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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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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Great inspiration for making cards

This is an American store which I think looks really classy:
Impress Rubber Stamps
http://www.impressrubberstamps.com/
Check out "Impressive Ideas"
Archive of Christmas card ideas

Some inspiring cardmaking blogs:

Kathy B’s blog

Jo Kill’s blog

Daring cardmakers’ challenge blog

Reaching your goals

I am in a difficult position at the moment - in four weeks' time I will be made redundant for the third time in three years. I work in a sector (HE) in which jobs are often dependent on transient funding. It's dispiriting to be in this position again. I find it very stressful. It seems I just get into a job and start doing some good, and it's over.

I don't have a HUGE goal in life - I just want my family to be happy, and to do some good in society, preferably by using my particular skills to help others learn. I don't want to rock the world...

I guess that if you have something to aim for sometimes it takes a LONG time to reach it. But a big goal perhaps keeps you more on track while you're waiting.

I was reading recently about teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who was 55 when she finally made it into space on the August space shuttle mission. She's been waiting over 21 years for her goal of getting into space... She had trained as a back-up to fellow teacher Christa McAuliffe for the 1986 Challenger shuttle mission. But on January 28, 1986, Challenger exploded 73 seconds after blast-off, killing all seven aboard, including McAuliffe, and delaying for two decades Morgan's own aspirations to carry out a mission with the elite astronaut corps. She had to become a fully fledged astronaut when NASA banned civilians from its flights, and had yet another setback after the Columbia disaster in 2003: she was due to fly on its next mission. How wonderful must it have been, at the age of 55, that she finally achieved her dream!

In February 1990 Nelson Mandela was freed after spending 27 years in prison. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk in 1993 for their efforts to transform South African society. In the first multi-racial elections in the country's history he was elected president and his party the ANC won 252 of the 400 seats in the national assembly.

Writer John Creasey faced up to 743 rejection slips before he was first published. Now over sixty million of his crime novels have been published.

There are more interesting tales of early rejection and later success at the Handling Rejection website.

So I shouldn't give up, I guess? If only I knew what my big goal was, I'd have something to hold onto!

Now - what are YOUR goals? What's the big thing you'd like to achieve? Make it into a plaque and put it above your computer to remind you. OK I'm getting a bit Ali Edwards here - but giving meaning to your life can transform it in many ways. I know I'm just floundering at the moment - with a bit of focus I will get so much more done - I just need to find that focus!

Some goals:

For my family to be happy
to be healthy and fit
to be calm
to have a worthwhile job
to help people
to make more friends

Random creativity quotes

Here is a random quote widget. It will produce a new creative quote every time the page is loaded (which means this post is forever changing...)

provided by FocalPower

Splash - Hidden Journalling

Here's an example of hidden journalling. The photos of me aren't very good (tempting to say not good or important enough to scrap), but when I started thinking about journalling about myself, my likes and dislikes, I realised these pictures express something important - I love water - the sea in particular (which for someone living in the middle of England, too far from the sea for a day out, is a bit sad...).

My UKS teamie Nicki challenged us on the Chatterbox Chicks blog to "scrap a beach photo or photos with non traditional papers".

As I've been working on a series of posts about hidden journalling, I thought I would include it on the layout as an embellishment, so I created a little folded card tied with ribbon and finished with pretty flowers.

The journalling reads: I love the sea! I adore swimming or even paddling. This was in Bournemouth before we had children – me in a daring leopard-print suit, splashing in the shallows! (and my signature)

Supplies: Prism black cardstock from Scrapajack (for an unusual beach LO!), my favourite K'ology Addison paper & stickers, Cratepaper Wildflower chipboard alphabet, MM brads, Prima Bubbles flowers, a Craft Robo-cut seahorse and confetti and gems from a now closed shop. Definitely NOT a cardstock only LO.

Hope it's appropriate Nicki!

Write it on Wednesday - the secrets of stress-free journalling

A weekly series to kickstart your journalling

First: The principles of stress-free journalling:

• Keep a notebook or file of journalling or, better still, journal in an online document or blog that is searchable (or transfer written notes to online)
• Journal when you haven't time or space to scrap
• Keep your journalling notebook with you (it can be a mini notebook in your handbag!) and journal when you take photos.

It's Wednesday and it's sunny:

Journalling prompt for 1st August

What was the best summer you ever had?

Where were you? Where did you go?
What activities did you take part in?
Who else was there?

