Write it on Wednesday: text messages

You can get inspiration from almost anywhere in daily life - I was deleting texts from my phone and realised that they revealed a whole relationship between me and my two teenagers. There are a lot of messages with e wondering where one of them is...

Here's a typical exchange which I am now going to immortalise in a layout...

I'm in roman, my son is in italics...

where r u?
in town
ok
just out of cinema
r u eating?
goin 2 cookieshake
okeydoke c u soon

where r u?
on the bus

where r u?
Out of film. Are trying 2 decide where to eat. will come home with Melissa later x
ok
Im on the bus home nowOK

where are you?
told u i was working l8 2day - have u got ur keys?
yes

Can you get inspiration from your text messages?

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The perfect set of embellishments

What would be the perfect set of embellishments?

I love co-ordinating ranges of paper - at the moment I'm keen on Basic Grey Periphery, Basic Grey Fusion, K'ology Addison, and DCWV Once Upon a Time. These ranges make it so much easier to choose elements for layouts by being able to use matching papers and embellishments.

I used to get a Club Scrap kit every month. It came with a selection of co-ordinating papers - well, all at cardstock-weight in fact, beautiful quality - plus a matching alpha sticker set, photo mats and cut-outs or stencils. That was just the Junior kit - there are extra embellishments available such as fibres and buttons.

I'm packing for a weekend crop, and I don't want to have to make up page kits - or alternatively take everything I own! - so I thought of taking a selection of matching paper, cardstock and embellishments. Now I have some embellishments to go with the paper ranges I mention. But what would be the ideal collection? I can even create some with my Craft Robo before I go (the ones marked ** in the list below), if I have time. Can you add anything to my list of suggestions?

• Prima flowers
• Ribbons & fibres
• Buttons
• Gems
• Paper frills **
• Brads
• Large flowers **
• Alphabets **
• Frames **
• Photo turns **
• Flourishes and corners **
• Quotation marks, brackets, washers, arrows **
• Tags **
• Journalling blocks **
• Circles (to layer and add words or journalling) **
• Autumn leaves flourish stamps!!!
• Rubons

Write it on Wednesday: My favourite things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things

You've heard it before, right?

So what are YOUR favourite things? If you love them, then even making a layout about them is likely to make you feel happy, so whenever you're a bit down, this is the job to do.

I'd been meaning for some time to make a layout about one of my favourite things - my bathroom and the art that I commissioned especially for it - dragonflies by Jaq McCaughern. I love it!

So here's the layout - in colours to match the dragonflies and the bathroom, and journalling to enhance it.
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Write it on Wednesday: Journalling babies

No, that doesn't mean get the babies to do the journalling!

Even if you haven't had babies of your own, you will have had babies in your family, and with luck you'll even have some pictures of yourself when an infant. Babies are very photogenic and photos generally make satisfying pages that everyone enjoys looking at.

So: how to scrap babies?

The cute things they say and do

If you have a baby or young child now - I know it's difficult when you're so busy - but for heaven's sake write down those cute things they say or the funny things they do. You WILL forget them later! I wish I'd been a scrapbooker when my babies were young. Luckily I was keeping a journal, so putting the text together with the photos isn't too hard.

And she toddled for two miles along the beach before we found her...

And write down too those apocryphal stories that you have been told all your life about things you did. There's a story about me when I was about two - the family had got lost on a trip out to the contry and we stopped the car to get out and see where we were. Apparently I got fed up and said "I'll find the way" and set off along the road determinedly, all by myself. They were laughing too much to stop me at first, and then they helpfully got the camera out.

Baby books

If you have a friend or relative about to give birth, a baby book is a lovely gift - not one of those that records weight and height and so on, although that might be part of it, but a themed scrapbook readymade for the mother to slot in the pics and the journalling as she goes along. A big space for hidden journalling may be best, so mum can write as much or as little as she chooses, but doesn't run out of space.

Possible themes for baby books:

• My first year: 12 pages, a pic for each month and plenty of journalling space (a great theme to remind mum)

• Nursery rhyme theme

• Animals theme

• Alphabet theme

• Colours theme: every page a different colour

• Definitions theme: baby, love, cute, motherhood, family, growing up etc.

