Monday 24 August 2009

The weekend, the inspiration & the thought.



This weekend was a good one! Friday night saw dh & I grocery shopping together with our little one, who had been away on camp, so it was fun to have some time together & also to include her. As we suspected she fell asleep mid aisle so it was almost "just the two of us"... so we went out for coffee afterwards & managed a rare uninterrupted conversation. Saturday morning I took Camryn out shopping at a local mall as a little "mum & daughter" treat. She has become more demanding since she turned nine & less happy to "entertain herself" so we have been doing a bit of scrapbooking together & she has her own album on the go. We bought a couple of pillar candles & new candle stands as we have been experiencing power cuts here several times a week of late. Apparently all faults but obviously there is more to it. Either it is surreptitious load-shedding or cable theft. All in all annoying...

My two teenagers came & went, off to friends, Gateway & the rugby with dh faithfully carting them from venue to venue. Saturday afternoon I decided to settle down to some serious scrapbooking. Well I have hardly come up for air, although I did steal myself away to watch "My Sister's Keeper" with dh on Sunday night. It was a clever movie, apparently quite different from the book. Of course I spent a good portion of it in tears, as I'm sure a lot of the audience did! I was blown away by the scrapbook album featured in the movie & it reminded me why I am not really a gadget girl-always seeking out the latest die-cutting machine. It's because the way I scrapbook is like the girl in the movie, to get my message across in a fun & vibrant way, not a desktop publishing format.

I have spent some time this past week studying scrapbooking styles & on various manufacturer's websites being simultaneously inspired & overwhelmed. I have given some long, hard thought into "my style" & feel more set on the direction I want to move in right now, but more on that in another post.

For now here is the layout I have used for the inspiration of the nine layouts I have completed in the last few days. After being so bombarded with different "looks" all over the internet of late I wanted a break from it all to remind myself WHY I STARTED SCRAPBOOKING IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I found this
very simple layout that was easily customisable.

My criteria was that:-

A) I wanted to be able to enjoy the creative process with as little stress as possible,

B) while still creating eye-catching layouts to put in my albums,

C) and simultaneously ploughing through my stash and...

D) getting old photos out of my photo album & into my scrapbook

E) without worrying about the latest papers & embellishments, as the photos I wanted to use were all from at least a year ago so new product was not a huge consideration. (repitition of a "recipe" didn't matter either as all the layouts would be spread across the albums with at least several other pages in between).



This is the layout that inspired me. It is by Katie Saylor, who doesn't seem to have a blog, {I have googled her but only came up with a famous actress that I have never heard of LOL!} This was the winning entry in the Page Maps Apron-Strings summer sketch contest here recently. I never took part in the contest as quite honestly the sketch did not inspire me!


Well what I ended up producing looks very little like the sketch & slightly more like the layout, although of course each piece took on a life of it's own...The bad news is that due to the rain & grey skies I have been unable to photograph ANY of the layouts to show you!!! but I am hoping for a "better" day tomorrow {to be honest I LOVE rainy days...} so rest assured that I will be out photographing my handiwork at the first sign of sunshine.

For now I'll leave you with a quote I found in the August edition of Creating Keepsakes {Page 115} that I am planning to print out & use as the basis of an altered art frame I am hoping to start on this week. It is by Wilfred Peterson {who I have since discovered had some pretty worthwhile things to say!}

WALK WITH THE DREAMERS,
THE BELIEVERS, THE COURAGEOUS,
THE CHEERFUL, THE PLANNERS,
THE DOERS, THE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE
WITH THEIR HEADS IN THE CLOUDS
AND THEIR FEET ON THE GROUND.
LET THEIR SPIRIT IGNITE A FIRE
WITHIN YOU TO LEAVE THIS WORLD
BETTER THAN WHEN YOU FOUND IT.

Wow, that's quite a thought to ponder for the week ahead but I'm going to do it. How about you?

8 comments:

topkatnz said...

wishing you sunny skys, so I can have a peek at all those new LOs you have been busy creating .........

tania said...

Yes!! lets do it!!
love your qoute!!

Vicki said...

So, tell me more about My Sisters Keeper and yep wanna see all your creativity.

Jacqui said...

My feeling is that the only thing good about rainy days is that I have a valid excuse to stay indoors and scrap (&eat)!
P.S. It's nice & sunny to-day so get the camera out and upload the l/o's.....

Lynette Jacobs said...

I am feeling that it is time for summer...tired of the cold weather. That layout was the winning one on the Page Map blog and really gorgeous.

Shayne said...

Was wanting to see your creation dear???

I quite like her take on the sketch. The sketch did nothing for me either.

I'm amazed yr 9 yr old fell asleep whilst shopping - i can only dream of that happening.

Do yourself a favour - read the book. Much better than the movie.

Michelle Ramsay said...

Love your layout and the quote -quite something to think about and oh, so true.
Am nervous of watching that movie as I know that I will cry if the trailer was anything to go by, but maybe I will get there.!! Looking forwrad to seeing your other layouts, so get photographing ......

Ella Swan said...

Got the sun today but was busy scrapping with Jax so no photos yet! Am writing a bit about the movie today ;-D Yes also loved Katie Saylor's layout - so nice & fresh. Have 10 creations now to photograph & busy with no. 11 - got that mojo going on right now LOL! Shayne my little one is tiny at 9. She only weighs 25kgs & looks about 7. She slept EVERY day for the first 7 years of life - now she doesn't fall asleep each & every day but pretty often - poor little thing. She is very skinny with almost no appetite & gets worn out easily. We have tried everything over the years to improve her appetite but nothing works. Don't read books - well hardly ever - too many blogs to read remember?!