#24 Inspired by handwritten letters

In this age of sms, email and Facebook, I might be considered a little old-fashioned because I love to write real letters. I'm not saying it isn't hard - we don't write much these days, do we? My hand starts to ache and my handwriting leaves a lot to be desired but the hand-written word has always been important to me.

I had various penpals when I was younger, I always sent (and still send) out Thank You letters after birthdays, Christmas or visits, I always write postcards when I travel and have several thousand from over the years, I had a romantic letter-based relationship with my first boyfriend when he moved back to France, I've always tried to keep in touch with people via letter and I still have every single letter I received during my 15 months in France 86-87 and also during my 15 months in the Philippines 97-98 (although by that time, email was really beginning to kill off letters). I have letters from over the years from all parts of my life and probably could find them in every single corner of my home and memory boxes. Several spring to mind when I think about meaningful letters.

But I've been going through some old boxes of photos because of LOAD and also some memorabilia that my mum gave to me from when I was tiny and I came across the sweetest little letter and decided that it would be the one.

Not a lot has changed since I wrote this note. It's funny to think that this is another side of me that remains the same :-) Guess that's why Germany suits me so much!

I have no idea when I wrote the note but judging by the handwriting it must have been my first or second year of school. I don't have many photos of me from that time so the one I used is a little earlier - the summer before I started school. But near enough.

Testing out Pam's guide to taking photos at night - still not brilliant but maybe better than usual. The journalling doesn't show up at all however.  Can you read the note?

Ah, loopy twine!

I hope you had fun finding letters to include on your layout or perhaps writing a letter to someone as part of your journalling - it's such a personal touch. Don't forget to upload your layouts to Flickr with the tag WM#24 - we love to see how you interpret the prompts!

Pam will be here in the morning for another prompt and I love the anticipation of waiting to see what she is challenging us with. I always have a little time in Starbucks before work on a Monday morning and it's such a thrill to check into the blog to see what she's thought up for me and you.

It makes Monday mornings so much nicer, don't you agree? ;-)

#23 Inspired by colour

I told you I'd get to this wonderful colour scheme sooner rather than later and am very happy that it was sooner!

I found myself thinking about the colour combination Pam had set us all week and the mix of colours made me think that I'd have nothing in my stash suitable.

Just wonderful colours! 

Not the pink of course, but the citrus and chartreuse. And then it hit me - BasicGrey Sultry. It's perfect. The citrus is very subtle but I knew that I had some yellow in the photo I wanted to use and therefore the mix would be good.

I went with a peachy cardstock to just hold it all together and went with a design I've used over and over again in different incarnations.

Using the LOAD prompt from 4th February "the more things change", I got to thinking how far I've come in life and yet I'm still pretty shy and introverted. I've learnt to cover this up and can stand up and make a presentation at work or a speech at a party but it's so NOT natural for me. I've learnt to make unlimited small talk to my students as part of my job and they never believe me when I tell them that I'm not outgoing and sociable (he he) in my private life. You learn to cover this up becuase it's difficult to function in life if you can't. But it's still terribly hard.

All this came from a photo I've been itching to use for years of me performing for a school Christmas production. It was just a sketch - this was enough! - and we performed Summer Lovin' from Grease and for some reason that I will never really understand - probably me just being bossy! - I ended up in the Olivia N.J. role of Sandy! Hence all the pastel colours. We mimed to the song as there wasn't a decent singer among us and even though I think that even the girls at the back of the hall could see my knees knocking together, we had a BALL! It was SO much fun. But that's the only time I have ever performed on a stage. And that's the way it will be. I'm just so grateful that someone took a photo of it so that I can see exactly how much fun it was!

Thanks Pam for being patient with me and for giving us such a beautiful combination of colours to work with. I loved making this über-pretty layout and reliving my short 15 minutes of fame!

I'll be back later with my letter layout and Pam will be delighting us once more tomorrow with a new prompt.

Watch this space!

#24 inspired by handwritten letters

I absolutely adore this prompt. I have so many handwritten letters. I have been lucky enough to receive and wise enough to keep so many little notes and messages over the years. I seldom scrap these.

Early on in the week I created a layout which some of you have already seen in the gallery.

The photo section acts as a big pocket where I included a selection of letters. Although you can see the two different handwriting peeping out, I wanted to do this prompt justice by creating a layout featuring another's handwriting. 

So last night as I was laying in bed, the idea for this layout came to me. I jumped out of bed to search for the letter I had in mind before the inspiration passed. 

Because scrapbooking my father is a difficult subject for me (we have a complicated relationship), I spent the better part of today creating this layout. In fact, I would take breaks in between. I kept getting stuck.

