Wow, That Was Quite the Weather Change Wasn't It?

My sister in law in England is in an area affected by all those floods, though their home is fine. She did say to me when I was showing her all the snow we were getting a week or so ago...at least you can shovel the snow, we can't do that with all the rain.  How true that was, as we found out over the weekend, when our snow turned to rain.

Still I don't think we are suffering as they are in some areas of  England and Wales.  The Bed & Breakfast where we stayed in  Aberystwyth, Wales in April of last year was being battered severely by the waves from Cardigan Bay.  We sat in the bay window of the house in the evening enjoying a cup of tea, but I think a week ago we would have got pretty wet sitting there. Bearing in mind that these are century old homes and not all windows had been replaced.

Here's a You tube video of the area we stayed.  We were in the houses facing you in the distance, about midway and we walked along the promenade where all the waves are battering.

Well ladies I think you will be getting the shortened version  of the blog tonight as it seems in installing a program on my PC, I've made it sick.  I am typing this on my iPad which in itself is fine, but most of my files are on my PC!

Are you joining us this Friday night January 17th for the Crop and Craft night?  I think we may have a knitter or two then as well.  

Speaking of knitting, whilst it was quiet on Friday afternoon of last week, I tried my skill at arm knitting.  Have you tried it yet, it's very popular right now.  I don't think I'll ever be an arm knitter and it was kind of funny as I became a little tangled in the yarn at one point, but I was able to knit up a chunky scarf in about 30 minutes.  You use two strands of a #6 yarn, (we have more coming in at the end of the week), but in the meantime I used one strand of a #6 and two strands of a #5.  A little more complex, but worked just fine as you can see below.

Join us on Friday though and enjoy learning a new craft or completing a UFO.  Yes I know you have them, we all do.  Unfinished Objects are the bane of a crafter's life, because we often pop onto the next thing before the first is finished.

Our other challenge is when we have a creative block and so the craft sits unfinished. That's whats nice about a Friday night Crop & Craft, someone else always has an idea that gets you out of the block.

Don't forget that if you complete one older page from your Basic Gray Page of the Month kits, you'll get the evening at half price.  Make this the year for catching up UFO's.

I  have been very neglectful in sharing a photo that one of our crafters sent us before Christmas so I made myself a special note to make sure I showed you this week.  Candice was very busy making 52 of these trees as table favours for her golfing group.  What do you think...pretty amazing in my opinion.  Thanks so much for sharing Candice.

I'm not sure if Candice hand cut all these trees, or if she cut them on a digital cutter like the Silhouette Cameo. Certainly would have made faster work than hand cutting.  

Do you have a Cameo?  Linda has some very attractive pricing on the two Silhouette machines at the moment so if youre thinking of one, this is the time! 

If you don't know all the lovely things you can create with them, take a moment and drop into the store to ask us about them. 

Remember how Emily cut some fabric out with my Cameo for her Christmas gift.  You can also cut out heat transfer material to iron onto aprons, tee shirts, or vinyl to have word art on the walls or in frames.  Just about anything your mind can dream up, the Silhouette Cameo or Portrait can cut out. 

Of course they're invaluable when you scrapbook or make cards, and you don't have to buy cartridges!  Not only can you purchase just the embellishment you'd like for your project, you can easily make your own.  It doesn't stop there either, because any True Type font on your computer can be cut with this machine.  A great addition to your crafting supplies.

Here are some great ideas to help you with the journaling on your scrapbook pages....

Make a List.    This is a fairly simple journaling technique that is suitable for use with any type of page theme, for example:

Doing a friendship page – list how you met, where you met, how long you have known each other, include what you like about your friend and why you are both pals.

If you're doing a recipe scrapbook page – then make a personal top 10 list of reasons why you like Grandmas chocolate cake so much.  This is very pertinent to my sister's family as they figured out Grammies fudge recipe recently.

Doing a baby layout – do a list of baby’s favorite foods, you can even do one for the foods they don't like!  

A variation of this listing technique is to use bullet points to mark each line on your list, giving you an opportunity to emphasize each item of your journaling.  Another bonus with using the list technique is that you do not need to worry about the structure of your sentences or that your journaling makes sense because the list breaks down what you want to say into its basic readable form.  This technique is also called strip journaling, when your short sentences are printed on narrow strips of cardstock or patterned paper.  Drop into the store to see some examples.

Write a Letter.   This is one of those great scrapbook journaling ideas that’s fairly simple to do and its also a lovely, personal way to journal your layouts too.   All you have to do is pretend you’re writing to a friend telling them what is happening in your photographs.  I often say to our scrapbookers, pretend I am standing behind you are you're explaining to me the content of your page. Sent any emails lately? Like letters, emails are also a good source of journaling material that you can use for your layouts.  I've recently been creating some pages using photos I picked up from Facebook.  I used the various posted comments as my journaling, printing the Facebook logo beside the comments.   If you are unsure of your own journaling then doing it in a letter format could help your writing flow more easily, as you describe the people and the events taking place, letting you tell the story naturally and in your own words.

If you are one of those people who find it difficult to begin the journaling process these fun scrapbook journaling ideas will provide you with some basic tips and techniques to help make it easier.  So go on, try out the scrapbook journaling ideas above for yourself and add some stress-free journaling to your pages.  Once you have finished you will see that its been well worth the effort. 

Well for all that I didn't have all the files I wanted to share, I didn't do so bad with content after all.   I was planning on sharing the Minion Slipper pattern that Linda knitted, but that will be something for you to look forward to another week.

I do have to share this lovely photo of Emily though, our frugal shopper.  For a number of years now, my Mother-in-law has sent her great grandchildren a monetary gift for Christmas.  I began the tradition of putting a gift certificate on the tree when they were younger, with the promise of a shopping trip with Great Nanna's money and lunch with me.  It became a special time they looked forward to. Here you see Emily on her shopping trip, writing in her book what she was purchasing so that she wouldn't overspend.  Amazing how much she was able to purchase with her gift money. Lunch is always at the restaurant of their choice, this time it was the Hong Kong Buffet.

And the words for this week are for all those people who are struggling to lose the extra pounds from Christmas eating.....

Until Later, Happy Crafting

Lilian