Layout A Day 514 Days 1 and 2

After an unexpectedly long hiatus I am back on board with a major scrappy challenge to get my memory keeping back on track. This month I am taking part in Lain Ehmann's LOAD challenge with my intention being to create 31 layouts over the course of the month.

I am enjoying the challenge so far. I have set myself a couple of rules to keep things manageable. The first is that I am to work from my stash and more specifically some of the bagged Studio Calico kits that are taking up a lot of space in my home. I am also trying to spend no more than an hour on each layout as I have a busy month of visitors and activities planned and do not want to burn out.  

 

There is a theme for this LOAD and it is Past Perfect 2. This means looking at stories from my own past that need telling. If the theme for the day does not fit with photos or ideas that I have then I can broaden and change things to fit. Day one's theme was In The News. Right away I knew we had noted down some headlines and other bits of trivia from the day that Miss 4 was born. I grabbed a couple of old kits and looked for things that worked with the theme and the layout above was the result. I was really pleased to find the news printy style stickers and and patterned papers. I gussied it all up with a cut apart page from Crate Paper and some embellies from Amy Tangerine and Freckled Fawn. The photo is actually when my daughter was about 5 days old but it was the only one I had printed from this age so it will be more than adequate.

The Day 2 theme was If These Walls Could Talk and one of the suggested ideas was our bedroom from childhood. I don't have any photos from my main childhood house but it did trigger a whole lot of memories. I decided to make the layout the colour of my room which was a bright yellow with multiple patterns going on as they did in the 70's. A quick look through my patterned papers and I had more than enough suitable papers and I was away.

I used some more cut apart cards for my journalling which also had a yellow floral which was very similar to the patterned wallpaper in my bedroom. Lain has been really helpful giving ideas such as hitting the internet for stories you don't have pictures for. I would never have told the story of my Basil Brush bench had it not been for this prompt and it was a favourite possession for several years. 

It isn't the loveliest of layouts (and certainly is not quite as square as I would like) but I am thrilled to have recorded a story that would otherwise have been untold.

Here is a little bit of a closer look at the story.

I am counting down to receiving the third prompt later today.

Have any of you taken part in a LOAD challenge before? Did you manage to keep up?

I hope you have a creative weekend and find some time to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day today.