The Soundtrack Of My Life

Music has played a hugely important part in my life. From a very early age my parents would encourage me to listen to the radio or to their records - just as they encouraged me to read. As I got older, I used to sing along to the radio while my older brother and sisters were getting ready to go to school in the morning and tape songs from the radio to make my own 'collections'. I remember buying my very first single, on vinyl, of course.

Music became an every day part of life as I struggled to learn the piano, the saxaphone and quite a few percussion instruments as part of my high school orchestra and how, as life began to change, music helped me to make the difficult transition from teenager to adult. At university my most important possessions were my shelves full of albums and I would happily spend a week eating toast if it meant I could afford to go dancing in the evenings.

Older still and I realise that music has been a constant in my life. It has understood me when I felt misunderstood; lifted my spirits when I have felt low and said the words that I have sometimes felt difficult to articulate. It has never let me down.

So, when I found out that this month's second challenge at All About Me was to be The Soundtrack Of My Life, I knew that I couldn't possibly create a layout that included all of the songs that mean something to me - there isn't enough space or time - but I did know that not having a working camera wouldn't stop me. I had to do this challenge!

And this leads me to a rather convoluted explanation of how I designed my layout. Not having any digital scrapbook materials, I chose to create the main image using Polyvore. That's right folks. Not only can you use Polyvore to create fashionable collages, but also the most amazing illustrations. It's actually very simple to find items, arrange them in layers and create. Admittedly, to save the image, you need to e-mail it to yourself, then save the image as a useable file. But that's not really a big deal, right? Still much easier than fiddling with lots of layers in Photoshop.

Once I had the main image, I transferred it to Photoshop Elements and placed an electronic version of a Basic Grey scrapbooking paper behind it as a background. I then made some adjustments to the colours and added my text. Et voila.

Do let me know what you think before heading over to All About Me to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with. If you have any questions about Polyvore, etc, feel free to ask in the comments, okay?

It Makes Me Angry...

...to tell you that even though there is a new prompt up today at All About Me, I have no layout to show you, because I dropped my camera and can't download the photographs. It makes me angry with myself to know that I took those photographs and didn't have the time to download them straight away. It makes me angry with myself to let Melissa down at the last minute - and on her birthday, no less! I'm so sorry Melissa!

And it makes me stupidly angry that, because we've had almost three inches of snow (and this constitutes adverse weather conditions in the UK) our local buses aren't running. What? Sorry? Not running? I'm fuming!!!

Anyway, if you'd like to find out what makes the girls over at All About Me feel angry, do head over and take a look at their layouts. Then join in the challenge and tell us what really twists your melon.

Challenging Times

If life isn't challenging enough in December - when you're running around buying last minute presents, tidying the house before your parents visit or battling your way through the masses in the supermarket - then you might be interested to know that I set the Weekly Challenge on UKScrappers earlier in the week and that you still have time to participate.

I really wanted to keep the requirements simple so that people could incorporate the challenge into their December Daily or Journal Your Christmas albums (if they wanted to.) I asked everyone to -

1. Scraplift - Having a bit of inspiration makes scrapping so much quicker. Make life a little easier on yourself and scraplift one of your favourite layouts.

2. Sew - I love the detail that sewing adds to a layout. Use some stitching on your layout to add detail and texture. If you don't have a machine, you can hand stitch or draw 'stitches' and if you do digital that's okay too! (I'm an all inclusive kind of girl!)

3. Scrap - I'm a big believer in using as much of that precious paper as possible. Pick out some of your favourite scraps (large or small) and use them on your layout.

I'm a huge fan of Amanda Johnson and love the way she manages to use the bare minimum of supplies and still make her layouts look amazing. I scraplifted her two layouts - 1 Day and Summer Fare - and I'm not sure that I managed to do them any justice, but it did get me thinking about new ways to approach my scrapbooking and that's the point, right?

There have been some amazing entries and sadly, there are no prizes (not that I'd be able to choose a winner) but maybe you could pop over and take a look to give them some love?

