Finding a Pattern

Blogging for scrapbookers - Prompt 9

Prompt 9 of Shimelle’s Blogging for Scrap bookers is about patterns for your scrapping / blogging. I have to say I don’t really work to any pattern, I scrap or blog an event as and when it occurs, and when I have the time. I was interested to read about the mother of four whose children keep track on which of them had been scrapped the most. The children think the number of pages about each child related to the measure of their mother’s love for each of her offspring. As a result she has to work to a pattern of each of the four children to keep them all happy. I’m glad to say my three, despite all being born on the same day do not feel this sibling rivalry and appear to take delight in any page I create. They often join in with opinions and ideas of their own now they are older. My three children all do very different activities in their spare time. My son, Andrew does not really like having his photo taken and his favourite sport for much of his school life has been swimming. Sadly we are not allowed to take photographs in the public swimming pools any more, so much of his progress and achievements have gone unrecorded by the camera, or scrapbook page. (The layout shows
Andrew baking at 3 - class by Paper Maze Scenic Route papers)


My daughter Catherine does lots of dancing and performing arts, and I make a lot of her costumes. We always have a photo shoot at home and there are often opportunities to take pictures back stage. In addition there are always the official photographs to buy. Catherine also enjoys having her photo taken at every opportunity when dressed up for an evening out, fancy dress and just for fun with or without her friends. Most of these can be found on her Facebook.

My other daughter Emily was also a dancer until a few years ago, but she gave up in favour of her other time consuming activities. There are always many pictures of her to scrap, if not as many as there are of Catherine. Emily is a keen photographer herself, so I have a ready supply of her pictures to scrap too. (Layout shows Emily's obsession with Jessie from Toy Story, Cosmo Cricket papers.)

As I said the children have never really scored points on how many pages I scrap of each of them, although I do try to keep this in mind. I like to scrap an event when it is new and fresh. I am also enjoying scrapping treasured old family photos of my own childhood as I have discovered them. I am in the process of scanning all the old slides my father took backs in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. I plan to put these on discs for all the family who would remember these events as a little extra Christmas present. I’m also wading through scanning g all the colour negatives Alan and I have taken over the years (and that’s a big task!).
(Layout shows Christmas 1964 photos from slide, Basic Grey Papers)

Another source of photos, making my scrapping random, is the family history and tree building I have been involved in this last year or so. This has been very successful and I have been adding to my collection of photographs from some new found distant family members. I may have traced my family back to 1584 and my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, Grandfather William Banks. Apparently he was employed to recruit sailors for the navy at the time of the Spanish Armada. I wonder if that make him part of a press gang! I may have traced my family tree back to the 1500’s but of course the oldest photos I have are around the late 1800’s. This delightful photo is of my great grandfather Robert Ephgrave, this is an old LO I made at a Scrapaholix retreat some years ago with Scenic Route Papers.


Talking of patterns to scrapping, I did more regular scrapping when I was involved in the Mojo Holders DT. This gave me a good excuse to get scrapping weekly, and because it involved using a sketch I would scrap what was most appropriate. For example through the summer I scrapped a lot of photos from my daughter’s latest dance show. (Layout shows A dance competition and Basic Grey papers.)


I have note books full of scribbles and sketches of my own ideas. I usually use this method of planning scrapbook pages when I am away from home and the Internet. I spend time planning out what I want to scrap when I return from holiday. The example below is from a trip to Venice while staying in Lake Garda a few years ago.
(Layout shows St Marks Square and more Basic Grey.)

Reading today’s prompt I was wondering about developing a pattern to my thoughts for blog entries and scrapping. Maybe a ‘Basic Grey Thursday’ as this is by far my favourite range of papers. I could maybe invite others to scrap from a sketch derived from my LO each week, or maybe monthly would be a little less ambitious and a better place to start! I used to use follow the challenge of creating a page from the Pencil Lines sketch weekly, and more recently have used the Page Maps when I need some inspiration myself. I will check out all the useful links in Shimelle’s prompt when I get more time.

I was interested to read about the lady who blogged a message to her twin daughters weekly as
it reminded me of when my triplets were small. I have up writing my diary as I was rather busy with the babies and started photographing every event along the way – then when the prints dropped through the letterbox, I would choose the best shots and put them in an album, with written comments on who, what, when, and where. A few years later I discovered scrapbooking and the rest is history as they say! There were no digital cameras or Internet in when the triplets were born 17 years ago. We did however own a BBC computer, which had been invaluable to me in my studies and work as a nurse tutor before the children came along. It certainly helped me with my dissertations, while others were paying to have their work typed up for them I was able to do my own and make changes as I needed to.
(A layout recreating the front page of J. Wilson's Double Act with Bazzill and the Cricut.)

Drawing from all this is my undeveloped plan of having a regular feature on the blog called something along the lines of ‘Blast from the Past’. This would be a series of entries with words and layouts about the photos I am discovering from my past, as I find and scrap them. If you are still with me – congratulations! This turned into a very long blog entry indeed. Shimelle has truly succeeded in getting the thought processes going. Watch this space in 2010 for some regular features – once I have decided what they will be!