21 May 2013

I amaze myself......

Early last month I had a fantastic evening of sticking things to paper! A couple of scrapbook pages nearly completed whilst listening to the latest podcast from the Roundtable.The interesting thing was which photos I chose to scrap. I have 12 months + of photos of my LO, an album of weddings that  just need papers picking and stuff sticking, and various ephemera  piled neatly on my desk. But I chose to scrap a couple of my nephew from 2011.

The reason for this selection is my new journaling scheme. I have to pick and choose when I sit down in my room to scrap, balanced against all my other hobbies and my housewifely/motherly/social obligations. But I do have a lot of time for just sitting down and writing out journaling. So its not hard for me to look at a picture and decide on what story I wish to tell, write that story in a notepad and then pop the note and the photo in a expanding file and move on to the next one. I have an accordian file for holding my photos and journalling, and any work that I had done on my titles or other ephemera. So, on this particular evening, when I had the time to sit and scrap in my room, I was able to go to the first section, pull out the photo, title and journalling and get down to work.

I was trying to just create a page so I didn't think too hard about what background I wanted, I picked a nice green textured piece of card that matched with the grass colour of the picture, made a lovely yellow sun for the corner, matched up ribbon for the bunting title and then stuck and wrote. And its a good page, not sensational but it is good and fits the mood of the picture in the colour choices and composition. It needs something else and I don't know yet quite what that is, but not wanting to get bogged down, I have mentally marked it as "not quite finished" and it was headed for storage in my nephews album. And here comes the part that amazed me.

The photos are from a weekend in April 2011, when we had really lovely weather. That time particularly sticks in my mind as we had 2 BBQ's at my mum's house in the space of 2 weeks as the weather was so fine and I took loads of pictures at both. All the pages that I have scrapped so far are in very primary shades of Red, Yellow, Green and Blue, some patterns but mostly blocks of colour, because these are the colours that jump out at me. They are such a good match of colours across the pages that I can to put them into their own album to remember that special time. And this has now helped me when I chose to get the others finished as I know the palettes that I will be using. Obviously the pages will be different and some from these weekends wont match and so wont go into this album. But its such a good starting point that I have subconciously made for myself, that it re-inforces my faith that I do enjoy this hobby and have some aptitude for it, even though I can't make much time any more for the sticking and the writing.

20 May 2013

Paperclipping RoundTable 132 - Pause for a thought

I was listening to this episode of the Paperclipping RoundTable today whilst driving to and from work. It was just a random back-episode I had stashed to listen to but like many, it really spoke to me about what I do when I scrap and why.

One of my latest revelations/realisations is that my scrapping is a memory keeping excercise, just in a pretty format. And listening to the "professionals" on PRT has helped show me that this is ok. I don't have to make pages full of embellishments and blank space if I want pages full of journaling and photos.

A key point that came up was about style and that scrappers seem to think that having a set style is a negative thing. I know that I suffer from this impression, I think I should be trying every different style and technique and that no two pages should be the same. Yet, I know that if I looked now, I would see quite similar layouts. The only thing that is different now is that I won't see this as a bad thing. 

The guests on PRT mention President Obama's trick of having suits for designated days so as not to waste "decision making power" on trivial things. I really identified with this idea that you have a limited amount of DMP in your day, and although I do not have the same kind of pressure as the leader of the free world, I would like to cut down on the guilt that interferes with my creativity. 

So no more guilt about pages that look similar. If I like them, then thats enough. And to link in with a phrase for May's OLW prompt,

"I shall balance the excitement of experimentation with the comfort of the familiar" 

Love Elliefantasy

xxx

10 May 2013

Big Leap Forward....

.... but no sticking??

Today I finished my photobook of LO's first year. It is jam packed of photos and has loads little comments detailing the who, what, where, when and whys. All that needs doing is a final proof read by OH and then we can hit the finish button. And in 5 days time we will have a lovely memento of LO's first year in a handy, slim volume, ready to pull out for guests with the option of easily made copies for grandparents.

I could have scrapped it all, and I have got a half finished book of the first month, which might just become the first 2 weeks. It is important as it contains a lot of ephemera.

But for most of the pictures taken in the 12 months there isn't much of a story other than what we did or who we were with. Or, in a lot of cases, who the person was that brought the thing in the picture. It needs remembering but I'm not sure it needs patterned paper or alphas etc.

I am coming to a point where I want my scrapped pages to be about feelings and impressions. If I have managed to squeeze out time to stick and cut, I want to find a bit more time to describe and discuss.

