TGIF - Weekend Challenge #7

I am forever looking for inspiration not only for scrapbook pages but as part of life in general. This scrapbook page was done quite a few years ago (no ctmh product on it....except maybe the ink around the edges) but I wanted to share it because it is of a couple of women who inspire me. The metal tile in the bottom left corner says Sisters by Chance Friends by Choice and that couldn't be more true. I love these women!

For this Weekend Challenge, use this layout as your inspiration - the colours, the design, the elements (three sets of ribbon, three strips of paper) or the theme of someone who inspires you. As an added challenge print your photo(s) on cardstock. I love the effect a photo printed on cardstock gives rather than on photo paper.


Need more inspiration. Click on the button. Close To My Heart has set up a special website especially for National Scrapbooking Month in May. They are hosting a layout contest with wonderful prizes. Check out the catagories and start planning your layouts.

Happy Scrapbooking & have a wonderful weekend!

TGIF - Weekend Challenge #6 ***edited***

I hope you enjoyed the Sunday sneak-peek of some of the upcoming product. If you pop over to Jeanette's blog you might get another peek at some new things.

Blog posts have been few and far between lately because life has me spinning in a few uncomfortable directions lately and I'm getting a little dizzy. It's like being on an amusement park ride that you can't wait to get off of because it's just not what you thought it would be. The merri-go-round is more my speed these days.

For this weekends challenge

***edited to add the actual challenge --- Sorry about that ***

Apparently I didn't double check that the WHOLE post had saved and posted before I stepped away from my computer for a day of scrapbooking with my gals (I do not wish to discuss how many pages I finished. I blame the head cold entirely and that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

Since I mentioned amusement park rides let's use that as a starting point for this challenge and make a page about a fun activity or event that you enjoy or have memories of as a child. An additional challenge would be to combine the two and make a page about an activity/event you participate in now that you also have memories of as a child.

An example: We take our children each year to the midway rides & carnival games at an annual festival in our town and I have pictures of them riding the same rides year after year (it's cool to see how much they've grown over the years) and each year while we play a couple carnival games I remember, as a child, going to an annual community festival called Hi-Neighbour in our neighbourhood of the city I grew up in.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a summer activity, that's just where my frame of mind is right now. Wishful thinking for warmer weather.

Again - sorry for the half post this morning. At least I didn't manage to loose the entire thing (which I've done more than once lately).

Happy scrapping.

~K

TGIF - Weekend Challenge #4

Let's do some scrapping this weekend with a little inspiration from this ad I found tucked in a file on my computer. I have no idea where it came from (or how long it's been hiding amongst my pictures). I believe I stashed it away because I loved the cabinetry - I'm always dreaming of having a kitchen that looks like that but the page design is great too. Clean, simple lines with room for 3 or more pictures and plenty of journalling.

And since this ad was originally filed because I was dreaming of pretty kitchen cupboards how about we use dreams as an optional theme for this challenge too. Here is a quote to go along with it. Bonus points if you include the quote.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their
dreams ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy Scrapping Everyone! Have a great weekend.

~K

TGIF - Weekend Challenge #3

I'm still working on last weekend's challenge. It looks great....at least the picture of it in my head does. I'm still struggling with how to get the stuff in my head OUT and onto paper.



I was digging through a file of old layouts I have scanned onto my computer. I'd been talking to my niece last week about my experience with babies & sign language and I was looking for a layout I did quite a few years ago, in 2003, about Emily's signs. I absolutely LOVE this layout. It's so clean and simple with it's three rows - a title, a panoramic photo and a narrow block of journalling plus a few simple accent pieces for balance. I'm also a big fan of monochromatic layouts (using a single colour in various shades such as the pink/red used in this layout)


Use this layout as your inspiration for this weekend's challenge. Three rows - a title, a photo or series of photos and journalling and also try a monochromatic colour scheme.


Happy Scrapping Everyone!

Have a great weekend.


~K

TGIF - Weekend Challenge #2

You ready for this weekend's challenge?

I'd planned to have this posted much earlier today but I ran into a snag. I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something fun for this and I wanted something that said "spring" because quite frankly, all that snow - and it's fresh, clean beauty....I'm so over it.

What says "spring" to you? Is it puddles and rain boots? Flowers and green grass? Open toes shoes (with no sock...oh i so can't wait!) and pretty painted toes?



I found this really sweet serving tray yesterday while shopping that shouted "spring" at me. It inspired me with it's brown and green checker board pattern and big white daisy flowers and bright yellow, blue and pink colours. I went back today thining I'd buy that sweet bit of inspiration but I couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for it. I just couldn't do it. Only thing is, I'm stuck on that serving tray now. It's all I can think about and can't seem to come up with any other bits of inspiration. See - it happens to all of us - this creative block.



I popped around the net a bit and came up with a sketch from http://www.pagemaps.com/



This is one of their March 09 sketches.






Use it as your inspiration to be creative this weekend......and if you already have spring where you are - send me some because I'm done with winter.




Happy Scrappin Weekend





Oh.....wait, before you go. I know this is last minute but I forgot to mention it earlier in the week - there is an online crop going this weekend. It startes tonight, Friday - March 13th at 7pm cst. Check out my friend Kat's blog for details and a link to the festivities. Kat's the events coordinator for an online scrapping site & I'm sure she's got some sweet challenges lined up for us tonight. For those who've never heard of an online crop, it's held in an online forum and there are challenges posted, often there are games, chances of winning a prize or two and lots of chatting back and forth between the online participants. Check it out if you have a chance. It will be a lot of fun!

