Quotations - family

This week's writing and journalling prompts are sayings and quotations about the family.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing. Big family events and reunions can be wonderful or a little trying…

If you don't believe in ghosts, you've never been to a family reunion.
Ashleigh Brilliant

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO about a family reunion

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations - sweets

This week's writing topic and journal prompts are from sayings and quotes.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing.

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. Barbara
Johnson

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO about a favourite food of your family.

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations - the family as a gift

This week's journal prompts for writers and scrapbookers are all quotations about the family.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing.

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are
to them. Desmond Tutu

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO including every member of your immediate family

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations – extended family

This week's writing and journalling prompts are from quotations

Use the quote as a starter for your writing. Is the following true for you?

The word family has taken on a wonderful and extended meaning... and can
include people like coworkers or roommates. Angela Shapiro

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a minibook with each page dedicated to a person who has meant a lot to you in your life.

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations – ruling the family

This week's prompts for writing and journaling are all quotations.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing. Who rules your family? Successfully? Does your family have rules or are you against them?

It is easier to rule a kingdom than to regulate a family. Chinese
Proverb

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO about rules that your family have whether formal or informal: “We always have scrambled egg for Sunday breakfast”

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations – family as friends

This week we’re writing in our journals and scrapbooks following from inspiration of famous quotes and sayings.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing. Are your family members also friends? Or are your friends closer than your family?

Friends are God's apology for relations. Hugh Kingsmill

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO with this quote as the title.

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Quotations - family

This week's writing and journalling prompts are inspired by quotations.

Use the quote as a starter for your writing.

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. Jane Howard

What does family mean to you?

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a LO with the title “family”.

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Play - cards and boardgames

Do you play cards – or boardgames?

What was the last game you played?
Do you like to win or do you play just for the fun of it?

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a layout with playing cards on - either real ones or scanned.

Be inspired by the names of the suits: hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Play - an instrument

Have you ever played an instrument?
If so, try to describe what it felt / feels like.

If not – what instrument would you play if you could learn now – painlessly – and why?

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

If you were a musical instrument which would you be?
Create a LO inspired by playing an instrument (the singing voice could count as an instrument).

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Play - music

Writing doesn’t have to be perfect first time – and if it’s just for a journal or scrapbook, it is important to include the everyday – what might seem mundane but in a few years’ time will be part of the big picture of your and your family’s past.

Do you play music?
What kind of music do you like to play when you are writing – or do you prefer silence?What kind of music makes you feel playful?

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

What music did you listen to most recently? Did you like it? Why? Or why not?

Create an "everyday" layout and use a reference to music to help you start journalling.

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Play - how do you play?

It’s important to write honestly and truthfully about how you feel about things. You may shy away from a word or topic “I don’t play – I’m too old for that” but play is essential in our lives – for relaxation and for creativity.

“Play is the beginning of knowledge.”

How do you play?

I play by....

I like to play...

My play is ...

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Is scrapping play for you? Take a pic of your stash or yourself or friends scrapping.,

What's fun about it? How do you play?

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Play

This week our daily journalling prompts are all about play.

What does play mean to you? Is it something you still do?

Creativity is all about play, whether you are playing with words, or playing with paper and glue as a scrapbooker. I do both!

~~~ Scrapbooker’s journalling challenge ~~~

Create a layout with the subject "Play with abandon"

~~~ Scrapper’s journaling challenge ~~~

Finding your inspiration - looking back

Sometimes when you're looking for inspiration, a good place to start is things you've already written. Look through your notebook - does anything spark? Look through your old journals or scrapbook albums - is there any style or sentence there that inspires something in your mind?

Or - look through your blog! Is there anything there that can be polished up?

Last week I talked about writing letters, and one of those ideas was to write a letter to someone you love. This week I spotted lovely example of that from blogger Leo at Zen Habits. If you haven't written your letter yet, that's a great inspiration.

Finding your inspiration: brainstorming

This week is all about finding your inspiration and beating that Writer's block or scrapper's block.
Often you know what you want to write about, you know what you are trying to journal about, but somehow you’re feeling blocked and you can’t get going.

Try not to procrastinate! This week I'm offering various activities which will ease you into writing and boost your creativity.

Today's idea:

Brainstorm

Start with a word, then just sit down and scribble down as many words, phrases, ideas around that word as you can. When you've finished you'll have a collection from which you can pick the words or ideas which appeal to you most.

If you're scrapbooking a picture - look at the photo and write down as many words and phrases to describe it as you can come up with.

Artist inspiration

Is there a particular artist or crafter who has influenced you?

Who is it? Research a bit about their life and work, or just explain what you feel about their work.

Journalling: I have been inspired a lot by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I have used some of his designs as backing paper, I have bought stamps of his roses, and I have written a whole narrative story with his squares and roses as a theme. In some layouts, I have used an image from a Rennie Mackintosh calendar to cut out the letters for the titles.

Family: the ones you love

Time to think about what I do to make life special for my special man.

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways...
Christina Rossetti (originally Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Think of someone one you love: set down the reasons why you love them, the things about them that you love. Count the ways... here are some prompts to get you started.

I love the way you...
I love it when you...
My favourite part of your face is...
Your smile makes me ...
I love your ...
You're a great husband because ...
I'm so glad you ...