Monday 15 August 2011

I have moved...

Please find my new online home at www.lisaswift.co.uk.

(All my posts have moved with me too.)

Lisa x

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Just to let you know...

I am here. Just a little busy at the moment and enduring some free time with John whilst he is on holiday from work.

I am also working on a brand new blog. I have decided to move my blog back over to Wordpress. I have been busy designing and now John is helping me build it. After using blogger for a couple of years, I have decided that I want to do more with my blog and some of these things are much easier using Wordpress.

I will be back soon with lots of new content!

Lisa x

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Dear Scrapbook (cont.)

Following my post this morning, I used some of this stored up inspiration to produce my first digital scrapbook layout.




This layout took me about 30 minutes to put together and I loved it! Why have I never tried this before?

Lisa x

Dear Scrapbook...

I miss you!

Today I have a rare day off and for the last hour I have been visiting some blogs that I just don't usually have time to visit. These are blogs that I used to visit almost every week, gaining inspiration for my scrapbooking. Seeing new and exciting products on the market.

For the last 2 years, Altered Chic has been hugely time consuming. At first, working outside my normal day job. Then as we decided to open the shop, all my time was focused on creating new products, finding suppliers, planning new lines etc. etc.

My scrapbooks have hardly been touched in the last 18 months. In all honesty, I can say I have probably created less than 5 layouts in this time. Only 1 this year so far.


For a hobby that I love, for something that I want to leave for my children (one day), for something that I used to share with so many people (mostly online), I must do something to put this right.

Right now our upstairs is being completely overhauled. We are switching our rooms around to make our home work better for us. This currently leaves me without a craft room and all my supplies are in boxes.

Why do I always feel inspired when I'm unable to do anything about it?

Then I visited Ali Edwards blog. Again, someone who I used to use regularly to inspire projects and layouts. I found this post of her daughter's baby book (it is quite a long video but totally worth watching for inspiration). I love the way she mixes traditional scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking and collections of other memorabilia, and mixing up the sizes of her pages.

I've never seen the point of digital scrapbooking before. I have always been a traditional scrapbooker. This is kind of a 'duh!' moment for me because I design websites. I'm kind of a semi computer geek. I just never thought about actually printing out the digital layouts before. I have a very good quality A4 printer - this would be no problem for me. And some of the digital products out there are gorgeous! (Plus, cost effective!)

I will and always will love traditional scrapbooking. And as soon as I can get my supplies out of those boxes I will certainly be cutting up paper and making embellishments. But for now, whilst this just isn't possible, I'm going to invest some time in turning some of the hundreds of photographs I have into digital pages, ready to print out and place in my much loved albums.

Lisa x

Thursday 28 July 2011

New! Chalkboard Placemats & Coasters

Our chalkboard range is expanding again and this time with something a little different.


Our brand new chalkboard placemats and coasters are a great addition to the table. We've used the coasters as an alternative for a placecard and the placemat has been used to show the guests what is on the menu for dinner.

Why not leave your guest a little personalised message for them to see when they take their seat at the table. Or leave the chalk on the table for children (and adults) too doodle on the mats between courses.

The chalkboard placemats and coasters will be available shortly on our website and in store.

Lisa x