Showing posts with label photo book. Show all posts

One Post Might Be Good...


...don't you think, before the year is over?  I know it's been quite a long time since my last blog entry.  2012 has been the kind of year where my attention was just needed elsewhere.  Nothing really terrible has happened, but there were some things going on with me personally, and with my family, that brought on the long hiatus.  So, let's get back to it, shall we?

My absence here has not meant that I haven't been creating, and here's some things I've been interested in, or that I've enjoyed documenting over that last 11 months or so:

Art Journaling
In January, I found myself very interested in art journaling.  I picked up a traditional paper journal, which I have started painting backgrounds in, but have felt drawn more to digital art journaling, so that's what I've been exploring.  I've found it's a great way to either "dump" feelings onto paper without worrying about it being "right" or "trendy," or a fun place to try a technique I've been too nervous to put on a layout.  I have been a bit sporaidic with it lately, but plan on continuing with it.  I find it makes me a better scrapbooker when I regularly do art journalng.  Here are just a few of those pages:





Cooking and Gardening

I've discovered some fun cooking blogs, some of which center around vegetarian and vegan cooking.  And no, I'm not switching permanently to either of those eating plans.  I'm not a fan of drastic changes.  Rather, I'm just choosing to incorporate some of the recipes into our regular menu rotation.  I'm also becoming more aware of all the additives in processed food, and trying to either eat less of them, or at least choose those that have shorter ingredient lists or are minimally processed.  So of course, I've been spending more time in the kitchen.  I also started a fall garden, and have been babysitting a bunch of cool weather veggies:









Family Activities
We aren't as on the go as most families, but it is great to see different members of our little brood taking part in things that interest them.  Lately, pictures from these types of activities have been really fun for me to scrap:




Oh, and I just added an activity for myself.  I've recently joined a low-key ballet class for adults.  Since I've only been to two classes, I haven't had much of a chance to do any layouts about it.  So keep an eye out for that in the future...;)

Online Classes
Currently, I'm taking part in a really fun class taught at jessicasprague.com, called {Mo}tography.

It's all about using various photo taking apps on your smartphone, and learning to make them look great and share with friends and family.  It's been great so far and we still have a week to go.  It's amazing how many different photo taking apps there are for these phones.

Another class I enjoyed in September was from Shimelle Laine:










Learn Something New Everyday focused on looking at the small lessons that are around us everyday, and being on the lookout for them.  Class members received a prompt everyday, which we could work from or we could do up a layout on a topic of our choice.  I learned a lot about myself during that time, and was able to complete a great photo book with all my pages from the class.  You can check it out below:



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OK, and to finish off, here's my most recent page, where I documented Thanksgiving 2011.  I used fabulous page kits from Jen Martakis:

 
Thanks for sticking with me for all of that!  And, I have great hopes of doing another blog post very soon.  
Have a great day!
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Final Week - Journal Your Christmas Pages



While there are many who are continuing their journals until the first week of the new year, I've opted to finish mine up around Christmas.  I tacked on one more entry for the 26th, simply because I thought a list of things I forgot (or nearly forgot) to do might come in handy this time next year. I appreciate all who've stopped by to take a peek at my work.












Wishing you all a Happy New Year! 

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Week Three - Journal Your Christmas



Another busy December week, where I felt the pressure of the season.   Thanks to this latest round of entries, I was able to get rid of some of that stress.  I hope you enjoy looking at this past week's pages:








OK, ya'll!  We've got a week left before the big day.  I'm going to try and enjoy these next few days, and feel the joy rather than the stress of the season.  I hope you are able to do the same!
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Week Two - Journal Your Christmas



Here are my entries from the past week.  These aren't the fanciest or most embellished pages, but I enjoy doing them so much.  They are the perfect outlet for stressful December days.  Creating this journal is truly a form of celebration for me. I hope you enjoy looking at these layouts:








Whatever you are doing this holiday season, I hope you find your own small ways to celebrate it.  We are all busy with our work, so find a some time to do something that makes you happy.  Watch a favorite holiday movie, drink some cocoa, or dare I say it, sneak in a nap.

See you soon!
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Journal Your Christmas



For a few years now, I've watched many of my online scrapping pals take part in Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas class.  I've always loved the idea of it.  It works like this:  once you pay for and sign up for the class, Shimelle will email you daily prompts for each day in December and a few in January.  Based on what you prefer, you can either write a simple journal entry, create a scrapbook page, write a blog post, etc. based on that day's prompt.  And, after you sign up once, you can keep coming back, year after year to receive Shimelle's prompts and the digital and printable goodies she provides.  It was a hard project for me to ignore. 

Most participants that I know did scrapbook pages, which were heavy on journaling.  Since I feel that scrapbook pages are the most complete when they have both photos and the story, I was drawn to this project.  I just wasn't sure I could commit to doing an entry everyday.  It seemed overwhelming.  Taking care of my kids and adjusting to motherhood was enough at that time, so I drooled over my friends pages and lived vicariously through their layouts. 

Last Christmas, things with my clan of small rug rats were starting to settle down enough where I could maybe consider a project like this.  And, since I'd already jumped into digital scrapbooking, I knew 2010 would be the year for me to try my hand at Journal Your Christmas.  I went and browsed over my friends blogs and message board posts, and saw that many of those who succeeded in completing their Christmas albums made up their pages for each day of the month of December ahead of time.  

Even though I was skeptical and nervous about the idea of doing a page for each day, I decided I would remember that it wasn't about pressure, it was about documenting the things that made the holiday my favorite.  It's about throwing the stress of the season out the window and enjoying Christmas again. 

With that in mind, I spent the last half of November creating my base pages, that I would eventually add my words and photos to.  It felt good to knock the pages out and have them ready to go before Journal Your Christmas started.  When December did roll around, I was able to enjoy journaling each day's entry, and adding in photos when I wanted to.  If I didn't want to, that was fine, too.  The end result was a Christmas album that I love, and that my kids have asked to look at several times since it came back from Shutterfly.  The two pages I posted the top of this entry are a couple of my favorites.  You can see the rest of album: here.

So, with the good experience I had last year under my belt, I decided to go ahead and try it again this year.  While some bloggers are posting their entries each day, I've decided to post a week's worth of entries here.  There were three days worth of entries for this first week, so here are my pages so far:





I made the choice to stick with a very simple page design, since I knew I could work on the base pages here and there when I had time. I didn't want it to be complicated or worry about heavily embellished pages.  This allowed me to get my pages done within about a week, and I could relax and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.

I used Ali Edwards' 31 Days Overlays, which you can find over at Designer Digitals.  I chose these over the ones Ali made up for this year, because these overlays are customizable and can be made to work with any year, not just the current one. And, the kit has bonus templates that work with the overlays, so that made it even easier to complete the base pages.  The next trick was choosing a couple of digital Christmas kits so that I could plop in paper and elements in the slots provided in the templates.  I chose two holiday kits by Jen Martakis, Holly Jolly Christmas and Holiday Story to jazz up my pages.  I love how everything is coming together so far.  

I'll be back soon with more pages from this project.  I hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far!





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