Title help needed!

All this sorting out of pages has meant I've come across a couple of things that needed mending and fixing. I'd forgotten that I'd done this page at Sarah's Cards' retreat last year and put it away without adding a title. Can anyone suggest anything?

The couple in the photo are my great grandparents. I've already scrapped a younger photo of them and called it Samel and Kate, so need something else. The are dressed up ready to attend a wedding (possibly my parents - I need to check that fact with my Mum!)

The layout was a class by the lovely Rachael Elliott that some of you may recognise.

Grateful for any suggestions ladies :)

Cover to Cover Prompt 4

I seem to be doing my prompts back to front but at least I'm getting through them!

I went back to Prompt 4 last night which was to include more photos to fill a gap in my album.  I decided to ass more photos from our trip to London and specifically a day at The Tower of London.  I also have one more photo from this day but I want to give it it's own page so this will go after this page.  I took my inspiration from the page I had already done on London for 4x6 Photo Love which was this one...
#

I still had some of the kit left (Jillybean Soup - Old World Cabbage from Sarah's Cards) so pulled out some of the same papers to use as embellishment along with a journalling card, some Jenny Bowlin stickers, pearls and gems and some Bazzill edge pieces. This is the result...

It feels good to have another 9 photos in the album and without too much effort

A bit of a reorganisation!

Prompt 4 of Shimelle's cover to cover class asked us to add a few photos to an album where we had identified a gap.  I looked at this for a while and then decided I couldn't really do this as my albums where so hap hazard I couldn't see what was missing.  So I put the prompt to one side.  Last night I read prompt 5 which talked about making a list of pages to see what could work together rather than do a mammoth move around which could over phase you.  Well, me being me I decided to go for the over phased option! I am a very visual person so, for me, a list wouldn't work.  I needed to see what a yearly album would look like.  First I pulled out oall my 2011 layouts and put them together in an album.  However I haven't scrapped much from that year (see my previous post about what's left to do!) and so it didn't show me a great example but I could see that the flow was much better.

At that point I took the bull by the horns and pulled out pages left, right and center until I was left with piles for 2005 - 2010 and a pile of earlier and odd pages.  My dining room table now looks like this  (tnanks Shimelle! lol!)...







I have sat and put 2010's album together and it looks fab! I even spotted a few gaps as I was putting the pages away without even checking my photo files or diary.  I also left this one below in the 2010 album as that's when I scrapped it and it's lovely to see a cute picture of Alex and Josh amongst the grown up photos :)

It's lovely to see the kids side by side in the album, I definitely prefer it than them having an album each...the story makes much more sense when you can see what we've all been up to!  It looks like the rest of my day will be spent putting away years '05-'09!

10 things in the 10th - May

Oops! a bit late with this one so let's crack on!  To quote my friend Karen  I am killing birds today.  The literal type though!  So here are two birds with one stone - Shimelle's Cover to Cover class and 10 things on the 10th.

                           

I have been looking at prompts 2 and 3 of Shimelle's new class which talked through organising 2012 photos and looking for gaps in your album.  I don't have many pictures from 2012 yet (note to self - take more photos this year!) so have also gone back through 2011.  This has made me realise how much I've not scrapped and recorded about last year.  So I have now got lots of photos winging there way to me from Photobox including the ones below to rectify that.  So my 10 things are 10 photos, events or stories I want to scrap from 2011...

My trip to Belfast with "the girls" - not only shopping, drinking and wine but also a fascinating tour of the troubled areas.  This is just one of many photos I took of the murals.

Our trip to London - here are Tony and Josh enjoying 5 minutes on a bench in The Tower.

The visit from our good friends the Hisers, over from Australia for a couple of weeks.  It had been 5 years since the kids had seen each other (and up to that point they met up pretty much every week!) and they seemed to slot right back in to being together.

The weekend the kids met their uncle Dave for the first time (It's a long story but my brother and I are now happily reunited)

The Take That "experience" in June - I have scrapped about concerts before but this one was truly amazing!

Josh's birthday party in July - several hot and sweaty boys at Laser Quest (but someone please tell me how I get rid of that radiator in the background - who thought to paint it those colours lol!)

Some of the girls and I all dressed up for the Oscars party my friend had for her 50th birthday.

A day out at Monkey Forest in August (spot the monkey - he's the cheeky one in the foreground!)

A weekend in the south Lakes researching my family tree -this is the church where about 6 generations of my family were christened, married and buried.

A day out at Uppark with Mum and the kids last year whilst we were staying with my parents.  It was a great place with a servants tunnel and huge dolls' house.  I have also realised sorting through photos this evening that Alex has some better ones than me!  This is her work...

