Are you ready for more?

Well this took longer than thought eh?! Having no internet for a few weeks threw me right off the edge of sanity I can tell ya!
BUT....now its back to work, trying hard to find normality and catch up with all that is going on with Sparkle the Imagination, and trust me, there is A LOT!!
Till we get on track we have decided that we are going set a WEEKLY challenge not a daily one. By doing this I will be able to take part properly and not have to keep coming back to add my pics later!
We are also excited to share with you 'believers' out there a lovely blog that is inspired by a range of very talented ladies of different faiths and non-believers who set some thought provoking challenges. Why not jump over to Scrapfaith and check out their gorgeous stuff?
In the next week or so there will be the new Design Team added to the Sparkle the Imagination website where you will get to meet the people who will be offering you some wonderful projects. If you are interested in joining a design team, check this out and drop us an email. We are looking for a range of people in various crafts, not just scrapbooking. There is no deadline date due to the fact that we haven't advertised as much as we hoped to. So come on and show us your talent...or that of someone you know!
Weekly challenges will be posted on a Monday morning before midday then on the 15th of every month there will be a monthly challenge....this challenge will have rewards for the one the DT collectively select as the project of the month!
Any questions or comments either leave a comment or email us, we will get back to you asap.

[prompt # 20 ~ 7 Wonders of the World]

7 wonders of the world ~ I'm not sure if I could name them all but I can if we are talking about MY world! So, what are YOUR 7 wonders of the world?

Prompts will be on hold now till end of July.

Prompt Catch Up

Many apologies for the lack of prompts this last week and a half. I had pre-set blogger to upload them each day for 10 days as I knew I was going to be rather busy, but as you can see it didn't happen, and I'm STILL waiting for a reply from blogger to find out why it didn't work!
So, as I know I have readers who enjoy taking part in the prompts I am going to do a full catch up in this one post! So pull up a chair, grab a drink and prepare for some inspiration that will surely get you thinking! :)

Prompt # 12 ~ Goodnight! - What is your bedtime routine? This could be as a family, with your kids, with your partner or your own. What do you do that's part of who you are? What habits have you formed? Do you have specific routines that work better or are you just random?

Prompt # 13 ~ Favourite Literature - Don't panic, this doesn't have to be Shakespear or Wentworth, just something that inspires you, perhaps its a favourite quote that you use on your email or its something you have hanging on a wall. Whatever the written words are, share it!

Prompt # 14 ~ The Big Picture - What is your big picture? Is it your family? Your work? What defines you in your life? Spend more time on journalling than photos if you can.

Prompt # 15 ~ If I were a Chocolate Bar! - Now I'm sure we are all just drooling at the thought of chocolate right now! :) So, compare yourself to any kind you like and tell us why. This is intended to focus on your good points not a negative!

Prompt # 16 ~ Guilt ~ This could well be attached to the above but this is where you have the opportunity to journal the things you would like to fix throughout your lifetime. I'm not going to call for sharing on this one but to do so is welcome and your choice if you are comfortable with it. What makes you feel sad, down, mad, lonely, guilty etc? Why? How can you change that?

Sunday Speshal ~ I came across a quote a while ago when I first started my psychology course, today I am offering it as a prompt to get you thinking! A good insight to who we are, not just on the surface but really in the core of us often goes unnoticed when we take on marriage, children, careers and other life societies. How many of us have only done part of what we deep down truly want? Can it fit in with our life now? Do we still want it?

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
- Unknown

So what have you become?

Anyone who leaves a comment (latest next Wednesday) I shall send 5 sheets of sayings rub-ons.

Prompt # 17 ~ Removal Instructions ~ What tips have you learnt to remove things that are unwanted? Now this can be from household stains to work mistakes, something on your desk to a life audit. Whatever you perceive it to be!

Prompt # 18~ Decor ~ Journal/Photo or Scrapbook about your current/previous decor tastes. Talk about your home, past and present. Talk about how you achieved a certain look or style, what inspired you, who helped you and how long did it take. Include funny moments, prices and any other details.

Prompt # 19 ~ Hormones ~ I'm sure in some way we all cross paths with hormones, be it our kids, our own or extended family. How do you deal with it? What have you learnt from it? Do you have some ways of making it easier to live with or are you totally gazumped with it all?

Tomorrow's prompt will be uploaded by myself! My interpretations of the above prompts will come shortly.
Enjoy!

[prompt # 11 ~ Motto]

Motto: what is your saying or secret code in life?