Have a good weekend folks x

The Holidays Are Coming!

I am still having difficulty believing that it's December! That means it's time for another All About Me Design Team Reveal. Yay!

I'd like to say that I gave this one as much thought as usual but...um...I got the prompts muddled and put this one together yesterday afternoon. There's a lot of stiching, because I just couldn't find the double-sided sticky tape! Being pushed for time forced me into using the template and using the sketch made it a lot easier - so you might like to bear that in mind as we enter the holiday season.

The prompt is all about processing the holidays - our memories, traditions and thoughts about this time of year - so our layouts are all incorporating a little more journalling than usual.

Mine reads - No matter how many times I've heard the same tunes every time I go shopping; no matter how many mince pies I've had thrusted in my direction and no matter how many 'festive drinks' I've knocked back, for me it isn't Christmas until I've sat down to wrap all of my presents.

I know some people find wrapping presents just a little bit of a chore, but for me it's one of the Christmas traditions I most look forward to - I know. I'm weird. I blame my mother. (Sorry mum!)

On Christmas Eve my mum would always be busy cleaning the house and making preparations for Christmas Day. To keep me occupied (and out of the way) I was given the role as 'Chief Present Wrapper' - a role I took very seriously.

We would crank up the radio - full of seasonal tunes - and I would spend the next couple of hours writing gift tags; wrapping presents and arranging them under the tree, accompanied by the smell of mince pies baking in the oven. I would be happy in the knowledge that I was helping out and doing something important.

I still do all of my wrapping in one evening - no mean feat with a family as big as mine. I sit myself at the dining room table, surrounded by bags full of presents, wrapping paper, pretty ribbons and several rolls of sticky tape. Christmas tunes blazing, twinkly lights twinkling and cinnamon biscuits baking in the oven and I'm instantly happy.

If you managed to read through all that and would like to see some more takes on the challenge then head over to All About Me to see what the rest of the design team have come up with.

What This Mark Says About Me

So, today is another All About Me Design Team Reveal. They are really, really coming around quite quickly now, especially when I spend a week or so thinking about the challenge and trying to decide between at least three or four options. I honestly have no idea how some of the AAM Followers manage to whip up their challenge layouts so quickly, but I do love the fact that there's so much scope for interpreting the themes - and I'm making a note of my other ideas so that I can come back to them another time.

This month, were talking about marks and what they say about us. It's an odd one. Some of you will probably have an immediate reaction to the challenge, some of you may need to think about it a bit like me. Your mark could be a tattoo, a scar, a mark on the wall where you measured your first child, or maybe you have a mark on the inside. It's all valid.

When I was in my late teens (*sigh*) I went with a friend to visit a palmist. My friend had always wanted to have his palm read, but I wasn't in the slightest bit interested. I sat down to have my palm read full of curiosity and a healthy helping of scepticism.

The palmist explained that, along with the shape of my hands, the small cross nestled between the lines of the heart and head indicated a natural psychic talent or an ability to understand and work with the occult. He went on to explain that I was likely to struggle between an exceptance of the occult and my natural tendency towards science and fact.

I was disappointed. I wanted him to tell me that I would travel the world; be invited to all of the best parties and would never get fat!

Still, there was some truth in his reading. Years later, I have studied religions, the occult and science - and you'll often find me reading about research that seems to cross those boundaries. I am fascinated by things like out of body experiences; parapsychology and ... um ... Derren Brown!

Head on over to All About Me to see how the rest of the DT have intepreted this one and then have a go yourself, we've got another wonderful sponsor this month!

Free To Be Me! {AAM Blog Hop}

Welcome to the First Ever All About Me Challenge Blog Hop! The All About Me Team are all revealing this month's first challenge; sharing a little bit more about themselves and, well, there's a few giveaways too! I'm a wee bit excited to be involved!

