Que sera sera…..

 

It’s that time of the month again.  It comes round so quickly…..

This months CJ is “Lyrics”.  Most people I would imagine have songs that mean something to them, but I’m not one of those people so I had to really think about this one.  There are songs from various points in my life that define my life at the time but no one song jumps out.  I didn’t think that there was a song that had lyrics that would mean anything special to me.  I sat chatting to Chris about what I should use and we always end up telling each other that we don’t even have an “our tune”.

Then it struck me.  We had a civil wedding ceremony and had loads of fun choosing the music for it.  Most of our choices came form the “Music to watch by girls go by” CD’s. If you don’t have them, imagine Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield and you get the idea.

Obviously I got there in the end, and it was with Que Sera Sera.  The song that Chris & I chose to leave our wedding ceremony to.  After all the futures not ours to see, que sera sera…… 

What techniques do you use?

Another circle journal posting date is here and this month I have had Jackie's journal -"Techniques". I was looking forward to this one, but then I remembered I just stick and go, or do I? It's funny when you have to think about what you do or how you do your scrapping.

I am haphazard in the way I work (messy I think Chris would call it, if he was being polite..) In the end I've shared a couple of embellishment type techniques, fingers crossed she likes them!

A new circle....

Where does the time go? Firstly I can't believe I last posted 12 days ago, and secondly - last minute Annie here (no offence to those Annie's amongst you) has just finished putting together the pages of her new circle journal. Phew...it's due to be posted today.

My journal this time is titled " A Day In The life". I love the idea of Ali Edwards 'Week in the Life' project (one I intend to do around February time - I'm assuming I'll have chance by then although I'm really not sure what will have changed between now and then), so given my desire to do that project thought it would be fun to do a day in the life.

I think we all assume our lives are, in the main, mundane and routine. My day is generally get up, battle with the kids, get ready, battle with the kids, get the kids ready, school run battle, coffee, housework*, lunch, guilt chores**, school run, main battle with the kids....and so on. I think you get the drift.

The day I chose to do my page turned out a little differently, became a reflective day where I mostly sat, drank coffee and thought about things. After that I decided that I would stick to that day to journal and ended up creating a page without considering the journaling which is now tucked away as a little book in the envelope.

You may notice I have gone the collage route again. I loved the last one I did so much I wanted to do something similar in my own so I have one to keep.

I'm really looking forward to reading about everyone's day when it comes home again, although that's a long way away yet.

by way of explanation

* reading blogs, blogging, facebook games and paper stroking

** actual cleaning of the home

All good things....

....must come to an end. Today I share with you a sneak peek of the final journal that I am taking part in on UKS. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by for this. Sadly mine is amongst a couple of journals taking there time to come home again. It's not been the smoothest of CJ's but I have enjoyed working on all the journals and seeing how everyone has interpreted the themes.

The theme for Tracy's journal is "Quotes" and I have chosen two to share with her and I hope she is happy with them. I'd better go and wrap it up ready for posting.

Thanks for looking!

It's CJ time again....

Here we are nearly at the end of my first CJ on UKS. It's been an experience, and yes, one I will repeat. (I've signed up for one over on the scrapagogo clubhouse. We just need two more if you are interested...)

So, this time Tilda came to visit..... and now she's winging her way across Yorkshire to visit Tracy.

Don't you just love those cork alphas... I've broken into my pack especially for this one.
Right, Tracy's CJ is waiting for me to come up with something. It's the next on my HUGE crafting to do list. (That's after craft shopping of course)

As always, TFL!

Circle Journal sneak peek time....

Ahh, that time of month when the journals start to wing their way around the country. This month I had Christina's to do (Corrina on UKS). Her theme is Made With Love. As always I am stumped for ideas, then wham - one pops into my head and away I go. Last night was my "Pop" moment, and at 11:00pm it was finished. Just in time as it's posting day tomorrow!

As this is a Made with Love journal, I'd added a little extra something for Christina, which I hope she likes. It's all wrapped up to protect it until our journals all come home in November.

Thanks for looking!

Circle Journal time again....

When I say CJ time again - what I really mean I'm late, I'm late...eeek. Only a few days, but here, finally is my entry for Penny's (catslovelycats) journal "Smile". The journal theme is all about the things that inspire you or cheer you up when times are tough, things that we can pass on to Penny to use when her own days are hard going. I love the idea of this journal, and it's fascinating to read everyone else's entries.

My entry all all about Meditation, the art of mindfulness. Something that when it all starts to feel to much I turn to. I always sleep so much better and the world no longer seems impossible.

