Memory keeping - a few of my ways to keep memories safe - ish!

Here is my dilema which by the looks of it, it is the same with many paper crafters. I love creating with paper and I love memory keeping. But I don't have time or energy (mostly the latter one) to both at a good standard and keep up with everything.

I have talked before about this struggle, though it may sound insignificant - and it is really insignificant in the grand scheme of things - but it becomes a burden. And we as women like to feel guilty about not doing everything up to scratch.

I have accepted that scrapbooking is more about paper and creativity than it is memories and memory keeping. And there is no shame in that. I love to take photos, specially portraits and some of them don't necessarily bring extraordinary memories that I want to keep, but I feel bound to scrap them just because I happen to be inspired by the beauty of the people I photograph. And that, to me, is enough.

But I want to keep a record of what I do, the places I visit. I am very fortunate that between my job, family and friends I travel often. I get to visit places where beauty and moments need to be preserved for a later date. As I am a Facebook very active user, I use LikeBooks to keep a printed version of my timeline, an easy way to keep it all in one place. ( I have talked about LikeBook here and here.)

I also use this blog as a diary of trips. I dont post all the photos on Facebook, or I post different ones (more personal there, less so here).  Some of you may follow this blog because of my crafting, but some of you I know are family and friends that live far away and like to read and see photos of my travels. For me its another way of keep those memories fresh and share a bit of what I do. Then I also print this blog out using Blurb Blog Book feature. So all gets safeish!

Finally I use pocket scrapbooking to keep all the mementos form different trips safe. I also use it for some photos but mostly is to keep the memorabilia.

So far, this is working for me. But we will see. Changes are

Die cutting projects using the Big Shot and Teresa Collins papers

Many times I complain that while I demonstrate I cant really create good samples. Well, last weekend while I was demonstrated for Tubo in Lisbon I actually did something that I was quite proud of for a change! Which is good as I wanted to leave samples behind for Patricia who is the organiser of the event.

Muchas veces me quejo de mi inhabilidad de crear proyectos que estén bien cuando estoy haciendo demostraciones. Bueno, pues la semana pasada cuando estuve demostrando lo nuevo de Sizzix para Tubo en Lisboa cree algunos proyectos de los que me quede contenta. Lo cual no esta mal ya que asi pude dejarlos en Lisboa con Patricia la organizadora del evento.

Of course as I was demonstrating the Big Shot and the latest releases from Sizzix, they all feature a bit or a lot of die cutting!

Por supuesto todas las creaciones tienen algo de Sizzix.

A simple layout using (as do all the projects) Teresa Collins papers and embellishments. All the pictures are of Patricia's children, Gorgeous family.

Un simple layout usando (como los demás proyectos) papeles y demás de Teresa Collins. Todas las fotos son de los hijos de Patricia. Son una familia de guapos!

One of the new Sizzix lines that will be released later on is the Life Made Simple, perfect for project life addicts.

Una de las nuevas colecciones de Sizzix se llama Life made simple que se va a lanzar dentro de unos meses, que esta diseñada para Project Life.

I love the base shape which is a Sizzix Tim Holtz Movers and shapers die called Cameo.

Me encanta el troquel que he usado para la base de esta tarjeta. Se llama Cameo Sizzix Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers.

And finally this box and Bow. The bow is an Eileen Hull bigz die, which means you can cut it with fabric.

Y finalmente la cajita. El lazo es un troquel de Eileen Hull. Como es un Bigz significa que puede cortar tela.


Por cierto, este año quiero cumplir un sueño: dar talleres en castellano y en mi tierra! 

Así que estoy intentado organizar talleres en tiendas de manualidades por toda España. Talleres de scrap, mini albums, home decor ... usando troqueles por supuesto! 

Si tenéis alguna sugerencias comentad o mandadme un mensaje privado. 

Ya os ire informando...

An update on my Project (Facebook) life: Likebook

I got a few questions from yesterday's post over on Facebook, so I thought I would put them here too in case you were wondering the same.

This is the first chapter pages which are two months long. The paper is matt, so the photos are not glossy, but I like them like that.

One of the things I like about Likebooks is that you can see a preview of the first two chapters, enough to get an idea of how they are going to look like.

You can choose if you would like to print any, how many or all the comments you get on your posts. I do not get too many, so I chose all of them. But more importantly I like to keep a record of those conversations.

Above, the photo albums. Again you have choices regarding printing those. I chose to publish them all as the photo aspect is obviously an important aspect to me.

