Journal Your Christmas

 Here is a look at my Journal Your Christmas album. 

The numbers are flat number
stickers that I used Glossy
Accents on to make them
look raised.

 
I used the Glossy Accents on the diamond shapes in the patterned card and on the berries too.  I used pop-dots to have the banner card and holly & berries stand-out.  Ribbon from my stash and December Documented from Simple Stories are the other products used.  The silver reindeer shown in the first photo ended up on the inside of the back cover.  See yesterday's post for details on the painting of the album. Links to the Simple Stories December Documented products I am using this year can be found on the right.  

Journal Your Christmas 2013

 This last week I put aside my 30 Days of Thankful project to begin preparing my album for Journal Your Christmas.

I started with a basic Simple Stories album and painted the brown chipboard part black.  I just used an acrylic paint from Michaels.  

I then use Martha Stewart's silver glitter paint to cover the front of the album .  Let that dry I started on the divider pages.  

I haven't quite figured out how I'm breaking out the topics. 
I'm thinking preparation, every-day and Christmas day but that could change as I go on.  I've also considered a memories section but I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of time to work on that.  As you can see from the photo above the divider pages began to curl but they flattened out as they dried.  
I've done December Daily for the last 2 years and decided to use Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas this year.  With December Daily I felt like I was forcing my story into someone else's formula so I'm hoping this feels more authentic.  I hope too that I have time to build it on a daily basis.  I liked having the album ready by December 1st with December Daily but it did not leave room for changes in plans, life getting busy, etc.  
I'm looking to have less filler and more content.  
Do you have any plans for documenting your Christmas?

December 2012 album

Simple Stories Album - front cover

I really like the combination of cardstock pages and
page protectors in the Simple Stories albums

Our city has Snowflake lights decorating
the downtown area during the holidays.  I used some snowflakes that were meant to be ornaments on the page on the left and cut a Hambly snowflake
transparency to size and added it to the left. 

The Hambly snowflake transparency covered a blurry photo on the right that I wanted in the album.  Its a motorized Christmas tree in our annual Christmas parade.

I added the program for a holiday pops concert we went to.  Fits perfectly!

 I originally set out to do a December Daily type of album.  Date card at top of page is one of Ali Edwards' digital items that I printed and decorated. Working full-time I did not end up with enough "daily" photos and had multiple event type photos so the album evolved into a December album.

I alternated 2 different page protectors throughout the album.  On the right I cut to size another Hambly transparency (reindeers).  I love how these look in the page protector pockets.  (Idea came from Ali Edwards) 

Added a Christmas card right into the album

Cut 4 x 6 photo in half to add to the top 2 pockets.

I've been working on this album since Thanksgiving on & off.  I was able to finish it on Saturday at a Crop.  I used Simple Stories Handmade Holidays and 25 Days of Christmas pieces throughout the album along with items from my stash.  I have a Christmas basket with all sorts of Christmas embellishments that works really well for me. Things I'll do differently for my next December album include:

• I'll not set the album up ahead of time.  This seemed like a real timesaver to me but ended up making me feel like I had to fit a mold that didn't work for the photos I had and stories I wanted to tell.  It felt forced.
• I'll definitely gather a variety of supplies and will probably use the Simple Stories album again.
• I'll set up a paper journal to write things down daily.  This year I just had a sheet of paper that I wrote notes on each day and then I lost it!  
• I'll try to save more memorabilia
• I'm not using a December Daily format.  I took Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas and will use that type of approach instead.
• I'll take more photos.  I'm not a big picture taker.  Probably a throwback to so many years of film photos.  I thought I was taking a lot of photos but when it came to pick photos for the album it didn't seem like many.  

So that wraps that project up - on to the next one!

2013 One Little Word Blog Hop

Welcome to the first One Little Word (OLW) Blog Hop for 2013!

This is my third year living with a word.  The first year was "illuminate" and guided me in aligning my values with my actions. Last year's word was "JOY" and while I kept the word close all year long I never made it past the January OLW prompt.  My word for 2013 is SEEK.

