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Carers Leeds Card Demo

I had the opportunity to join my friend with her card making demonstration at Carers Leeds this Wednesday. I had a fab time and got to meet some lovely people. Their card making abilities were all at different levels and some were able to stay for a little longer than others but all were very enthusiastic about wanting to make some cards which was great. I had stamped a mixture of images out for them to colour in and then we provided patterned papers, blank cards, ribbon, punches, chipboard etc to see where the inspiration may take them. It was great to discuss crafting with new people and for them to be asking me for advice on a range of card making topics. I managed to come away with a few ideas myself which came about from discussing different topics with the group as well as taking inspiration from the cards we made together. Here's the card I made during group in between 'teaching'.

Beware Broken Controllers Website

When accessing my blog please make sure you use the link 'lexon5.blogspot.com' if you are using a search engine. Please do not go through other companies that will redirect you ie broken controllers. I dont know why they are doing this other than to stop my site getting web hits and therefore damaging my reputation. There seems to be no ill effect for the user doing this but please use my original link and please if you find a site that says download, do not, I have no content that you can download, it is probably a scam. Please surf safe. I am taking action to get this redirection to other sites removed from search engines.

Big Idea Festival Challenge 8: Savor

This challenge is all about the word 'savour'. The idea that you savour the moment. I definitely understand the concept that we should be enjoying the here and now and I believe that this should translate to the way you scrapbook. Often we find ourselves trying to scrapbook a holiday or event that happened 5 or so years ago and trying to remember the happiness, the reasons behind the smiles, the funny things that were said, the whole atmosphere of the day, is very difficult when such time has passed. The layout you create has to be about something that has happened in the last two weeks that has brought you joy. For me it was easy to think of what event I was going to scrap as I had been to a gala at the weekend and I had enjoyed myself. I instantly wrote down some concept ideas, just odd words or sentences what would hopefully speed up the scrapbooking process as well as make sure that the page covered everything I wanted it to. This was to do with the colours I wanted to use, the images I wanted on the page to represent what had been going on, any words that summarised the day or how I was feeling whilst I was there. Also any journaling I would need to capture the day for me to look back and realise why it was that day I had chosen to scrapbook. I realised at this point that this would be another challenge with no photographs as I hadn't taken my camera on that day. This was now no issue to me as I now feel comfortable using words and images to represent what was going on in the day rather than having to use a photograph that was taken. This is definitely something that I have learnt at the Big Idea Festival and a concept that I wasn't familiar with before. I felt that having no photo for this day actually gave me a lot more scope for the project. This I felt especially with the use of colour. It was a warm sunny day and so I wanted this to be reflected in the page but I didn't want to write 'it was a sunny day' or have an image of the sun so I chose to use the colour yellow and orange to represent this. Because I didn't have a photograph with set colours in there was no matching up to be done with the shades on the photo which gave me more freedom. I tried to stick to the 2 colours and in the end chose to add the third colour of green to represent that the event was at the woods. Having no photographs actually made me work harder on the project to make sure I gave it some meaning. To make sure that it captured the moment.
In  Karen Grunburg's video link to the challenge she discusses about the fact that she likes to chose a word to represent the year a head and stick by that word through out the year. For me and this event the word was most definitely community. Before I had been invited out to the gala I was sat a home alone in a mope thinking why is there no one to hang out with?, why is everyone busy?, why is everyone enjoying the sun but me? My mind was filled with negatives instead of just getting up and changing my situation I was just sat dwelling on it. The fact that I was invited out, grabbed that opportunity and then ended up having a good time shows me that when I'm feeling a bit blue I need to work a way around it to change the out come of my day. This is why I have added the word opportunity to the page as a little reminder to my self that if I'm not happy with what is happening then maybe I need to take charge, step up and take the opportunities that are there to change things because as I found out you can feel a whole lot better afterwards. I saw a facebook post today that sums this up to a tee 'Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself'.  

