LOAD Day 31: Oh no, it's finished!

Yesterday I was so happy that the end was in sight but today I am feeling very sad to realize that this challenge is over. I have really enjoyed getting a little kick under the behind each day to create another page of memories and I am always happy with the layout that I have done. I will now have to do my own butt-kicking again:-)

Today's prompt was a room on the Clue board and it was the billiart or pool room. I went with the POOL and scrapped this week's first proper trip to the little pool because the weather was finally warm and sunny!

This layout will be going to my parents to put on their calendar. I give my parents, mother-in-law and ourselves an 'empty' calendar eacht Christmas and then send out layouts each month to put on it. This is the 3rd year running and it's become a pretty nice memory file.

Today was also the first time I scrapped while listening to some of Lain Ehmann's podcasts and it was really cool to have creative scrapbooking talk going on in the background. Check it out here if you'd like some soothing scrapbook talk:-)

LOAD Day 30: Yummy layout with bonus recipe!

Today's prompt was the lead pipe which Lain suggested to interpret as a rolling pin so I went with that and decided to scrap what has become 'my' (it's actually Tesco's) success recipe for scones. I found this recipe in a free supermarket magazine and made them in our holiday cottage. They turned out great and I have been making them regularly since, always coming out perfect:-)

Now the original recipe is starting to look a bit battered so I thougth it might be nice to document it in a layout. If you'd like to get this recipe to just leave me a message with your e-mail and I'll be happy to send it to you.

LOAD Day 25-29

I do my best but I cannot seem to do a layout a day, look after my son and house and still keep this blog up to date so I am doing another batch post:-)

Happy as I am with my stack of produced layouts I am really reaching the point of where I am getting a bit fed up with doing a layout each day and not having much time for anything else. But I am finishing this month because there are some really important realizations. I am starting to get a feel for what is really important and what is doable in the scrapbooking departement of my life. I love scrapbooking but I love spending time with family and friends more. And even when I am scrapping a layout everyday I do not feel like I am making much headway with all the years of pictures I still want to scrap. And these two realizations mean that I have to rethink my scrapping strategy. I do still want to have photo-albums to leave through and I'd love them to be 'pretty'. But I do not have time to scrap every nice picture so I have to be more selective. Next to that I really enjoy getting my artsty side out for the occasional 'WOW' layout with cool techniques and lots of embelishments. So I think I will have to come up with a simpler plan for documenting my and my family's life. More on that later. If you have ideas feel free to share.

For now let's show the layouts of the last 5 days:

Day 25: The prompt was about self-defense and for me to protect myself from going too crazy I need to spend time outside in nature. And I believe we need to be protecting nature, I do my best to pass this on to Thomas as well. My last digi layout so far. It was the day of my birthday party and there was family around pretty much all day plus cleaning and cake baking so a quicky spread in between guests  but I love the colours.

Day 26: Prompt was about the movie Psycho about a scary hotel (as I've been told because I never saw it) so I scrapped about our stay in a deserted hotel in Sweden. I thought I had booked a room in the lovely mansion in the top picture but instead we were the only people staying in the 'baracks' at the back. By 9PM all the staff had gone as well and it was a bit freaky reminding me of 'The Shining'.

Day 27:  Oh no, no prompt today! The link didn't work and nor did the link on the Master Page. I wasn't too fussed actually as I had already decided to go off-prompt today to create a quick layout for my Mother in Law. Each Christmas I give her, my parents and ourselves an empty calendar and I send them a layout for the calendar each month. So this was one much like the one I did in week one, about Queensday. The crown is embossed with gold embossing powder which looks really good in real life but very dull on the picture:-)

Day 28: Today's prompt was just WHERE? I went with last year's holiday destination: I had requested a beach vacation, thinking mediteranean beaches....I got Northumberland beaches: rainy, windy, freezing water and nobody there. Which my husband thought was the greatest thing about the place:-)

Day 29: Today we are with Professor Plum and I scrapped pictures of the appartment I had bought myself right before I met my husband. I got to decorate it just as I liked and that meant many shades of purple everywhere. Love the really dark bedroom wall!

Well people, two more days to go, so proud of myself for still going strong and thankful for a very patient husband:-)

LOAD Day 24: Have a nice day!