In fact, I'm still really excited to be involved in the All About Me Team at all! I am so grateful that I have had the chance to work alongside the amazing women that make up the rest of the team and inspire so many people to start scrapping about the one thing that's usually forgotten. Themselves. The idea is simple, but it's affects are quite astounding. Through scrapping about myself - my dreams, fears and emotions - I've been able to learn more about who I am, who I'm not and who I want to be. I feel more comfortable with myself. I am finally Free To Be Me!

And since so many of the team feel the same way this is our theme for the Blog Hop, we only hope that in some small way, taking part in our challenges helps you feel free to be yourself.

Now, from the serious to the ridiculous! One of the things that I am coming to love about scrapbooking is the conversations that I have with The Steve as a result of sharing my final layouts. This time around our conversation went a bit like this -

Me: What do you think of this layout?
The Steve: What was the theme?
Me: We had to do a layout based on the idea 'I Can't Live Without'.
The Steve: Oh
Me: What?
The Steve: Well, I'm just looking for me on there.
Me: I do serious layouts all the time, I wanted to do something 'fun'.
The Steve: (starting to smirk) Oh? So now I'm not fun?
Me: *sigh*

It always ends in a sigh!

Indisposable Camera - Layout Details: Most of the hard work has been done by the rather lovely handmade paper which was sent to me by the rather lovely Joyce! I've added a few scraps of paper and ribbon; some stitching and an image of my beloved Nikon D40.

Now, I know there's a lot to take in here today, but keep reading - there are prizes to be had people! Each of the All About Me Team has a questionnaire on their blogs and you can win a fabulous prize on the main site by answering questions about us so this is All About Me -

1. My Childhood Ambition - "Heal the world. Make it a better place." Okay, that's a little facetious, but it is true. All I have ever wanted to do is make the world a better place, little by little. I honestly believe that, no matter how small we may sometimes feel, we can each make a very real difference.
2. My Retreat - Books. What better way to escape from your own world than by immersing yourself in someone elses?
3. The Perfect Day - Morning sunshine; birds tweeting; pancakes; a walk in the country; a pub lunch; a village fete; hot tea and biscuits; dinner with friends; hugs before bedtime; my favourite bed; sleep.
4. My First Job - Ooh, it's not very exciting, but my first experience of working was as a Paper Girl. I had to convince my parents to let me have a go. They thought I wouldn't manage to stick the early hours and the heavy bags of papers, but I stuck with it for a year and a half before I found myself a weekend job instead. I loved the early mornings - so quiet and peaceful. It was like having the whole world all to myself!
5. My Wildest Dream - If I could have anything that I wanted - a true, 'in my wildest dreams' extravagance - it would be the opportunity to really explore Africa, working on voluntary projects; living with locals; travelling with other tourists. Oh! I could go on and on about this, so I'm going to stop. Right now.
6. If My Life Was A Musical It Would Be Called - The Procrastinator! See it today. Or possibly tomorrow..... :)
7. My Proudest Moment - It might sound really odd, but I don't think that I have one. I don't mean that there haven't been times when I've felt proud of myself but there isn't one moment that sticks out amongst the rest - only quiet, little periods of satisfaction and contentment - and I think I prefer it that way.
8. My Favourite Item Of Clothing - I have to pick one? Oh f**k! Um.....
9. I Feel Ready For The Day - Only after a cup of tea, toast and a bath.
10. I COULD Live Without - Big Brother, ironing and pigeons. Bleh. Pigeons!

Your Chance To Win!

What would a Blog Hop be without a fabulous giveaway? And, boy, have I got THE MOST FABULOUS GIVEAWAY! The cute and crafty ladies over at The Copy & Paste Project have organised a Twelve Days of Christmas Workshop full of the most amazing projects which use up your amazing crafty stash and leave you with some gorgeous goodies that you can give as gifts (or...um...keep for yourself. Not that you would. Obviously. Ahem!)

Julie and Kirsty are both fabulous instructors and have, between them, designed for Banana Frog, Scrapbook Inspirations, Quirky Kits, Gauche Alchemy, Kitschy Digitals, QTea Kits and The Creative Type. Blimey! Do you think they'll be inspiring enough?

