Yesterday Today...

I was determined to document this story.

I wanted to tell the story, the story about things not going the way you had hoped.

Sometimes in life we go into something thinking one thing and walk out totally stunned because it was nothing like you thought.

I went in to have a mole cute out, nothing to serious, they just didn't like the look of it and thought it best to get it out.  They always tell you that they will contact you if they find anything.  I don't know about you but I never get a call so I wasn't expecting a call for this either.

They called.  The mole showed early signs melanoma which meant I had to go back and have more cut out, just to be sure.  I think it took a few days to sink in.

As soon as I got the Now & Then story kit from Ali Edwards my first thought was yesterday I was thinking one thing but today it is totally different.  I love getting these story kits because they get you thinking, thinking about stories that you might not otherwise tell.  I think this story is important because I want my kids to know that sometimes life throws a few curve balls, but it doesn't mean all doom and gloom.  It just might you mean you have to think a little differently.

What story's are you telling?

Love me :-)

Note:  GET YOUR SKIN CHECKED.

My Reason Why...

I have had alot of thoughts going through my mind these past few weeks about why I do what I do - meaning why I take so many photos.

Right now Heidi Swapp and her family are showing such amazing courage through what I can only imagine to be the hardest thing to ever have to deal with.  But I am inspired her positive attitude and the importance she has placed on photos.  I drive my family nuts over photos but I keep on doing it because I believe its important.  I have never really thought about making a "statement" as to why, but when I received this months Story Kit from Ali Edwards I was inspired to do just that.  There was a little sticker sheet in the kit that had words on it that just seem to create an instant story in my head.  It was so "loud" in my head that I needed to get it down on paper straight away and I would like to share it with you now.

I guess I can call it my "mission statement".  Now more than ever, taking photos is important and I will continue to drive my family nuts.

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Wednesday is her favourite day of the week...

Every Wednesday my daughter has horse riding and every Wednesday morning she gets up and says the same thing - Wednesday is my favourite day of the week.

Last week at horse riding they went on a trail ride (her favourite part of horse riding).  It gets dark so much earlier now so getting good photos of her riding is getting harder.  I snapped a picture of them riding off hoping to be able to document her love of trail rides.

When she came back from the ride the first thing she said was "Oh Mum it was amazing, we got to canter up a hill really fast, it was magic".  Its things like this that I really want to remember and that I want her to remember too.

Ali Edwards did this layout using the pie chart pieces from the "click" kit and I was keen to try this out using the photo from horse riding.  I couldn't have been more happy with how it turned out.  I didn't have any alphabet stamps that were big enough so I cut out my title from vellum using my cameo.  I then stitched it into place.  I also love Ali's tip about using washi tape around the edge of your layout, love this idea.

I think I am getting the hang of this circle thing LOL!!

Have a great weekend
love me :-)

Trying something new...

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been playing around with digital/hybrid scrapbooking and I have really been enjoying the challenge. As part of the "click" story kits this month from Ali Edwards she included a digital file to create a pie chart.  I am not a huge fan of circles (I like them I just really struggle to use them in my papercrafting) and a pie chart is definately out of my comfort zone.

I was really intrigued by the tutorial that she did on the pie chart so I thought I would try it out for myself.  I couldn't believe how easy it was and how quick it was.  Can I just say how proud of myself I was.  I really didn't think it would be so easy.

Even this layout came  together quickly and although I struggle with circles I am really happy with how it turned out.  I might just have to give this circle thing another go LOL!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you week is going well.

Love me :-)

heart photos - layout

I have said it many times before but I have to say it again - I absolutely love the story stamps and story kits by Ali Edwards and the education content that comes with it is amazing.  My head is so full of stories that I want to tell all prompted by these kits.

I have recently started to dabble back into digital/hybrid scrapbooking and enjoying the challenge that it brings with it.  I don't know a lot about Photoshop but each time I try something new, I learn something new.

One of my favourite scrapbookers is Sasha Farina.  I love her style and just love how she pulls a layout together.  Recently she did a this layout using digital elements from Ali Edwards that I just loved.  I loved it so much I thought I would create my own layout totally inspired by Sasha.

