7pm: It's my party...

Thank you so much for joining me on this Birthday blog hop :) I hope that you'll enjoy yourself as much as the designers have in preparing for the weekend and as much as I plan to!! Each blog you visit should have a step by step, tutorial, challenge or project for you to have a go at if you fancy it and a link to someone elses blog where you'll find the next inspiration. If at any point you get lost just hop back here for an hourly update on who's blog to visit next. Lots of our lovely bloggers are offering prizes and giveaways so drop by and leave a comment for them to let them know you were there. I hope that you enjoy visiting their blogs as much as I have over the months.

So without further ado, let's get started :)

I was inspired some time ago to scrap my here and now on my Birthday each year. This year I'm combining my LO with my Birthday Blog Bash and I hope you'll play along. Although I'm showing you how I've put my LO together what I'm really interested in is getting you all journalling. My finished article might sound a little scary to those of you who don't do journalling, but honestly it's easy when you get started! I took a class by Shimelle at a retreat a couple of years ago and she shared some of her journalling secrets with us so it's something I feel comfortable with now.

I wanted most of my journalling to be hidden away for prosperity so I designed this opening LO with a photo of Me @ 33 (or as near as damn it!) on the front. It opens to reveal more photos of me and my thoughts right here, right now.

You will need:

4 photos of one person

2 pieces of cardstock

Ink

Adhesive

Three pieces of patterned paper (I used Prima Origami Gardens, 4heures37 Chemin des bon enfants #1 and #6)

Lined paper or cardstock (I used Scenic Route background blue grid worn)

Scrap cardstock for matting

Embellishments

Alphabets

Lace

Three tags

Optional:

Lace cardstock 'flower child socialite'

Basic Grey Recess

Glimmer mist (graphite and lemon zest)

Acrylic paint

Safmat

Flourish stamp

To make the LO I used two pieces of cardstock. Fold one of them so that one side is 7 inches and the other is 5 inches. Repeat for the second piece.

Flip one of them so that when lined up, the front and back are both 12 inches wide. Attach with tape to hold in place for now. At this point I decorated the front cover but I'd like you to focus on the inside if you only have an hour to spare right now, so scroll down if that's the case please.

The front page

Firstly, I postitioned the cardstock with the larger width to the left hand side and with the cardstock inside a pizza box to contain the glimmer mist, I sprayed the bottom left hand corner with lemon zest glimmer mist and then creme de chocolat glimmer mist. I then cut out two sections of the 'flower child socialite lace cardstock'. and a piece of patterned paper (BG Recess) measuring 10x10 inches. I tore off one corner before inking all the edges. I positioned the paper about 1 cm away from the bottom right hand side and the bottom of the cardstock with the torn corner to the left hand bottom corner, and then tucked the lace cardstock underneath the torn corner and attached it in place using glossy accents. You'll notice that I overlapped one of the flowers by adding adhesive to it later in the process.

My next step was to mat my photo. I always try to use scraps for this. I inked the photo before I stuck it down and I also inked the edges of the matting.

I positioned the photo so that it overlapped the opening where the two piece of cardstock meet. I drew a pencil line from to show where the photo would be and then used a piece of packaging cardboard with a serrated edge dipped in acrylic paint, dragging it from side to side and then downwards where the photo would eventually sit.

I printed a queen of hearts card from the internet onto cream cardstock, cut it out, used a punch to round the edges and inked the edges. With the photo back in position I began to assemble my LO with embellishments. The butterfly button is from the Chatterbox Treasures (Indigo Mill) and there really are some treasures in there.
To make the squiggle of wire I wrapped the wire around a pen and then squished it until it formed loops.

For my title I used staz on ink and a stamp on acetate, cut it out and attached it using glossy accents before adding a title on top. The words 'Thirty three' are printed on safmat and stuck directly on to the page/acetate. If you've not used safmat before then you should try it :) I love the stuff. I've used it twice on this LO; for the title and one of my lists inside the LO. I wrote what I wanted to include in word. The list is written on a free download from House of three with text boxes to cover up the original title and replace it with the words 'This year I have' and then to add my list of ten things. Then I printed it all on to safmat, cut it to size, peeled of the backing stuck it down.Inside

Choose one of your patterned papers and cut it to about 8 inches (Chemin des bon enfants #1). If you are using the same paper as me (Chemin des bon enfants #6) cut out a cupcake and the cloud. Tear the coordinating patterned paper so that it is just over 4 inches high.

I used a stiff brush and some brown acrylic to mark the edges of the paper and inked the torn piece. Attach the larger piece at the top. You may need to take a fraction off one side to make it fit as some width is lost in the folding of the cardstock.

Use a pencil to mark the rough place that the bottom piece of cardstock will come to and stick lace along this line (I used glossy accents).

Use double sided tape to make sections on the back of the bottom piece of cardstock. This is because you are going to add tags and you don't want them to be able to fall down inside the LO. Attach the bottom piece of patterned paper along the bottom of the LO and the two sides, but leave the top open.

Tear a piece of the second piece of patterned paper about 1.5 inches wide and ink the edges. Cut the third piece of coordinating paper about 6 inches wide, ink the edges and attach to the left hand panel. Attach the torn patterned paper. Cut a piece of lined paper/cardstock 5x5 inches, ink and attach to the top of right hand panel. Cut a piece of the third piece of paper 5x7 inches ink the edges and attach to the bottom of the right hand panel. Tear a small piece of the second patterned paper, ink and attach between to the two papers already attached to the right hand panel. Matt three photos using coordinating scrap cardstock. Stick one on each of the three panels, remembering that there will be tags sticking out of the bottom half of the panel in the middle. Add embellishments and a title. If you can think of one to split across all three panels- great!! I used Prima Scribbles and a chipboard butterfly for the left hand panel, the cut out cake and cloud from Chemin des bon enfants #6 and a stamped flourish for the middle panel and flowers cut from the patterned paper for the right hand panel. Embellishment and alphas that are flat are the best for this LO so that it sits nicely in your page protector.

And now for the journalling :) The first panel is easy peezy. This is the journalling that most of us do on every LO. Where was the photo taken? When was the photo taken? What does the photo show? Write it down and add it to the page somewhere.

Now things get a bit trickier and you might want to write it in rough first. How you go about this panel will depend on who your photos are of, but I'd like you to write lists for this one. If you're scrapping about yourself think about the time that these photos were taken. What did you love? What did you hate? What were your goals? What were your hobbies? Did you have a certain routine? Add your lists to your LO, even if it's only on the three hidden tags.

And finally you're going to write prose. Think about what you are/were thinking at this moment. Write these thoughts down. Would you like to feel differently and if so how can you achieve that? Write what you would like to remember when you look back at these photos in years to come. The things we forget over time. If you're scrapping about someone else, tell them what you feel about them and what you wish for them. This is your legacy. Feels good doesn't it? You'll notice I've not included mine in the photos. I like to write from the heart, for me to remember this moment and sometimes you might find that what you write is too personal to share. I did I'm afraid.

I hope that you've enjoyed playing along. I have a £10 Indigo Mill gift voucher to giveaway to someone who has a go at this LO. So I'd like to see your take on a three panel LO with journalling (and your front page if you've managed to get it done) by 31st March please. Just add a comment and a link to your LO to this posting and I'll randomly select someone for this giveaway :)

Our next blog is Lis Lambertsen and you can visit her here . Happy blog bashing everyone!!!