February Take 12

I did it! I finished my second "Take Twelve" layout and did it in less than a week after taking the photos, just in time for Ella Publishing Co.'s deadline for sharing.

Papers, tab label and heart are all from "A New Day" by Sweet Shoppe Designs,
offered as a free download from the Ella Publishing Co. blog two years ago.

It was helpful to work on this with a deadline. I may not be 100% sure about this layout, but it's done now, and it makes me happy to see a second set of 12 photos capturing our life in 2012.

(Hmm, just noticed that download was offered on February 17, 2010 -- exactly two years ago. Thank you Ella for the inspiration to "take twelve" and the previous download to make the layout easier!)

Take 12 - Better Late Than Never!

I took 12 photos on January 12, and now I have finally made my layout with the photos! Good thing, since February 12 is right around the corner, and the Ella Publishing Co.'s "2012 Take 12 Project" is one of the projects I have decided I want to stick with this year.

I started out with Cathy Zielske's "InstaLove" free template, which had six square photo spaces, and I doubled the spaces. I like how this "take 12" photo challenge helped me to capture a snapshot of an ordinary day, and doing this challenge 11 more times will add some great layers to my collection of pages this year.

For the February "take 12," I'm planning to focus on 12 Valentine-y things around our house. I'm also going to take one photo of the four of us together every month. I did our family photo every month in 2011, but this year I'd like to get more creative with our group shots -- maybe our shadows or our feet -- just generally more thought-out poses than the many squish-our-heads-together-and-hold-out-the-camera shots we took.

I'm so happy to have my January page completed, and am looking forward to joining Ella for the 2012 Take 12 Project! 

You can learn more about Take 12 here:

Projects for 2012

Ahh, a new year, new goals, new ideas. So full of optimism and eagerness. I wish I could say this is directed at an exercise plan or a decluttering strategy, but instead all this optimism is directed at undertaking several year-long photography/scrapbooking projects, not to mention several smaller ones too! Right now I am full of plans and inspiration, so I am testing the waters to decide which projects will work best for me.

I KNOW I could not manage a Project 365 (+1 for Leap Day), but I seem to have fallen into doing a photo-a-day project for January. I have done the month-long version in the past too, and like this as a way to capture the random everyday bits of our lives and give a summary of a month.

I am considering taking on Becky Higgins' Project Life, but seriously doubt my ability to stick with it. Since I don't print photos at home, it seems like that would be an especially difficult project to keep up with. However, Donna Januzzi introduced me to the "Document 2012" idea (which Shimelle Laine originated in 2010). This seems to be a bit like Project Life in a more manageable monthly format and smaller scale. I haven't ruled out Project Life, and in fact, I have been saving paper bits and jotting notes to use in some sort of project like this. I plan to print my January photos and do a sort of practice run of Project Life, then decide from there how to continue for the year.

I love Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things weekly photo challenge -- just a reminder to stop and consider a simple moment of the week and document it. If I do this weekly, I think it would make a nice little album to have 52 Simple Things at the end of the year.

In a similar vein, I have joined the 52 Photos in 52 Weeks Flickr group and completed Weeks 1 and 2. In this challenge, Monika Wright and Lisa Ottosson give a theme word for the photo of the week. Again, this would make a nice collection at the end of the year, although in week 3 I was already a bit stumped with the theme "community." I had a few ideas, but several of them were not ones I wanted to make available on the internet. I haven't given up on this one, but I can see it will be a challenge.

Ella Publishing is running the "Take 12" challenge -- take 12 photos on the 12th of each month (it's okay if you end up doing the 13th or 20th or whatever). I did this challenge this month too, and already am finding myself thinking about ideas for next month.

Last year, I took a family photo on the 11th of each month (in 2011), and while that album is not completed (big surprise, right?), I like looking back at the photos and plan to do this again, just moving our family photo day to the 12th. So this actually fits nicely with the "Take 12" project.

So far, I am "doing" all of these projects/challenges, and using January as a trial month. At the end of the month, I can look back and see what did or did not work, and decide how I want to continue. I love the feeling of having plans for projects, but I want to love the feeling of completing projects too, without being disappointed in myself.

What are you working on in 2012?

December Daily: What's Working

I can't tell if I am more on target for sticking with this album this year, but I do think I'm enjoying it more and I know I have simplified some parts for myself. Here's what's been working so far for me, most of which is demonstrated with the Dec. 11 page:

1) Not worrying about daily photos. I tend to be able to find a little of something -- a tag, a receipt, a Starbucks bag, a drawing by one of the boys -- that adds some visual interest. Having fewer photos makes it easier to work with the pages. Plus, since I don't print my photos at home, I don't feel like I'm waiting for photos as much. If I know I'm only going to have a single 4x6 photo, I can build most of the page around that and then just stick on the photo later.

