Favourite Layouts of 2011

I have been inspired by others to go through my scrapbooking pages today and choose my favourite ones for the year. Here they are, in no particular order.

I am loving this new style I have going, stamping the background. It gives me quite a bit more freedom of expression and it's really fun to do. 

 Not to forget painting and stencilling the background. Love the dark grey with the acid green, but it all looked a bit dull until that little pop of pink, which seemed to make the rest just look good. 

This is what started me out on the whole getting messy business. Love this layout, which was a challenge on Home and Scrapped by Angela Budden, combined with a tutorial on how to do it. This is one of the rarer pages in my collection, in that there is no journaling. But then, the title says it all. 

Love the clean blue and white, the silver lettering and the mixed flowers. I don't use embossing much, but sometimes it's just exactly what you need. 

I love my pot of roses and the beaded circle in this one. Also the little bird watching my Aunty working :-) 

 I should use negative space more often, I like it.

 Twinchies, hand lettered title, using fairly simple lines to make it look complex. 

Love this idea of having a group portrait and then using random photos with a bit of info about each person. 

 Loving that orange! So fresh and pretty without being boring old pink. 

The patchwork I love, but the hearts really make this page, I think. Love scrapping the older photos. 

 Just like this one, love the softness and the pale colours, and that I didn't cut or make anything for it, it was all just stuff I already had made or scraps to hand. Also love that I captured my daughter just checking - she does that a lot, LOL.

Thanks 2011, you helped me tell our story a little bit more. Not all of it was good, and I'm kind of glad it's over. There are bits of 2011 that will stick in my memory forever but oh well, it's all part of life, learning, loving and living. I'd rather have been here than not, lol. We have ended up whole and happy and still standing, and that, my friends, counts for a lot. 

love, Heather "It's about love. You don't have to scrapbook to love but you have to love in order to scrapbook." June

Get Inspired

If you are looking for some scrappy inspiration to get you motivated and making pages this year coming, you will find all that you need at Home and Scrapped  Challenge Heaven and Red Earth Scrapping three fab forums that have all sorts of goodness happening. New DTs, loads of challenges, chatting and friendship, and Oh My Gosh, so much inspiration! Join in, you won't be disappointed. And if you do when you do, you will find my sketches at H&S and CH for your scrapping pleasure :-)

Yep, not only am I challenging everyone all over the place at Home and Scrapped, but I am now doing two sketches every month at Challenge Heaven! Fun, fun, fun :-) I am just in the middle of doing my pages for the monthly challenges at H&S (will share later) and also the sketch for the CH Cyber Crop which is coming up soon. Oh, and I must tell you, both places have also had a bit of a transformation and update. Both looking very pretty in their new summer dresses ;-)

It's been such a nice day, just pottering here in my scraproom, with no other commitments, apart from rushing out to get the washing in when it started to rain. Of course, it stopped as soon as it was all safely inside, tsk... I don't really want to be not-working, but if I am not-working, then this is what I want to be doing - stitching, crafting, making pretty with paper. I hope you are getting time for some creative fun too.

love, Heather "It's about love. You don't have to scrapbook to love but you have to love in order to scrapbook." June

Assessing and Wishing

This time of year is all about assessment and reassessment, don't you think? Reviewing what has been and what maybe should have been. That's how it gets me anyway. I wonder how it would be if we didn't name the years, and we just had to carry on with only the seasons for change? I suspect we would still have this assessing time, just at the end of winter before the spring arrives or something. It's necessary in lots of ways, I think.

One thing I've been assessing is this blog. I've been a bit of a bad blogger this year. And part of that is that I want it to be more than just about scrapping now. I love lots of other crafts and things too, so I'm going to start bringing those into my blog too, sharing creativity in all it's forms. I feel a reawakening of all that I used to love, and all the new things to love and explore are mustering on the horizon as well, waiting for attention. Pretty exciting.

Anyway, more of that later. For now, I just want to say that I wish you every happiness in 2012. I hope that good stalks you in every moment, that you find peace, comfort, pleasure and well being and that you are surrounded by love from all and sundry. I wish you well and safe and happy, whatever comes your way. I hope you get to the end of the year with roses in your cheeks and with a lot of good memories. x

love, Heather "It's about love. You don't have to scrapbook to love but you have to love in order to scrapbook." June