Journal your Christmas

I am taking a class called Journal your Christmas this month. It is all about capturing and holding onto what is important to you during the Holiday season.

I am choosing to document my discoveries in a Journal/scrapbook.  I thought I would share my progress here. SOme days I may even just make a blog post. Their are no rules- love that!

Here is my first days work

Hear is a photo of the full layout. The December calendar page I plan on adding little notes to throughout the month as I do Holiday events - today I made cookies with a friend so wrote that on.

Here is a close up of my "Christmas manifesto". Just a list of thoughts and ideas of what I would like to focus on this year.

And This page I did cause I was excited and it was fun! I was also thinking of the instructor's email that told us to think about signs of Christmas. This is a divided page protector - The top left is Shimelle's (the instructor) Manifesto printed 3 X 4. to the right is a close up of our tree this year, lower left is my youngest 2 children helping to hang outdoor lights, their first year to help, and the final pocket is just fun bits, sequins and wood veneers sewn into the pocket to create a snowglobe effect.

Not everyday will be so detailed, some days will just be a bit of journaling or some pics.  I am sure I will not have an entry for everyday but that is okay.  I plan on adding to this book over the years as the fancy strikes me.  What are your plans for this Season?  What do you want it to look like?

My baby boy is 12 today!  I put together a little slide show of pics of him from 2 -12.

March CKC Layouts

One of the Mini challenges at the Counterfeit kit challenge blog was to scraplift yourself. You could do this either by using one of your own layouts as inspiration or by redoing an old layout. I chose the second option. I made the following page about 11 years ago when I first began scrapbooking. Very much Creative Memories style. I have always loved these photos of my now 16 yr old son when he was 5 1/2 months old.

Here is my redo of the layout using my March CKC kit. I used a sketch from Sketches For Scrapbooking Vol 7 by Debbie Sanders & Allison Davis. I am so very pleased with how it came out. The little cloud and elephant accent I cut from a sassafras lass paper I had in the kit. The little umbrella and rain drop stickers are from an older Creative Memories sticker sheet I had in the add-on kit. Isn't my little guy so stinkin cute?

Here is another layout I made using the kit. My mother in law is such a fun Grandma. She sent my kids a package that said "do not open until feb 1st" When we opened it it had a bag of bubble gum and a card for National Bubble Gum Day. SO FUN! the pics are dorky and silly and really capture my kiddos personalities. I am having so much fun using all these misc items that I love!

March Kit - Layout #1

These are photos from last spring. My youngest daughter having a tea party with her dollies. The title reads "Dolly and me Tea" but the y is hard to see in the photo. I used things from both the main kit and the add-on. The Roses are cut from the AMerican Craft Dear Lizzy paper and the little blue dots are punched from the same pattern paper. I am really happy with how girly and fun it is.

March Counterfeit Kit

There is a great new blog that challenges us to create scrapbook kits from our stashes using current for sale kits as inspiration. I played along in January and am doing it again this month. I love how it gets me to combine items I might not and then I actually use them! I have made 4 layouts from the Jan kit I made and still have things left in the kit to make more.

So first here is the blog - counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

here is my kit for March. I loved the colors in the inspiration kit so I stuck pretty much to it when choosing my papers and embellishments.

and here is my add on kit. I based it off of the sunny clearing add on from the inspiration sight.
and finally here are 2 stamps I chose to accent the kit as well.
I will be posting the layouts and projects I make using this kit over the next month. Let me know if you join the challenge too. I would love to see what you do!

This is also me

A friend posted this on her blog today and I think she may be living in my head!

http://stupor-of-thought.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-in-which-i-realize-i-talk-more-than.html

Nanowrimo/Fear

My house it engulfed with a frenzy of writing this month. My Dh and my children are busy participating in National Novel writers Month. They are so excited as their word count grows and their stories come to life. I on the other hand am content to hear about their stories, encourage them and read their offerings. Why ? because I am afraid.

So there it is. I am afraid to write. I have been afraid of it for a very long time. I feel not up to it. Like the words just fall there in an uninspired way. I have convinced myself that I just do not like to write, but really I am afraid to do it badly. I have a husband, children, a good friend who write so eloquently. They bring imagination to life and illuminate the ordinary. My words just, well don't. It is not that I have nothing to say - as thoes who know me can attest - I have no problem expressing myself with the spoken word. I think the fear comes from the pressure I put on myself. If it is written it should be important, eloquent and have a meaning worth reading. Okay even as I write that it sounds silly, but it is truly what I often feel. I am working on this fear and one of the things I have realized is that it is okay not to write. It does not make me less intelligent. It does not make my great pleasure in reading less enjoyable. It just means that this thing is not where I am focusing. I do not have to be jealous or envious of another's ability. God has given me my own gifts and I need to recognize those. It is okay to write competently and not be a wordsmith. I do not need to write a novel and I do not need to like writing stories but I do need to not be afraid of sharing what I love, what I cherish and about my faith in our glorious God.

So what this means is I hope to have more posts that I have worried less over.

I have been hanging out at a new scrap board - Inspired to scrap.

Last weekend I took a fun card class and got a jump on my Christmas cards and now coming up on Friday is a great Layout Sketch class. You can read more about it here - www.inspiredtoscrap.net/store

October 15-29 : 15/15 Inspired by Sketches – $15
Let’s complete 15 layouts using sketches! The design team will present a new sketch for you each day during this 15 day class. We’ll have inspiration, techniques and challenges for you to be motivated to complete more pages.
Features of the class-
Access to a private area of the message board
Daily inspiration will include a new sketch and samples
Video tutorials (special surprise techniques!)
All new samples and layouts to spark your creativity
Encouragement and support to complete 15+ layouts
Inspiration from fellow classmates

I am going to try and take this class too! come and join me if you can.