Tuesday 29 May 2012

My first 2012 page!

So its May and I've scrapped my first photo of 2012.  You may recognise the photo - it got a mention in my January month in numbers post here.


It tells the story of how the youngest decided one Sunday morning that her farm animals needed to have plaster casts applied.  This involved tearing up tissues, spraying with water and slapping on the animal! You gotta love her style!

I have been pondering for a while whether to do 2012 album along the same lines as 2011.  I was reluctant to commit to a format until the 2011 album was complete.  Whilst pondering I have been taking Shimelle's Cover to Cover" online class which has given me lots of food for thought in terms of album organisation.  As I wrote the other day, the 2011 album did become a chore towards the end.

So after all this deliberating I have decided to let my 2012 album run without any set format.  It will probably contain a whole mix of page formats etc but will run chronologically.  Because I have now organised my photos by month and am going to print them each month, I will not "worry" that I am going to miss anything - it may take me a few(?) years to get all the stories down but that doesn't phase me like it used to.  It makes me happy to know where I am going, however long it takes.

Sunday 27 May 2012

It is finished!

Yes my 2011 album is complete!  It was my aim for May and I glad its done.  I must admit it became a bit of a chore these last few months, however when I look through its great to see the year unfold.

Here are the final pages;




Now I do have one slight challenge - as you know the format of the album has been a single page followed by divided protectors and another single page.  To keep some sort of continuity I have used the same background paper for  each individual month  and either the same PP or from same rangeHowever I have also done further 2011 pages throughout the year that do not follow such "rules". Do I have a separate album or do I combine?  Because I have  recently sorted my layouts into albums by years, they are now all living together but when you move through you do loose the flow - however if I move them out, the album that is single layouts has big gaps. 

For the moment I am leaving them all together and will continue to mull!

Friday 25 May 2012

Happy Mail

They always say be careful for what you wish for - we asked for the sun and now our cup runneth over!  As you read this I will be craming myself into a smelly train with many other fed up commuters!  Deep Friday joy.

Some of you may have taken part in the blog giveaway over at Notes on Paper and you may have seen that I was the lucky winner.   Well the parcel of lovely goodies arrived on Tuesday.  Do want to see?


I know I am a lucky girl - many thanks to Julie and the people at docrafts who donated the prize.  I already have a few ideas up my sleeve and of course it will be perfect for Jubilee and Olympic scrapping!

If you havn't ever  visited Julie at Notes in Paper, do pop and have a look - her recent vintage cards are rather amusing.  And also check out her "Going postal" pinboard.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Thursday 24 May 2012

A current trend

I've not only been organising my photos and albums, I have been scrapping too.  Organising my albums by year has enabled me to identify any gaps, so when I feel the urge to scrap I can pick up an album flick through and decide what to scrap.

So with that in mind, I decided to scrap this photo from 2010.  Its one of my favourite and was taken on my hubbys birthday.  We had been away for the weekend without the children and arrived back on his birthday - lots of smiles all around.



This is based on the May sketch on 'The Studio' challenges blog here.  Hexagons are very much a current trend and seem to pop up everwhere at the moment.  I cut mine using my slice.  I also managed to use some letters by using three different sets to do my title.  And don't worry I have journalled - its on the tag thats tucked behind the photo!

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Cover to Cover - progress made

So since my last post, I have been busy organising all my photos - they were filed away in a box but not in any such order.  It took some doing and trawling through my computer files (which are well organised!).  So here they are;


My 2012 photos arrived and I filed them straight in - month order - all ready to scrap when the moment takes me.

I have also decided to have a file to plan and note ideas.


This is divided by month and has pages for each year.  I have started to note down the photos I want to scrap and ideas etc.

I have to say I'm loving find a system that works and really think it will help me scrap more!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Full steam ahead

Did you have sunshine at the weekend - we did!  How lovely to feel the warmth on your back and the instant energy boost it seems to provide.

On Sunday we visited "Carters Steam Fair" - which was just up the road from us on the local green.  The Carters are a local family and tour their steam fair around - mainly in the south east.  We have been a number of times and it is always great fun.

On the Saturday morning they have a parade from the town centre upto the green - which goes right past the end of our road!


This year the girls went on the horses - always a favourite whatever your age.


The swing boat - which goes almost vertical.  It caused the youngest to scream loudly but she assures me she was enjoying herself.



They also enjoyed dodgems.



Some candyfloss!



and an icecream.



All in all a great way to spend a sunny afternoon - we even hauled the b-b-q out of hibernation when we got home!




Thursday 10 May 2012

Cover to Cover -the story so far.

Now I know how Noah felt - every morning he must have looked out of the Ark window and said "rain again".  But looking on the bright side, I love how it has made the grass so very green!

I'm taking part in Shimelles latest class "Cover to Cover" and I have to say I'm loving it!  Now I am an organised kinda gal - I like to know what I'm doing and when and where everything is I need to do these things!  However I haven't really translated this into my scrapping life - I was under the belief that to be creative, you needed to go with the flow, allowing inspiration to take you!  Now I know that's how many of you work but I've had a eureka moment.  I am most productive when I am organised and have a plan!  My 2011 album is a good example - although its not quite there yet it will get completed because from the outset I had a plan! 

I am enjoying the prompts and creating my own process.  So far I have;

- re-organised all my layouts.  Now I'm a good girl and file my layouts away as soon as I have photographed them for blogging.  However I was not happy with my current system of Albums.  I had one chronological album dating from 2007 to present day, one album for each of the girls and of course the 2011 album.   So I pulled them all out and sorted by years then month.  2008, 2009 and 2010 now have their own album.  Firstly it made me realise I had scrapped more than I thought and also where the gaps are!

- working on the gaps.  Alot of my earlier layouts contain very little or no journalling!  I am going to go back and rectify this.  Most of them have space.  

- 2010 - I have gone through my computer files and listed for each month what has taken place.  I am now sorting through my printed photos - which are fairly well organised.  I am going to put photos I want to scrap into page protectors with notes etc and then file in the 2010 album.  That way when I want to scrap, I can go to the album, pick the ones that take my fancy.  Simples!

- 2012 - Up until last night I had not ordered any 2012 photos - sorted that last night and they should arrive soon.  Again I think I will put them into PP in order in the album - may also add some supplies!

Sorry I have waffled on a bit!  However I am excited to be able to devlop a system that I know will help my work flow and hopefully get me scrapping more.   May is going to be a really full on month for me - I am working 4 days a week (usually 3), have two meetings to prepare for and also two services at church that I help run.  Not sure how much actual scrapping I will get to but will hopefully be able to snatch some time here and then to make this all pull together.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

My month in numbers - April

It seems that you hardly blink an eye and another month goes by.  Yes we are back again with the numbers that matter.  To find out what its all about do check out Julies blog - our chief number cruncher. 

So here is how April adds up;

4 - bikes transported on the back of our car for our holiday at centre parcs.  It took an amount of planning but it worked!

12 - approx the amount of hours spent in the pool (over the course of 5 days) which probably included at least 40 goes down the rapids in total.  I must admit by the end of the week I did feel a certain sympathy for clothes in a washing machine!

6 - children in the hot tub in one go when friends came over for afternoon tea.  They certainly had fun splashing around.





3 adults, 8 children and 1 dog who spent a very pleasent afternoon at Cliveden our local national trust haunt.  We walked through the woods and discovered the bluebells were out - just beautiful.




110 squares of fabric sewn together on the weekend as I stared another quilt.  I'm now awaiting further supplies to carry on.







So those are my numbers - how about yours?  Do check out the Pinterest board to view more monthly numbers and also see the clever ways people choose to display their numbers. 

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