Project 12:1

A few years back, Gossamer Blue added Life Pages to their kit line-up, gorgeous 3x4 and 4x6 cards designed by Traci Reed that coordinate with the monthly kits.  I immediately jumped on board adding the Life Pages kit to my monthly subscription, and I made my first attempt at doing a year-long project to document our lives on a regular basis.  Back then it was more of a monthly project, titled Project 12, and it worked great for me.

For 2014 I decided to do a weekly approach, as Gossamer Blue had added some amazing Life Pages design team members (Michelle W., read her blog HERE!), and I was SO INSPIRED!  I jumped in with enthusiasm, ready to create this fabulous album for my girly!  And then I stopped.  It wasn't fun anymore, I was having trouble filling all those pockets, some weeks I didn't even take a single photo. Bleh.

Fast forward to January 2015:  the desire to get back on track with Life Pages hit me when I opened the beautiful January Kits from Gossamer Blue.  And that's when I realized:  hey, why did I stop doing the monthly project?

Here's the Why and the Why It Works for Me behind Project 12:

• I'm using photos that don't always make it on a scrapbook page
• Telling more of the daily life story
• Miss Q gets a monthly play-by-play of her childhood
• It doesn't detract from my first love:  12x12 scrapbook layouts
• It keeps our memories fresh
• A two-page spread takes hardly any time to put together

My approach is rather simple, as I already receive the Life Pages kits each month.  I always added at least one LP kit to my monthly purchase as a subscriber, and as a DT member I can choose to add those kits on as well.  I like that each month is a new color story, so every two page spread in my Project 12 album will have it's own colors and/or theme.  For my Project 12 cover page I used the January kits which included some 2015 cards.

I like to add embellishments on top of the page protector, so I'll be photographing my pages in the protectors.  I get a few glares sometimes :)

My One Little Word this year is Go, so I had to make reference to it on the cover page!  Read more about One Little Word HERE and HERE.

Here's my January pages, up first is the left side:

And now the right:

My pages will mostly be a 50/50 mix of the LP cards and photos. I'm using a Project Life album and page protectors by Becky Higgins as I already had a box of them from my failed attempt at the weekly approach.  I considered switching to We R Memory Keepers albums and page protectors, but decided that if I use what I already have it allows me to buy more stuff for the pages, haha!  I like adding Thickers, flair, stickers, etc., on top of the page protectors, as some of the dimensional embellies don't fit in the pockets.  Some Thickers do fit in the pocket, like the Dear Lizzy letters I used in this spread.

I found my Shimelle (by American Crafts) date stamp from an older Gossamer Blue kit in my stash, and I like that's it just the date, so that will be my go-to for dating cards and photos.  StazOn ink stamps great on photos and stickers, so I'll be using that as well.

I'll share my monthly layout around the first week of each month.

Thanks for reading this whole post, I know it was a long one but I just have so much to say about memory keeping in the monthly format!

GO: My 2015 One Little Word

Image credit:  Rebekah at Life of B

I'm sure most everyone is familiar with Ali Edwards One Little Word concept (read about it HERE).  I choose NURTURE for my 2013 word, then didn't choose one for 2014.  It hit me sometime mid-December that I wanted to choose a word again.  GO is my word, for several reasons:

1. I feel like we missed out on some great experiences in 2014, just because I felt like it would be too much effort to get around, get out the door, get there and just GO.  I'm disappointed in myself for this.
2. I started to GO for it with my crafting in 2014, with a surprise request to be on the Gossamer Blue DT, and with a try out for AWDML DT.  I discovered that being on a DT is amazing.  So my focus in the crafting aspect of my life is to continue to GO for it.
3. I taught a few card classes for our local MOMS Club.  I need to continue to GO on and share what I love with others!