The workshop kicks off tomorrow, November 5th and runs until November 20th. There's twelve days of downloadable instructions; access to a super secret workshop blog and a much, much more. For your chance to win a place in the class, you'll need to leave me a comment below telling me your favourite tune for Christmas crafting. That's it, nothing complicated! (But you must include your favourite tune for a chance to win, okay?)

Since, I'll be drawing the winner at the end of the Blog Hop on Saturday, 7th November, my advice is this - sign up for the class now so that you don't miss the buzz on the blog as the class starts - and, if you win, Julie and Kirsty will happily refund you!

What Now?

Phew! Did you get all that? I'd suggest getting yourself a cuppa and a biscuit or two before heading on to Janis's blog The Reluctant Scrapper for the next part of the All About Me Challenge Blog Hop. But do come back and visit again, okay?

Turning Point

A turning point is, by definition, a moment when the course of events is changed; when there is a change in direction; or an event marking a unique and important historical change. And we all have them, don't we? I'll bet that right now, having only really read a sentence or two, you are already thinking of a pivotal event in your own history. A moment in time when everything shifted. It might have been a major event like graduation; marriage or the birth of your first child. Or it could have been a smaller, less seemingly significant moment like someone giving up their seat for you on the bus; a compliment from a stranger or the purchase of a new winter coat that makes you feel special.

Whatever your own turning point, All About Me is challenging you to get it down on paper for our second challenge of the month and here's my own interpretation -


In my penultimate year at university, I travelled to Namibia to conduct a socio-economic study of a small community in the Northern Kunene Region of the country. This was in so many ways, a turning point in my life - or series of them - I left the country by myself for the very first time; I met my first ostrich; I started eating meat again after ten years as a vegetarian!

I could fill a whole album with layouts about the things I learnt, discovered and stumbled across while I was studying, but the thing that I remember the most clearly was asking to live as part of one of the community's family groups for a while. My pre-conceptions disappeared and I learnt more about life in that short time than I had ever experienced before. I learnt about laughter, beauty, pain, hardship and courage. And I learnt about myself. I came to a turning point and when I glanced back, everything looked different.

The rest of the Design Team have really rocked this challenge, so head on over to All About Me to have a look at their interpretations and, if you're interested, take a look at the Design Team Call.

Scrap Sketch Challenge

It might seem a little strange that, as a scrapbooker, I've never really tried working with sketches before. I've always found them a little bit limiting. But, as part of the big 'Challenge Blog' Blog Hop the party started at Scrap Sketch and decided that I really should try using a sketch - just to see.


In the end, I flipped the sketch over and worked with it upside down, but I'm sure that's allowed. I can't decide whether I like the final layout or not, but it did challenge me and I'm sure that if I give it another go, I'll feel less restricted and come up with something a little bit more 'me'.What do you think? Did I do okay for a first timer?

Autumn 2009 'Challenge Blog' Blog Hop

Okay, so I've been a little bit distracted this week and have been neglecting my blogging duties (and lovely readers) but I've got just enough time today to tell you about the 'Challenge Blog' Blog Hop currently taking place.

There's lots of inspiration for scrapbookers and crafters - and a few prizes along the way. The first stop is Scrap Sketch followed by the awesome, wonderful and totally inspiring All About Me. (You can't tell I'm on the DT there at all, can you?) Each of the participating challenge blogs will have a link to the next site, so you'll never be without a bit of direction.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the inspiration!

When I'm 100

The very first All About Me challenge has been revealed and I can honestly say that I am still thrilled to have made it onto the Design Team - being picked to work alongside the other fabulous ladies on the Design Team has been a massive boost to my confidence levels.

Which is more than I can say for the conversation that I had with The Steve whilst thinking of ideas for my layout -

Me: When I'm 100...
The Steve: I'll be 97.
Me: 98.
The Steve: 97.
Me: There's only two years between us!
The Steve: Three, even if it's for just a few months.
Me: So, 98.
The Steve: Whatever age you are, you'll still always be older than me.
Me: *Sigh*

Believe it or not, but these moments filled with friendly bickering are just one of the few things I'm looking forward to over the next seventy years!

