The monthly challenge for February on the Sarah's Cards blog is to use a movie theme to inspire a layout.  Right now, Oliver is obsessed with Star Wars.  In the Autumn, he got a cheap light-up lightsabre to play with and was natural with it.  I managed to capture some photos of him practising his moves whilst watching the original film, taking advice from his idol, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

'Jedi Knight in Training'

When he grows up he wants to be a Jedi, just like Obi-Wan Kenobi.  At least he doesn't aspire to be Darth Vader!

 

Sarah's Cards January Kit Layouts...

The January kit from Sarah's Cards featured papers from Pebbles 'Fresh Goods' range.  I particularly liked the kraft pages as well as the embellishments from Studio Calico, COsmo Cricket and Echo Park.

'I want Star Wars lego for Christmas!'

'George at One'

'Making your Promise'

I did a layout for each of the kids, showing how the versatile the kit was for girl or boy layouts and also to make sure that there's an even balance of layouts in their albums.  It's only when I come to file layouts away that I realise that I'll have made loads for one of them and not the others so am making a big effort this year to try and create a more equal amount of pages for all of them.  And fit in our weekly pages for our 2012 album too!

Project 2012 - Weeks three, four and five...

Playing catch up today with my weekly pages for the last three weeks.  

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

I've written a much more detailed post on the Sarah's Cards blog this week, explaining my process and describing some of the techniques on each of my mini-pages.  Hope you'll go and have a read :)

Project 2012 - Week two...

So here's week two of my 2012 album.  Definitely settled on using a page of 6x4 mini-layouts per week and adding in extra bits in smaller/larger page protectors. I feel like this is an achievable amount for me each week.

 

A couple of close ups of some of the sections:

So far, I've been focusing on the highlights of the week but would like to include some more of our routines and the 'normal' things we do.

Thanks for reading.

Siblings...

Before Christmas, I started this layout but it sat unfinished until yesterday.  A photo of the three kids just being themselves, playing in the lounge, last summer.  It made me think about how close they are and my journaling reflects on this.

You love being together, playing together, cuddling up together.  You're all really happy in each other's company and look out for one another.  George adores his big brother and sister; Oliver makes him laugh, whilst Evie is his calming influence: he always settles when she's near and will let her do things for him that he won't let Mummy and Daddy do.

Project 2012 - Week one...

So here's my first entry into my 2012 album.  I think I've settled on using pages with 6x4 pockets.  It means less resizing/cutting of pictures and as I'm not aiming for something for every day, this gives me enough space to fill.

A couple of close ups:

I loved putting this together: mixing up colours and finding a use for things I've collected over the years.

Week 2 is already work in progress as I printed two week's worth of pictures at once which I think I'll continue doing.  I've also started to cut papers down to 6x4 size ready to be used as backgrounds in the pockets. 

Our Christmas 2011

Something that I've always wanted to do but never got round to doing is recording how we celebrate Christmas as a family.  I've found that I just never have time leading up to Christmas itself and then the moment has passed afterwards.  This year though, I decided that I would make an effort to make some pages after Christmas, loooking back at what we did etc.

This is my finished album:

The process of how I put it together can be seen here on Sarah's Cards blog.

Project 2012 - Title Page

Finally made a start on my album for my Project 2012.

Here's my title page:

As I scrap in A4 size, I started off working on this size page but as I'm going to be using a 12x12 album to house my pages, I decided to mount the layout onto a piece of 12x12 kraft card:

I may get everyone to 'sign' the white space on the left or the reverse: it'd certainly be interesting to see how the kid's writing changes over the year.

Project 2012 - Our Family Album and how it will work for me...

I've toyed with the idea of starting a year long project along the lines of Project Life for a while now.  A couple of years ago I started to follow 'Project 12' and managed a couple of month's worth of recording.  The need to document our family life more has become more important to me in the last year: having three children to scrapbook about has been a challenge and I have found that I make individual pages less and less and more about relationships bewtween us or things we do.

To have a better balance between scrapbooking for each child and more general family life, I have decided to start an ongoing family album which is a simple mix of photos and journaling cards.

My Approach

On a daily basis where appropriate: 

*take pictures

*record things that happened/were said.  I'm doing this in a variety of ways.  I've signed up to OhLife: I get sent an email each evening which I reply to with notes on the day.  These are all saved and accessed via their website.  I have a journal that I write in too and I will also jot things down straight onto journaling cards.
*save 'stuff' to include: receipts, labels, leaflets, things that the kids make.

On a weekly basis (I hope!)

*print photos out

* make journaling cards

* assemble weekly pages

I'm going to be pretty laid back about how often I do this.  I'm not making myself take a photo a day or forcing myself to religiously record something for every day.  I'm just going to think about the things that I want to remember, so some days there may be nothing, whilst on others there may be lots of details. 

I've also found some printable calendar pages which I plan to print out onto kraft card, punch and put into album ready to add information onto.

