So many February Journaling Challenges

There are so many February journaling challenges which have sparked my creativeness. Some I know exactly what I am going to do, others I may not do because well I am stuck on them!


Am going to continue to get as many done as I can in the next month. But if I don’t get a chance to I know that I will use most of the prompts at a latter date.

Have to remember I need to get the balance of scrapbooking now and working on the LOM system. (Of course renovating the house should be in there as well but we will forget about that one for the moment!)

LOM Layout Challenge – Lesson 1

I had to go through my albums and identify what subjects I did not scrap the most. What subject did I feel I was missing? Which of the five Ws (what, where, when, who, why) had I not scrapped the most?

My result was "Everyday items" and "where".

This layout is the result. Christopher’s work boots sitting in the hallway of my house and what seeing them means to me.

A story I have been thinking about telling as I passed them but this was the prompt I needed to get it down on a layout.

February Challenge 7

"Tell your story through writing a letter to someone"

I thought that this challenge would be really difficult to do. Use a letter to someone as your journaling of the layout. Oh my goodness how an earth am I going to do this? What topic can it be for? Who do I want to write a letter to?

Then we visited the Big Pit in Wales and I had the perfect subject. I wanted to tell Josh how brave I thought he was for going down the mine – something he was very scared of doing and a letter just seemed to fit it perfectly.

Josh has not seen this layout yet. We are saving it for when he gets nervous about something so hopefully he can see he overcame a fear once and get the courage to overcome another.

I am terrible..

I am terrible in not taking photos of layouts when I have actually completed them. So please be warned that this evening I have actually photographed a whole load of layouts I have been doing from challenges and prompts. These photos of the layouts with a descirption of the challenge and why i did the layout are all going to be posted on my blog this evening.

Maybe tommorrow night I will get around to posting them in the various galleries to show I have actually completed the challenge.

Valentines Day

I wanted to do something different to give to Christopher for Valentines day. I heard years ago of people altering thick paged children’s books for mini albums and decided to give this a go as it seemed the perfect thing – a book of “I love you ...” and then naming the reasons why. I decided to illustrate the top ten reasons so had to make sure that the book had enough pages to cover this – a harder task then you may think!

I covered the pages of the book in black paper, using brown paper to act as the binding part of the both inside and out (hiding the gaps where the black paper did not meet).

I used the same four sheets of patterned paper through out the book, cutting some of the “flower” shapes to use as embellishments.

I cut the numbers out using a Cricut cartridge – think it was George but couldn’t be sure. Journaling cards where a stamp which I hand wrote in.

I then collected a range of ten photos which illustrated the points I was trying to make and then added a journaling card (which was a stamp) hand writing the reason.

I added a few embellishments on the pages but did not want it to get too fussy or be too bulky so these where kept to the minimum.

The completed book went down very well and lives on the bedside table next to Christopher.

No Sure's (LOM)

As I was processes all the things I now will do and still do it also made me think of a few things which I have yet to do or grasp....


I still have hundreds of photos to get printed which I am going to have to do in batches as Bonusprint has offers on. But I have just done the first batch so am hoping I have enough for the rest of the class.

I still need to check the quality of my first binder to see if they are good before I order some more. If not its of to the internet to search again.

I am still investigating storing my highlight folders on the internet. I like the idea but Shutterfly is an American site which means I would be storing them on there but then printing them on another site in the UK (postage to high to get shipped from USA to UK). Think Bonusprint may do this by need to look into it more.

I still have to figure out why I need to split photos into quarters of the year (Jan – Mar etc). Keep on asking myself if that really matters to the photos I take, my main concern is the year they were taken in. Hoping the penny may drop on this one soon.

I still have to figure out the tagging, star system and moving photos into the “US”, “PLACES WE GO” etc files. Not got my head around that by a long shot! (Either how to do it or how much use it will be)

I still have lots to learn about the Photoshop organiser to make it a more effective tool. To date I have kind of figured out the people recognition tool– totally cool function.

