Sunday, April 18, 2010

Invitations & Observations

While I haven't gotten to do a lot of "scrapbooking" lately, I still have found a few moments to be creative. Most recently by making bridal shower invitations for my sister's shower.


I have a couple of upcoming projects on the horizon and hope that making the time to complete them will allow me to continue making time to scrapbook on a more regular basis. When I look back on all that I accomplished last year, I am amazed. I had always thought that as the kids got older, I would have increasing ability to scrapbook but this year has been just the opposite.

In order to get out of my "rut", here are some observations of the things I would like to change...

1- I have only been to 1 crop since August. Now, I was never much of a "crop scrapbooker" to begin with, however in early 2009 I started going to them about every 6 weeks or so. And in the process of preparing for a crop, I would make page kits and print photos, so even after the crop I was prepared to finish pages at home pretty quickly.

2- I have been letting the kids use my scrapbook space for coloring & crafts With my youngest taking an interest in markers, we had to find a 'safe place' for him to do that and for some reason, my scrapbook table was cleared for that purpose. I recently needed the table for something else and took it down. The kids' stuff has managed to be relocated, freeing up my scrapbooking space again.

3- I have not uploaded photos to Kodak Gallery since last summer Yikes! When I started using Facebook to share photos, I got away from uploading albums to Kodak Gallery. I used to do this on a regular basis to share them with my family - and it made it very easy to print them when I was preparing to scrapbook. I have nearly 9 months to catch up on, but started doing it again in March after my daughter's birthday.

4- I have not planned specific projects to work on Last year, in the height of getting things done, I scheduled time to complete specific projects. Whether it was a week to make a mini-book for the teachers, a weekend to make layouts for a class or just a few hours one evening to make a page to submit to a magazine call, I had it on my calendar.

So there are at least 4 of the contributing factors to decreased production. Next up - changing the pattern!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Great Outdoors

I think spring is here. Well, it isn't quite official yet, and we will probably still get one more snowfall, but after a week of 50+ degree weather it sure feels like spring. I have been getting ready for the nice weather by pulling out the summer clothes and shopping for the items needing replacing. And I have been getting out some of the summer picture from 2009 and getting them scrapped. To see what I have been creating, check out my guest post at Right at Home Scrapbooking.

Next on my to do list are bridal shower invitations, but after that I plan to start posting goals and challenges to get cracking on the major backlog that has been piling up!

Monday, March 15, 2010

I'm Back!

I know, I have been a bit delinquent. Not just about posting, but scrapbooking in general. I guess I was a little burnt out after making the end of they year teacher and coach gifts. Combine that with a new school schedule in September which left very little creative time and I barely picked up a pair of scissors for the last 4 months of 2009.

Not to worry though, my creative juices are flowing again! In January, I cleaned out my scrapping stash and sold a bunch of the things that were cluttering my creative process at a scrapbooking yard sale. I had a great crop night at the end of January, completing 8 pages - yay!

Then at the end of February, I was asked to do some design work for a local scrapbook store. Boom! Instant creative burst of energy. I am back in the swing of things and looking forward to sharing some of my latest projects. Hooray!