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:-)

Getting ready for LOAD: craft space organization

It's only my first time doing LOAD and I have been reading as much as I can about how to get ready for LOAD. I've done a few specific things in the run up to LOAD that make me feel much more comfortable about the daunting task ahead of me. And maybe this post will help you too. It's a combination of both how to get ready for LOAD and how to speed up your scrapbooking in general so that it's faster, easier and even more fun to put your stories on paper.

A few weeks ago I decided to turn things around in my 'office'. My desk was very utilitarian in an administratieve kind of a way. Not representing what I spend most of my time on: Making paper creations. My scrapbooking and art supplies were all neatly tidied away in some cool boxes. This meant that when I wanted to go and do something it would mean having open boxes all over my room (and the rest of the house:-). And because I didn't always feel like doing that I would either not make a layout at all or it would be a bit lacking in the decoratieve department. Also, I had bought lots more art supplies (think acrylic paints and stencils etc.) recently that I wanted to use in my scrapbooking but they were tidied away even further. So they didn't make it to the page and I felt guilty about that. Not a good thing!

So I decided to put all of my art supplies within easy reach: Paints, (glitter) glue and sprays in open containers hanging on the wall. Punches, inks, wooden stamps and sheets of lettering, flowers and ribbon in drawers on top of my desk. On top of the drawers are  two baskets: one with clear stamps and the other with small 6x6 patterned papers. My main 12 x 12 papers are in the book case right behind my desk.

In the four drawers under my desk are some more essentials: adhesives of course, embellishments and scrap drawer. 

The scraps are both just odds and ends but there are also some clear files with colour coordinated scraps that were leftover from layouts I made. I've found that this way I can easily match them up again or use them to make quick cards. A tip from Lain :-)

On the pin board right in front of me: my go-to-layout. A layout that is easy and satisfying to make when I am stuck for inspiration and want to make the deadline:- This is a layout by Aphra Bolyer. I got it through a friend and it is just so easy and quick. One photo is all I need! 

More ideas to speed up your scrapping in future posts. Thanks for reading!