Journalling reads - Will you still love me when I'm 100? I've always assumed that growing old is a lonely process. Until I met you. The idea that I might get to grow old with you, that we can grow old together, seems a little less scary. Even if you do steal the covers and eat all of the biscuits.

Head on over to All About Me to see the rest of the Design Team's interpretations and, maybe, pop into the All About Me Forum to have a chat about your ideas for the challenge.

All About Me Design Team Reveal

I'm not exactly sure how to express my excitement, but the first Design Team for the new scrapbooking challenge blog All About Me has been revealed. And it includes me! Get in! (You'll just have to excuse the colloquialism, okay?)


I'm really thrilled to be part of the Design Team but, honestly, I'd have been playing along religiously with this challenge blog anyway. The prompts are designed to get us scrapbookers designing and creating layouts about the one thing that's often neglected - ourselves. We all need a creative outlet and, having seen some of the upcoming prompts, the next few months are going to be fantastic.

There's a Flickr Group to accompany the blog, where everyone can upload their own interpretations of the challenges and, a bit unusually for a challenge blog, we also have a friendly forum. With some of the challenges going a little deeper than most, everyone can talk about the current challenges and get extra support when it's needed - and of course, it's just nice to chat!

So, would you all like to know who's joining me on the Design Team? These ladies really rock so please, if you have chance, show them a little blog love. Melissa Elsner, Miranda Wedekind, Mette Kallander, Kim Tupponce, Arlene Camacho, Helen Croft, Janis Medina and Britt Lejune.

I'm off to work on my layout for the first challenge which will be posted on the All About Me Challenge Blog on the 9th September. I hope you'll all come and play along.

I've had the most wonderfully lazy Sunday. Breakfast in bed; watching old episodes of Teachers; and scrapbooking. It seems like forever since I last did some 12x12 layouts, so I've got a couple to share.

First, there's my interpretation of the 'I Wish, I May, I Might' Pre-DT Challenge on the new challenge blog It's All About Me. At the moment, I'm working hard to turn my life around and there's so much that I want to do, and so much that I need to do, that it sometimes seems overwhelming. I'm wishing for the courage I need to change my life for the better; to have a little faith in myself.

I chose a nice, subtle cardstock for my background and distressed it (a lot) using the edge of my scalpel. A few of the scrap pieces of cardstock I used also got the rough treatment and I frayed the edges of the material to make some of the threads loose around the edges.

Then it was just a case of stacking everything together and machine sewing it all together. There's no glue on the page whatsoever - unless you count the little word stickers from Making Memories - and, since they have a tendency to fall off, I sewed them down anyway. My sewing machine, which sewed through several layers of cardstock and chipboard, probably hates me.

The other layout is a little more..um..sparse? I'm often inspired by clean lines, graphic design and a desire to use the beautiful bits of scrap that have been stashed away in my cupboard. The cardstock is by Anna Griffin and looks a little bit like washed denim in real life. I chose a few pieces of scrap to co-ordinate and cut them down to match the width of a photograph from an old interiors magazine. Then the poor little sewing machine got another exercising while I sewed on all the pieces.

It was still a little too bare, even for me, so I punched out some leaves from more scrap card and sewed them directly onto the cardstock. To achieve a 'leaves blowing in the wind' look, I sewed each leaf on to the page with a few running stitches, then lifted the machine foot and moved the cardstock over to the next leaf - without cutting the thread. To finish off, I just moved the needle down to the right hand corner and sewed a few zig zag stitches to anchor the thread and balance the layout.

I'm really happy with my afternoon's work and, considering the weather, I'm also happy to have Shimelle's class, Learn Something New Every Day to look forward to tomorrow. I'm off to start gathering all of my supplies together. Hope you're all enjoying your weekends x

Challenge Yourself!

