Bringing Back The Scrapbooking

I have been thinking a lot about my love of paper crafts. I want to learn more, experience more but also mature more in what I know already. I used to love scrapbooking but kinda stopped doing it! Work and other stuff got in the way and then the crop I used to go to now n then no longer exists as the shop closed down due to retirement. I have still been interested but not actually done any layouts
I have been looking at scrapbooking a lot on Pinterest. I love Pinterest but oh boy I get so engrossed in it! Before I know it I have spent hours pinning and falling in love with layouts and pictures of babies etc etc oh yes and the awesome papers available now there's loads of techniques I have never tried but I really want to get back into the flow scrapbooking.

When Kev and I went out yesterday we bought a new camera ready for our holidays with the family. We bought a Sony Cybershot DSC H300. Wow, I love it, and it does so much more than our old camera too. I am gonna spend time this week looking at the different features of the camera and getting familiar with it so that I can get used to it and hopefully use it to it's best potential.

I'm looking forward to checking out it's panoramic 360 degree feature and later on it's close up setting for taking photo's of my cards and flowers etc. I feel I am ready now and really want get back into scrapbooking again now. I'm gonna start off with some photo's from our family holidays which is really quite soon. (so excited). This one is of Lytham Windmill, just a couple of miles away...

 The next step is to find a nice friendly crop to join, or perhaps some classes??? trouble is, I would love to join a crop during the week not on a saturday, I dont see enough of Kev already so don't wanna give up our saturdays together!

I've been looking at some of my layouts, I wish I could be less critical sometimes!

these two (above and below) are a double page spread, 

that particular challenge called for 5 question marks and some lace!

another double page spread with journalling underneath the main picture as follows...

My Creative Journey

I mentioned in my last post that I would share about my creativity...

well it's been quite a long journey and I am still not "There Yet"! My creativity has been kind of an evolving thing. My grandmother showed me how to sew and embroider when I was in junior school. My mother was an artist, she painted in oils she was also an expert at crochet. I learned to crochet myself in my mid teens, I always loved art but found it much easier to colour in than to draw so when I stumbled upon the world of rubber stamping in 1996 I was overwhelmed with the joy of being able to create handmade cards that folk wanted to buy. I started doing craft stalls and parties where folk could order exactly what they wanted in a card with personalisation. My mother bought me loads of stamps and helped with the fortnightly stall, she loved it. I learnt a lot of techniques with inks and stamping. my mother died in 1999 and my husband in 2002 and life took me into a different direction. I couldn't face doing craft fares anymore without my mother. and grief put a stop to my creativity. this psx fuschia stamp was my mothers favourite

I moved to Lytham St Annes from Dudley in the West Midlands in 2004. God had given me a brand new start in life. A new home, a new ministry and a new church which came with a lot of new friends a lot of which were fellow crafters! I worked as a manager of a Christian bookshop. I loved this ministry but as it started to decline (as with many Christian bookshops the internet had become it's downfall) and then closed. I became seriously ill with anxiety and depression. While I was in recovery which was a slow proscess I started papercrafting again, and trying out new things. I was now a grandmother to Ethan and found scrapbooking really inspired me to get creative with my grandsons photo's. I have learnt many more techniques, bought a big shot and later a Cricut and enjoyed all manner of papercrafting, I was back into my creative groove but for fun and not to raise money.  Over the years I have added to my collection of rubber stamps, inks, dies, embossing folders, I have recently bought a Silhouette Cameo which has been put to some good use to create papercrafted scripture gifts for our local outreaches and missions to Romania.
Well that brings me to today.

I still have some goals which I want to achieve....I want to teach my church friends the art of scrapbooking as many have asked for lessons I would love to start up a faithbooking group too. I have many projects swimming around in my head which are on a sort of revolving must make list! I would also love to get some experience in art journaling. and I have seen some awesome canvas creations I would like to have a go at as well as getting the most out of the stash and equipment I already have. I want to join a crop of experienced scrapbookers so that I can stretch my skills even more and get more inspiration to scrapbook again as its something I haven't done for a while. so that's some of my creative journey, I am always on the look out for new projects but more than anything I want to be in my creative groove daily. I get such a buzz such a perfect sense of one-ness with God when I am happily creating something, it just kinda makes my heart sing and the world suddenly becomes a pretty awesome and inspiring place to be. everyone has a sweet spot I believe, and creativity is mine.