• Play theme: teddies, bricks, dolls etc.

You could even make a book for the baby itself, with spaces for pictures and names of all the relatives - especially welcome if family are far away and the little one won't see relatives often enough to recognise them otherwise.

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Definitions

Definitions were a popular trend in scrapbooking not so long ago. But don't discount them just because they aren't quite as "trendy" as they were!

Use definitions to expand and build on the words that you come up with for your titles or subtitles. A quick way to extend your journalling!

Pick up your dictionary for a classic definition in traditional style... write it or type it in a pretty font in your wordprocessor.

There also online dictionaries and thesauruses:

• Dictionary.com

• Merriam-Webster (American)
  

Here are some to use:

Adore (a·dore) 1. to worship or honour as a deity or as divine 2. to regard with loving admiration and devotion 3. to be extremely fond of

Admire ( ad·mire ) 1. to marvel at 2. be pleased by 3. respect

Abundance ( a·bun·dance ) 1. a more than plentiful quantity of something 2. large amount

Adventure (ad-ven-ture) 1. a daring, hazardous undertaking 2. an unusual, exciting, often suspenseful experience.

Accomplish (ac·com·plish ) 1. to succeed in doing or achieving something 2. reach point in time: to arrive at the end of a period of time

Beautiful ( byoot-e-ful) 1. pleasingly attractive physical appearance 2. lovely; fine to behold 3. delicate and favourable

Believe ( be·lieve ) 1. to accept that something is true or real 2. to have faith in 3. to put one’s trust in 4. to accept as fact

Bliss (blis) 1. great or perfect happiness 2. a state of spiritual joy

Bright (brit) 1. shining with light 2. brilliant in colour or sound; vivid 3. lively and cheerful 4. favourable; hopeful 5. radiant with happiness, smiling faces, moments 6. radiating or reflection light 7. of high saturation or brilliance 8. clever or intelligent

Celebrate (sel-e-brat) 1. perform as a ritual 2. to commemorate with festivity 3. to do honour 4. have a good time

Cherub (cher*eb) 1. a type of angel characterized as a chubby, rose-cheeked child with wings 2. a child with a sweet, innocent face

Chemistry (chem·is·try) 1. study of transformation of matter: a branch of science dealing with the structure, composition, properties, and reactive characteristics of substances, especially at the atomic and molecular levels.

Cherish (cher-ish) 1. to hold dear 2. to treasure, adore, value and love 3. to keep deeply in mind

If you can - add to the definition with a thoughtful extra that is more feeling than definition:

moth·er (mu-th-er) n. 1. A woman who loves, nourishes, protects and nurtures a child. 2. A creative source; an origin. 3. Respected for her wisdom and age. 4. Maternal love and tenderness. 5. A son’s first and best friend. ♥ moth·er-in-law n. 1. The mother of your spouse. 2. A second mother or friend. ♥ nan·a (nä’nä) n. 1. Endearing form of grandmother 2. The mother of your father or mother. 3. Sweet smile, warm hugs, bedtime stories, treats and kindness, heart of gold. 4. A person with time for their grandchildren. ♥

moth*er: \'me-thar\ n 1. compassionate supporter, giver of warm hugs 2. a woman generous of herself and her love 3. a dedicated listener 4. a woman who gives selfless tender affection without expectation 5. inspiring, dependable; all caring

fa*ther \'fath-ar\ n 1. protector and guardian 2. source of strength and support 3. guide through life; honest advisor 4. person always ready to help 5. person whose tolerance and pride are unlimited 6. ready taxi-driver

Journalling boxes

Journalling boxes are quite popular. But you don't always need a bought sticker or a stamp. Try printing one of these (created by mysticclare) on matching cardstock, paper or patterned paper. Then fill it in with your own handwriting :)

The boxes can be resized to suit your space, and you can also import them into a word processor or drawing program and fill them in on the computer, THEN print them out.

I hope you enjoy using them! Comment and link to your layout if you do use them, I'd love to see what you do with them.

To save these to your own computer (PC), rightclick on one and select "Save Image As".