I printed out the "heart photos" digital element onto 8.5 x 11 inch white cardstock.  I typed up my journaling and cut in into strips so that I could play around with placement.  I then added my photos and a few embellishments from the "click" story kit and stamps.  I also added a xoxo cut file that I found in my stash, it just happened to go perfectly with my layout.

These are still my most favourite photos and I think they will be for some time.  You can read the post to find the story behind these photos here

I would love to know if you have tried anything new lately.

Love me :-)

Magic - layout

A few weeks back I wrote a post about reading in bed, it's something that I can't do very often but when I do it's magic for me.  You can read the post here.

I had been thinking about doing a layout about it but the photo's I took weren't very good.  They were blurry, very grainy and I just didn't like the colour.  

When I was going through my Story Kits I came across the "magic" kit.  I got thinking about that post and how reading in bed is "magic" for me.  I knew that this was something about me that I wanted to document, a story about me and something that makes me happy.  

I decided to try something different.  I decided that I would put aside my issues with it being a bad photo and use it anyway, however I had a go at adding my journaling straight onto my photo (I took my journaling directly from the blog post).  Then, with my journaling in place I also decided to go big and printed the photo out 8.5 x 11inches.

I then added a few chipboard embellishments from the story kit and also added the "magic" acrylic word right onto the photo.  I finished it off with a  few gold stars, also from the kit.

its turns out that it being grainy and blurry added a sense of "mood" and "feeling" to the photo.  It set the tone of how I was feeling and what I was thinking.

I also love how the story kits/stamps get you thinking about stories, sparkes creativity but above all it makes you think a little differently.

So from now on grainy photos get printed - LOL!

Have you tried any new techniques or ideas lately.  I would love to hear what you are trying.

Have a great Tuesday

love me :-)

Why I journal, Tips & Ideas - part one...

I have been scrapbooking for a long time now and I can't finish a page without journaling on it.  It seems that no matter how much space I have to journal, its never enough.

I am always asked the same question, over and over again... How do you get your journaling so good?

Its funny because I never really think about journaling other than I can't do a page without it.

I was wondering how to explain my passion about journaling and then I remembered a talk I had to give about 8 years ago.  I was doing a course at Uni and as part of one of the units I was taking you had to give a talk in front of the class.  It could be about anything but it had to be something you were passionate about.  Your introduction had to be powerful/different/fun/and set the scene.

My talk went something like this...

I stood at the front of the class and introduced myself.

I asked them to all stand up, bunch together and I took a photo of them.

I then told that we had traveled forward in time, a 100 years to be exact.

I then pulled out a shoe box and told them that they just found this in Aunt Betty's attic who had sadly just passed away and she had left it to them.

I pulled out a photo of a group of people (we pretended it was the photo I took earlier)

I passed it around and asked them to tell me about the photo.

They couldn't really tell me anything because there was no writing, no story or information attached to the photo.

I pulled out a scrapbook page with the same photo on it, all very pretty with embellishments etc and then asked them to tell me about the photo.

They looked at me blankly and said, "well nothing, it looks pretty but there is still  no information about the photo".

I then pulled out another scrapbook page with the same photo on it, all very pretty with embellishments on it but this time I had added a name and a date.

Again I asked them to tell me about the photo.  Obviously they could tell me the name and the date but that was all.

Then I pulled out another scrapbook page with the same photo on it, all very pretty with embellishments on it plus the name and date.  But I also added journaling with information about the photo.

They could now tell me lots.

I then said "My name is Tracey and I'm a scrapbooker, very passionate about recording my family history".

and went on to explain what scrapbooking was...

I got a great mark and glowing compliments which was the whole purpose but its the story I always go back to when people ask me about journaling.  You need to ask yourself the question, why do you scrapbook?

I know for me its about telling our story, all of it, the good and the bad.  Of course I like the creative side of scrapbooking but its more about the story.  Because as I said earlier, its no good people finding your scrapbooks in years to come with no stories.

Now you know why I journal.  Hopefully over the next few weeks I can give you some hints and ideas on how to add journalling to your pages.

My first hint and probably the most important is to just write.  Dont' get all caught up in the spelling and grammar, just get your story down. 

(I actually have at least one spelling error on every page I have ever completed.  Its sort of my signature on a page if you like.  If there's no spelling errors then its not mine LOL) 

 I can hear you already... I hate my handwriting!!  