Originally, I thought my word should be "complete" but I felt it was too one-dimensional and did not allow for enough flexibility as the year went on and life brought its little surprises.  After a couple of weeks of lists of words and research I chose "seek". 

Almost one month in and I'm really happy with my word. It's helping me define  what I really want to accomplish this year - to complete all those things on my "to do" list - some that have been there since my first OLW journey.  For "Seek Friendship" I'm looking to expand my circle of friends that share my passion for scrapbooking and mixed media.  I'm hoping to get more involved in the local arts group.  I'm also looking to connect with some friends I've lost touch with.  For "Seek Health" I'm hoping to lose some weight and get walking.  I'd like to add more there but am trying to focus on one or two things in each area at a time.  For Seek Learning" I want to finish BPC classes that I haven't finished and to either finish or read books I've started or are sitting in a pile.  One of them is The Happiness Project which fits very well with my plans.  "Seek to decrease debt" speaks for itself.  I'm compiling very lengthy lists of all my unfinished projects, books, goals etc. for "Seek Completion" and I hope to track my progress using my Project Life album. I'm working my way through Project Real Life (which I didn't finish last year) and I'm finding this also fits with what I'm trying to accomplish.  I'm not expecting to finish "friendship" in January or "health" in April  but will work towards all these intentions throughout the year.
'

  I apologize for some glare on the photos above but the weather here has been gloomy when I've been home during the day and I usually get home from work after dark.  It makes it tough to find good light for photos.  I'm still looking to add some elements for the second page - it seems a little bare to me but I haven't found anything that speaks to me yet.  So I'll wait until I find the right thing. Thank you for stopping by!

First up on the OLW Blog Hop is Lee.  Follow the links below to each blog; hopping from one blog to the next.  Comments are welcome and appreciated.  It's always great to get feedback!

Lee: http://thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife/

Cheri: cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Lisa: http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Lynn: www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com       YOU ARE HERE

Nikki: www.inkyart.com.au

Kathryn: www.katlodesigns.com

Missus Wookie: mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com

Veronica: www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Eydie: www.whatwecreate.net

Karen: http://womenontractors.blogspot.com

Kelly: http://www.septemberblue.net

Melanie: http://mellybirddesigns.wordpress.com

Valerie: http://naughtystamper.blogspot.com/

Marya: www.lotustreecrafts.com

Nupur: http://woodpeckertales.com

Angela: angelanoel.com

Janet: http://lifeinsideascrapbookroom.blogspot.com

Dona: http://orangegearle.blogspot.com/

Ruth: http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/

Naomi: http://www.poeticaperture.com/

Pam: http://pammiek.blogspot.com/

Kara: http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com

Clare: http://claresthomas.blogspot.co.uk/

Margareta: http://www.paperpilekitten.com/

Tricia: http://onecreativemom.wordpress.com/

Jacqueline: http://goodwolve.blogs.com/jacqueline/

Ali Edwards/Xyron Giveaway

Yesterday I received a large package in the mail.  As always I get pretty excited when something other than bills arrive in the mail!

 Inside were the Xyron products I won in a giveaway over on Ali Edwards' blog at the beginning of December Daily.  As you can see I received the Creative Station which creates stickers (with both permanent and repositionable adhesive), magnets, laminates, and laminates with permanent adhesive on the bottom.  This is a step up from the 5" Create a Sticker that I had.  I also received a Xyron 510 in the new purple color (my old one is orange).  My first thought was to sell or give away my older items but I may keep them to hold the repositionable adhesive and keep the permanent adhesive in the newer items.  It will probably depend on the amount of space they all take up and whether its just easier to switch out the cartridges.  The other products are new to me and include the Xyron Mega Runner (have always wanted one of these), the Xyron Tape Runner and a Xyron Glue Stick.  This is also a permanent adhesive and the really cool thing with this is the fact that it is shaped for corners!  I think this will be really great for mixed media projects.  I plan to show these products in use in future blog posts.  Or you can check out the full line of Xyron products here:
http://www.xyron.com
And to check out Ali Edwards' blog:
aliedwards.com
I've followed Ali's blog for several years now and frequently leave comments both to share feedback and for giveaways (which are always amazing).  This is the first time I've won anything but I've gotten an incredible amount of information and inspiration from Ali over the years.  This includes December Daily, Photoshop, A Week in the Life, Project Life and so much more!
Thanks Ali!  Thanks Xyron!