For the Dec. 11 page, I plan to include two or three wallet-size photos on the left side later, but the snowflakes do a good job of being a visual.

2) Being open to ideas for a story that may have nothing to do with the actual events of the day. For some reason, while I was getting my hair cut on Saturday, I had a whole walk down memory lane in my head about the giant tree my Dad used to decorate. I'm planning to write that story down and then have it ready for any day. Robby wrote a winter poem in school that I'm going to type up (the paper was just way too big for the album) and use on one of the days. I find myself remembering many details about Christmases past that I'd like to include in this album.

The Dec. 11 page above is mostly about the activities of that day, but I also touch on my overall enjoyment of paper craft decorations and my annual tradition of cutting snowflakes.

3) Not allowing myself to write down every detail of the day. In the past, my December Daily albums and my attempts at Week in the Life tended to run like this: We woke up. We got ready. I ate a bagel. The boys ate waffles. We went to school/work.... The minute I find myself thinking this way, I stop and remind myself to boil the day down to the simplest piece(s) I want to remember. Taking fewer photos also seems to help keep me focused on just the highlights.

Dec. 11 was a fairly ordinary Sunday, and I could have turned it into a dull hour by hour list so as not to leave anything out. Instead I focused on just one part of the day -- making some decorations.

4) Using the baseball card pocket page protectors. I was sure that trying to use these would make things more complicated than necessary. In fact, I have found that using them sparingly is turning out to be a good way to include the "little stuff" neatly.

Okay, this one is not demonstrated with the Dec. 11 page.

5) Enjoying the excuse to play and create. I look forward to making time at the end of the day to play with my pages and supplies. I have been making big messes, which I take as a good sign. I like that I included actual snowflakes, instead of only a photo of them done or us making them.

What about you? Have you been keeping up and how?

December Daily Album: November Days

I decided to start my "December Daily" album with the first day of Advent - November 27 - so here are my first four days, a sort of prequel to December Dailies.

November 27

Since Advent is a time for preparing, I listed the ways I am prepared and preparing for Christmas. For the right page, I cut down a baseball card holder and added a bit from the cover of an Advent pamphlet from church with daily readings and the name I drew in our Secret Santa. I also left a placeholder to include a photo of Sprinkles, our Elf on the Shelf. When I typed my journaling, I made a strip with a purple background using a line from a song we always sing in church, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (please forgive my clumsy photography in cutting off "Lord" in the photo). 

November 28

For November 28, I included the note Sprinkles had left for the boys that morning -- I attached it to the outside of the cardholder so it can be flipped open to read. I also included a little ninja drawing by my son. He drew it on the next day, but I liked it in this space. The right side is an envelope holding the letter Robby wrote to Santa a couple of weeks ago. The journaling is the story about that letter, attached to the outside of the envelope.

November 29

The 29th was all about singing, dancing and books in our house, and drawings too really. This picture is by my four-year-old of "Santa at our house with the Christmas lights." The pink lights are for me.

On the backside, I stuck this drawing by my six-year-old of Santa and Sprinkles the elf decorating a tree. The opposite page is the Christmas subway art printable from the ladies at Eighteen25. On that page, I'm planning to add the (very blurry) photos of the boys jumping on my bed in their pajamas while singing and dancing to Christmas songs.

November 30

For November 30, I adhered the note Sprinkles left. The pocket cardholder in the middle is going to include four small photos of the mischief Sprinkles go into today (two photos on the front and two on the back, in the bottom row only so their faces on the card will still peek out). Behind the page protector, the right-side page features our Christmas card. Those two little tags --  November Thirty and the red border -- are from the free "Outnumbered Journaling Cards" series by Avital at Creativity Prompt.

I'm enjoying the process so far, and have mostly kept each day focused on the highlights, without turning into the day's itinerary.

December Daily (or Something Like It)

For the past two years, I have partially participated in the December Daily project led by Ali Edwards. I say partially because like so many of the projects I attempt, I just haven't gotten around to finishing it. I actually took photos on all the days and have at least some notes for each day. I even have a collection of the little bits and pieces of every day life that make the books wonderful. But alas, my two books still sit in a "nearly finished" state. I love them anyway, but they do give me a sense of dissatisfaction with myself for not completing them.

