Monday, 30 January 2012

New Year's Day Together

We had a quiet day on January 1st happily spending time together playing games, reading and also building Lego. Dad got the Fallingwater Lego Architecture set for Christmas & it was really good to see him enjoying putting it together. He's an architect and Fallingwater is his favourite building, one day we hope to visit the actual thing in Pennsylvania! For now though we'll have to make do with a miniature version.

Sunday, 29 January 2012

Creative Intentions 2012

Finally ready to beging blogging my 2012 creations. The main focus of my scrapbooking this year will be my Project Life album which I'm really excited about. I'll be using the binder & divided protectors mentioned in this post, unlike most people my album is 8x12". I prefer creating layouts this size rather than 12x12", and the square 4x4" pockets are a fun change from the 6x4" landscape pockets I have used for my Document 2010/11 albums.





My title page is fairly self explanitory made from a mixture of my favourite things. On the reverse is a little envelope containing a letter with my hopes & intentions for 2012 to be opened again on Hogmanay. It will be interesting to read at the end of December and compare to what actually happened over the course of the year. My One Little Word to focus on this year is 'Heart' so I also made a few little cards about that.

Thursday, 26 January 2012

Back to university


We've only been back a week but university life is in full swing. Lots of projects to think about & work on. For the main module we are to design and make a salt & pepper set. These are my preliminary models, very girly & very me I'm sure you'll agree. Pink, turquoise & green even feature in my product designs!My Project Life album is going well. Completed my title page, double spread for New Year & double spread for week 1. Hopefully have time to work on week 2 after university tomorrow then I'll share some photos at the weekend.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Displaced by a mouse


Unplanned overnight visit to my parents after dad rescued me from the mouse tonight. I saw it last night & twice this morning and was fine during the day. But at dinner I could hear it under the kitchen units moving about a lot & eating so I was feeling a bit uneasy about spending the night in my flat. In the hour between dinner & my dad coming there were fresh dropping in the utility room so I'm glad to be away from it. Going back early tomorrow though as I don't want to leave it undisturbed. Bit paranoid about cleaning at the moment too so want to keep on top of any mess it creates. Seems to like shredding the insulation jacket for my boiler so not only do I have droppings to take care of, there's tiny pieces of red plastic as well. Document September pages held up a bit because of that & being out yesterday but hopefully get them finished off tomorrow.

Had a successful shopping trip yesterday. Got my parents Anniversay gift & the second part of my Mum's Birthday gift, along with two cute gift bags. I made the cards last week so completely ready for the celebrations this weekend & next. Found some bargains for myself too which I'm really pleased with. The recipe file from John Lewis has 27 page protectors & 12 dividers plus some paper. They were £13.50 down to £6.50 but I had vouchers so got two for £1. Plan to decorate the covers & use them as mini albums. The Good & Well binders were from Paperchase & an even bigger bargain - £7.75 down to 25p so I got four for £1! Plan to use them as mini books too.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

Documenting August 2011



Before starting on my 2012 projects I'd really like to finish off the ones I began in 2011. Today I completed my August pages for my Document 2011 album. The card that is blank was originally left to include the books I read in August but as I can't remember what they are any more & I found a spare photo & tag wrongly sorted into the September pile I'm going to add that instead. Much of August for me was filled with flat hunting & moving plans. We did enjoy our annual street BBQ in August too, despite the rain!


Tonight I started the first of my September pages so hopefully get them finished tomorrow although got a lot of other things to do tomorrow & scrapping time will be short.

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Still preparing for Project Life

Four days into the new year and I still haven't started scrapbooking, despite being back in my flat for the past 3 days! Not that I've been in much, still got gifts to buy with birthdays & an anniversary coming up. Any time indoors has been spent sorting & arranging, although I did make and write my thank you cards. I always make sure to thank my friends & family for any gifts and let them know what I spent their Birthday & Christmas money on. This year I am going to include little photos with the cards to let them see too as not all my relatives have access to the internet.





Today felt busy too as I was shopping for gifts. I didn't get anything I was looking for unfortunately but I did come across a few little things in Paperchase that are ideal for my Project Life album.

My favourite of all are these little sticky notes. I love ledger & grid patterns so I can see myself using these a lot for journaling.

These little label tabs are cool too & I must admit I didn't know quite how to use them when I bought them. Upon closer inspection at home I realised they are little white labels that you can write or stamp on then pull the little blue tab to seal it like a sticker (bit like sticky back plastic). With 7 sheets in a pack they were a super bargain for £1!

Also got these fun London bus tabs. Only 4 sheets this time for £1.50 but they are worth it. Love the colours & think Paperchase are going to be stocking more of the range soon in the run up to the Olympics this summer.

Since I'll be recording the everyday little things in my PL album these little grocery stickers I found will be ideal for days when I focus on things like shopping lists, what's in my fridge, favourite snacks etc.

My OLW for 2012 is going to be 'heart' so I couldn't resist these 2 patterned tapes & a pack of heart labels.

Hearts are going to be a running theme throughout my album, can't wait until this stamp set arrives!

Would love to know if anyone else has found some fun stuff to include in their PL albums this year?

Thursday, 29 December 2011

My Project Life 2012




Tonight I sorted my binder & page protectors for Project Life 2012. For the past 2 years I have done Document 2010 & 2011, recording every month. I enjoy looking back at the albums but found creating the pages quite a chore if I didn't keep up to date or make full enough notes in my diary. Felt like trying something different next year so this is what I have come up with. I ordered 3 packs of these 8x12 page protectors & 3 packs of these divided ones with six 4x4 pockets. Quite excited about these ones as they'll be perfect for Instagram photos. I won't put photos in each of the six pockets though, I'll vary them with mini layouts & journaling cards. Each week will have one 8x12 focus page and six 4x4 cards for the other days. I also got one of these kraft lever arch files from Paperchase but I think I may have to search for a foolscap file as the page protectors are slightly larger than the binder. At least I am all ready to start on Sunday though.