UKS thanks....

The LO I describe in my previous post was very heartfelt. I created it in digi - in case it didn't work out, and was too morbid. But the ladies at UKS have really encouraged me to believe that scrapping this kind of thing is as valid as scrapping the good times, so I will take the plunge and create it "for real" (or print it out as it is) and actually put it in my album. Whether I'll show it to my son ... mmm ... not sure I'm ready for that yet!

A mother's thoughts

Reading the news about the 15 year old boys being shot in their homes in "gang warfare" in South London made me sad for their mothers. I too have a 15-year-old son.

And it got me thinking about all the terrible things that have punctuated his life. Things that are etched into my memory because the victims were just his age...

So today's journalling prompt is to think of your hopes and fears for your child/children/loved ones, whatever their age.

Mine turned into a prayer.

How can I protect you?

When I was pregnant with you a pregnant woman was murdered in a layby on the motorway.

When you were two, another two-year-old called Jamie Bulger was taken away by two 10-year-olds.

When you were in infant class, a man started shooting in an infant class in Dunblane.

Now you are fifteen there are boys your age being shot dead in South London.

Please God help their poor mothers.
Thank you for looking after my boy
and please keep him safe from evil and harm.

Colouring-in your life. 4: Colour me a layout!

Colouring-in your life

This is the fourth and final in the series of journalling inspiration based on colour (see Thinking in Colour, Sunday 14 January, for the first one; Exploring Colour on Saturday 20 January for the second one, and Colour in Scrapbooking earlier today for the third one.)

4. Colour me a layout!

You have now collected some monochrome stash, and a photo or two.

On this layout, your journalling is going to be BIGGER than the photo!

Now take an appropriate pen and shade of paper and pick one or more of the following exercises. You might click with the first one you try or it may take longer, but keep trying until you have something to work with: to end up with 1 or 2 paragraphs (100-130 words).

• Why did you pick that colour for your monochrome LO?
  I picked purple because Sharon sent me purple and it’s one of my favourite colours – it’s one of the colours in Basic Grey Fusion that I like so much. I had a purple bedroom when I was a teenager ….etc.
  
• What does that colour mean to you?
  Purple is a royal colour, very sophisticated in the seventies. Mary Quant and the hip generation.
  
• What else do you have that is that colour?
  I have a pink dressing gown, it’s fleecy, comfortable and warm, but was given to me by my mum so it isn’t really mine… I wish my dressing gown was my own choice…
  
• Find an object that is that colour and handle it – what does it feel like? What texture is your colour?
  The vase is blue – it feels smooth and cold. I didn’t like it when I got it as a wedding present but in fact when yellow and orange roses and lilies are arranged in it, it looks beautiful. And I actually like blue flowers like irises and bluebells …
  
• What has that colour meant to you in the past?
  Green reminds me of my school uniform and how I hated wearing those thick woolly tights, even though they were warm in the winter. My schoolmates used to turn over the waist of their uniform skirts to make them more of a miniskirt… (N.B. the colour green got me reminiscing about school uniform, and I developed that theme.)

· Write for 10 minutes without stopping – doesn’t matter if you write absolute rubbish, just don’t stop – starting with a colour. When you’ve finished, pick out anything meaningful and develop that theme.

Go with the flow! When you’ve got about two paragraphs go back and polish them – write it out again and improve on your wording or your spelling if you need to (or not!). End up with 100-130 words.

Practice this bit on scrap paper if you’re not sure: Pick an appropriate light coloured paper/cardstock about 5 inches wide (and as long as possible!) and collect as many pens of the relevant colour as you can (e.g., purple shades). Draw light lines in pencil if you don’t think you can stay straight. Leaving about half an inch either side, write out your piece of journalling, changing pen colour every few words, or using a special colour for special words. You’ll carry on until you’ve finished the piece, then trim the bottom edge of the journalling card to suit the size of your journalling. Ink round the outside.

You can computer generate your journalling if you like – this is about what you write rather than how you write!

Now put your LO together. You can scraplift mine, or create your own. The only rule is to make the journalling the feature.

Colouring-in your life: 3. Colour in scrapbooking

Colouring-in your life

This is the third in the series of journalling inspiration based on colour (see Thinking in Colour, Sunday 14 January, for the first one and Exploring Colour on Saturday 20 January for the second one.)

3. Colour in scrapbooking

How do you choose your LO colours?

• From the picture – pick out colours very closely related to the colours in your picture?
• Choose papers you like and then find a pic to match? Or even adjust the colours of the pic to make them fit (making them black and white because they’d otherwise clash with the paper falls into this category). Choosing to wear or even buying clothes because they match your paper also fits into this category!
• Pick the photo first, then choose papers that don’t clash with it.

Some other way?

Take a sheet of coloured paper – any colour or colours – use as many coloured pens as you have to write down as many words/phrases/sayings/quotes as you can think of/look up/collect that are related to colour.

You stop me feeling blue

Colourful language

Colouring between the lines

He led a colourful life

Rose-coloured spectacles

Why not share a few of your phrases as comments on this blog? Or capture them on your own blog - these could be titles (of blog entries or LOs!) for the future…

NEXT: go collect some stash for a monochrome LO (size of your choice).

Cardstock, patterned paper, brads, ribbons, embellishments, pens, etc. Whatever you like.

Now find a small photo or photos with toning colours or adjust one in a graphics program – preferably of yourself but it doesn’t have to be! You could - if you wish - wait until AFTER you’ve produced your journalling in step 4 before you choose a photo…

When you’ve collected your stash, move on to number 4 in this series.