weight, then here the task might be "Take salad to work for lunch & nuts for snacks" or if the goal is to to take better pictures for my scrapbooks then my daily task might be "spend 10 minutes reading the camera manual about the settings". Short tasks that get me further toward my goals.

After about a week it works for me, and I would like to think that this tool would work for other people too. As a daily list, it can't be fully altered, it would take all my time just doing that! - but it does look attractive and thus makes me feel better than if it were a linear list. And I remind myself to do things for me and never stop being in pursuit of my goals.

If anyone wants the full Word file - feel free to get in touch and ask me.

Here's today's example:

I'm planning to keep all the planners in a file. Ticking off the jobs once done gives me a sense of satisfaction and I can see how I improve -over time - in my planning. Perhaps I need to become less ambitious about the number of jobs I can complete in a day!

Plus eventually - when I have time - I can look back over them to help me journal for a scrapbook page about my goals.

Keeping your scrapping space in order

Here's a great ruleset for keeping things organised and efficient in your scrapping space - originally developed in the car industry in Japan I believe! You can see at once how it applies to scrap spaces though....

5S is a reference to five Japanese words that describe standardized cleanup:

Seiri (整理): tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.

Seiton (整頓): orderliness. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. Tools, equipment, and materials must be systematically arranged for the easiest and most efficient access. There must be a place for everything, and everything must be in its place.

Seiso (清掃): cleanliness. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. At the end of each work session, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place. (This sort of assumes you have a good spread of time to work in and are not doing 5 minutes here and there with other things going on too - multi-tasking is probably not efficient in this context!)

Seiketsu (清潔): standards. Allows for control and consistency. Basic housekeeping standards apply even in the scrap space. You know exactly what you need to do to tidy up, what your responsibilities are. House keeping duties are part of regular work routines.

Shitsuke (躾): sustaining discipline. Refers to maintaining standards and keeping your space in safe and efficient order day after day, year after year.

When to do journalling?

Someone on UKScrappers today asked this question... (Note: link will only work if you are a member of UKS) Some very interesting answers have been contributed.

For me it depends on the inspiration - sometimes the journalling comes first and is the most important part - especially where I'm creating a layout FROM a journal entry I've made in the past - whether a holiday journal or my day to day one on the computer. I guess in future a blog entry may be the inspiration and the journalling!

Sometimes the journalling comes later - I did one for a cybercrop on Lessons from Mum and spent months trying to think of the appropriate things to write on the six tags - then I had a conversation with my sister and came up with loads of quotes (used both sides of the tags!) and now the LO is complete. (NOTE to self add pic of completed LO when get home tonight)

But whichever way round it is for me, I always leave a space somewhere on the LO to tuck in some extra journalling - you never know what you might remember in the future when you're browsing that LO in your album. e.g., a punning title ("dinky boots" I saw recently - could be a pun on the film title "kinky boots") might mean nothing to you later on when you forget the reference, so journal why you chose that title before you forget it!

There are other bits and pieces that may need adding at a later date - e.g., descriptions of people or places in the photo that seemed obvious at the time. Or why the LO was created - for a cybercrop or a challenge for example - or what products and stash were used?

Creative Commons license

There's been some discussion over at UKScrappers about copyright of Craft Robo templates posted there. I believe strongly that intellectual property on the Web still belongs to its creator. But I also believe that a license for use and sharing, like the creative commons license is an excellent idea. It allows the IP holder to assign rights as they please. For example, I do NOT license commercial use of anything of mine without someone paying me, but I'm happy for scrappers to use my templates, texts or pictures for inspiration or personal use in any way. Scraplifting is perfectly permissible!

You are free:

• to Share -- to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to Remix -- to make derivative works

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
• Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
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