If you’re a writer and you can’t come up with the right words to get started on that blank sheet of (virtual) paper it’s called Writers Block.

And if you’re a scrapbooker and you just can’t seem to get any ideas to get you started on that next scrapbook layout it’s called Scrappers Block.

And let’s face it, we’ve all experienced it. I defy any scrapbooker to tell me they’ve never had Scrappers Block at some time in their scrapbooking life. But if you’re that person feel free to share in the comments section below. I’ll happily bow down to you. My friend Antoinette is going through a severe case of mojo collapse at the moment and that has inspired me to write this post.

So getting past your Scrappers Block and into the land of free flowing creative juices is the challenge. And here are some ideas you might like to try to help you smash through the block.

1. Take a browse through your scrapbook albums. A stroll down memory lane will not only help to relax your mind but it rekindle your enthusiasm, and hopefully your creativity, as you revisit some of your favourite moments and scrapbook layouts.
2. Take a browse through someone else’s scrapbook albums. Check out your friend’s scrapbook layouts. Some may just reach out to you and plant little seeds in your creative mind. And if you don’t have a handy scrapbooking friend to turn to you can always turn to the Internet. Many scrapbooking sites host layout galleries and scrapbooking blogs like this one are a great place for creative information. You can check out all the Scraps of Mind articles which feature a scrapbook layout here.
3. Scrapbook magazines can also provide a wealth of ideas. You can relax your mind as you flick through them and see what you’re drawn to. Try not to be too focused as this can inhibit your creative side from being receptive to any ideas.
4. Try looking at magazine advertising with new eyes. Some of the best graphic layout artists around are behind the design and layout of the advertisements that you see in your magazines. Try looking at some which catch your eye and think how they might be adapted to make a scrapbook layout. The scrapbook layout on the left is an example of how I have used this scrapbooking blocker buster.
5. Learn a new technique. Often I find that the inspiration for a new scrapbook layout design will come from learning how to do something new and then building the design around the new thing I’ve just learned. You’ll find plenty of ideas on Scraps of Mind. Just check out the Articles tab at the top of the page. And if you’re a digital scrapbooker (or would like to become one) take a look at my Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Tutorials. There is something for everyone from Beginner to Advanced.
6. Make a card or an ATC. Working with a smaller canvas and without a focal photo will give your creative brain a different direction. And once you’re in the creative mode again it’s much easier to come up with ideas for your scrapbook layout.

All of these ideas have one thing in common: move away from trying to force your way through Scrappers Block and move your mind to a more relaxed state by taking the pressure off. It’s hard to be creative when you feel you’re under pressure.

And if all else fails, give yourself a break. Sometimes just going away and throwing yourself into doing something else, even if it’s something like cleaning out the linen cupboard, can provide your brain with the break it needs to enable it to be receptive to creative ideas again.

Do you have any particular things that you do to break through Scrappers Block? I’d love you to share them with us in the comments below. After all it’s something we all suffer with from time to time. So all ideas are welcome.

And if you enjoyed this article please share the link with your scrapbooking friends and click the Facebook Like button. Or maybe give it a thumbs up on Stumbleupon.

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Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

I’ve written before about AZZA scrapbooking. You might remember it’s a European style of scrapbooking which uses very few embellishments. The design of the AZZA scrapbook layout is based on creatively cropping your photos.

To do this you often have to buy special AZZA scrapbooking templates which you can place over your photos to help you cut them into the design you want. And these templates can be quite expensive.  Plus, let’s face it, you don’t want all your scrapbook layouts to have the same look to them, so you’ll need to buy quite a few templates to give yourself a variety of choice.

But there’s actually another way you can do this.

I’ve been using the AZZA scrapbooking style to create a digital scrapbook album of a trip I took a couple of years ago. And it lends itself brilliantly to digital scrapbooking.

But if you’re a paper scrapbooker you can use this idea too.

Make your own AZZA scrapbook templates.