The teams on UK Scrappers host a challenge every week to get everyone's scrapping mojo flowing and tomorrow morning, the challenge will be set by The Girl's With Stash - which obviously includes me - with all my stash. Here's a sneak peek of my layout for the challenge...

If you're not in the UK, you could still drop by and get some inspiration. Otherwise, here's a little list of my favourite challenge blogs - Category Stories, The Copy & Paste Project, One Little Word, Pencil Lines, Scrap Outside The Box The Art Is Found and Work Your Soul. I feel challenged just listing them all!

I'll be back tomorrow with a link directly to our challenge on UK Scrappers and some photographs from my week away.

Blogs Are Like Buses...

...you wait ages for one and then they all come along at once. I know I've neglected my little blog a bit over the last week - I was feeling a little bit blah and less than inspired.

Well, now actually, that's not true. I've been inspired by other things -the sunshine; new beading patterns; craft classes - like Rachel Denbow's awesome art journalling classes - and trusty challenge blogs like Copy & Paste.

Sometimes, I'm too inspired. Do you know what I mean? I get lots and lots of ideas and want to do them all, but don't know where to start. The latest prompt at Copy & Paste inspired by Alice in Wonderland made it really difficult to decide on an interpretation - it really is a challenge blog!!! I knew I really wanted to do a scrapbook layout about my beliefs, but I honestly couldn't figure out what I believe in.

Did I believe that children are our future? Did I believe that for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows? Did I believe in a thing called love? I didn't know whether to be facetious or serious. Typically, I only decided in the small hours of the night - it's when I do my best thinking - and I'm actually really, really happy with my final layout.

"I believe in simple things. I believe in the smell of freshly mown lawn; in the hum of streetlife; good friends; true love; staying up late and sleeping in; the miracle of forgiveness; that dreams really can come true; the feeling of grass beneath my feet; sunny days; childish behaviour; imagination; hot toast with lashings of butter; chance. I believe that life is all in the details."

What do you believe in?

Copying & Pasting - Bounded In A Nutshell

"Being creative and original doesn't always have to begin with re-invented wheels, clean slates and blank pages."

~ Julie Kirk & Kirsty Neale, Copy & Paste ~

Julie and Kirsty's new challenge blog Copy & Paste got me thinking. At school it's drummed into us that copying isn't allowed, but copying (or emulating - a much nicer word) the work of someone else isn't in itself a bad thing. Through copying other people's styles and techniques I've learnt a lot. I've learnt how other people conduct business; I've learnt how other people create; I've learnt how other people live their lives. More importantly I've learnt that, in some cases, I would do things differently.

In adapting (or pasting) what I have learnt to suit my own needs; my own tastes and my own life, I've begun to produce better work - better photographs, better art, better writing - and I am happier with who I am as a result.

So, head on over to check out the first challenge and let emulation lead you to inspiration.

"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a King of infinite space".
William Shakespeare: Hamlet Act II SC2

I'm Not Running Away Anymore

There have been a lot of things that I've wanted to write over the past few days; lots of thoughts going around and around in my head - believe me, I will eventually get them all out, but I generally like to let things stew for a while. I like to make sure that what I'm saying is exactly what I want to say.

I've had the idea for this layout for a while now, but wasn't quite sure how I wanted it to look. I finally managed to pin it down this week. Halfway through doing it, I realised that it fit very well with this week's challenge on UKScrappers and with the current challenge on Work Your Soul Happy days!

Color Creative

Okay, so where I'm from it's colour not color, but it's all the same to me and I'm really enjoying the Color Creative workshops. Although I've followed some workshop materials before, I've always ended up signing up for the classes long after they've started and have missed participating in the forums - which is half the fun.

The class is geared around using everyday magazine articles and advertisments as inspiration for your scrapbook colour choices so, as someone who practically hoardes design magazines, I thought it would be the ideal class for me to break out of my usual 'duck egg blue' and 'kraft brown' combination.

Starting with purple, the class is already pushing my boundaries, but I am learning.