Here's plans on how to GO in 2015:

1. GO on bike rides.  Get a trailer for Quinn to ride in since we're kind of big for a stroller, but not ready to ride our own bike yet.
2. GO spontaneously.  A random carnival in town?  GO check it out.  Just found out about a new class?  GO see what it's all about.  
3. GO out to eat in restaurants more often.  We rarely do this and Quinn needs the experience.
4. GO visit my parents.  My mom is 1 hour away, my dad less than an hour.  They are both in their mid-70's and the reality of aging parents just kicked in for me.  Both are in pretty good health but I got too caught up in our own stuff to spend time with them in 2014.  Quinn will be in school full-time in two short years, then our quick trips won't be as frequent.  Now is the time to take advantage and just go hang with my mom and dad.

That's just the start of my list, as more thoughts hit me or things develop, I'll add more and update what we've done.  Here's to an active, fulfilling 2015!

Revisiting Earlier Thoughts

Right now I should be getting ready for a special something Rebekah and I are cooking up.

But I'm not.

I'm sitting here, thinking on my One Little Word for 2015.  Revisiting earlier blog posts on creative self-discovery (HERE and HERE).  Hanging on the floor of my messy craft room.

I guess I'll make a list of thoughts, to try and organize myself, my crafting, my mess of a craft room...

1. I'm bringing stitching back (sing it in your head to Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback."  You'll thank me later).  I love hand stitching using Amy Tangerine templates.  Love it.  I just received the Comrade templates and I'm so excited to stitch those big block letters!  In an earlier thoughts post, I said I don't stitch on layouts.  I want to clarify that I don't MACHINE STITCH.  I have my mom's sewing machine and so badly want to use it, but I'm clueless on setting the tension and the thread keeps coming out of the needle.  The frustration isn't worth it.  
2. I spent about 20 minutes looking at layouts on my blog and either they are missing something, some wow factor, or I need more help with photographing them.  It all feels flat.
3. Speaking of layouts, I feel like I'm trying different things (for me), and I kind of like it.
4. I've built up some momentum with being on the Gossamer Blue DT and the AWDML DT.  The idea of those DT terms coming to an end in 2015 scares me to the core.  I LOVE BEING ON A DT.  It's instant friendship and inspiration, and I feel like I need that to continue on my creative path.  I realize I have many months of DT membership left, but thinking ahead to what I want to accomplish in 2015, and knowing 2015 is the end of the DT's....well, it makes me sad and my heart cries a little.  Can you hear it?  
5. I think I figured out a good method for organizing my layout descriptions as I work.  I found a Sugar Paper planner HERE.  I love how I have plenty of room to write down paper names and embellishments as I'm creating.  The Sugar Paper line is amazing, and how cute is the name?
6. I have NOT figured out a good organization system for my DT kits.  I thought I was on to something and it all kind of blew up into a big pile of paper madness.  Using the Ikea Raskog cart has definitely helped with the embellishment organizing, but the paper...yeah.  It needs work.  
7. I still need to focus on my Go manifesto.  But I do have a gorgeous image for each blog post, thanks to the amazing Rebekah!

One Little Word

Most people who scrapbook and are memory keepers are familiar with Ali Edwards One Little Word.  I won't go through the ins and outs of it, you can definitely read Ali's thoughts in several places on her blog HERE, but I was just soaking in a delicious hot bath and it hit me that I need a word for 2015.

I've had a lot of personal changes in 2014; nothing major, just new things in my life as Mama, Scrapper, Friend and all the other position titles I currently hold.  I was asked to be on my dream design team by my Fairy Godmother Lori at Gossamer Blue.  Then I found a design team call for A Walk Down Memory Lane and decided to apply, landing an amazing spot with the kind, sweet and just all-around awesome Lisa.

I thought about the wonderful women I can now call my girlfriends, soul sisters that I will cherish today, tomorrow and always.  These are the kind of girlfriends you don't lose touch with, the kind who nourish you in so many ways:  creatively, intellectually, laughing-joking-smiling kinds of ways that you just need.

To wrap up these thoughts in a neat little One Little Word kind of way, these 2014 changes have inspired me to GO.

More on how I plan to GO soon.

Miss Q.  She decided to GO for that candy cane :)