2nd half of 2020 creative wins – Paper Crafting

Ah 2020,  you quickly made us realize this wasn’t going to be like any other year…  fortunately, to keep myself from losing my mind completely, I have lists and lists of projects to make and things to do both for personal projects, family projects, house projects and business projects.   Yes, I am that person.

I am taking Stacy Julian’s 20 in 20 class, the premise of which is to make 20 memory keeping related projects in 2020.  It has not been as hard as it sounds quite frankly…assignment #1 was find a photo you like of yourself, or have one taken.  Check.   So….for the days I think I don’t get anything accomplished, I’m leaving this little list of my first quarter Paper Crafting wins right here to remind myself of what I’ve gotten done.  

1st qtr Paper Crafting

I made a “stick of the day” book about our dog Shadows predilection for picking up sticks on our walks… time to memorialize all the IG posts!

Me-Photo I like… we were directed to find or take a photo of ourselves that we liked… I of course went overboard and put some random photos and some photos I had taken for a photo challenge from Ali Edwards in February called “Pieces of Us” Gathered them all in an adorable little bound book from Heidi Swapp which has become my book about me which I will write in and maybe put a few more photos in as the year goes on.

Gun Digest Covers!  My uncle Jimmy was an artist and illustrated several Gun Digest covers.   My sister saved those issues when we cleaned out our Dad’s house and I made them into a poster for her to display in her home!

December Daily 2019…I was able to complete my album at the January weekend crop I attended….oh the days of hanging out indoors, crafting and sharing snacks with friends for hours on end.  



2nd Qtr

Felt super productive this month considering the pandemic but I guess since there is no where to go, it’s a good time to get projects completed and start new ones!

-Photos and artwork back up around the house – Living Room, Family Room and MBR hallway…I took almost everything down while we were under construction and since we were well done with construction and had been completely deep cleaned…it was time to get everything back up on the walls including art and photos that have been hanging around for years… Now was the time! Feels so good and it was a super fun project the girls and I did together… I have more frames to buy and a few pieces to take to the framer but so happy it’s mostly done!

-Photo Book: Designed and made a photobook for my sister about her (pre-pandemic) birthday get-away trip! 

-Creative Hub notebook shapeup… I did a video tour and posted it so you can check it out HERE

-Half finished digital layouts… In going through and cleaning up my files, I came across a file of partially completed digital layouts… from several years ago ! (Hello 2012 I’m looking at you). I’ll post in more detail but they are all done and getting ready to be sent off to the printer!

-Photo Album: Designed and made a Photo Album for my little sister for her wedding in 2018 !!! Sending this off to the printer as well… it will be a total surprise for her as she just turned everything over to me to take care of!  I also ordered a large black and white metallic print/wall art for of my favorite photo for them to display in their home!

-May Everyday Album…another project that was totally NOT on my layout but was super fun to do and very low stress/didn’t buy anything to complete/used what I had.  

   

On to the second half of 2020!

2020 1st Q Creative Wins !

May 3 – I am finding one way to grab any kind of positivity out there is to look back and acknowledge things that I have completed (Complete – my 2020 word) and celebrating that…since 1/3 of the 2nd qtr of 2020 is done (how did that happen…because we are all just working and/or sitting in our houses) I figured it’s high time to note what I managed to complete in the first quarter of 2020 for my own tracking…

January

Memorykeeping: Finished my December Daily album (38 layouts) and made 10 other pages. Worked on Stacy Julian’s 20in20 class setting up project ideas and completed 1 project for that, finding photos of myself for an project about me.

Fiber: Started a Cables and Colorwork Class taught by my friend at Cambridge Center for Adult Ed. Worked on broken rib cowl, worked on Briochealicious shawl. Finished mini quilt and quilt blocks.

Went to FLA with the Fam ! (Album or photo book forthcoming this year)

February

Memorykeeping: finished my OneLittleWord album for 2019 (27 layouts), and made 8 other pages.

Fiber: Continued C & C class, broken rib cowl & Briochealicious shawl. Finished a cable knit hat, with fun faux fur pom pom. Started the Hinterland dress in yummmmyyyyyy red buffalo check flannel. Took old binding off of circus quilt…

Other stuff: Designed a poster of Gun Digest covers painted by my Uncle, James Triggs.

March:

Memorykeeping: Made a photo book of Shadows “stick of the day” and sent copies to the girls at school. Completed my March One Little Word work. I think I only did one digi-layout … I know I have other scrappy layouts but quite frankly, March was when the world fell apart so I am amazed I did anything at all…

Fiber: Finished! Hinterland dress in yummmmyyyyyy red buffalo check flannel (photo before I put the black buttons on… I actually don’t think I took a photo of it completely done… at any rate, it qualifies as secret pajamas.

Re-bound the vintage circus quilt (Pretty sure it was my sisters quilt when she was little so it’s going back to her so she can use it with her grands!) Binding is still one of my bugaboo’s in quilting, v tricky for me to get right on both sides with the machine stitching… but I keep plugging away at it.

And March was when mask making and scrub cap making started… I only made two caps for my Dr friend but began what would end up as over 200 masks for family, friends, church family and donation to a nursing home.

Alright then. Things are so weird right now, no other way to say it… I find that if I don’t jot down or take photos of what’s going on… it all becomes one big blur of mush overlaid with nothing but bad news from the outside world, especially from the middle of March onwards… But that is why we make things right? To keep our hands busy, our minds calm and to spread some cheer in the world.

What are you making this spring? Stay safe and wash your hands everybody…

Memorykeeping Organization: Creative Hub Notebook Tour

Hi gang! Well, we are on day 3,257 of Corona-lockdown. Here in Boston, we are having a ‘noreaster storm so it is gray and super windy and raining and raw… the perfect day to finish up a project.

I have finally finished shaping up my Creative Hub Notebook and made a quick video to share with some friends so thought it might as well find it’s home here on the blog! The Creative Hub class is part of the Simple Scrapper membership I highly recommend this membership group, lots of great classes and inspiration and a terrific community of like minded scrappers! I’ve been a member for several years now and it is money well spent! Without further ado… here is the tour

Yep! Another project done, very gratifying to have all this stuff in one place! What projects are you working on ?? And yes, laying on the couch streaming english gardening shows on Netflix totally counts.

Cheers, stay safe and wash your hands!

2015 Islamorada Vacation Album!

I guess I am crafting my way through the pandemic…that and walking the dog, cooking and puttering around the house is kind of keeping me sane. That and the occasional zoom cocktail hour with girlfriends!

Last week, I finished a project that was not even on my radar to work on-at all ! I am taking Stacy Julian’s 20in20 class (which is a memory keeping class to complete [there is my word again] 20 projects in 2020) and she was hosting FB Live class on completing an album in two evening sessions using her “short story” method of organizing, cropping and embellishing pages. Honestly, I wasn’t even going to join until about 30 minutes before the first session was to start…I was thinking about what I could work on that already had photos printed (you needed around 35-50) and an album, page protectors and white cardstock… plus your patterned paper and a very limited range of embellishments.

Because I had just finished inventorying my unfinished project bins AND my empty albums, I realized that I had photos and memorabilia printed from our 2015 April trip to Islamorada AND I had an album, protectors and paper already cut PLUS a super gorgeous kit from October Afternoon (now sadly out of business) that I had been hoarding saving for a good cause… so I grabbed all my stuff, cleared off the table and dove in.

Over the course of two 2-hour Live casts plus some extra time-because I had more photos to do, I finished the album !! I will say I had my doubts but it worked out and I’m super happy with the results! Here’s my amateur video tour of the album. One huge check off the unfinished list!

What unexpected wins have you had lately? Working on anything to share?? Hang in there everyone, stay home and wash your hands! xo

OLW 2020: March

Hello my fellow stay-at-home people! Are you feeling like me that you should be able to be accomplishing many more things than you actually are? Honestly my projects to work on / Things to do list was quite hefty before there were about 10,000 facebook posts and articles giving us ideas on how to fill our time. I have stopped reading those posts… I have plenty to do as it is, and when you add in constant mask making to donate. I have no lack of ways to spend my time.

This morning I decided to finish up my March OLW … yeah, because we are almost half way through April and I have not started any of that yet LOL. So here is March… the March prompt was to pick one thing to do for 30 days, do it and then write about it at the end of the month. I picked movement and as you can see, I was woefully bad at it even before the world shut down. I am proud of myself that I at least picked only ONE thing and not 47 so I consider that winning.

Here are my pages:

I didn’t feel like making any additional cards with sentiments etc.. so I added in a few photos that basically defined the month (other than the cat on my head filter one which is just odd and needed to be included). Glad to have it done and to not be too far behind! I also continue to be happy about my organization for this project, that continues to work well!

Thanks for taking a look at my project! Have you participated in Ali’s workshops? Have you picked a word for the year? Has your word changed since the world turned up-side down?