My Resources

I thought long and hard about how I was going to do this.  As I normally scrap A4 sized layouts, I did think about using a lever arch file and baseball card wallet insert pages.  I decided though to go with a 12x12 album.  There's so many different options available for divided page protectors that I thought this would make it the most practical choice.  So, I'm using an American Crafts album with a selection of page protectors from American Crafts and WRMK.  

I've collected together all of the many journaling cards that I've bought over the years and put them into a basket, ready to be used.  Any other bits of paper and embellishments will come from my stash.

I've also invested in some digital files: a set of the Clementine Project Life cards to print out as I need them along with some Elle's Studio cards and journaling spots.

I've also created a Pinterest board to bookmark any free printables and other useful ideas that I've seen around the internet.

I'm really excited about this project.  Scrapbooking to me is all about recording the little details about our everyday life.  The things that the kids say, what they can do, our routines and how we live our lives.  

My favourite eleven from 2011...

As the New Year is fast approaching, I thought that I'd share my favourite layouts from 2011.  It's been a productive year for me.  When filing my layouts a couple of months ago, I realised that I don't do as many individual layouts for the kids anymore but create more for our family album.  I'm about to embark on a Project Life album for 2012 which will keep a weekly record of our family lives so maybe I'll have scrapping time to do more pages for each child then.

So, in no particular order, my favourite pages from the past year:

Happy New Year to you all!

Sarah's Cards November Kit Layouts...

The November kit from Sarah's Cards is now with subscribers so I can share my work.  The kit featured papers from Crate Paper's Random collection along with some Studio Calico rub on butterflies, phrase stickers, a pink frame transparency, Authentique die cuts, resin flowers and some Pink Paislee spools.

I was really looking forward to this kit as I just loved the look of the papers.

This layout heavily features butterflies. I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out loads of butterflies from the papers and then sewed them onto some pink thread to make a banner to drape across my page.

On this second layout, I tried to create my own confetti look as well as making my own tags from some pf the papers.

Strips are a main feature on this third page and I used some of the stickers to create a sub-title.  The font is a dymo style one which I've used a lot recently.

Thanks for looking :)

Adorable...

Sometimes, a layout just falls into place. That's how I felt about this one.  I pulled out a few sheets of paper, cut some strips, and then started to embellish it.  I think it's possibly my favourite layout from recent months.  It also happens to use one of my favourite photos of George too.

I invested in some digital elements last week (thanks Cath for the link!) after seeing one of these journaling cards being used.  So the photo was printed as part of the 'adorable' element.  

I'm still playing catch up with photos of George and reflecting back in my journaling: this time about his big blue eyes and how they now smile as he smiles, which is most of the time as he is a very smiley baby and pretty adorable too (in my opinion!).

Evie is 6...

The story of Evie's Hello Kitty Birthday...

 

When Evie turned six, back in September, nearly everything was Hello Kitty related: the presents, cards, clothes, cakes...  I wanted to record all the details and in true Evie-style, I went for pink and more pink for the layout.  

The papers and stickers are from the October Afternoon 'Sidewalks' collection.  There's also some washi tape and a Martha Stewart Doily.  The pink heart was created by cutting out a handdrawn heart and using the negative as a template, colouring the space in with a Versamark pen before embossing with pink Zing powder.  I had planned to add some Hello Kitty stickers as embellishments but Evie seems to have used them all up so I decided to have a go at making my own little Hello Kitty face, drawing it freehand with my Versamark pen again and embossing with black powder and then some butter powder for the nose.  The end effect is a bit like a glossy sticker: not quite as good as the real thing but good enough for me.

Thanks for looking :)

Sarah's Cards November Challenge...

This month the challenge is to interpret the word 'negative' in your layout. 

My take on this was to use masks and mists to create a negative image, in this case an ampersand.  I also punched some tiny hearts out of one of the strips of paper, leaving behind the holes/negative shapes.

The deadline is 30th November.  Leave a link to your entry layout on the blog for a chance to win £20 to spend in the shop.

Snuggly nap time...

For the first time in the last few months, I sat down last night to scrap for myself.  I've had a really difficult week with one thing and another and needed to do something creative.  I pulled out a load of Studio Calico supplies , some new and some that I'd been saving up for a while.  The journaling card for instance, is from a Christmas kit two years ago so I decided that it really is time to start using things up!  The ruler stamp is by Jenni Bowlin which I embossed with some baby blue Zing powder.  The arrow post it note 'scrap pad' points to 2 and a half, his age in weeks at the time.

As George is fast approaching his first birthday, I'm playing catch up with some pictures and thoughts from this year.  I love this photo.  He loved falling asleep on me after a feed and I loved him doing it.  Knowing that he was going to be my last baby, I really indulged in baby cuddles and snuggles.  The journaling documents my feelings about our snuggly nap times together.

Click on the image for a closer look.