Today we were in another room on the Clue Board: The Hall. I went with a picture of the inside of our hallway door. When we moved in back in 2008 this was written onto the door and although we originally had plans to remove it or paint over it...it is still there in 2013!

I have embellished with some handmade rosettes I made today. My husband gave me a scoring board (plus idea book) for my birthday this week and I couldn't wait to use it. But I thought there wouldn't be enough time to play around and do a layout....unless I made them for my layout! 

Really love how they turned out. Thanks to the book Score, Fold and Create! and a great tip from Tool School, a 3-part online workshop on how to get more out of your tools, I was able to make these quickly and they are really sturdy! After sticking the ends together use a big dollop of hot glue to push the rosettes into and they will keep their shape perfectly.

LOAD 19-23 Still going strong!

So it's been a bit manic trying to do a layout, upload it to Flickr, give some LOVE (i.e. positive comments on fellow loadster's pictures), keep this blog updated and sleep (and raise a 3 yo, cook, clean, etc...) so I had to here are the layouts for the last week or so.

Day 19: A is for Alibi became a layout voor mijn lieve vriendin Anouk. In the journalling I described her using the remaining 25 letters of alphabet.

Day 20:  The prompt was suspense which I took more in the anticipation direction and made a digital layout about the anticipation I felt that day because it was my birthday the next day. I love all these 'nights before...Christmas, birthday, New Years etc' I'm really still a little kid:-)

Day 21: The prompt was just 'WHAT?' so I went with this picture of my brother and me back in the seventies playing with.....a casette deck! 'A what?'

Day 22: Miss Scarlet! Well I took it in the direction of the colour red but really I am not that fond of the colour red. So I started thinking about what red things I do like. One red think I really like are poppies! But I hardly had any good shots of red poppies, I had plenty good shots of fuchsia and soft powdery pink poppies.... So I had to work with this Drive-by shot made on vacation in Northunberland last year. These poppies were huge, bigger than my hand. I made the embellishments from some white die cuts I had received in a swap a while ago. I had a lot of fun personalizing them with inks. 

Day 23: Another digi-layout from our trip to Maastricht this month. The prompt was 'Candlestick' and I went with these shots of all the candles in the basilica of Our Dear Lady in Maastricht. I had so much fun putting the background paper together with all the digistamps and borders. Loved being able to adjust the title to match the colours on my layout. I can do an art journal style without all the mess:-) 

LOAD Day 16: A brother and his tools and a sister using hers...

The prompt for Day 16 was a wrench, a tool used in plumbing if I'm right;-) It made me think about this picture I had of my brother cutting my bike loose after I had lost the keys to the lock... I had wanted to scrap this picture for a while and this was my chance. I took the prompt to tell about how I call on my brother whenever I need any tool bigger than a hammer or a screw driver. And he pretty much always delivers: huge hammers, tree cutters, brick laying equipment. You name it, he's got it or he can get it somewhere. And...he'll help me use it or do it for me. What a brother!

The other part of this layout is that I have used my tool (heat gun) for the second time since I got it last year. I used it to emboss the  cogs in gold (it doesn't show on this picture but believe me it looks pretty cool:-) and I was really happy about that. 

And to help me use my other tools more often I have just purchased Jennifer Gallagher's Tools School mini workshop (video). Looking forward to checking that out!

LOAD Day 15: Strutting my stuff: oh yes, that is all gold that glitters!

I am happy, oh so happy! I love this layout for so many reasons: the pictures of my crazy new trousers and gold glittery booties: the black and white journalling card, the glittery title and the glittery embellishments. But most of all I love the background that I made myself with a honeycomb stencil and different colours of distress ink. It matches the pixel shapes on my trousers.

This story is kind of a follow up of my first layout this year about wanting to get my Mojo back. Cool, happy coloured clothing and being crafty and creative are two of the ways I am working on this and it is really working!

LOAD is such an inspirational challenge. I am seeing so many beautiful and original layouts it's difficult not to be affected. One of my favourites is http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog/ by Päivi Eerola, she makes the most amazing background papers herself. Expect to see a bit of her in some of my future layouts:-)