This is usually everyones first comment about journaling, it was also mine so type it out. 

(just to give you a heads up, we will be adding handwriting in upcoming posts) 

We had a family get together recently but I didn't get my camera out.  They all usually complain about me taking photos so I chose not to bring it out.  The next day I was thinking about the night and how much fun we had had.  All the laughing, the chatting, the stories and yes the odd argument or two.

So I sat at my computer and just typed out everything I wanted to remember about the evening.  I just kept typing, not worrying about spelling etc, just getting the story down.

Once I had finished I then went and made a cuppa, took a break then came back to my journaling.

I corrected any errors like spelling and grammar etc.

I then moved my words around to make it look appealing and then I added embellishments.

and when I was done I had a scrapbook page full of memories from a wonderful night with my family.

No I don't have a photo but I have an amazing story that can be passed on for many years to come...  and really I don't think the photo would have allowed me to journal so much.

As I was looking at the page I couldn't help but remember how wonderful the night was.

The stories that we told each other.  

The laughs that we shared.  

But most of all I have a written record of this moment.

It was just an ordinary family get together until I wrote it down.

I hope this helps get you journaling on your pages.  If you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.  Pretty pages are great but if there's no story, all they are is just pretty pages.

Happy journaling

love me :-)

Note:  stamps and embellishments are story stamp & story kit from Ali Edwards.

Project life - playing catch-up...

It always seems to happen and it doesn't matter how hard I try but I am always playing catch-up with Project Life.  I have to laugh though, it doesn't matter what process I put in place or what system I try I am always behind.  Oh well, maybe that's just the way it is.

Anyway... this weekend I have decided I am going to try and get caught up or at least get some of it done.  For the last four years I have done my PL weekly but this year I decided to change it to monthly.  The first few months went great, I kept up and all was good with my world.  LOL!  But since March things have gone a bit haywire.  Insert why I am playing catch-up.  So to start my catch-up run I am starting with April and will work backwards.

So here is my first few pages of April which included an unexpected overnight camping adventure so I have included a 6x8 insert as I wanted to add quite a bit of journaling.  My journaling came straight from this blog post.

I was so lucky to win some digital journal cards - Shopaholic card set from Big City Quiet Designs on Instagram through Mandy at Record Life Home.  They were easy to print out, great print quality and so fun to use.  Check both of these lovely ladies blogs, they are so talented and very inspiring.

I have also used bits from Ali Edwards Story stamp/kit, Studio calico and paislee press.

Right then, on to the next lot...

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7am/7pm layout...

Happy Monday... hope you week has started off well.  I wanted to start by saying a huge thankyou for all your love and comments on Instagram about this layout.  You have all be so kind and I really appreciate that you take the time to stop and leave a comment and some love.  I thought I would share the finished layout here and some extra photos.

My favourite scrapbooker/memory keeper, Ali Edwards (you could say I have a huge girl crush on her) has created story stamps and story kits, a monthly subscription based around a theme to get you thinking and recording more stories.  Not only do you get amazing stamps and a fabulous kit but there is an education element available as well.  For this layout I used the am/pm story stamp and kit. As part of the prompts Ali challenged us to pick a day and to take a photo at 7am and then again at 7pm and create a layout using the photos.  You can see Ali's layout here.

I kept the base of the layout pretty much the same as hers and then added a few of my own ideas.  Right now I am totally into stamped backgrounds so I stamped the top half of my cardstock with "morning" words and the bottom half with "evening" words.  I used black ink but for some of the words and for others I "stamped off" the image first onto a scrap piece of paper and then onto my cardstock to give a lighter stamped image.

Next up I created pockets so that I could add  my journaling about each of the photos.  I stamped the top of each tag with "the story of this morning/evening" stamps and then I stamped the date.  I drew lines and then added my journaling.

Lastly I added some of the chipboard pieces from the story kit to finish off my layout.  I used a total of 12 stamps from the story stamp set, pretty good if I do say so myself.

 I didn't actually take the 7pm photo till 7.30 as that is when I walked in the door but it was close enough.  This is a story that I would never have documented but I am so glad I have.  These kits are bring back my mojo in a huge way and it is bringing back my passion for stamping... you have to love that.

Have a great week.
love me :-)