Now I just need to pull out my 2012 pages from all the various albums and get them into chronological order - that's my weekend sorted then!

Cover to Cover homework

Today is the start of Shimelle's new course "Cover to Cover". Having been at work all day I rushed home to check my emails to see what lay in store! But, oh no! What's this? Shimelle has set us home work! So being the studious, conscientious girl that I am I have cracked on with mine already!!

1. If you have a system for your photos, pages and albums, how would you describe it? What does and
doesn’t work as well as you would like?

I guess my main dilemma is the "does it go in his, hers or ours?" dilemma. Having one boy and one girl I decided early on they could have an album each where I scrap photos of just them or events that were peraonal to them but then what do I do with the photos where I'm in there too, or Tony is or all four of us? So the rest go in our "family" album. Now I'm thinking about this I'm not sure it's right. Am I going to pack each child off with their personal scrapbook when they leave home and keep the family one? I doubt it. Maybe the layouts should be in yearly albums as per the system Shimelle uses. And then there are my pages, personal thoughts and whimsical quotes, where do they go? And what if I've scrapped a photo from a couple of months back of Alex with a quote or story that's just happened? Where does that go? Hmmm...This homework is making my head hurt lol!

2. If you don’t have a system, consider my system as a rough draft. What things do you already think
you would not want in your own system? What elements seem perfectly sensible for you?

I really like Shimelle's system and can see it working for me.  I definitely need to get my pages in chronological order.  Whilst they are divided into albums (although maybe not the right ones now I've started to really consider it!) they are in them in a very hap hazard fashion.  As for upgrading to another album for a specific event in that year, that makes total sense to me.  So far I have only done this for our holiday to Florida, which was one where we took 100's of photos, but I can see that working for other events.

3.Take a photo that helps describe your current status with scrapbooking. You might have dozens and
dozens of albums. You might have two. You might be completely happy with your albums. You
might have a big stack and no books or ideas on where things should go. Share your photo (and
more details if you would like) with us either by posting on the forum or writing a blog post. Of
course, you can keep your answer to yourself if you prefer! But I promise we’re a nice group that
shares well with others.

Below is a photo of my American Craft albums. I also have some post bound ones with older lay outs in and will move pages out of these as I buy more albums. (If anyone knows of any bargain AC albums for sale anywhere please comment below lol!)  I've started to buy the albums that can be altered recently as these are great value for money and can be decorated to your hearts desire!  That reminds me of one more question.  What do you put in the windows on the fronts of these albums?  I have left my blank so far but would love some ideas from others - do you put a title? A favourite photo?  Some pretty paper and embellishments? Oh, the possibilities!





I hope some of these questions will be answered over the next few weeks doing this class.  If you're taking it too I'd love to hear from you (and I hope you've done your homework!)
Thanks for stopping by.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

52 card challenge - week 6

So I am a teeny, weeny bit behind with this challenge (I think they are currently on week 18!) but I am determined to dip back in and make some more cards!

With what was left on my desk from the last two pages I just had enough to make this...

This was for week 6's challenge which was to use paper, hot pink and butterflies.

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely bank holiday weekend.  Today has been beautiful and sunny here but for me the weekend ends tonight as I am in work tomorrow :(

Hope the rain stays away!

My month in numbers - April

Before another month passes me by I best blog April's numbers!  If you want to find out more about this fab way of summarising your month and read about other people's numbers then head on over to Julie's blog.

It was half term at the beginning of April so I had a delicious 9 days off work! We played games, watched lots of TV, the kids went on the PS and we generally chilled out.  In amongst all that we had a great day taking 10 kids to the indoor skate park for 2 hours (which went without a hitch).  The minute we got to the park for some outdoor play one lad slipped off his scooter and broke his  leg in 2 places! It was an interesting end to the day!

I made 136 metres bunting with pennants designed by all the girls in our units ready for the Jubilee Tea Party.

Last Saturday we held the aforementioned tea party which was attended by 128 Guides, Brownies and Rainbows.  They played games, made tiaras and princess hats, decorated fairy cakes and generally had fun!

I was so pleased for my Dad (a lifelong supporter and still going to the home games at 82) that Reading found their way back to the premier league after 4 years.

Alex had 6 hours of rehearsal last weekend too, for 2 Sunday shows dancing to "Cornflake Girl" and "You make my pants want to get up and dance!"

Josh was chuffed to pass his Grade 1 trumpet exam which means we no longer need to listen to him practicing the same tune over and over.  Instead he has moved on to the theme tune from "Postman Pat"!!