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IIt was going to be all pale and interesting, this One Little Word reflection page for March. You know the kind of thing - off whites, stone-washed pastels, slightly moody, with the look of a faded sea shore. But, somehow, it didn't quite turn out like that. It seemed to acquire layers, ribbon, brads ...
I put it down to that photo of the Doings of A Do-o-dle class. I knew I should have converted it to black and white. Or sepia. Ah well ...
It's probably more exuberant this way. Next time, eh?
Spring arrived today, wrapped in soft golden light. I sat outside on the veranda, tea in hand, listening to the see-saw of the great tits and watching the tawny nuthatch bobbing on the beech trees. If I don't get a move on with scrapbooking that magical winter adventure in Costa Rica, it'll soon be languishing between trowel and lawnmower ...
Remember what they say about sea-sickness? That for the first five minutes you're afraid you're going to die - and for the next five minutes you're very afraid you're not? That's what it was like for my intrepid daughter and me, and this was only day one of our adventure ...
It's our new shared benchmark. Was it as scary as white-water rafting? we ask each other over the phone, and then laugh together. So far, nothing else has come close. Would we recommend it - pushing through a gut-churning fear that puts you in contact with resources you didn't know you had? Absolutely! Would we do it again? You are joking, aren't you!
Oh, and thank-you to those of you who've noticed my new blog header and look, and let me know you liked it :).
I am at a loss as he opens the top two drawers in turn, peering in briefly and then closing each. I am not sure what he's looking for, though it seems to be connected in some way to something he was remembering aloud with me before it grew thin and trickled away. He opens the third a few inches - just far enough for me to glimpse the piles of photos lifted from albums long ago, slipping out of elastic bands into shifting and faded layers like the memories he is trying so hard to find. I know that some have a name or a date on the back, but - with his aversion to recording personal or family history - most do not and never will. "Might something in here be of help?" I venture. He tilts his hands back, knuckles close to his shoulders, then slams the drawer firmly shut. He stands motionless for a few seconds, then sets off with his walking frame away from me, one hand raised: do not follow me.
I acquiesce. But my heart goes with him ... In a little while, I will bring tea, and he will smile, and we will sit together and all will be well. In the meantime, I slide onto a chair at the kitchen table and look at the not-quite finished gathering up of the scraps of my own life for last month. I am learning how hard it will be to have a sense of the shape of my years, if there is not a place where the bits and pieces, the flotsam and jetsam, can be safely held for the days when internal memory fails. The sudden thought of a scrap album or a photo book as my memory's external hard drive makes me smile - Himself would understand that concept! I make a mental note to tell him when he returns from his turn to be with the Littlies. Slipping the last few photos in, I add a final paragraph and a date, and press Save. Julie, I am grateful to you for your wonderful Month In Numbers! Here's the February 2015 edition from up here ...
And now, I think, it's time I was putting that kettle on :).
Photobooks? Ah, but where to have them printed and what size, if you'd like a scrapbooker's alternative to the 12x12" format! After devouring reviews (TechRadar and Digital Camera World) and sites (Blurb, Jessops, Albelli, Photobox, Bob's Books et al.), and scuttling down alleyways into dead-ends with Incompatibilities between versions of hardware, software and Javascript, I have finally slid to a halt at Blurb's 8x10" portrait offering. It's a tad smaller in format than the Mollie Makes craft magazine - but as Mollie's editors manage to pack in quite a lot, I am hopeful it's a size that will prove flexible.
Having made a clutch of Photoshop/Photoshop Elements templates, I am happy to share them with you (downloads below). I've experimented with copying the layers into an 8.5x11 page and they work well there too, giving a nice spacious margin; they can also be enlarged with the Transform/Scale tool (105%) or by selecting all layers, clicking and dragging. For those of you who either scrap, or are thinking of scrapping, digitally in a pocket style, the photo spaces are the same proportions as those offered by Becky Higgins.
Here's the clean Simply Modern version with a slim whisper of white between the photo or journalling spaces ...
Should you like a hint of a rounded corner, with just the outer ones shaped, this Simply Modern Soft collection might suit you ...
And if you like to go the whole hog, with every corner rounded and a drop shadow to boot, the Simply Modern Curve could be right up your street ...
Downloads here in zipped files ...
Download SimplyModernA-J
Download SimplyModernSoftA-J
Download SimplyModernCurveA-J
Thank-you for all your good wishes for my back (much better) and the visit to the Littlies (delightful). And yes, the Baltic in winter has a bleak beauty of its own! Here's a quick peek of last Monday ...
Wishing you a warmly creative week, and see you soon?