The highlight of making this page however, was that the mailman showed up in the middle of the process and  - I had an envelope from Germany! Yes, our sweet Lisa sent me a cute little card. I adore it.

  I love the little butterflies so much, that I adhered them straight unto what I was working. 

 I find that whenever I scrap a difficult topic the artiness of it all goes on overdrive. So I ended up with something like this.

But in the end I really disliked the results. In all my artiness I had lost my design focus and I felt the page couldn't breathe. So I went back to the drawing board and created some breathing room.

The final results feel more like me. I am happy to have included the original envelope (12 years old), the line of journaling (yes, that was all he wrote on the 8.5x11 sheet he mailed) and Lisa's sweet butterflies. Thanks for the inspiration, Lisa!

If you used handwritten letters in your pages this week we would love to see it, just remember to upload it with the tage WM#26. I am loving all the action our little gallery is getting lately with folks re-visiting older prompts. I'll be back Monday with our new challenge. Can't wait to see what Lisa creates!

xo,

Pamage

Challenge #24 week of 30th January 2012

Some weeks ago, Pam shared her birthday list which she uses as a list of goals for the next 12 months.

I adored the idea and got around to completing my list earlier this month. It's such a great concept for me as I don't do resolutions any more but often come up with a few overriding goals for the year ahead. The birthday list gives me a bit of that with some bigger aims (such as decluttering my flat room by room) but also the chance to record some smaller ideas of things to do that might get forgotten in the stress and struggle of everyday life (such as to have a picnic).

One of the items on the list is to write hand-written letters throughout the year. I'm a bit old-fashioned like that and love to sit down write a real letter from time to time. Yes, it hurts the hand after a while but nothing beats an envelope hitting the mailbox with a handwritten address that you just know isn't a boring bill or advertising but rather real person to person communication. I love it and if I love it, then others must too, mustn't they?

Anyway, the topic of handwriting, or the decline in the practice of writing with a pen rather than a keyboard is something I've been thinking about a lot recently and I even came across a really interesting article about it (ironically, online!) in the Economist's Intelligent Life that you can see here.

And on Monday last week, I was reminded by Pam that it was National Handwriting Day.

Sometimes everything seems to be connected.

So we have a theme! :-) We have handwriting and we have letters. Can you see where I'm going with this?

This week's prompt for you is to include a handwritten letter as your journalling on your project.

We'd love to see your creations over in our Flickr gallery with the tag WM#24!

# 23 - Inspired by Color

Well, to be honest, I expected to be super inspired by this color combination since it was based on the colors I had chosen to re-do my room. The truth? 

First, I couldn't find the exact shades I needed in my stash. Second, I didn't have a lot of time (or energy) to scrap. 

So I did what I could. 

My favorite element on here are the paint chips I picked up at a recent trip to Home Depot. They were the right shades of coral and pink and chartreuse. Oh yes, and I am also over the moon that I got to make a page just about Britany. She is the one person in my life that rarely get's scrapped outside of "events" and "places we go". There are 7 entire albums and 2 minis dedicated to my travels with this girl. All the pictures we take (or most of them) end up there. And so I never just talk about her and how awesome she is.

Here's to the beginning of a new collection of pages about my dearest friend.

Hope you all had a great week. I know Lisa didn't get to the challenge this week, but our Leslie did, so hop on over to the flick'r group and pay us a little visit. If you played along, I'd love to see your creation (with the tag WM#23). Also, take a cue from our Heidi and save some of these prompts to use later. There is no deadline. Just pure fun!

xo,

Pamage

:-( Sorry

Hi there everyone!

It's Lisa here with another terrible confession..... it's Saturday morning, I'm heading out the door to jump on a plane to the UK for 24 hours to celebrate my grandmother's 90th (!) birthday, and I haven't done challenge WM#23....

Guess my time management was off this week!

I'm so sorry but I will get it done and I actually get back tomorrow early evening so you never know... I might squeeze something out late on Sunday. But the colour scheme Pam gave us was so gorgeous that I want to do it credit so you may have to wait a few days. Sorry and hope you don't mind.

In the meantime, I scheduled our next challenge to go live Monday morning already and I think we are all quite psyched that LOAD starts on Wednesday, aren't we?

So with that, I bid you farewell for a few hours and leave you with something pretty to look at - you know that I feel that all blog posts need a photo ;-)

This is my photo of the day from Friday 13th. Cute, huh?!?

Challenge #23 Week of 23 January, 2012

Hello all! We meet again. My intention for last week's challenge was to document my new room. I am working on re-decorating my space, which is part bedroom, part workspace. Of course, as the week went on, I realized I wouldn't finish in time for this challenge.