Now if you have a photo editing software program such as Photoshop Elements (or Paintshop Pro, or Photoshop or any of the other programs that let you work with layers) you can do this easily:

1. Open a file in your editing program that’s the same size as your scrapbook page. I suggest you make the resolution 200-300 pixels per inch for good quality printing. I usually go for 300ppi.
2. Now create a new blank layer and fill it with a color. The color doesn’t matter so any one will do.
3. Go to you cookie cutter tool and select a shape that you want to use for your AZZA design. It might be a diamond, a star, a hexagon. Whatever.
4. Drag the cursor across your colored layer and release when it’s the sort of size you want.
5. Now you can duplicate the layers; move the shapes around; change some of the sizes on the shapes; or follow the above steps to add a complementary shape and just play around until you have a design that you like.
6. So now you bring your photos on to the file and position each photo layer directly over a shape. You can do this by dragging the layers around in the Layers Palette
7. Go to the Opacity Slider in the Layers Palette and reduce the opacity of the photo so you can see the shape behind it.
8. You can drag the photo to reduce its size so it better fit the shape you have created or you can position it so your crop only includes what you want.
9. When you’re happy with the positioning of your photo bring the opacity back up to 100%.
10. Now click on the photo layer in the Layers Palette and crop it to the shape underneath it using the clipping mask. Ctrl+E should do it. If you’ve made a mistake just Ctrl+Z will step you back.

Now all you have to do is print out your pre-shaped photos and cut them out. I suggest you open a new file in a paper size that your printer accepts (eg. A4 or Letter) and the same resolution as your other file. And then drag your shaped photos onto it, print (best quality) on good photo paper and cut out.

Job done.

By shaping your photos this way you can create as many different shaped templates as you like at no cost. Plus you can make sure that you get the best parts of your photos into the shapes regardless of the size.

And if you save each template as a layered file then you can use them and modify them over and over again.

If you need some extra help in creating your own digital templates pop over to Step by Step Digital Scrapbooking and check out Intermediate Tutorial 11 (you’ll find it at the bottom of the page). This tutorial will show you how to do a number of  techniques including how to make a digital template using one of your favorite scrapbook layouts as a base.

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Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Scrapbooking embellishments can be used in many different ways. You don’t need to stick just to the purpose for which they were designed.

This applies to both digital scrapbooking elements as well as traditional scrapbook embellishments. Although with digital scrapbook elements you can get lots of extra mileage because you can duplicate an element as many times as you want.

Let’s take a look at a few of the ways you might use your embellishments to create different elements.

Frames

Although frames exist as scrapbooking elements in their own right, you can create your own frames by grouping other elements around your photo. This works especially well with flowers or ribbons but you can use pretty much any small sized element to do this. Digital scrapbooking makes your choice even wider as you can easily reduce the size of an element to however small you want it and then duplicate it as many times as you need to.

But if you’re a traditional paper scrapbooker try surrounding your photo with small flowers and leaves for a beautiful Spring-looking frame. Or a collection of buttons mounted around the photo makes another striking frame.

Borders

You can make borders out of pretty much any element you want to as long as you have enough of them to line up across your page. Borders made from unexpected scrapbook elements can be great for making a statement or reinforcing the theme of your scrapbook layouts. In the scrapbook layout on the right (making this layout is demonstrated in Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Advanced Tutorial 7) I’ve used a wreath element combined with a bow element to create a border which echoes the woodland theme of the scrapbook layout.

Flowers

Flowers are a wonderful addition to most scrapbook layouts. And you can design your own easily by combining other elements together. Heart shaped elements positioned in a circle with their points to the centre form a terrific base for a flower design. You can layer a circle of smaller hearts on top and finish off with a fancy brad or a button. And you have a unique flower that no one else has got.

Matts

You can make photo matts out of so many things. Try collecting all your ribbon scraps and weaving them together to form a matt for your photo or for your journaling tag. You can do the same with left over strips of cardstock and patterned paper.

Old CDs can make very cool photo matts for teen scrapbook layouts. Even a torn sheet of lined notepaper can look good as a matt for your photo. Just remember that most lined notepaper is not acid free and over time it may degrade your photo so be a bit careful if you choose this or use a protective spray.

Backgrounds

Why not try making your own backgrounds? Something I like to do is to blow up a photo and print it in black and white or sepia on a large sheet of paper. use that as your background and place smaller photos on top. I use this technique both with digital scrapbook layouts and also with paper ones.

And another very good look is to stick several strips of the same ribbon across plain or lightly patterned paper to make a textured stripy background.