To create the pages I have used plain white card stock, distress inks (tea dye, scattered straw, broken china, vintage photo, shabby shutters, fired brick and peeled paint), Perfect Pearls (heirloom gold), Inkadinkadoo stamps - I think that's what they are... Tim Holtz spinners and chain and last but by no means least, two 7Gypsies tags.

Thanks for looking!

365 #188

With all that's been happening I am now very overdue with this months CJ. I intend to make a start on it later and these little beauties, my growing collection of distress ink pads, will be used in earnest. I have a plan for the pages, just hope I can get it how I want it.

Mama Mia....

It's that time again - posting day for the Dancing Queens CJ. You already know the song I picked "Does your Mother know", and now - here is a sneak peek. I can't show you the whole thing as it will give away what I have done.

365 #143

Saturday morning was spent pouring over the song choice for the latest Circle Journal I have to work on, "create a new musical from the songs of Mama Mia". I have now chosen my song and the story that goes with it. The race is on to get it finished by next Monday which is when it's due to be posted. I have supplies on order so feel free to pop back for a sneak peek before then.

Lots to see

Here we go, the finished pages for my contribution to Nicola's Circle Journal.

I have loved doing a collage page for this one, something I have not done for a very, very long time. In fact I was probably at college the last time I did one. All I have used is a circle punch and a pair of scissors to complete it - plus a drop of glossy accents.

A little close up of the flowers. These were hand drawn on to a scrap of paper, then cut out. A small dollop of glossy accent and a silver lined rocialle in the centre, and they were done. I used a pin to place them upright.

The background paper, from American Crafts, was my starting point for this one. I cut the background to size, then using a silver pen, gave all the clouds a silver lining. Sadly that doesn't show up on the photo.

In addition to the American Crafts patterned paper, I've used October Afternoon for the trees, plain green cardstock in two shades - one for the grass, one for the tree leaves; Making Memories Penny Lane papers and Title card, distress inks and mini alpha stickers. If you know the papers you'll now just how bright and cheerful this page looks in real life.

It's got me thinking of lots of other projects though. At the moment I'm in the planning stages for a fabric album and I may steal a few ideas from this to use in it. Ah, but that's for another day....

Thanks for looking!!

Dancing Queens CJ...

Today I have received Nicola's (ander06 on UKS), "I wish I knew then..." circle journal. As the next posting date is just a week away I decided I'd better get cracking with it. So I spent a couple of hours mulling over some ideas (that's extremely hard work for me) and had a rummage through my stash. The result is it's almost complete. So here is a sneak peek of my contribution to it.

Dancing Queens CJ....

Glad you all liked the sneak peek so much and thank you for all your lovely comments on here and on UKS.

Well, here is a better look at what I've come up with for Em's CJ - The things that words have done to me. Sorry the photo's aren't the best.

As you can see, is titled "Once Upon A Time..." Why? Well, as the short journaling inside the flap reveals, there was once a little girl called Vicki, who's love of reading started with a huge pile of Fairy Stories.

I'm grateful for that pile of Fairy Stories as a child, they really did bring me into a world of books and so Once Upon A Time are my life changing words.

Stash roll call for this then: Crafty Individuals (flock of birds), Stamps Away typed out alphas and Lavinia Stamps - these are great for all things fairy!

Adirondack inks in sunshine yellow, red pepper, eggplant and cranberry. Versafine - onyx black and smokey gray. Versamagic in niagara mist and tea leaves. And finally for a touch of bling Kaisercraft gems in black and Stickles in Star Dust.

A sneak peek...

I've finally been able to start on the first newbie Circle Journal I've received, and I thought I'd share a sneak peek whilst its drying off so I can do the next part to it. The CJ belongs to Em (Soulcrafter on UKS) and its titled "There are things that words have done to me". I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm having an experiment!

Once it's dried and I'm happy I share a little more of it with you.

TFL!

Dancing Queens CJ & Painting With Light

This card arrived in the post today from "Flo", the host of the Dancing Queens newbie CJ on UK Scrappers. The photo doesn't do it justice, and it was lovely to get, so thank you Sarah!

I've also signed up this week for "Painting With Light IV", a six week online creative photography course from Cheryl Johnson. I just need to get the manual out for my camera now. Taking part in the Project 365 has seriously given me the bug for photography, so much so I'm investigating buying a DSLR.

Circle Journal

This year I have decided that I would take the plunge and do a circle journal. My theme is "Something Foodie" and last night I sat and made the covers and pages for it. As its my first one I have no idea what to expect really, but I'm looking forward to the challenge from other peoples themes, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what people have done with mine.

First posting isn't until the beginning of March so I still have plenty of time to make my first LO to go in it. Just got to decide what to do as I have a thousand ideas running round my head, but one thing I know is I will need to do some baking first....