Scrapbooking organisation

Diggerland Memorabilia

I'm still having a problem with organising my scrapbooking ideas and hoped a few of you would share your ideas. For instance today I went to Diggerland, yeah! I have uploaded my photos on to the laptop so they are there and ready for when I get round to scrapbooking. I have decided that I definitely want to do a double 12x12 page but not sure about what paper to use yet. I originally thought yellow but there is a lot of yellow on the photographs as all the vehicles are JCBS's and there is no point using a pretty patterned paper as I will be using a lot of photographs so there will not be much white space. For now I have put the Diggerland receipt, leaflet, certificate and medal in an a4 clear wallet pocket with some digger stickers that I already had. My question is what do I do with it all now? How do I store it all so I remember there it is and what I was wanting to do with it? How will I remember if I find other embellishments of that theme that I already have a stash of that theme? Please let me know how you work around your storage issues. This one isn't too bad as it is a very specific theme but I do struggle when I have embellishments, papers etc that I could use for multiple projects ie travel. 

Big Idea Festival Challenge 6: Get Real

Cathy Zielske challenges us to 'get real'. To scrapbook a story from our real life. Often scrapbooks are filled of those one perfect shots that we managed to take on a sunny day, while the river was still, when the kids were all smiling and these are great and represent the fun, joy and excitement of the day but maybe we should also reflect on the other aspects in life. This doesn't necessarily mean been all doom and gloomy about your darkest deepest secrets but it does mean being a bit more open with your journaling. Being more vulnerable and being honest with what our real life is about. My scrapbooking consists of cute pets, great holidays and family portrait photos. This challenge made me have to think about my life as a whole right now and consider what are the things that are going on in my life. What is my current work, home, family situation and how do I feel about it. What things are currently weighing on my mind. 

With that exact thought I realised that my physical weight, and my battle with it, is and for a long time has been a big part of my life, lifestyle and life choices which effects my day to day life. I seem to be in a constant battle with my weight. One week I lose 3 pounds the next I gain 1 and a half the next I lose 2 leaving me pretty much where I started in the first place. I find it very frustrating and although my weight restricts my lifestyle so does trying to lose weight. This is the first time I've scrapbooked about it and at first it was all very negative about how unhappy I am, that the changes just don't happen, that it's restricting my life. I didn't want a negative page in my scrapbook. I was happy to share the events across the spectrum of good and bad but felt I needed some positivity injecting into it. This is why around the edge of the page i have put positive words as well as words that reflect the reality of the challenge. No pain no gain is very true it takes a lot of hard work and determination to succeed. Strength was an interesting word to use. Both the physical strength I need to build up but also the mental strength to keep focused. Try the challenge, express how you feel about your daily real life challenges and see what you can get out of it. You may find it therapeutic to get it all down on paper, to let it all out so you can look at it and then start to work on it.   

Big Ideas Festival Challenge 4: Your Goals

This challenge can take you in many directions depending on how you put your mind to it. It maybe that you focus on a crafting goal of wanting to scrapbook a certain event, learn a new techniques, attend a crafting event. It could be linked to your home, your work or your hobbies. It could also be a personal goal based around your time, your efforts, your health, your life direction. I opted to deal with a health issue which if I succeed will improve my personal relationships as well as my increase and improve my hobbies. I would love to be able to go hiking with my partner. He goes off on long treks and tells me of the beautiful views across the mountains and hills and of the wonderful sunsets he's seen. He's said for a while now that he would love for me to go with him and share the experience but I've been abit dismissive until now. Today I have been able to consider the benefits of hiking and am now officially setting it as a goal. If I was able to get myself to the physical level where I could join him then it would improve my health, give us more quality time together and also it would give me lots more photos to scrapbook. 
As this is a goal for the future I didn't have a picture of me hiking or walking and didn't want to use a picture that he had taken whilst he was way as it wasn't my memory. Because of this I decided to use an 8x8 scrapbook page as I was unsure how I would fill it. I was wanting to use the Woodland Folk kit and when I saw the picture with the hiking boot I wanted that to be the key image. The title was actually the last thing I dealt with after I had stuck it all down but thought it went perfectly with what I was trying to get across.
What are your goals, hopes and dreams and how would you scrapbook them? Feel free to post images of scrapbook pages you have done following this theme.