So I have been telling myself that I must NOT attempt this project again this year. Instead, I should try to complete those two books -- maybe by the end of January to start the new year with a clear crafting conscience. Sounds very reasonable, doesn't it?

Sunday was the first day of Advent. Sunday our elf Sprinkles arrived at the house. Sunday I got an email that my Christmas card order shipped. And what did I find myself doing Sunday evening, despite all my reasons against it... yes, a December Daily album of course.

I think it's going to be an Advent book, so I guess that means it officially started already. My plan is to not worry about the "daily" too much. In the past, I think my problem has been trying to capture the day's details from morning to night. I like Ali's idea to make it about a single story for the day, so I am going to stop myself when I find I'm writing down the day's itinerary. I want to summarize some of the larger activities or traditions we have. So while we may bake cookies on five different days, I want to just tell the bigger story about our cookie traditions. Or instead of writing down which holiday special we watched that day, I want to write about which movies are our favorites and why. I also want to use this book to capture some of the many drawings the boys are bound to make about Christmas, while adding in some gift lists, shopping lists, party invitations, notes from our elf, etc.

And what about those two unfinished books? As much as I want them to be completed, and as much as I want to be certain to finish the 2011 book, I do know that even the partially-finished books are still treasures. When I look at them, when I look past what's not finished, I find so much to enjoy -- a funny quote from one of the boys, a recipe, a photo of how we decorated, an activity I normally would not have photographed. Yes, they are incomplete, but there is still much to love about them.

Here's to a merry Christmas season!

My Personal Ella Publishing eBook Challenge

Of the scrapbook challenges I set out for myself, my Ella eBook challenge is really a series of challenges in one. These are the eBooks I own and will use in my challenge:

• How to Scrapbook Your Personal Heritage, by Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey
• Free Super Sampler, by Ella Publishing Co
• Stretch Your Sketches, by Donna Jannuzzi
• A Year in the Life, by Write.Click.Scrapbook
• 20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers, by Stacy Julian and Lain Ehmann

I happened to win "How to Scrapbook Your Personal Heritage" in a giveaway on Donna Jannuzzi's blog and the Free Super Sampler is, obviously, FREE (go check it out!). The rest I've purchased, which you would think would be a good reason to go and MAKE something after purchasing. But no; I've had several of these for a long while now and have not made anything as a direct result of the inspiration and ideas I found. I certainly found plenty of ideas, but just never acted on them.

So now my challenge is simple: read through these eBooks and use each to inspire at least one layout. In other words, do something with the ideas I have collected here. 

First up: Stretch Your Sketches
Of all the eBooks, this one with sketches seems the most obvious for action. If one buys a book on page sketches, it seems one should pick up the book and actually do something with those sketches! In addition, I have admired Donna Jannuzzi's style -- I like her color and pattern combos, and the way the photos are often neatly grouped in boxes. I definitely wanted to try out one of her sketches.

This was my first page inspired by Stretch Your Sketches:

(Papers: Me & My Big Ideas "A Kid Like Me" activity pad (red dot), SEI (striped), Making Memories (green dot), assorted scraps (blue and red); letter stickers: Recollections from Michael's; brads: Recollections from Michael's)

I ended up being so pleased with the result, I got started right away on another page:

 

(Papers: Recollections "Autumn" paper pad (pumpkin print), Bo Bunny "Shabby Princess" (diamond print), Die Cuts with a View (orange textured cardstock), Recollections cardstock (off-white and brown); flocked tags: Heidi Grace; journaling spot: Making Memories; letters: Punch Out Alphas from Remember When)

With Donna's pages as inspiration, I used patterned paper and bright colors a little more boldly than my typical way, particularly in that first one. Left to my own devices, I would have just used that bright red dot paper in another strip or that orange paper in a smaller dose on a kraft or white background, but I felt these ways were more in keeping with Donna's style, and I love the result!

I must admit I was inordinately pleased with myself after creating these two pages and left them out in the dining room so I could admire them in passing. In addition to being so happy with the tangible outcome, I just plain enjoyed drawing direct inspiration from a relatively different style -- sort of stretching my design muscles out of their usual routine.

For my next challenge, I'm looking at 20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers and already have a list of at least five possible pages to make with the prompts from that eBook. I like this feeling of having scrapbook homework assignments to keep me motivated and trying new things.

On a Roll...

