Oh My!

Two scrapbook layouts today. In the Sunday Times yesterday my mouth was drooling at a picture of Eggs Benedict, one of my favourite dishes of all time. I resolved to laminate it and use it in a LO. And here it is.

The paper is by Rouge de Garance and Stampington. Chipboard letters by EK Success (painted and sprinkled with glitter). Paper frills and heart brads by Doodlebug. Harvest pins by Fancy Pants.

The latest weekly challenge over at UKS calls for a photo of self, journalling, ribbons and a bloom. I used a picture of me at the top of Vesuvius, the volcano which spewed a lethal sulphuric cloud into the air which hung over, and eventually choked, the people of Pompeii (not a lava river, as people often mistakenly think).

Supplies: patterned paper and letter stickers by BasicGrey; chipboard letters by DCWV; various ribbons and blooms. Journalling spot: Collage Press.

Don't let the sun go down on me

UK Scrappers is celebrating its 5th anniversary with a birthday cyber crop. Scissors and glue have been brandished this weekend all over the land. I completed two of the class layouts myself. Here's one of them, fresh from a party on Saturday night. This is John's mum Marie, who's quite a character.

This was quite a cost effective layout for me (tell John the good news!). It uses scraps of paper, which few of us ever throw away (I keep them in a file labelled "serendipity"), plus I used the free stencil that came with Scrapbook Inspirations a while ago and the journalling circle was a spare from one I made yesterday, cut in half. The chipboard letters were a find from the local pound shop.

Last week there was a magnificent sunset and I rushed out with the camera to take the view from directly opposite our house, and to the side. I scrapped the results in a simple way to show off the sunset. I used new Rhonna Farrer paper, a few orange flowers and, a great invention in my view, self adhesive vellum. Goes through the printer a treat.



Next up: Christmas cards. So much for saying I wouldn't make many this year! I must have already made about 15.

Joining the community

The UK Scrappers community is a lively and colourful place where scrapbookers congregate and share their work. I've been a member since January, and I log on most days and comment on people's layouts. But I still feel like an outsider: some of the members have thousands of posts to their name, and know each other; and have all been to crops and in teams.

I've just joined a team in the hope of breaking through. I recently asked a question in the forum which I tactfully phrased around the fact that layouts only seemed to get lots of comments when people knew the person who'd posted them. When you're a fairly new scrapbooker, it's quite daunting when you publish your efforts and get views but no comments. You start to feel paranoid, that people don't think your layouts are worthy of a comment. The same thing applies to the online photography workshop I'm doing, which a lot of the UKS ladies are involved with. My pictures have so far had hardly any views or replies, but some people have literally hundreds!

I guess I'll give it another six months and continue to try hard with posting comments and being 'seen.' But it seems like a lot of work right now to get any breakthrough!