Finding Photo Freedom Pre-class materials

I started reviewing the pre-class materials for Finding Photo Freedom (FPF) over the weekend and today I completed the following items:  the Finding Photo Freedom Pledge, my week's schedule, and my EQ (Enough Quotient).  I also watched Stacy Julian's pre-class video before I completed these items.  Looking at the sheet on the left in the bottom photo you may be able to see that a good deal of my week's time is spent at work.  I basically have weekend and weekday evenings left for everything else.  Stacy believes that we need to have a good understanding of what is enough for us to be happy with what we accomplish; and until we understand (realistically)know what that is it won't ever feel like its "enough".  In 2011, when I took FPF the first time I threw everything I wanted to accomplish on to my EQ.  Realistically though there wasn't enough time in my schedule to humanly complete it all. I think that this time I understand better what Stacy is saying and have created an EQ that is realistic and achievable.  I actually have one open space (see the sheet on the right in the bottom photo) for four of the five categories listed.  I may leave it like like this or add something later in the process.
Here's my EQ for 2013 as of today:
Weekly:
Spend 15 minutes three times a week with my digital images
Spend 15 minutes three times a week with my non-digital photos
Complete 2 page weekly spread in my Project Life album
Monthly:
Complete One Little Word 2013 assignment
Complete 3 layouts
This Year:
Re-visit Twelve
Re-take FPF
Home:
Fill photo frames with photos! (and hang on walls)
Update SD card in digital photo frame
Online:
Blog - three posts per week
Purchase PSE 11 and learn how to use it (Check out Ali Edwards' tutorials and other online tutorials/classes
Now I have to admit I have a lot more projects I would love to complete this year but I'm focusing on this list and I'll see how many challenges come up.  The first few months of the year tends to be fairly easy as the winter weather keeps me indoors.  As spring arrives it becomes more of a challenge to keep to a schedule inside.
Are you taking Finding Photo Freedom with Stacy Julian starting in February?  If yes, what's your EQ?

One Little Word 2013 and more

Over the last couple of months my One Little Word (OLW) for 2012 JOY was in the forefront of mind as we enjoyed the holidays and a new word for 2013 started making its presence known.  At first the word was complete and that was perfectly understandable as I took a record number of Big Picture Classes in 2012 and ended up not finishing several.  I also have several books to finish, picture frames that need pictures, other projects that remain unfinished and so on.  As I began researching and learning more about the word complete it didn't seem to cover enough of what I was hoping for in 2013 so as one word led to another to another I have chosen the word SEEK for 2013.  I'll be working on learning more about this word as I begin preparing for OLW 2013.
As 2013 is shaping up to be a year of completing, repeating and re-taking classes and projects I'm also planning on taking May Flaum's The Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  I loved this class last year - one of the classes I actually finished except for the final project.  I want to repeat this class for a couple of reasons.  First, May is an enthusiastic teacher and is very inspiring.  By the end of the class I was really becoming more adventurous and doing more mixed media types of art then ever before so I'm hoping to continue that type of work and incorporating it into my scrapbook pages.

I would really like to integrate my OLW 2013 journey into my everyday Project Life or if that doesn't seem possible an album that really helps me focus on those things I am seeking.  I'm really looking for a process that helps move me forward.  Helps me be more accountable to what I'm looking for in 2013.  I'd love to hear your ideas and plans for 2013.                                                          

The red albums are my OLW and Move More, Eat Well albums.
The pink album is an 8 x 8 album that I haven't used yet.
My Twelve and Finding Photo Freedrom notebooks
are on the chest of drawers as well as
I try to get organized for the new year!