So now I have found a way to do both. Yes, it has taken me a few evenings, but it was fun to remember all the.different events and focus my mind on the stories that might have a little more behind them. And with a nice discount coupon to redeem, it leaves more money in the pot for real stash!

Do you use photobooks or have an alternative way to keep your pics that works alongside your scrapping? I'd love to hear them

Love Elliefantasy

12 Apr 2013

Changes to the way I craft - The Update

I have just jumped online and found my post from 28th December about how I want to change my crafting. Its interesting and affirming reading, as I have actually managed to achieve some targets on my list. So I feel its time for a recap.

Scrapping is definately in. By listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable when I'm cooking or driving or doing a task that keeps me away from my actual scrapping, I have been able to keep the hobby in mind, allowing me to think about things in my dead time. Now when I get to my room, I am ready to start straight away. I have realised it is fine if I don't sit down to scrap and come away with a finished page. This evening I have done some work on my Weddings album, selecting paper and sticking down photos, invites, orders of service and other bits and pieces. I have found that I still have some space for photos which means that these pages will remain unfinished. But that is fine. I've picked out the photos, edited them as needed and put them in the folder for ordering. And then I have moved on. So an album that has been sitting like an albatros on my shelves is finally seeing some progress.

My snapshot of my life at the moment isn't really started, I have purchased my Listography book, and started to fill in the lists, as well as taking photos at the first two birthday parties, but that is about it. I think this year is more of a Full Stop year, by which I mean that I am reflecting on my last 30 years and how I celebrate them, finishing off my existing projects and making sure that I can be all that I can, ready to move on next year. I am still keeping a month to month record of LO and as this is most of my life at the moment, it seems silly to add to the burden of more record keeping, especially when it will mainly say "Today I need more sleep". If this changes later in the year then great, but at this early stage I do not feel bad for not having achieved that much.

I have managed to keep up with One Little Word more or less. I have mostly completed January's task, I need a mass sticking session for february, just need to do the final update on March and begin April's prompt. So not muchto do! But the most important thing is that I have kept it in my head, I am constantly reflecting on my word and the lessons that I can learn are finally starting to stick in a way that they haven't before. So it is a success.

I have taken up Crochet as a good dead time hobby and also acquired long term use of a sewing machine, which has flexed my creative muscles, so that when I don't feel like scrapping I know that I can still be creative. I have realised, having done a few projects for some newer friends, and been complemented on them, that being creative is an important part of my personality and it makes me feel good to be known to be a creative person. Especially when the things that I make seem to bring joy to those that I give them too. It is the perfect marriage of my love of generosity and my love of making mess!

So, a good few months for being crafty. I'd love to hear how  your creative resolutions have been going, why not drop a line?

Love Elliefantasy xxx

29 Jan 2013

One Little Word - Balance


This year I have decided to take part in Ali Edwards One Little Word Class and duly signed up at Big Picture on Jan 1st. And did some of the pre class tasks and then stopped. Life once more got in the way.

The purpose of the class is to take one word to think on during the year and Ali does some prompts to help. But part of the class is just to think on your word which I have actually been doing.

I chose my word, and to do this class for a particular reason. In October last year I was diagnosed with moderate Post Natal Depression. I have a minimum of 6 months of anti depressants which have helped in so many ways, essentially giving me back space in my head to assess what I am doing and plan things better. But I want to try to help myself. Balance is a word that struck me straight away. I am so unbalanced in most of what I do, so I need to try and regain some form of it to enable me to be able to come off the tablets at the designated time.

And the more I think about Balance, the more ways I can see how it applies in my life. How that sometimes its best to unbalance myself to make the most of the things that are going on around me. And how to deal with the consequence when I know that I then have to sacrifice some other time to do the things that I put off. How it is so hard to balance my time three or four ways to suit the different people that I have to be. How to balance my love of spending with my lack of money. How to balance having fun with LO but still being a responsible parent and not allowing bad habits, even if they are really quite funny. How to balance my love of Chocolate and Cake with my loathing of excercise. How to balance my love of having lots of people to celebrate my LO's christening with number restrictions.

Every time I think about the word I think of ways to apply it, or ways that I need to improve. It is such an important word to me at this time, it is the perfect One Little Word. Hopefully in the next few days I might even get chance to see what the first post is, if only to think on it for February. But with a major birthday party for a very close friend to prepare for, a Dangermouse costume to finish, and 3 days of work to endure, I doubt it!