~K

TGIF - it's Challenge Time!

My world is looking a whole lot WHITE today. I cannot believe all the snow that fell from the sky yesterday afternoon. It actually looks kinda pretty. I wanted to go outside and take pictures as it was falling but I had such a huge migraine and it was way too bright out there. I could not wait for the sun to go down (which I noticed is getting to be quite late these days......and on that note don't forget it's daylight-saving-time. Turn your clock ahead an hour on Saturday night/Sunday morning)



This morning I went for a walk in the yard (brrrr...it got cold overnight) and took a few pics of all the heavy, wet snow on the trees down by the creek. My yard looks so nice covered in snow. If it weren't for it being ....well....snow....I'd wish it would stay like this all year around. What's underneath all that pretty is anything but pretty.






After a long, stressful week I know I could use a little bit of time to relax. I wish I could take my coffee outside and sit in my chair but look at all the snow piled on it. I think I'll have to stay inside and play with paper instead.



But doesn't all that white snow looks so fresh and clean and beautiful? Using that as inspiration, I'm putting forth a little challenge to get you in a creative mood and encourage you to have some fun this weekend. Set aside a little scrapping time and make a layout.....or a card.......


Keep it fresh and clean and simple - just a few bits of colour against a white blanket of snow...um I mean paper. Use:

• white cardstock as the background
• one neutral/earthy colour (ie: black, brown, cream, beige)
• one other colour - something bright and cheerful to give your layout or card a small bit of *pop*

Are you up for this challenge?

Even if you just take 20minutes - give it a try.



Post a comment to let me know how you did. I'd love to see your work too - if you are able to share.




Happy Scrappin Weekend!





~K

Scrapping Goals '09......update

Goal making is not for the faint of heart.....or the scatterbrained.

While I wouldn't say I'm a total failure since any result at all from making goals is a good thing, I wouldn't exactly say I'm having great success with achieving my goals either.

1) taking daily pictures - so not happening BUT I am making a more conscious effort to use my camera and I have been taking pictures (including one of the shipping label on my latest CTMH parcel....and Carrie called me a freak for taking it - whatever! I was excited...and it IS a picture from my daily life) Anyway, some of my recent pictures are pretty cool. I've been spending some time getting to know some of the more advanced features of my new camera and the results rock. I'd post a picture or two but my camera has been loaned out to a camera-less Carrie so she can take pics of that cute kid of hers while her own camera is touring worlds down-under for a month. My latest experiments are still on my camera but I'm hoping to have it back in a few days to retrieve them.

2) one layout a week - hahaha. Oh I make myself laugh. I've managed to start 4 layouts this year (not counting the one I "started" for the January demo). Started as in, they aren't quite finished - they either need journalling done, or I messed up an accent and need to redo it, or I didn't have something I wanted to use with me at the crop Carrie and I went to last week. I did manage to finish a layout I started 4 years ago though. Does that count? Anyway, scrapping at home just isn't happening lately. I blame massive doses of cold medication, plague-carrying children, a teen drama queen hell bent on making me into a raving lunatic and a stack of accounting paperwork I need to do for the government before they lock me up for reasons other than insanity. Oh and planning for the May Crop has been high on my priority list too so sitting down to scrap hasn't been.

3) printing pictures once a month ---- oh oh oh! I did this one! I had about 50 pictures printed this month! Awesome pictures - some recent, some from a couple years ago. So excited to have new material to help inspire me to scrap.

4) and I am having a scrapping good year so far. Even if I'm not getting actual pages done, I've been sketching and journalling and planning future pages.....and shopping. Heehee. How can all that not make for a good scrapping year.

Anyone else make any goals this year? How are you doing on them?

Welcome 2009

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

I've never really gotten into making a list of resolutions for the New Year but for some reason I feel like setting a few scrapping related 'goals' for 2009. For the last couple years I've felt less than productive when it comes to my scrapbooking and I've been trying to think of reasons why. In the past I've participated in challenges with some sort of goal-oriented end result and they really forced me to sit down and get to it rather than just think about it.

While reading my latest issue of Creating Keepsakes, I came across an article that really interested me. The idea surrounds the concept of taking at least ONE picture EVERY DAY for the entire year and then scrapping them. The album pages are broken down by week so that at the end of the year you would have 52 pages and a record of the day to day happenings of your life. I've fallen in love with this idea. I may not actually go so far as do make the weekly pages with what happened each day of the week etc but I'm totally into the taking the every-day pictures part. I tend to forget about taking pictures unless there is a specific event going on (and even then I forget too).

There was a time that I used to scrap almost daily even if it was only for 15mins at a time. It was my 'me-time', my time to relax and unwind. To re-spark my creativity and get myself scrapping I'm going to set a goal to make at least one layout (either one or two pages) each week this year - aside from any pages I may make specifically for demonstration purposes and/or pages completed at crop days.

While I'm setting goals for this year, I just thought of another one. PRINTING pictures. Since going digital a few years ago, my computer has filled up with beautiful photos but I rarely take the time to get them printed. I'm making it a goal to have photos printed at least once a month this year. I figure if I'm making at least one scrapbook page a week this year the photo albums I store my pictues in will empty out quickly so I'll need to replace those scrapped photos with a whole new batch of memories waiting to be scrapped.

So, there they are. My 3 scrapping related goals for 2009:

1. Take at least one daily-life picture every day.
2. Make the time to scrap at least one layout each week.
3. Have a batch of pictures printed each month.
and all of those add up to a 4th goal........
4. Have a scrapping good year!

What are your scrapping goals for 2009 ?