December Daily/Journal Your Christmas

The top two photos are a few of my foundation pages in my December Daily/Journal Your Christmas album. I'm using templates from Ali Edwards for these journaling cards and then embellishing them.  Since I didn't not get much journaling done in last year's December Daily album I added Journal Your Christmas (JYC) to my process this year.  Two days in to the class and I'm amazed at the amount of information and material that Shimelle provides. If you're interested, check out www.shimelle.com
I apologize for the slightly dark photos above - its always an adjustment this time of year as I get the lighting figured out.  It gets dark to early and today we didn't the sun at all.
The next photo is a shot of Becky Higgins' 6" x 6" Small Envelope Pages.  I found out these fit in the Sn@p! albums very well.  I was looking through all my stuff for items to use in my Sn@p! albums for December Daily/JYC and 12/12/12 when I figured that out.  Also, in Becky Higgins Small Variety Pack Page Protectors there are 5" x 7" page protectors - the 2 vertically aligned ones work in the Sn@p! album also.
The last photo shows the chaos my room is in right now.  Those are photos I'm gathering for the 12/12/12 event at Big Picture Classes.  We're creating a mini-album showcasing photos and memories from this past year.  All around the photos are Christmas/Holiday items for embellishing the December Daily/JYC album.
Are you doing a holiday album this year?

National Scrapbook Day Recovery

Wow, what a great weekend!

Use a library pocket on your page,

  There's nothing like getting into a creative zone and having a blast with it.  I was a little slow out of the gate (I did take time on Saturday to watch the Kentucky Derby - with 2 veterinarians that specialize in horses in the family its kind of mandatory.) on Saturday morning.  I was trying really hard to get my Week in the Life/Project Life album current before Big Picture Classes' Creative Crop started at noon.  I got almost all the photos in but need to go back & do the journaling and add bits & pieces.  I was also getting some paper and tags misted that I hoped to use to create some pages I wanted to get done.  I was hoping that they would work for some of the challenges and they did so I was glad I got a head start on those and they had time to dry.
I completed 8 out of the 12 challenges between Saturday and Sunday which I was very happy with.  I'll be sharing those over the next few days.  I never did get over to scrapbook.com to do their NSD challenges.  I have some ideas for next year that will hopefully better prepare me to do both events.  Besides creating layouts for the challenges I did catch 2 of the live chats - one with Stacy Julian and one with Ali Edwards.  I also participated in another chat (with just typing back & forth) with Nic Howard.  I was especially happy to be in that chat as I'll be taking the Double Take class with Nic and May Flaum (can't wait to be back in a class with May!).  With the chat I felt like I had "met" Nic.  I wasn't planning on taking Double Take as I have quite a list of Big Picture Classes (BPC)  that I'm already taking & felt I should focus on those.  However, I had participated in last week's BPC week-long giveaway contests and won a spot in Double Take!  WooHoo!  Very happy.  Really added to the festive feel of the weekend.

I did the photo at the top for the challenge "Use a library pocket on your page".  I had a package of these blue library cards so I used one of those.  I added the kraft card "GROW" and wrote a little note to my grandson, Owen on it.  I decided to decorate the card as well using crushed velvet to make the snowbank and Liquid Pearls to mimic snowflakes. The rest of the page came together quite quickly.  I cut a sheet of corrugated cardboard paper (from Michael's) into strips and adhered those onto a sheet of kraft cardstock. I was trying to mimic the look of the fence behind Owen.

One of the challenges was to use photos from your iPhone and if you didn't have an iPhone to use everyday photos for you layout.  I used photos that I had taken during A Week in the Life of the department I work in.

Everyday Photos

Stop back tomorrow for more photos of the layouts I complete during the Creative Crop!

Project Life Blog Hop

Welcome back to our monthly blog hop and Happy National Scrapbook Day! 
Project Life has been a little bit of a challenge for me this year.  I've not taken a lot of photos this year at least yet.  There's been a few reasons for that.  For one, life has been pretty ordinary & I just didn't feel motivated to capture just the routine day in/day out things.  I use Week in the Life for that.  Secondly, I've become very conscious of how many albums I already have created and the space that they take up so I'm trying to find a balance between preserving the memories of my life (ordinary or not) with the amount of materials I'll leave behind to my children/grandchildren one day. So I switched to a monthly format for February through March instead of a weekly format.  In May I'll switch back to a weekly format as we have several things scheduled in May that will provide photos.
This is also the second year that I have done (or attempted) A Week in the Life (WITL) in my Project Life (PL) album.  Ali Edwards' set the last week in April for WITL.  I suprised myself and took 54 photos in one day which I think has to be a record for me.  However, there are days I only took 1-3.  I did pretty well with the journaling although I have some ideas for next time (I think Ali will be doing this again later this year) that I think will help prompt me to write down some other details.  I think I'll adapt Ali's journaling sheets for that. I want to add prompts to remind to write down what I'm reading, restaurants we go to, movies we watch, etc.
So here are my regular April pages.  I had hoped to have my Week in the Life pages done too but
I'm still working on them.