I am unsure what the response to my journaling cards is going to have. Should I be using them or should I not? Not sure how I would “cope” if I did not have them but is it totally against the LOM principals?

Is it not always the way when you learn something new it brings more questions.

LOM, Lesson 2

I am now in the second lesson of Library of Memories (LOM), third week of the course. I am so glad that I have had an extra week to processes the information we have had to date as its been a lot to take in and work through. Have to say though it has been really interesting to look at how I processes photos, store them and then scrapbook them. I mean it’s not a system you really look at to see if it is “working” do you?

I have learnt lots of things about how I process them and how I would like to change things. At this moment in time:

1. I still plan on saving ALL the photos I take onto CDs “just in case”(may be one day I will get out of this habit). 
2. I now make a copy of the photo file I copy onto the CD, store it on my 2nd hard drive and delete those I know I am not going to use to scrapbook either in 6x4 or smaller and make “highlight” folders.
3. I now have the above “highlight” folders linked to Photoshop Elements Organiser.
4. I now understand how much better having real life photos in your hands prompts you to think of stories you want to tell. (When I was sorting through files I found so many photos I remember taking but the stories I have completely forgotten about translating in a layout). I am in the processes of waiting for my first binder to arrive and am looking forward to sorting out my photos.

I know I probably have learnt more than this but those are the things that spring out to me at this moment in time. I also know I have so much more to learn.

February Challenges

The February challenges that Log your memory are currently running is getting the creative journaling juices flowing and I have ideas buzzing away in my head. But not being the fastest scrapbooker I have only completed two of the challenges to date, a third in the processes of completing. Once the third one has been completed I shall post some photos in the next few days. :)

Totally Cool

Well you may or may not know but I love my buttons. So when I was reading Imaginisce blog and I came across them telling me of a cool article Robyn Schuab had done using buttons I just had to follow the link to Clip it Up’s website to see how it was done in more detail.

I love the idea and the effect it has. Now trying to think how I too could use this idea in one of my layouts. Only thing is would I have to use some of the buttons I already have or could I go and buy some more?

Join Me For Some Sweet Talking!

We’re kicking off a month-long challenge at one of my favorite sites today … the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge at Log Your Memory!  http://logyourmemory.com/

I hope you’ll come on over and check it out today … there will be an entire month of scrapbooking challenges with a focus on “real life” journaling, plus the chance to earn points and prizes along the way! And if you’ve never visited before, you’re in for a treat! We have a wonderful group of friendly, helpful scrapbookers just waiting to say hello and show you around!

Get started by visiting the Log Your Memory Blog HERE http://logyourmemory.com/2010/02/01/sweet-talker and get ready to journal your way to becoming a Log Your Memory Sweet Talker!

(And tell them hsanders sent you!)

Natures Inspiration

I am not sure when it was but as part of the “Inspiration” course at BPS Elizabeth would send us daily emails to prompt our thinking in a different direction than normal and inspire us. One of these emails had a picture of a crocus. The aim (if my memory serves me correctly) was to look at our environment today and use those colours to inspire a scrapbooking layout.


Well I confess that I have not done this. But the picture and the prompt made me remember over the past few years I have taken various pictures of flowers as I have gone around gardens.

When people ask me what colours do I like I always say “Natural autumn colours”. As if autumn colours where the only natural colours there were. So I had started to take various pictures of flowers as I visited gardens.

Had I done anything with these photos? No.

Had I remembered the variety of colour and shape combinations that naturally occur? No

So sorting through some old patterned scrapbooking paper I came across this “notice board” style. I cut the "ribbon" onthe paper so that photos could be slipped under it as if it was a real notice board. Grabbed a whole load of photos and hey presto.

I am really pleased with the results. Not because it is amazingly artistic, but because it serves as I reminder to me that nature is a wealth of colour and shape inspiration.

I promise

I promise to update my website links and blogs soon. Lots more blogs and websites should be on my list.