But after two weeks of working with these patterns and colors, I am ready to scrap with them too. It is not a stretch from my usual color scheme. I am thrilled at the prospect of all of you scrapping along with me [and possibly inspiring me in my interior design endeavors].

Here are some pins that served for my inspiration [here, here and here].

And for a sneak peak into my new and improved space...

Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to be inspired by this combination of colors: Chartreuse, Citron, Coral and Pink with a hint of Teal as an accent color. I find it to be refreshing and reminiscent of Spring or Easter and also vintage in the patterns - which you can tie into Grandmas or childhood stories. It is playful, fresh and fun. I hope these ideas bring a story to mind. If not, what does this color scheme remind you of?

As always, I hope you play along [this time with an agenda of gathering additional inspiration for the finishing touches - hope you don't mind]. If you do play along, please share with us in our flick'r gallery and remember to tag it WM#23.

See you next Sunday! Have a great scrappin week ya'll.

xo,
Pamage

#22 Inspired by "new"

Sometimes I read a prompt and my mind decides instantly on a project/page. This happens to me 90% of the time. And sometimes I am even lucky enough to get that idea down on paper. Other times I am not so lucky. This prompt from Lisa instantly had me thinking about the makeover my room is getting this new year... I had a sketch, a color pallete and certain elements I wanted to highlight in the journaling.

Of course, as the week went on, I realized my makeover project was more of an undertaking than I originally anticipated so I had to change gears.

I settled on my new camera, which is also part of my 2012 and a story I wanted to tell. With no printed photos of said camera, no color ink and no time to run to the photo lab, I had to improvise. I snapped a few [bad] shots of my shiny new camera with my [also new] instax 7s. Although the pictures turned out crappy, I decided to embrace imperfection and go with the flow.

The layout was a close lift from [this] Amy Tangerine layout I loved. For the purpose of this blog I try to stick to original designs whenever I can, but this week I was just out of my mojo and needed a jump start.

I hope you were inspired by all things "new". From new languages to new things, new beginnings are all around us. I do wish we take more time to ponder about these and visit this lovely prompt over and over again.

The prompt will be up soon. Will you play along?

xo,
Pamage

#22 Inspired by the new

This week I asked you to scrap something new and it's funny but I often have no idea what I will do for the challenge as I write it.

This week was such a case in point and all week I kept my eyes and mind open for new. There were plenty of things that I could have done but this morning, I was dozing in bed with a horrible headache listening to my husband pottering around, chatting to me occasionally. And suddenly I realised how I live my life with a new language since I met him  - well some of the time anyway ;-) It's become so normal for me that I sometimes forget how new it all was when I first met him and then when I moved over here.

I actually learnt German in school for two years and at the end of that time, couldn't actually say anything so it's strange now that I'm (grammatically incorrect but) fluent these days and it's become part of my life. "Ich liebe dich" is a phrase I never imagined I would need. I love how fate takes you to places you could never have planned.

So I tried to find a photo that hasn't yet been used and this one came up - it's old, from our Nova Scotia holiday back in 2006. But that's ok, the message is timeless. And for a double win, I used my Counterfeit Kit Challenge November Glory kit which has been sorely underused.  I like the combination of colours and I think the splash of blue really lifts the whole thing.

What's new in your life? I can't wait to see.

Pam will be here soon with her share and then come back again tomorrow for the new challenge. I'm always excited to check the blog first thing on the Monday mornings when Pam sets the challenge - we don't communicate what the next prompt will be so it's such a great surprise and gets my brain working right away.

Don't forget to share your creations with us over at Flickr (tag: WM#22).

Challenge #22 week of 16th January 2012

Another Monday, another week, another challenge. And I'm still feeling the January feeling.

Now, January is not my favourite time of the year. But it's still a very specific time in the cycle of the year and this year, I'm finding it more prevalent than other years and this has driven my thinking for this week's challenge.

I change out my blog header each month and under the title I try to come up with a little one-liner that sums up the new month. Over the last couple of weeks, I've found myself saying, writing and thinking this month's. So I'm passing this onto you to see how this will take you creatively.

New year, new beginnings

There are so many ways to interpret this in full or part from resolutions and goals through to new friendships, learning something new, the beginning of a new season, trying out something new or a welcome new addition to the family. You could even try something new on your page - a new paper range you've not tried before, a new technique or the style of a new designer you've seen online.

I looked back over my pages to see if I could find a few examples and came up with these:

The story of a new life

The story of a new tradition

The story of learning something new

Have fun with new beginnings this week and tune back in next weekend to see what Pam and I have created to document the new in our lives.