left side

right side

left side

right side

Not too much going on - you can probably see the weather was back & forth.  Spring one day, winter the next. I used the journaling cards from the Cobalt kit along with some items from Simple Stories.  I can't remember if they were from Life Documented or year.ography sets.  A little Easter basket added to the photo of my cats. I also put the postcard for the Art of Observation class I received with my scrapbook.com order along with my Heidi Swapp Memory Files stuff.  So nothing fancy or exciting - just me and my life!  Thanks so much for hopping by!
If you've been hopping along from the start the next blogger to visit is Lois & you can find her here http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

     

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com   To start at the beginning START HERE

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

Blogs, blogs and more blogs...

I follow & read several blogs daily. I like to get them sent right to my email inbox.  I save some for reference or inspiration.  I've found if they are sent via RSS feed I never get there to read them. Some of the bloggers have had quite an impact on my creative journey.  I thought I would share a few of them with you.

I'm a big fan of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and having been following her for a couple of years.  I started art journaling, using stencils and I am taking 21 Secrets because of her and the information she shares so generously on her blog.  Today her post title is "Tutorial:  Digital Photo Collages" and I wanted to direct those of you who are digi people to this.  Julie's tutorials are well done and easy to follow.  Check it out here   http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/
For anyone who is interested in stencils whether you use them regularly or are a beginner Julie has a lot of information regarding them including a free stencil workshop.  Julie also designs stencils for The Crafter's Workshop.  She also hosts Art Journal Every Day on her blog.

A diferent type of artist/blogger is Ali Edwards.  I've followed Ali for years.  I've been scrapbooking for about 14 years or so and used to read her articles faithfully in scrapbook magazines.  Now I read her blogs, take One Little Word, do December Daily & A Week in the Life and now I'll be taking her 31 Things class over at Big Picture Classes beginning in May.  You can find Ali here http://aliedwards.com/
She actually has two blogs on one website. 

More artist/bloggers tomorrow.

Whose blogs do you follow?

A little of this, a little of that...

The last 6 days have been pretty busy.  I've been taking lots of photos for A Week in the Life. On my best day I took 54 photos and another day I only took 2 or 3.  The rest of the days I took between 12-25 photos.  I stopped at the kiosk at CVS to get those printed & I'll pick them up tomorrow.  I'm using the downloadable sheets that Ali Edwards provides for the journaling and have kept up fairly well.  One of my biggest problems is that I work in Mammography & Ultrasound in a Women's Imaging Center.  As a Certified Breast Patient Navigator I can not photograph most of what I do at work. And frankly the rest of my week is not that interesting..however as Ali and Stacy (Julian) are fond of saying its just as important to document the everyday, small moments of life as it is the big ones so I took some photos that I normally would not. Frankly I was suprised to see that the one day had 54 photos.  I actually took more but weeded some poor shots out.  I'm hoping to work on getting my photos (& journaling in my Project Life album tomorrow. I combine the two projects as I try to limit the numbers of albums I create yearly to a minimum.
I've been playing with different parts of Heidi's Memory Files.  I'm waiting for more of her products to be delivered before I finish 3 Memory Files I have started.  It would be nice to keep up with the class but I don't want to rush these.  I am making these for a trip my husband & I are taking in September to see our oldest son & daughter-in-law.  We'll be visiting Lake Tahoe with them and I really excited about the trip!  I love that you can have so many photos in one Memory File with her system.  I hope to have some time tomorrow to work on this as well.
I'd also like to do one piece this weekend for May Flaum's class A Curious Scrapbooker's Field Guide.  We are at the end of this 12 week class -sadly :(  I know May is going to repeat this class.  I can't say enough about May & this class.  It was amazing! I may even take it again even though it will be the same material.  By the time it runs again I will be in a different place creatively and I think I would still get a lot from it.
I hope that you have checked out Big Picture Classes upcoming FREE event - their National Scrapbook Day's Creative Crop.  I really enjoyed this last year and got quite a few pages done.  I need to straighten up my craft room when I'm done in there tomorrow so that I'm ready to go next Saturday.  To check it out or register, click on the Creative Crop badge to the right of this post.
What are you working on this weekend?  What classes are you taking right now?