All in all my book - from Jan 2007 to Dec 2012 - has 405 pages, I chose softcover and it costed me about £65 (including postage costs).

There are other options. You can find them all here.

There are a few things that I am not sure if they will appear on the printed book: posts that are from other apps feed - Twitter and Instagram, images from Links or images posted on your wall by friends.

PS: This is not a sponsored or affiliate post. I paid full price for mine!


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Tengo algunas preguntas sobre el post de ayer, así que pensé que iba a contestarlas.

La primera foto es de las primeras páginas de un capítulo, cada capitulo son dos meses. El papel es mate, por lo que las fotos no son brillantes, pero me gustan así.

Una de las cosas que me gustan de Likebooks es que puedes ver como van a quedar los dos primeros capítulos, suficiente para hacerse a la idea de como van a ser.

Puedes elegir si quieres imprimir todos o cuántos comentarios. No tengo demasiados, así que opté por todos ellos. Pero lo más importante es que me gusta mantener un registro de las conversaciones.

La ultima foto es de una pagina de los álbumes de fotos. Una vez más tienes opciones, puedes imprimir todos los álbumes o no. Decidí publicarlos todos ya que el aspecto de la foto es, obviamente, importante para mí.

Con todo mi libro -  que va de enero 2007 a diciembre 2012 - tiene 405 páginas, elegí tapa blanda y me costó alrededor de £ 65 (incluye gastos de envío).

Hay otras opciones.

Hay algunas cosas que no se si aparecerán en el libro impreso: los mensajes que provienen de otras aplicaciones - Twitter e Instagram, imágenes de Links o imágenes puestas en tu muro por amigos.

PS: Este no es un post patrocinado o afiliado. He pagado el precio completo de mi libro!

Project [ Facebook ] Life: the Likebook

I have done photo albums since I can remember. My mum started the tradition when she was a teenager and has kept all her and our family's photos on precious family albums. So when I came to this country and discovered scrapbooking as a craft I was in love. 

But, as a professional papercrafter, the personal scrapbooking has always taken a back seat. I do scrap my favourite photos and do mini albums of trips, but the day to day... well that doesn't get a chance to get into my albums. 

I always have envisioned scrapbooking as a way of having fun crafting preserving memories, but the memory keeping aspect has always been to me a by product, a great addition to the craft and design aspect of the craft, not the important essential aspect. Yet, with the appearance of Project Life, I started to feel guilty about my lack of memory albums.

One day I realised that my Facebook account is actually my day to day record. (I am very active there.) So I looked for ways to print my Facebook feeds and that is how I found Likebook. It is a fairly automatic process, with a little bit of choice - colour, cover... - and it is not cheap. But with a few clicks and a little bit of money, I have a great memory book of my day to day life since I joined Facebook!

So no more guilt. I can enjoy scrapbooking as I always liked it. Fun papercrafting.

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Desde que tengo memoria, he hecho álbumes de fotos . Mi madre empezó la tradición de cuando ella era una adolescente y mantiene fotos en preciosos álbumes familiares. Cuando llegué a Inglaterra y descubrí el scrapbooking como craft me enamoré de el.

Pero, como papercrafter profesional, el scrapbooking personal siempre ha pasado a un segundo plano. Suelo escrapear mis fotos preferidas y hacer mini-álbumes de viajes, pero el día a día ... no tiene la oportunidad de entrar en mis páginas.

Siempre he pensado que el scrapbooking es un hobby maravilloso haciendo artesanía del papel  usando fotos y recuerdos, pero el aspecto de conservar memorias siempre ha sido para mí un subproducto, una gran adición a la actividad artesanal y el aspecto del diseño, pero no el aspecto esencial importancia. Sin embargo, con la aparición del Project Life, empecé a sentirme culpable por mi falta al no conservar mejor el dia a dia.

Un día me di cuenta de que mi cuenta de Facebook es en realidad mi registro de lo que hago el día a día. (Soy muy activa allí.) Así que me puse a buscar formas de imprimir mis feeds de Facebook y así es como me encontré Likebook  Se trata de un proceso automático, con un poco de elección - color, tapa ... - Y no es barato. Pero con unos pocos clics y un poco de dinero, tengo un libro que recoge mucho de mi día a día desde que me uní a Facebook!

Así que no hay más culpa. Puedo disfrutar de scrapbooking como siempre me ha gustado mucho. Diviertiendome con manualidades del papel.