Whilst on the phone to my other half this evening we got talking about our sense of humour together, I made a comment that he thought would be a good motto for us: Only the good stuff. To my way of thinking this covers pretty much all the things we believe in, especially as we are both Latter Day Saints and wanting very similar things in life. I have done a double layout which I will upload later when I've finished the journalling.

So come share with us what YOUR motto is, tell us why and how. If you don't have one, what would it be? How would it be fitting to you?

Enjoy!

Design Team ~ Welcome to Jenn

I want to introduce a new DT member, Jenn. She is one amazing chick with a definite talent in scrapbooking!

Go check out her blog and say hi :) As soon as I get Jenn nailed I'll get her to introduce herself here...with a photo so we can put a face to the name!

We are still browsing through emails and links for other DT members, it's not too late to apply and you don't have to be restricted to scrapbooking...it can be ANY craft at all! More information is on this post.

Sunday Speshal

Instead of doing a prompt today I have decided that I will offer an incentive instead :)

I would like to see a photo/sketch/layout or blog post about....drum roll please!!....

Your ideal life! I am confident we all have one! Now this can be any angle you want, it could be the one you have now with one or two tweaks, it could be something totally different, such as a bigger house, newer car, new location. It could be an outlook you have that you are working to change. It can be anything at all that ticks your clock! :)

For every person who does this challenge and leaves a link to their blog or gallery in the comments I will send a craft goodie bag to the value of approx £4! (The deadline for this is next Sunday).

My offering is by way of a layout, still in progress but not far from being finished. I have used photos and lots of journalling because to me it is an insight to what I am still trying to achieve. I will upload later today.

Have fun with this, I'm confident it will leave you feeling pretty happy and optimistic, even if you were to begin with! :)

[prompt # 10 ~ Advance the Application]

Todays prompt is part of the phrase from a unit i'm working on in my course, the full statement is:

''The hardest part for an individual dealing with depression is not the accepting of moving forward its having the inner mental and emotional strength to 'advance the application' to the next step individual to them''

When I gave this statement thought (I had to write a 2000 word essay based on that one statement!) I realised it is not only people suffering from depression or any other condition but to the rest of us who are just cruising through life. I know I personally am becoming very interested in a couple of other crafts right now and I find I am slow to 'advance' (start, do) the 'application' (techniques) for fear of getting it wrong or not being good enough. So today I have decided to challenge myself to 'advance' and actually give it all a go.

So, while i'm doing that i'd like you to think about what application you can advance in your life, not necessarily a craft but it could be anything, from a new friendship to taking a course you like the idea of, from starting that workout to applying for that job you saw advertised. It can even be something you have already done. I know when I started scrapbooking back in 2001 I was petrified I was going to get laughed at for my sorry attempts...but doing it in private for a while give me the opportunity to 'advance the application' and build on not only my style but my self confidence too. Now, I dont claim to be a professional but I like my style when I really put the effort into it! Of course I have room for improvement so I will continually 'advance the application'. See where i'm going here? Its all about having a go at something, pushing forward, not giving up, live the moment and if the worst happens and it goes wrong...either shelf it for a while or try again!

Today, i'm going to try my hand at making a small felt bag for Charley's favourite crayons, a basic project but it's a start! :)

And here is the finished project! I have to say, as basic as it is I kinda like it! I'm now going to have a go at doing a hand puppet...aiming high here, I'd like to do a few for Charley then sweet talk Jd into making the theatre...he's the wood master here! :)

Good luck

[prompt # 9 ~ Secrets]

Secrets ~ dont worry, i'm not asking for deep, dark and personals here! This is purely for your own scrapbooks or journals! I got to thinking about what kind of things I used to think couldn't be shared, things that would reveal too much of me or something I was trusted with knowing. I got to thinking of when I was a kid and secrets were the coolest thing in the world (next to imaginary friends, ice cream and hiding places!), I almost forgot some of the things that were part of who I was so i've chosen to do a layout on my childhood secrets that I can remember.
As I still dont have a way of getting my photos onto this computer I cant show the layout I have done yet but I will share what my journalling was about:

I put together a double 12x12 layout with18 small envelopes and a secret in each one ranging from childhood stuff to more recent. I have shared some of the funny childhood ones, they write something like this:

1. I had the BIGGEST crush on my English teacher, Mr Taylor. He wore fashionable brown corduroy jeans (remember those?!!) and matching sweater and always a white shirt underneath! He was always smiling and always spoke politely to us, even the naughty kids. He would draw little faces in my book and make me giggle. I used to whispter to my friend, Susan about him and we would be huddled up in the corridor and look out for him. I was 8 years old and thought he was as important as the sunshine!

