Hello all. I’m back. I’ve had a rough couple of weeks of illness where I had lots of time to think about blogging but lacked the headspace (or brainpower) to actually write anything. I’ve been thinking about structure and formatting and other such things.

I’ve decided to dedicate Mondays to memory keeping.

We’ll be adding special feeds in the sidebar soon so that if you only want to subscribe to certain content then you’ll be able to do just that. Know that we are working on that (as well as transfer to a new server among other things). Beyond that, I’m going to try to stick to a bit of a schedule in terms of content. Spinning Saturday has been working out well for me (until I couldn’t think), so I’m expanding the schedule.

Memory Monday is going to be related to any type of memory keeping, which will include scrapbooking, photos, stories, and organisation or display related to the aforementioned topics. In other words, anything related to memory keeping.

Why does this interest me?

That’s an easy question to answer. I’ve been memory keeping in one manner or another most of my life, and I’ve been scrapbooking since 2003. It’s something I enjoy, and it is something I’d like to share, if for no other reason than that I don’t know any other scrapbookers. I’ve never leafed through an album that wasn’t mine. I’ve never seen another person’s layout in the flesh. I’ve been grateful that there are people out there that are willing to share their layouts, process and philosophies pertaining to memory keeping, and I’d like to give back in my own small way. I used to share my layouts on this blog quite frequently and I’d like get back into the habit of doing that again.

Me, as a scrapbooker:

My style has changed a since I started scrapbooking. I now scrap 8.5×11 (American letter size) exclusively. I love the size. I love the shape. I love how my albums aren’t as cumbersome as 12×12 albums.

I scrap in a relatively simple style, with emphasis on the photos. I almost always include journalling of some description. I don’t own a printer, so my handwriting is prominent in my scrapbooks. I’m not an embellisher, though I do have a thing for flowers, ribbon and brads. They are my go-to bit of decoration. I love my die cutter for titles (see aforementioned lack of printer and the fact that I’m too cheap to buy loads of letter stickers).

Having said all that, I also love a challenge and happily participate in those that tickle my fancy. I like pushing my own boundaries.

For this first edition of Memory monday, I’d like to share some layouts that I’ve been working on lately that are related to some of the Garden Girl challenges on Two Peas.

A challenge to use your scraps, and based on a layout by Shimelle. I chose some photos from Chinese New Year that I’ve been wanting to scrap for a while since I knew I had tons of red scraps of patterned paper.

The next challenge took me completely out of my comfort zone in terms of style. The page itself is a lift of the example page by Fevvers but I’m happy with the results since I’ve previously had a hard time scrapping these photos. The challenge itself was to scrap a series of photos (two is a series, right?), and I chose some of my husband and daughter playing peek-a-boo via PhotoBooth.

The final layout I’d like to share today is based on a sketch from the latest Glitter Girl challege. The sketch uses a 12×12 divided page protector or suggests using the sketch on a standard 12×12 page. Since I scrap in a different size, I used the sketch but took a few liberties by making it a 2 page layout.

I think it works. :)

Thing 1 requested a scrapbooking day, and since Thing 2 was relatively happy so play on his mat, I was happy to oblige.

It has been a while since I’ve done any scrapbooking. I think I’ve managed it once since we’ve moved. But then again, there are a lot of things that have hit the back burner in the last several months. However, it is something I enjoy doing, and I do want to get back into the habit of doing a little bit every week.

This morning I managed two layouts. The first is entitles ‘Week 1’. I now have a whopping 2 layouts about Thing 2.

The second layout is of a trip we took to the beach in Tynemouth, but more importantly how rare it is to actually get a proper summer day in the north of England.

Here’s hoping that Denmark gets better summers. :)

Yes, I still scrapbook… see. Once this whole non-functioning gallery thing gets sorted I may just get some layouts up again. This was another just in case photo… the parcel still hasn’t arrived. :(

I just registered for Library of Memories by Stacy Julian over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I’ve only been waiting to take this class for a year now (I found out about it, oh, a week after registration ended last year).

I’m really excited to take this class as I really like Stacy’s approach to scrapbooking and, quite frankly, I’ve heard a lot of rave reviews about the class. The only unfortunate thing is that until we get the gallery for this blog fixed (please read until my husband writes a new blog interface for me) I won’t be able to post my layouts unless I start sneaking them into the images like I’m currently doing with my photos. Unfortunately, this will inevitably cause twice the amount of work in the long run so just bare with me. Right now I’d rather the boy be finishing his PhD which is this close to being done. We are completely redesigning the gallery layout, so it may just be worth the wait. ;)

Last time we were in Canada we spent a day wandering around the Botanical gardens of Montreal. They have quite an array of gardens including several large glasshouses and thematic gardens which include chinese, japanese, aboriginal and alpine gardens. This is an overview of our day:

I’m quite happy about this layout as I managed to fit quite a number of photos on it, used up some old KI Memories papers and remembered to leave space for the ticket stubs (because we have quite a pile of these things starting to accumulate and they really need to find their home in our albums).

I had lots of fun scrapping this layout. :)

We actually scanned the scans and had them printed on photo paper so we don’t have to worry about them getting damaged and so we’ll always have a digital copy available. Besides, it allowed me to enlarge them slightly.

It was actually the journalling pocket that dictated the colour scheme… I really wanted to use it so I could write a note to baby inside. :)

I thought it was high time I did a layout about my love of hiking. This was the result. The photo was taken a couple of years ago in the Lake Distric on a hike I really loved (the lovely weather helped).

Had a bit of fun stamping on a transparency and doing some painting on this…. I was trying to use up some of my older supplies. The ‘I’ is a lil Davis chipboard letter I painted. I can’t believe how much the paint did to make it look completely different. Good to note…. if you want a different look, add paint!

This will actually be the first page (for now) of my pregnancy album because it just seems fitting.

Because I need another album on the go… at least this will be a very finite album. :)

I really wanted to do a pregnancy album, not necessarily to document everything week by week (because I’m not that organzined) but just the random highlights and things I want to remember. And really, every pregnancy album needs a pee stick layout. ;)

Had some fun with some of the Piggy Tales products. This is from there Little Red Riding Hood line, which I loved to no end but the colours were not quite what I usually scrap with, so I was delighted when they seemed to work for these photos. Photos themselves are from Parc Monceau in on the outskirts of Paris which we found most delightful.