One Little Word Blog Hop - Wednesday, February 1st at 11am ET

Just wanted to send out a reminder that our first One Little Word Blog Hop for 2012 is this Wednesday, February 1st starting at 11am ET.  There are 46 bloggers participating!!  One Little Word is a Big Picture Classes class with Ali Edwards.  This is my second year of choosing a word - this year it chose me.  Participants live with their word for an entire year - learning about it, living intentionally with it and hopefully growing with it throughout the year.  Visit the various blogs to learn more....its not too late to join us...you can start anytime...

Final 2011 One Little Word Blog Hop & 2012 One Little Word

Welcome to Crafty-Creativity! 

Thank you for stopping by during the final 2011 One Little Word Blog Hop!    I am very grateful for the One Little Word (OLW) experience this past year.  It was my first year with One Little Word and I wasn't sure what to expect.  I had a fair amount of trouble deciding on a word.  I had some ideas of what I wanted to happen or change so I decided on ILLUMINATE. 

Illuminate - OLW 2011

I was looking for some answers to some on-going issues in my life and wanted to get to the heart of them.  I wasn't looking for easy solutions or quick answers.  One of the issues was creativity.  I'd become so blocked I'd barely done any scrapbooking for the last 2-3 years.  I had lots of other projects I wanted to complete but could not make myself sit down & create.  So I needed to look at this and find out what was really going on.  And this was basically what I wanted for various other issues. 

Its funny how this OLW works in your life.  Some days its very much on your mind and other days not so much.  Its hard to even describe it.  I think you are more open to seeing answers in various ways and places. 

By September I was beginning to struggle with the prompts.  I didn't know why.  By October I realized that I was done with my word.  It did what I had asked of it.  It had illuminated  answers to the issues I was struggling with.   I continued to work on the prompts but I didn't worry about finishing them as my new word had already come into my life and made itself known. 

Here is November's page that I just recently finished up.



November 2011 page

And here is December's page:



December 2011 page



For 2011 these two projects represent my favorite months' prompts from Ali. I really liked trying new things

February 1st Blog Hop  http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-little-word-july-1st-blog-hop.html

July 1st Blog Hop      http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-little-word-july-1st-blog-hop.html 

 I had just taken Claudine Hellmuth's BPC Composition for Collage and I was able to use what learned in that class for this project.

My word for 2012 is JOY

My title page for One Little Word 2012



The next stop on the Blog Hop is 

Monica at  http://scrapinspired.com/

The entire Blog Hop list is here if you want to start at the beginning and work your way through the list:

Margie              http://xnomads.typepad.com

Cheri                         http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Veronica            www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Kara                          http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com/

Rebekah            http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Sharyn            http://www.LaVieEnChic.com

Jill                          http://jillconyers.com

Lynn                        www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Monica            http://scrapinspired.com/

Lisa                        http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

Cynthia H            http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com

Lee                        http://thelinarstudio.typepad.com/embracelife/

Abbey                        http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/

Monica B            www.questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

Nikki                        http://www.inkyart.com.au

Tere                        http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Melissa S            http://blog.mshanhun.com

Nicky                        http://seejanebake.blogspot.com

Stephanie              http://www.scrapworthylives.com/

Jenn L            www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Cindy                        http://seriousplay.typepad.com

Amanda            http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Sam                  http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/

Jan                        http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com

Jamie                        http://jmpgirl.blogspot.com

Karen                        http://breathenowsmile.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

December Daily 2011

I'm a little slow getting photos of my December Daily pages posted.  I've found that I need a good deal of quiet time to complete my journaling & photo placement.  And by quiet time I mean a block of time that I don't have to be anywhere or do anything for a few hours and that I can work undisturbed.   This past weekend we were busy with errands Saturday morning and Christmas shopping/dinner in the  afternoon and Sunday we attended a musical and did some more shopping/dinner in the afternoon in a city an hour away.  There went the weekend! 
I'm in awe of those of you who whip out these pages quite quickly!
Here is what I have up to now.....