Photo Corners

There are heaps of different things you use to make photo corners.  A couple of short strips of ribbon across one or two corners of your photo can make a very effective accent. Even the humble strip of masking tape can be a great grungy looking photo corner. Just watch out for the acid free thing again here.

Groups of three brads or buttons in a corner of the photo make a simple but striking photo corner accent.

Once you get started combining your scrapbook elements in different ways you’ll come up with lots of ideas of your own which will help you get even more use out of them. And it’s fun to create something that looks so good and that someone else hasn’t done exactly that way before.

Making your own scrapbook elements is very satisfying.  Plus I find that this can be a good way to kick start my mojo if I’m feeling a bit creatively sluggish. Developing an idea for creating a new scrapbook layout element can lead me onto designing the layout based on that idea.

So how about you? Do you have any favourite ideas for using scrapbook elements in a ‘non-standard’ way. Please share in the comments below. Like everyone else I’m always eager to hear new ideas.

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10 Speedy Scrapbooking Ideas

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

We all get those ‘no mojo’ days don’t we? Hey sometimes it’s more like ‘no mojo’ weeks even.

So here are ten speedy scrapbooking ideas which I hope will intrigue and inspire you and maybe just kick start that mojo again.

1. Attach a transparent sheet over your photo with a couple of brads and doodle onto the sheet with marker pens to dress up your photo without accidentally ruining it.
2. Layer a couple of scrap ends from your ribbons over each other at right angles to make funky casual photo corners. You can dress them up even more with brads or flowers to make a great corner accent for your photo.
   

   This scrapbook layout is from the Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Intermediate Tutorial 5

3. Let your journaling flow onto your photos where there is a blank space on the photo. This will help to anchor both the journaling and the photo.
4. Use your computer to create unique and funky titles instead of buying alphabets. If you have photo editing software you can apply interesting styles and filters to the letters but even in Word you can dress them up or use the Word Art feature. Print out your title and add embellishments and you’re done. It’s best to choose a chunky style font for your titles. Check out my Downloading and Installing Fonts video to show you how easy it is to get a collection of free fonts.
5. Use your kids words to create the inspiration for your scrapbook layout. Ask them what their memories of an event were and use their words as your title to create your journaling.
6. Make your own rub-ons by printing your design onto a transparent sheet using your home computer. You can read how to do it here.
7. Make the key words and phrases in your journaling stand out to add visual interest and emphasis. If you print your journaling use the bold feature on your key words or change the font and font-size for those words. If you hand write your journaling choose a different color for your key words or print them in upper case. You can use a highlighter to make them stand out and even a simple underline will add emphasis.
   

   This Scrapbook layout is from Step by Step Digital Scrapbook Tutorials - Intermediate 6

8. Run a piece of sand paper lightly over the top of embossed paper to make the pattern really stand out. It also gives the paper a slightly vintage or grungy look.
9. Make multiple copies of your focal photo and fan them out slightly behind it. This makes a lovely matt to frame your photo. It looks good if you print the matt photos in monochrome and leave the top one in color.
10. Try out a completely different style of scrapbooking than you’re used to. If you’re a simple scrapbooker try using lots of embellishments, If you’re a collage scrapbooker try making a minimalist layout. If you usually only use one photo on a scrapbook layout try making one with multiple photos. I became interested in the AZZA scrapbooking style and tried out making an album of a trip down the Rhine River using this style. I found focussing on learning a new scrapbooking style really helped me kick off my mojo meltdown.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

One of the most satisfying things about running Scraps of Mind and Step by Step Digital Scrapbook is that I get to help people to surprise and amaze themselves at what they can do.

Marilyn, from Georgia in the US, is a perfect example of this.

Marilyn has been a paper scrapbooker for the past two years and then she decided that she wanted to branch out and try digital scrapbooking on her computer. But as you can see below Marilyn found herself with a few challenges in getting herself up to speed with digital scrapbooking.

When I first started I created all my pages by hand cutting and pasting every piece, as you know this took hours just to do one scrapbook page.  Then I began to start working with my computer to do all the pages, but I wanted to learn more. I invested many dollars into on line lessons that were so advanced that I could not understand what they were trying to teach me.

So she was pretty frustrated by the time she arrived at my Step by Step Digital Scrapbook site, following a recommendation from some of the people in the scrapbooking groups she belongs to.

Anyway she started out with the Beginners Tutorial course and before long she was working her way through the whole Soup2Nuts deal.

She describes the course here:

The levels advance from lesson to lesson starting with Beginners, Intermediate, then to Advance. Each section has several lessons teaching different and new ways to do projects. I have really enjoyed and understood each new thing that Karen is teaching.  Thank you Karen for each and every new lesson and video.

As well as the glowing words, Marilyn also sent me copies of some of her layouts which she has submitted into the challenges run by her scrapbooking groups. I think you’ll agree she’s done a great job with these.

Click on the thumbnails to see a bigger version of the layout then hit the Back button to return to the post)

In just a couple of short months Marilyn has gone from Zero to Hero as a Digital Scrapbooker. And I am seriously chuffed to have helped her to get there.

For those of you who are wanting to create super layouts like Marilyn’s but maybe think that you’re not computer savvy or technical enough to do it why not try out my first Beginners Tutorial which will guide you to making your very first digital scrapbook layout.

You’ll fall off your chair in amazement at what you can do. And once you pick yourself back up off the floor You can either move on to the rest of the Beginners Tutorials or you can get the full Soup to Nuts Tutorial Package which comes with discount and a bonus Techniques Sheet. And I’ll deduct the cost of the Beginners Tutorials you’ve already purchased.

So now you can become a digital scrapbooker the easy and no risk way.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Pudina tal-Hobz

You may remember the Free Yummy Treats Scrapbooking Recipe Book that I organised with some digital scrapbooking Scraps of Mind Readers as a gift for sweet-tooths who enjoy seeing their recipes beautifully presented in a fun way. It’s still available for you to download. And here’s another page that you can download and add to your scrapbooking recipe book.

This scrapbook recipe page is made using the Scraps of Mind Free Garden Party Digital Scrapbook Mega Kit.

To download a  full sized high resolution copy for printing out just right click on the scrapbook layout and choose Save Link As… or Save Target As…

One of the most favourite recipes in our family is Bread Pudding.

This should not be mixed up with that stalwart English dish, bread and butter pudding (although that’s yummy too). No, our Bread Pudding is properly called Pudina tal-Hobz and it’s a native dish of Malta.

My Mum used to make this as a way to use up leftover bread and my daughter and I loved watching and helping her to do it. She has passed on now, and it is part of her legacy to us that we still continue to make it. And whenever we do we think of her.

Her recipe has never been written down before. It’s one of those ones that are made with a handful of this and a dash of that. But I’ve decided to try and put it together and created this scrapbook recipe page which you can download and try it out for yourself.

You can use any bread as the base, but it works better with the ‘non-processed’ types of bread as they absorb moisture better. If you do use processed sliced bread (and I frequently do) then make sure it is several days old because you want it to be as dry as possible. I usually leave the slices of bread spread out on the kitchen bench overnight to dry them out.

And if you don’t want to download the recipe scrapbook layout, here’s the recipe for Pudina tal-Hobz without the presentation pretties.

Ingredients

A Loaf of 2 days old white bread, sliced

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons of custard powder

3 tablespoons sugar

½ a teaspoon cinnamon

3 eggs (beaten)

¼ litre milk

1 glass Sherry (rum or port are fine too)

100 grms (or 3.52 oz) sultanas

50 grms (or 1.76 oz) butter

Method

Cut the sliced of bread up roughly and soak for several hours in a bowl of water.

Soak the dried fruit in the sherry for as long as possible. You can give it a boost by putting it in the microwave for a couple of minutes at a low setting.

Drain the bread in a colander and then squeeze out as much of the water as possible.

Put the squeezed bread in a bowl and add the dry ingredients. Mix well. Tip: it’s easier to mix this batter with your hands rather than a spoon.

Mix in the beaten eggs.

Drain the fruit but keep the sherry aside to add to your pudina.

Add the fruit to the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Mix in the sherry and add the milk a little at a time, mixing it in until you have a batter with a ‘fruit cake’ like consistency.

Butter an oven proof dish well and pour the bread mixture into this.

Bake in a moderate to low oven for some 40 to 50 minutes. You will know your pudina is ready when you can stick a skewer into the middle and it comes out clean.

Serve warm or cold.

Give it a try. I’m pretty certain your family will love it as much as we do.

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Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Have you heard of AZZA Scrapbooking?

Well I hadn’t until a few months ago when my friend Marla (who isn’t even a scrapbooker) worded me up about it.

Seems AZZA is a European style of scrapbooking. The AZZA heartland seems to be France and Belgium. And its focus is all about the photos and less about the embellishments.

Typically AZZA scrapbook layouts use multiple photos which are cut into shapes that fit into each other neatly. Often special templates are used to create the shapes needed for a pleasing design.

Usually there isn’t any embellishment other than a border which is mostly drawn with a pen or paintbrush. Simplicity is the key and all attention is given to the photos. And the photos themselves become the design of the layout.

It’s an interesting style and makes quite a contrast from the American style of scrapbooking which most of us practice. And I do confess that whilst I’m not a heavy collage scrapbooker, I do like my embellishments and accents.

But I was intrigued by the AZZA scrapbooking style and thought I’d like to give it a try. I wasn’t all that keen on all the photo cutting (I knew from the outset that that way there be dragons). And I wasn’t keen on the expense of buying the special templates.

So the obvious choice was . . .

Digital AZZA Scrapbooking!

One of the joys of digital for me is that you can replicate pretty much anything that you can create in paper scrapbooking at little or no cost. And mistakes are fixed by just a click of the reverse button.

So I decided to give digital AZZA a try and use it to create my album for the trip I took last November, cruising across Europe by river.

Click on the layout to download the PSD template

I made some digital templates in Photoshop Elements and dragged my photos on, positioned and resized them and then used the clipping mask layer to crop them to the size of the template.

I made the borders by choosing a shape from the cookie cutter and then Ctrl-Click to select the layer and doing Edit>Stroke Outline on a new layer. Simply delete the original shape layer and you’re left with the outline border which you can resize and manipulate however you want.

The templates were quite easy to make using the Cookie Cutter shapes and the Marquee Tool for the more geometric shapes. And the spaces between were created using the same Edit>Stroke Outline technique around the photos, Selecting the border layer  and pressing the Delete key on the relevant layers to create the space.

I then just added a small shadow to the photos so they look like they’re stuck on the page; a low key title, some journaling and we’re done.

I quite like how they’re turning out. And best of all, it cost me nothing!

So I think I’ll be doing more of this Digital AZZA Scrapbooking, although I can’t see me becoming a total convert. I couldn’t bear to give up my flowers and brads… both digital and real.

How about you? Have you tried AZZA Scrapbooking before using traditional paper techniques? How do you like it?

And what do you think of digital AZZA scrapbooking? Is it something you ‘d like to try?

You can download the template I made for the layout above by clicking on the layout above. The template is in PSD format.

Let me know how you go.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

I love my old boots.

They’re 11 years old and I’ve ‘replaced’ them twice with newer boots. But I just can’t get rid of my old friends.

And although I wear my newer boots, whenever I know I’ll be doing a bit of walking during the day I always reach for my trusty old boots, knowing they will see me through. They’re even more comfortable than my runners (trainers, sneakers).

They’ve walked me around large chunks of France, Italy, the UK and Ireland.

They’ve been used and abused.

And they just keep giving.

Is it any wonder that I would dedicate a scrapbook layout to them.

They have been repaired so many times, I’ve lost count. And I know that one day (probably in the not too distant future) they will be beyond repair and will go to that Great Shoe Closet in the Sky.

But that day is not now.

Now I open my wardrobe and my hand hovers over my smart boots before drifting, as though drawn by a magnet, to my shabby old friends.

A quick shine up and they’ll look as good as new. Yeah, right. I know it’s to my eyes only, but I don’t care.

My boots and I will walk on together.

Old Friends walking into the sunset.

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

…and a Digital Scrapbooking Freebie Template.

Coming up with fresh ideas for your scrapbook layout designs can sometimes be a challenge. So here’s a tip you might find useful:

Recycle your old scrapbook layouts!

I don’t mean that literally of course. But if you choose some of your favorite scrapbook layouts that you have previously done you can easily create a sketch that you can turn into a totally fresh new layout.

How to Create a Sketch from a Scrapbook Layout

• Choose a scrapbook layout that has some strong structural elements to the design.
• Now sketch the layout on a piece of paper, leaving out all the small details. Just draw basic geometric shapes such as circles, rectangles and triangles to represent the key elements.
• The reason for this is that you don’t want to replicate your original scrapbook layout on your new one. You just want to create the structure that you can build your new layout on.
• Now turn the sketch around. See how it looks from each of the four sides. You don’t need to necessarily repeat the sketch exactly as the original layout. But you will have the basic structure of the design to build on.

And for digital scrapbookers you can take it a step further and

Create a Template from your Scrapbook Layouts

• Choose your scrapbook layout in it’s layered format. As before it’s best to choose one with strong structural elements to the design.
• Duplicate the file so you don’t accidentally destroy your original layout.
• Delete any layout specific layers like journaling and any embellishment layers that don’t contribute to the overall structure of the layout.
• Now Control+Click on one of the layer icons in your layers pallet to select all the pixels on that layer.
• Set your color swatch to a shade of grey (just because that’s the usual color for templates) and with your bucket tool, click on the selected element to turn it a solid grey color.
• Repeat the previous two steps for each element layer, varying the shade of grey so that you can easily distinguish between the layers.
• You now have a digital scrapbook layout template which you can vary to create very different looking layouts.
• As with the sketch above, rotate the file so that you can see how the design looks from other angles. And don’t be afraid to discard any of the shapes if they don’t fit what you want to do with your new scrapbook layout.

In the Published scrapbook layout below I turned the template 90 degrees to the right and removed some of the element shapes to create a very different look.

You can download my Karooch Kurvy Template clicking on the template image.

For instructions on how to use your template check out my article on making a Scrapbook Patchwork Quilt. You can pick up another free scrapbooking template there whilst you are at it.

So now you can create many scrapbook layouts from a single favorite.

Do you use sketches and/or templates?

And have you ever tried making your own?

It can be a real boost to the inspiration and it’s very satisfying to get that extra mileage from your favourite scrapbook layouts.

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Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking

Someone must have pressed the fast forward button and whizzed the year through, because I can’t believe it’s been a year since we headed off down the Hume Highway on our annual pilgrimage to the Kilmore Celtic Festival.

And of course, my annual homage to the event.

I made this layout using Marcee Duggar's Music Kit with some embellishments from Amy Cheeseman's Heartsong. I'm going through a phase of blending my photos so that they form part of the background paper at the moment.

Once again I meant to buy the early-bird tickets and get the discount. Once again it slipped my mind. Once again I almost forgot which weekend it was on.

But despite all that, once again I have had a great day out at my favourite folk festival.

Kilmore lies about 40 minutes drive north of Melbourne. So from my perspective it’s one of the handiest folk festivals I can get to. And an added bonus is that my sister lives ten minutes away from Kilmore on the way home so it’s become a bit of a tradition to stop there on our way back for a bite to eat and a cosy catch up in front of their fire.

The Kilmore Celtic Festival takes place on the last weekend of June each year and kicks off with a dinner and cailaigh on Friday evening, culminating with a big lunch and concert at one of the Kilmore pubs on Sunday afternoon.

And in between there’s Saturday!

A day packed full of great bands, musicians and singers as well as markets, dancing and workshops.

Kilmore is a small festival and for me that’s part of its charm. There are always plenty of new acts to sample as well as many old favourites to revisit. And this year was no exception.

My favourite band, Ced Meledo’s Bric-a-Brac were in fine form. They represent the Breton contribution to the Celtic culture. And Ced is cute, French and wears leather pants. What more could you ask for? Oh yes, their music is great to listen to.

Another favourite act, Braemar, opened the Festival and woke us up to a set of Scottish balllads. And we enjoyed the return of Bhan Tre who are always great to watch. Each year we like to find a new act that we can add to our favourites and this year we came across two. Both are young bands from the Lake School of Celtic Music. One is called Rant and the other is Dram. Definitely two bands to watch out for on the celtic/folk scene.

And, in what has now become part of our Kilmore Festival tradition, we stopped in at Elaine and Greg’s on our way home. Topping of a terrific day with home made pizza and wine.

Aaaah! Life’s good!

Scraps Of Mind - All about scrapbokking, digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking