Dear younger self

If I could go back in time then this is what I would tell my 17 year old self.
This is my LO for catalyst 86 at Creative Therapy.

Something that scares me

That was the prompt for Scrap Like You Mean It week 44. I'm so scared of making mistakes in life & of making the wrong decisions. The problem is that by not deciding I end up worse off than I would be had I made the wrong decision. I love these little kraft envelopes that came with my October Studio Calico kit, they mean I'm able to write lengthy, personal journaling then tuck it away.

Turning Point

Been so busy over the weekend but finally got some time to myself today to scrapbook. I'm really enjoying the All About Me challenges so knew I wanted to try out challenge #4, Turning Point, before the deadline tonight.

I've been considering starting a new course at university for a while now but part of me still wanted to be a teacher. Recently though I've realised that teaching isn't right for me at this point in life. It's been hard to admit this to myself but at last I feel free to pursue my other interests. Reaching this decision feels like a huge weight has been lifted although now I need to discover which path I do want to take.

I thought the symbolism of autumn leaves turning colour goes well with the Turning Point theme. I used gold glass paint behind the corrugated letters which adds texture & has a beautiful lustre.

Method Playground is back

Missed my challenges from Method Playground while they took a short break (even although I have plenty of other things to be getting on with! LOL) Challenge #53 was to make patterned paper out of cardstock. Was really daunted by this at first but nothing ventured, nothing gained so I dug out my ink & glimmer mist. I used Heidi Swapp masks and white dotted swiss which looks great with ink. To add more detail I used my sewing machine to define the bracket shape & a text stamp from Prima to help fill some empty space. I had planned on layering a title over it but decided the LO looks fine without one. The paper, flowers, pebble & trims are all Prima too and are sooo gorgeous, I really love the Indeed range. Afraid the photos aren't too good as it has rained here all day & it's really dark :(

Definitely feeling like winter outside now.

October Category Stories

I love the Category Stories challenge blog for the great LO ideas it gives me. This month the first prompt was Laugh. Most of the photos I have of my parents together they are laughing so I knew I wanted to use one of these for my LO. The one I chose was taken in the Alps this summer. The map paper from Studio Calico went brilliantly with the quote transparency which I altered a bit so that it now reads " I do love nothing so well in the world as you two."

The second prompt was to start your journaling "There is such a thing..." I finished the sentence off with "...as karma." I do believe in karma. I find it helps me look at things more positively and makes me work harder when I know I should.

I know

I'm enjoying using lots of autumnal colours in my scrapbooking at the moment. Been using a lot of recent photos too, but for the Dream Girls challenge 38 I found this old photo of my Mum & I taken when I was about 2 years old.

For the challenge I used:

• the negatives of paper left over from a border punch to frame my photo
  
• variagated thread for a hand stitched border
  
• a scalloped oval journaling spot

Exciting news to share

I'm proud to be one of the new members on the Scrapsketch DT! Thanks so much to Stephanie for giving me the opportunity & congrats to all the other new members, I'm looking forward to working with you all.

Yesterday I was at the Hobbycrafts show. It was much better this time, lots of lovely new craft products to see. I didn't buy a lot but did stock up on some Bazzill at a bargain price & I managed to find a few sheets of the new October Afternoon range, Farm Fresh. Best part of the day though was catching up with my friend Gillian who I don't get the chance to see very often.

For the first time ever we were finished before lunch so left quite early which meant I didn't get to meet up with another friend who was also there :( but she lives much closer so I'm sure I'll see her soon.

On the way home we went shopping at the Fort. Blacks is closing down so we all got some lovely bargains there with 75% or more off of most of the clothing. When we went to Borders Dad treated us all to a drink in Starbucks then got me the November CK as I got the sad news this week that the next issue of Scrapbook Inspirations will be the last :( I love getting my SBI each month so will really miss reading it. I'll need to find something else to fill the void.