I remember the summer of '76 - the hottest summer in my lifetime. I'd just finished Lower Sixth and life was good. We spent a lot of time lazing around the outdoor swimming pool in the park in a nearby town, and planning the next year's holiday - after our A-levels - when we were going to backpack in Europe.

Techniques I’d like to try

Just a few...

• Using ric-rac to frame a picture
• Using just cardstock, photos and stamps (although this actually has a blossom in it too!)
• Cutting out gears on the Robo and using them for a boy LO
• Using cardtock for backgrounds, e.g., cardstock lace or something like this
• Use more buttons ...
• LOTS of white space and a monochrome colour scheme
• Try PBear’s example of “drawing” from a photo (even though I’ll probably be pants at it!)
• Create a whole LO on a slant
• Using LOTS of ribbons in circle or half circle
• Try using lots of patterned papers!
• Use one photo cut into three panels
• A really fast LO – just throw it all together...
• Crop a photograph that’s already printed (rather than resizing and taking ages in Photoshop and printing out the final result)

Transitions and changes

Ali Edwards, in one of her Studio A columns (PDF file) for Creating Keepsakes magazine talks about documenting transitions in one’s life. Every one of Ali’s layouts set off a lightbulb in my head. I’ve never been a chronological scrapper and I don’t stick to albums of particular people either. Ali’s attitude exactly suits the way I want to document the essence of the moment, the feelings, the traditions, the way we are or were at a point in time.

I am at a point of transition now. It has been crystallised by Scrapdolly’s All Work and No Play challenge. I just can’t do the challenge – the prompts are too painful. My work situation is uncertain and I’m not sure what to do for the best. I am so unsure that I took on a career counsellor, and I couldn’t even begin to answer the first set of questions she sent me.

So scrapping and journalling other times of transition in my life are strangely comforting in helping me decide where to go from here.

Here are some titles:

Transitions
Changes
What a difference a year makes
From X to Y
My new XXX
A tapestry of changes
Transformation
Differences

And some quotations to inspire:

"It is not the years but the changes that make us grow." - Neal Maxwell
"All appears to change when we change." - Henri-Frédéric Amiel
"BE the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James A. Baldwin
"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." - Carol Burnett

Here are some journalling prompts to add to Ali’s great article.

What was the most significant transition in your life?
I changed when ...
What I wish most was different is ...
When I look back, I see I coped with change by ...
If I could go back in time for just one hour and change something it would be when...

Inspiration

A scrapper can get her inspiration from the strangest places...

My husband took me and four friends out to a local restaurant (Memsaab) to celebrate his birthday. The food was magnificent because they had an award-winning chef in on a special visit from London. (Don't ask how much the meal cost, I couldn't sleep afterwards for thinking about it, but then, we rarely get out.)

Where the inspiration came in (as well as the food!) was the feedback card they left for customers to fill in. You know the type of thing: where did you hear about us, how was the food, the service, the surroundings? Well they didn't get it back - despite being excellent in all respects - because look how pretty it is - wonder if I can adapt that for a LO?

Go scrap!

I have a day off today. Sort of. I work 4 days a week and fit some freelance and voluntary work into the other day plus spare time. I was overwhelmed so I thought that I would have an extra day off work this week to concentrate on some of my other projects. But it's nearly 11 am and all I've managed to do is have a bath...

So - I ask myself the question:

"What can you do today
that at the end of the day
will allow you to sit back and say
'today was a really successful day'."

Most of my projects need loads of work doing on them - none of them are at that point where I can make a big breakthrough and feel that rush of success! I need some "two-minute" jobs that I've been procrastinating about...

• Relaxing is definitely on my list! So that's ticked off {sigh}
• Apply to renew my passport
• Put entries in all of my blogs (but NOT spend time on the forums!)
• Some housework is needed, but to get a success in shortest time... the bathroom...
  

and of course what would give me a big fillip of satisfaction would be to complete a LO, or better still, three LOs. That really would have me saying I've succeeded in something today, as I get so little time to scrap and haven't done any this month {gasp}. So: post at least one on this blog by the end of the day!

I can recommend this question if you're ever at a loose end.

Tell me (via comment!) what would make today (whatever day you read this) a success for you? And then - did you accomplish it?

Take my breath away...

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Lewis Hamilton won his second Grand Prix yesterday in the United States. His rise to sucess certainly takes my breath away.

This week, do something different. Scrap a layout about the things that take your breath away - maybe you have a picture of a moment, but more likely you don't, so you have to be creative about this layout.

What takes my breath away? A very strong wind! Or probably, the winsomeness of a child...