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Sunday with Scrapbook Inspirations

Hopped over to Olympia on Sunday afternoon to check out the Stitch and Craft show and say hello to Rosie who runs things in Scrapbook Inspirations land.

But more importantly, to take pound cake to Rosie and the other lovelies on the Future stand at the show. Because this recipe on Smitten Kitchen was too intriguing to pass up.

It is rather yum indeed. Do try it. It’ll give your mixer a workout!

xlovesx

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Beautiful days are for scrapbooks

I am so loving this surprising week of perfect spring weather. Please, please stay as long as possible, even if it keeps me away from my computer and things I should be getting done!

But while I’m thinking of things that need to be done…the very end of Scrap your Day is coming very soon. Do you have pages online somewhere? Please leave me a link in the comments. I’d love to do a big wrap-up post when the 25th comes around this month and link to everyone’s blogs, galleries and so forth!

xlovesx

PS: I have the last few class kits from a range of classes I’ve taught over the last few months on sale here for those of you who are here in the UK.

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Step by Step :: Your handwriting on a digital scrapbook page

The newest issue of Scrapbook Inspirations included Jane Dean’s challenge for each member of the team to try something new-to-us on the digital front. For some, that meant making their first ever digital page. For others it meant printing things out and using them on a paper layout. My challenge was to find a way to include my handwriting on a digital layout—which admittedly is the biggest clash I have with digital scrapping. I always handwrite my journaling, and after years of that, it just feels wrong to start typing things again! I mean, it took quite a while for me to get used to seeing my own scrawl on those pages.

It turns out you can include your handwriting on digital pages very easily, and you don’t need a wacom tablet or a scanner, nor do you need to learn to write with your mouse! My fancy-schmancy list of equipment included a black pen, a sheet of white paper and my camera. And something tells me we all have those within reach! So here’s the entire layout from start to finish, in case you want to try something similar.

My layout uses these digital kits:
Travel Journal Tool Kit, Round & Round v4, Photo Phun Mat Pieces (all by Rhonna Farrer)
Haphazard (Erica Hernandez)
Spools of Stitches (Tia Bennett) {This is seriously one of the best purchases ever. Use it all the time and it always looks perfect. Love it!}
Sweet Notions (Meredith Fenwick)
Element-ary Stitches 2 (Carina Gardner)

Obviously, you can still follow the techniques with completely different digital supplies to customise the look.

I made my page in Photoshop CS3, but pretty much everything can be accomplished in any edition of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements—it just might mean that certain elements are in a different place or have a different name.

Right, that’s plenty of intro—let’s get started!

Click here for the tutorial—lots of images!

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Inspiring minds

This week I have been feeling the need for inspiration for the brain. Scrapbooking for the sake of scrapbooking made me want to revisit things that inspired me when I first started crafting and seek out a few new things that have been on my ‘meaning to do’ list for far too long. I’ve been reading a lot. Catching up on course materials for classes I’m taking in the background. Reading my new camera manual, bit by bit. Learning a little something every day. I think it is that same thing that makes us want to spring clean (I am feeling that too) — little signs of life around that urge us to be a slightly better version of ourselves.

Today I was able to split my work load into morning and evening and spent the middle of the day walking around the V&A museum with a friend. I love that you’re allowed to take pictures inside, although the collection at the V&A is so overwhelming at times that it can be hard to know what to photograph. I tried to just pick a few things so I could focus a bit more than coming home with hundreds of shots. It is very much a museum of texture more so than colour (although one particularly amazing example of colour is lit so there is so much light reflecting I couldn’t find a way to catch the colour in an image…so it is resonating in my head a bit instead). Colour is normally what strikes me first in any type of design – be it crafting supplies, photography, advertising or cinema – so to largely take that away and be left with shape and texture seemed to make me think in a different way. I’m totally blabbering now and this is making no sense, right? Forgive me.

Several times we would turn a corner to find ourselves alone in a long, echoing corridor and C would comment ‘This so isn’t a place to visit on your own’. And she was right not only because it is at times a bit too creaky for my liking but also because wandering there with someone else means she will see different things and point out things I would never think about twice.

Also, I think having coffee and catching up on a Wednesday can be quite inspiring in itself.

Can we have a happy chatty, commenty day today (or tomorrow or whenever)? I would love to see or hear about something that is inspiring you lately and making you feel alive. Pardon my ‘spring has sprung and the world is right’ feeling today, but I figure that doesn’t happen every day and I better embrace it when it does. So what have you been reading/watching/listening to/talking about/looking at/eating/otherwise thinking about that is making you feel like there really could be a slightly better version of yourself? Go on, tell us. Pretty please.

xlovesx

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Happy scrapping

A few of my favourite things…
Caroline’s weekly challenge
Bazzill ~~polka dot~~ Dotted Swiss cardstock
Every sticker Sassafras Lass has ever made
Teeny tiny letters from My Little Shoebox
Cosmo Cricket Mr Campy papers

And pages made just because. No reason, no assignment, just because the photos and the papers were there at the time.

Perhaps I should do this more often.

xlovesx

PS: I’ve got a new little project on the Banana Frog Blog today—do hop over and check it out, pretty please, if you fancy.

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Not gone too much longer...

Oh internet, I shall be back to you on Monday. We have much catching up to do!

In the meantime, although I’ll be away from my computer until then, I probably won’t be able to stay completely clear of Twitter and I’ve added some photos from my little journey to Wisconsin to Flickr.

Have a fabulous weekend and I’ll see you soon!

xlovesx

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Time to Scrap your Day!

It’s the 25th, and that means we’re on to month eleven of the year-long project!

You can download a new photo fact sheet and a new album prompt!

Can’t wait to see what expressions you catch today!

xlovesx

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Today's blog post has nothing to do with scrapbooking

and everything to do with the glory that is pancake day.

That is all.

xlovesx

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