This year I have been creating scrapbook pages more often and consistently. I've been averaging at least one digital or paper layout a week, which for me is great. In the past I was more of a scrapbooking-in-spurts kind of person, going weeks or months without touching my paper trimmer, then creating for a few solid weeks. Now I'm always thinking about my next layout and moving through a lot of recent and past stories I've wanted to tell. In short, I'm enjoying my hobby immensely and feeling inspired and creative all the time.

One of the things that has helped me are lists, not just the lists of layouts I want to make, stories to tell and photos to take, but also keeping a list of the pages I complete - a great way to see just how much I'm creating, especially in the case of digital layouts since I don't print them right away.

I've also started sharing my layouts online more often -- on this blog, on Flickr or in the class galleries for Big Picture Classes. Not only is it another visual reminder of what I've completed so far, but receiving comments from fellow scrapbookers about a page is very satisfying. Especially since my only other feedback generally comes from my husband who has no appreciation for color selections to match a mood or the use of white space.

Another thing that's been working for me this year is trying more online challenges, whether I complete them on time and share them or just work at my own pace. I have gotten several great ideas -- for stories and designs -- from challenges and they help me be more productive since they give me a sort of jump start, plus a bit of motivation in the form of a deadline.

I've liked the challenges so much, I've made up a few for myself for the year. They include:

• Make a page inspired by something I've liked on Tumblr.
• Make (at least one) page inspired by each of the eBooks I have bought from Ella Publishing Co. (I currently own five eBooks and have my eye on the latest one, Scrapbooking the Everyday, so it's time I do more than just look at them.)
• Complete a layout challenge from a site other than Write.Click.Scrapbook. (I find so much inspiration from WCS, that I feel like a stalker sometimes, so I am forcing myself to branch out a bit.)
• Make a page every day for one week (I love the idea of a layout a day for a month, but sometimes I like to aim low).
• Make a home decor item using my scrapbook supplies.

I'll share the results of my challenges as I complete them -- just one more way to keep me turning out layouts this year.

How Many?

In our family, we do a lot of travel by car. My husband and I are also map geeks who like to tally how many states we have visited, with a bit of friendly competition thrown in for good measure. I am proud of the fact that at 5 and 3, our sons have each visited 26 states, and I love the fact that they are learning to be excited about visiting a new state and finding them on maps.

This layout has long been on my list to create. Hopefully we'll have at least one more to add this summer. (And I now realize I need to add the "as of" date to this page. Back to Photoshop!)

Paper: Katie Pertiet's Color Challenge 4-25-10 Paper Pack at DesignerDigitals.com; Fonts: Impact and American Typewriter

A Weekend Captured in Photos

As I played with the Instagram app over the weekend, a page started forming in my mind, something like this collage page from Ali Edwards that I had marked in my Tumblr site last week.

The square Instagram photos lend themselves to a grid layout easily, and the filtered effect ties them all together. I wanted to keep everything else very simple, but did find the gray flourishes in a free kit I downloaded from Persnickety Prints over the weekend.

I really like having a whole weekend summarized like this in a series of photos on a page. It's my tiny take on projects like a Photo a Day for a Year. I know I could never keep up with recording a year, but I like to have little random samples sprinkled into my albums.

From Paper to Pixels

It seems lately I'm finding more inspiration, and making more time to turn that inspiration into scrapbook pages, than usual. So far, 2011 has been a very productive scrapbooking year (not such a productive keep-the-house-clean year, but the dishes can always wait).

This week, Rebecca Cooper hosted a Beginner Digi Week at Write.Click.Scrapbook with some added help (and free downloads!) from Creativity by Crystal. One of Rebecca's tips for getting started with digital scrapbooking is to use a paper layout for inspiration, something I'd never done. I had a story and photos in mind, and since they were 3 horizontal photos, I knew just the paper layout to copy.

 

I love how the three 4x6 photos works so well in a line, especially to show a sort of progression -- this was the progression of a typical day with my sons. 

The digital one I had in mind was the same idea -- the progression of a snow day at home.

[Digital supplies: kraft background: Creativity by Crystal's "You Are Awesome" kit; striped paper: Crystal's Free December Papers pack; flair buttons: Crystal's Free December Flair; fonts: Century Gothic, Impact Label and Cooper Black]

One of the great things about digital scrapbooking is that aside from never using up your supplies, there are so many great downloads available for free (thank you Crystal for these supplies!). Using free downloads really helps me decide what elements I'm more likely to use on my digital pages, so I can make better purchases -- like I think I love Crystal's happy colors and cute patterns, and probably need to go buy a paper pack today....

Check out more digital inspiration with Crystal's papers and templates in the Write.Click.Scrapbook. Flickr group.