LOAD Day 23

Today's prompt: Pick a story that’s a little tougher to tell. TELL it.


Given last month's events, I knew exactly which story I wanted to tell:

These pictures are pretty special because were taken the day befor my grandmother died, when my aunt, cousin and I were visiting her in the hospital. At that time, she appeared to be getting better and we had a good time talking and being silly. Unfortunately, she took a turn for the worst the next day and died that afternoon.
I'm so glad I visited that day and that I have these pictures to remind me of the last day I spent with her.

LOAD Day 22

Today's challenge: use only one word as your journaling.

Here's my LO:

It's my cavy Amber gazing longingly to her cagemates from across the room. The title means 'homesick'.

LOAD Day 21

Wow, 3 weeks in and still going strong! Who would have thought...

Anyways, this was today's challenge: pick a trend that is popular today and try to use it in a way that fits your style, feels natural, and also won’t look absolutely ridiculous in five or ten years.


Bonus challenge: show one of your embarrassing past scrapbook pages that makes yo u contemplate "What was I thinking??"

I'd like to think my style is pretty timeless and I don't get 'sucked in' often by temporary trends.

Here's today's LO:

I don't think this LO is very trendy, but I don't think it will look dated in a few years either. Materials and techniques that could be considered trendy: craft cardstock, (faux) stitching, rubber stamping.

And here's my 'past embarrassment': 

I actually don't think it's too bad, although you can tell it was made several years ago when Coluzzle templates were all the rage...

LOAD Day 20

Today's prompt: start with the design of your page. Then move to photo or story. Leave your embellishing (“decorating”) for last.

I decided to skip this one and go with my usual routine, which is: find photos, choose a sketch, select cardstock & patterned papers to match, and pick out embellishments.

Here's today's LO:

These are photos from last year's art exhibit at a castle ruin close to where I live. The ruin itself was decorated as if it were a fish tank ornament, complete with fish, shells and even an anemone :-)
I picked a patterned paper to match the fish theme and went from there.

LOAD Day 19

Today's prompt: choose appropriate embellishments for the theme or “feel” of your page.

Here's my LO:

I used photos from one of our annual shopping trips to the garden center to buy new Christmas decorations. Since it's a seasonal event, I chose patterned paper from a Christmas line and used alphas to match the colours.

LOAD Day 18

Today's challenge: Restraint. Let your layout breathe. Make sure there’s white space. Choose a focal element and let the others play back-up.

This is what I made:

Photo's from last year's trip to Dolfinarium Harderwijk. I only used cardstock, 2 patterned papers, letter stickers and a journaling stamp + ink (I still need to add journaling).







LOAD Day 17

Today's challenge: find a good page gone bad in your albums. See what you can do to resurrect it.

I decided to pass on this one. Sure, I have plenty of pages that didn't exactly turn out the way I envisioned it. But if I knew how to fix it, I would not have done it 'wrong' in the first place!
I'm also trying to let go of my perfectionism and to 'embrace imperfection' (to quote Ali Edwards).

So, I did something entirely different:

It's a bit of a visual overload even though I only used patterned papers and cardstock, but I used these papers to mimic the mozaics inside the Aya Sofia (though truthfully, these papers would have fitted better with my photos of the Blue Mosque!)

LOAD Day 16

Today's prompt: choose a plain photo and a plain background, then use embellishments to add the emotion.

Here's my LO:

I used a white background that I sprayed with glimmer mist. I just downloaded an online workshop on embellishment clustering, so I gave that a shot as well.
I went a bit overboard with the stamped swirls, but all in all it's not too bad and it made me step outside my comfort zone a bit.

LOAD Day 15

Today we had to scraplift a LO by expert Stephanie Howell. I chose this one:

And here is my own interpretation:

(That's my mom and dad who will be celebrating their 40th (!) wedding anniversary later this year)

LOAD Day 14

Today's challenge was to choose a dynamic colour combination to convey energy and excitement in your layout.

Blue and orange are on opposite sides of the color wheel and therefore complementary. The colours also match the photo's perfectly.
This LO is a bit simple (read: not very exciting at all), but I actually had NO idea what to add to give it a bit more oomph...