2. For a birthday my dad bought me a radio/cassette player that i'd been going mad for, I kicked in to record everyone and everything for some time afterwards...I even recorded my neighbour arguing with someone...when I listened back to it I realised it was not a good thing to have done and was so scared i'd be found out I hid the tape!! Why didn't I erase it? Well at 8 years old the imagination is erm...strange!! :)

3. On school photo day my mum sent me to school all prettied up wearing a handmade top and neatly brushed hair. I HATED the top and had secretly put another top on underneath it and took the top one off when I got to school. It didn't occur to me that she'd find out when she saw the proofs!!! Ok I was again, 8 years old...what an eventful time eh?!! Lol

4. Getting in late from school one day I knew I was 'in for it' (I mean 2 hours late and there were no mobile phones in those days) so to ease the pain I told my mum I was helping a teacher. Mum let me ramble on till I had exhausted the most colourful explanation of all time and grounded me for 2 days. I'm not sure if she knows I was at my friends house, even to this day! Perhaps I ought to tell her? Lol

5. I remember hiding someone's bike while he went in to get told of for something. The theory was it would stop his dad taking his bike off him for a punishment! He got grounded for longer AND his bike taken off him cos he went and said he lost it! Around this time I realised that secrets were hard...and often required telling a lie!!

6. I had a friend, we were about 14 and I knew she was into some serious bad stuff out of school, she was such a good person that I didn't quite believe it when she offered some stuff to me. I was far too much of a wuss to do anything like that but I kept her secret for the longest time. Looking back now I wish I hadn't, she died at the young age of 22 because of it. Totally tragic.

7. Going back to when I was a kid, we used to have one of those fold up trailers. My dad loved it and we were always off somewhere most weekends. One time I was so upset that we couldn't take our dog away with us that I hid him in it. By the time we got to wherever it was we were going the poor dog was almost dead! Boy was I in trouble!!

8. Not all my 'secrets' were troublesome, to this day I remember a crush I had, Darren, asking me if he could kiss me. I almost baled at this point, I was not only painfully shy but I just didn't kiss boys!! I let him in the end and I hated it, my crush was as good as over at that point. I'm just glad I was 7 years old and able to rewrite the memory...I could have been scarred for life!!! :)

9. My favourite secret of all time was Brian. Brian lived in our kitchen, between the washing machine and the sink unit. I would rush home from school every day and feed him, talk to him and hurry him along to a place I could see him at. Brian was my snail and I loved him. So I will never forgive my mother for squashing him flat!!! I was 11/12 and so mortified I cried for days!!

Updated: here is my offerings, I changed it from the original 18 mini envelopes to just 6, I looked like I have more secrets than boots! :)



So, what's your secret? Have you shared them, would you share them, do they need confession or are they just too funny to NOT stay a secret any longer?

{prompt # 8 ~ Tip of the Day}

Tip of the Day ~ what is your days 'tip'?

Today my Tip of the Day is 'Action' in the physical sense. I have promised myself for a while now that I would take regular rides on my bike without a destination in mind (except home of course!!) So as its looking to be a nice day today, I plan on taking Prince Charley round to Prinknash Abbey Park where we will get on our bikes and just follow the pathway with a lunch in our backpacks. The thing about going cycling (from what I remember!) is you are travelling at a slower pace enough to see whats around you, you cant speed on a pathway, especially with a 3 year old in tow! So taking in what is happening around me is a physical recharge I feel so in need of!

I cant upload any pictures yet as I'm on a different computer for a day or so and dont have the correct outlet or card reader...but I will catch up in the next few days.

In the mean time, share what your Tip of the Day is, what works for you, how, why, where and who with. Have fun!

{prompt # 7 ~ Revisit}

Revisit ~ What would you like to revisit? This could be something from your childhood, a holiday place, a moment in time with a family member or just a day that went just how you wanted it to go.

Again my contribution here is going in my journal, this is my offering:

My Revisit has to be the time recently when I came downstairs and heard jd and the kids talking. I sat on the bottom of the stairs listening to them, jd was doing dinner, Jay and Beth were doing what they do best...tease...Charley was being Charley and taking the dog prisoner and Kirsten was helping jd with his masterpiece (that boy can cook I tell ya!!). I sat with an armful of washing just feeling the gratitude for the natural, easy and willing relationships that are going on in my home, we share the lurve more times than we dont since being in this house, its like it has a magic spell on it! :) The eavesdropping I was doing was such a warm, fun and inspiring time for them and for me it was full of pride to hear the laughter and chat between them so easily getting along :) I love family moments when things just go right! :) I can revisit these moments over and over and I never get tired of remembering them!

What or where is your Revisited place?