Title/Day 1 page



Close-up of upper right corner Title/Day 1 page



Lower right corner Title/Day 1 page



Day 2 page

As you can see right now I've just used Cathy Zielske's journaling tags.  At first I thought I really don't need  Ali Edwards' December Daily overlay pages.  Then thinking about it some more I realized I needed a place for more photos and journaling.  I have lots of stories running around in my head that I just need to get down on paper.  I keep thinking of these while I'm at work when I don't have a chance to write them down.  Looking forward to this weekend - my husband is working and we don't have very much planned other than some shopping.
The other difficulty I'm finding is battling the urge to get each day done right away.  However, I don't want to run to CVS each day to print/re-print photos and I don't want to rush the journaling.  I want the pages to be well done and meaningful so I'm just going to have to remind myself to be patient. 
Are you running into challenges with your December Daily?  Tell me how its going....

One Little Word Blog Hop - December 1st

Farewell, Illuminate!

Before we begin I want to finish up some business from the October 1st blog hop.  I'm still looking for scrappnbee - she was one of the winners of last month's blog hop giveaway here.  Please email me at laew@aol.com with your snail mail address so I can send your goodies to you.

For those of you who have been following One Little Word's Blog Hop you know that the last few months I've not fully completed each months' prompt.   I've been upset that I seemed to run out of steam without completing the full year.  In the past month, however, I have come to the realization that its because I'm done with my word, Illuminate.  Its done what I wanted to do for this year and its time to move on.  I've looked at the areas that I wanted illuminated and have taken action in each of those areas - my finances, health, creativity, simplicity, family & clarity.  While there were things I could not change or resolve I have made huge gains in all of these areas.  I have read books, blogs, & websites, and taken classes (live & on-line).  I have made friends and have learned so much from them.  I've tried new things, worked through difficult challenges and celebrated success.  I think my biggest success is in the area of creativity.  I had basically stopped scrapbooking and all other creative endeavors - I didn't even want to go into my craft room - it seemed like one more chore.  I felt completely blocked.  I've completed albums, home decor items and holiday items.  I'm excited again to be creating and look forward to my time in my craft room.  So even though I'm not continuing with the prompts I feel that OLW 2011 has been very succesful for me - my journey with Illuminate was meant to be a shorter one & I'm glad I could recognize that. 

I know my word for 2012 but I'm saving it for awhile yet. Its been hanging around for awhile and I finally recognized it in the last month.  I'm looking forward to experiencing it through another year of OLW.  I considered switching this month to my new word but felt that its best to begin in January.

I hope you're enjoying your journey with your 2011 word!  If you're not participating in this year's OLW check out http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ for the 2012 version of One Little Word. if you'd like to join us.  You never know where it will take you!

If you are beginning to think about your One Little Word (OLW) for 2012 you may be interested in listening to Lain Ehman (from LayOut A Day) as she discusses the process of choosing a word for OLW in her podcast ....click here
http://www.layoutaday.com/podcast28/

WELCOME __  __  __!

Stay tuned.....

To continue on the blog hop journey go to Cynthia's blog here-

 http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/

Or if you want to start at the beginning and hop through....start with Margie's blog.

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/

Julie Ann http://julieannshahin2.blogpsot.com/

Jill http://jillconyers.typepad.com/

Monica B http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/

Debra http://blakleyhomeplace.blogspot.com/

Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com/

Sam http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/

Lynn http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/

Cynthia http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/

Jan http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com/

Jenn http://studiojenn.blogspot.com/

Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com/

LIsa http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog