I will be the first to admit that the last little while I’ve been getting bored with how I document the goings on around here. I used the weekly or monthly pocket scrapping documenting from 2011 until 2017 and, not gonna lie, it was a lot. Am I happy that I documented every little thing? Yes. Was it time for something different ? Heck yes.
Times change, things change and it was time to move on. I had picked up a Heidi Swapp Storyline album awhile back at Michaels and ordered extra pages. I was intrigued because it seemed like it was getting back to what documenting/storytelling had been when it was simpler. (you can check out what it’s about HERE on Heidi’s website) I organized my photos using smart albums in my Lightroom catalog to pull together photos per month that used the keyword “pl” which designates images I want to use in my weekly documenting.
After coming off a stretch of really intensive documenting, I have to say I felt super energized and a little bit freed by picking just one story a week to focus on. There were some extra stories and goodies thrown in for good measure but that was pretty much it! So without further ado, I present a little video overview of my completed 2018 album!
I’m extremely happy with the results and it was so. much. easier. to manage one story a week. Also… if anyone has suggestions for working with the arkon iPhone stand I’m all ears. Learning new stuff over here everyday. This project was one of my 20in20 projects from a class I’m taking with Stacy Julian and boy was it nice to tick off a project!
Thanks for taking a look, here’s to getting projects done!
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
I have mentioned before that I am not so great at tracking things (I’m looking at you MyFitnessPal app) Last year I did however keep track of layouts that I made by month. As with the fiber portion of my life, I didn’t think that I really got that much accomplished. My plan to document in photos and words monthly pretty much did not happen (even though I had everything I needed all ready in an album … AND that is not to say that I won’t get around to that project this year). When I looked at my list at the end of the year boy was I shocked…
Yep… 328 pages… I had pretty much forgotten that I had made collage layouts for the girls school albums which were 100 layouts alone! Yeah, not sure I can keep up with that this year but maybe just doing my thing and not worrying about page counts is the key to success!
In addition to layouts, I made these super cute houses/village buildings on my silhouette die cutting machine out of plain yardstick. The girls did help me fold some of them and they were really easy to do! Now that the Christmas decorations are put away, I need to put the little houses back up!
And that is a wrap! I’m going to try and insert a “gallery” here with a selection of layouts from 2019!
Thank you for stopping by ! Let me know what your crafty plans are!! I have decided to plan by the quarter so as not to get too overwhelmed planning things out for the whole year!
One of the ways I engage with my hobby of memory keeping (and also prime the creative pump for my business and my other creative endeavors) is with a membership at Simple Scrapper which is a community of like minded memory keepers from all over the world (which is so totally cool) that offers classes, challenges, online crops, book clubs, a monthly magazine, templates and loads of fun and support. This past week has been their semi-annual “Stash Bash” week, a challenge for members to work on reducing or organizing their creative stash with an eye to making more projects and getting more stories told.
I’m currently working on my girls school albums with a completion date of June 7th (conveniently, their graduation date!) so I am making plenty of layouts and recording lots of memories right now. I do have one particular area of stash that needed a little love so I thought I’d share my Stash bash Project here with you (I’ve already shared it with the Simple Scrapper Community)
My lovingly acquired selection of Story Kits!
I am the proud owner of many many Story Kits and Story Stamps from Ali Edwards. I also amassed a years worth of Stories by the Month and, I’m embarrassed to say I have hardly used any of them. When I thought about why (other than the usual reasons) I realized that they are all still in the original envelopes, so I can’t see or flip thru anything. So how to get them out of envelopes and deal with different sorts of stuff: cards, stamp sheet, sheets of cardstock and stickers and then loads of types of embellishments. my first impetus was to go to Target and buy more plastic fridge bins to house the collection. I really am not thrilled with the purple bin from the girls old toy room where they now reside. Then I checked myself and thought a) too much plastic already and we are trying to make a conscious effort as a household to cut back and b) don’t feel like spending the $$. I looked around the house and thought shoeboxes! Totally can do that! Except didn’t have quite the right size/shape etc…. I realized I can just keep them in the purple bin and get over it because it fits perfectly in the bookcase. In taking apart a few kits and spreading them out… I hit up on the solution to the problem: 1-Take (almost) everything OUT OF THE PLASTIC stamp sets, chip board, everything except some tiny stars and other embellishments that must be contained. 2- All the loose embellishments go back in the big plastic envelope that the kit gets shipped in. 3-Envelope is labeled w kit name 4- Envelope goes in back and stamp, chipboard, stickers, paper-ish kinds of things and finally the journal cards all stacked on top, then stood up in the bin. It’s a little catty-wampus, it’s not perfect but quite frankly I was pretty giddy with how FUNCTIONAL it’s going to be for me!!
the new home for the smaller embellishments! Easy to see and access!Everything out of the plastic, ready to be stacked up and filed! Easy flip through access now!
I then took all my story by the month sets, which I’m using to document 2018 monthly, found a binder and some page protectors and slotted all the cards, chipboard and stamps into the page protectors so NOW when I’m ready to work on January, I can just add more page protectors and the cards and stamps are all in one place.
Monthly themed cards and embellishments ready to use to document 2018!
All of this was accomplished while still in my pajamas yesterday afternoon! I’m so excited how everything turned out!! I’ll try and post more photos in the comments, I wanted to share here because I know many of us probably have piles of these kits and hopefully some idea will help you to work with your kits!!
Happy Dance over here!!
How do you organize your materials to make your projects flow more efficiently and leave you more time for actually making things??!
Well, we’ve made it 1/12th of the way through the year…doesn’t it sound like a lot when you put it that way?! The month has been pretty busy as usual and I’ve been at work on several projects over here.
On and off for the last several years, I’ve set an intention for the year through choosing a word as kind of a touchstone of sorts. I have never been one for resolutions, recognizing many of them never make it past mid-month but a word has been something I could get behind… My words have been: Prosper, Brave, Passion (twice) and Complete, and this year
Forward
A few of the years I have participated in Ali Edwards workshop called One Little Word. Ali didn’t come up with the idea of a guiding word but she has developed a year long workshop with monthly prompts to help remind you of your word and to Make It Visible. You can learn more about her take on the project here on her site. I’ve signed on the the fun this year as it’s going to be a big year around here and I’m excited to see what the next season moving FORWARD is going to look like. I am also participating in a year long workshop called Fit which is an offering from Cathy Zielske who keeps it very very real, you can read more about that here. Seriously, sometimes I feel like Cathy and I could be best buds…we have sooooo much in common right now. I am formulating a number of goals around what Fit means, and I find the community around this workshop very helpful and inspiring.
Of course there is documenting off all this involved and this year I’m combining both efforts into one 6×8 album that I am going to just dip in and out of during the month as I work on various prompts and ideas. I’ve finished up my work for January (go me!) so I thought I’d share a very crummy video overview of my book so far… definitely can put learn better videography skills on the list ha ha…just keeping it real!
So for some reason, I can’t embed a video here but if you click on the link above, it will take you to the You Tube Channel where I posted my video… WordPress changed up some things so it’s all about learning the new editor! Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you’re working on!
triggsey 