January 2019

Today I'm sharing a full mini album I made using some of my favorite selfies. The mini album, like most projects I make, is a bit overfull, but that has never managed to keep me from reigning it in. To make the main base of this album I trimmed some pieces of scrapbook paper to 8.5x6.5 inches and then folded these sheets in half to make pockets 4.25x6.5 inches.

(The book featured in this post was provided free of charge by MPix for me to review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.)

I shared a few days ago that I had finished my 2018 pocket pages. I've even gone so far as to get the book printed. And it's still January!

Continuing with my 2018 reflections, today I'm looking back at some of my favorite personal layouts from 2018. This was the year that I really went all in on my paper scrapbooking, mostly working in smaller notebooks, but really enjoying myself. I also finished my fourth year of weekly pocket scrapping! This habit is really what frees me up to make all the paper shenanigans I do. Since I have this "official" and digital record of our lives, whatever else I get done is just for fun and icing on the cake.

I'm still going ahead with the Good Life project in the new year, but I have a few new ideas I hope to include. This month I created a kit I called "Scrap Therapy." I'm not sure I'll make kits with this title in the future, but I think I will include similar kinds of elements in the future. If there are things you'd like to see included on a regular basis, be sure to let me know!

Today I'm sharing my scraps book from 2018. As the title implies, this is just a random collection of pages that I made. I consider my yearly pocket style photo book to be my "official" documenting process, so all these hybrid projects I do are done entirely for fun and frankly not even necessarily to be saved in the long-term. They may fall apart, or fade, or I may get tired of lugging them around. But it was very freeing when I realized I didn't have to keep everything I made. I can make it, and keep it, or not! It's up to me.

I always feel like the new year sneaks up like it's a sprinter, and everyone has done their reflections in some magical time after Christmas that doesn't exist for me. So this year I thought I'd spend the whole month of January looking back at 2018, and that I'd share some of it here. To start I thought I'd take a look at my designs from 2018 and pick some favorites. I do make a lot of stuff, so it's easy to forget what I've done. Sometimes I have good ideas and then I forget to repeat them. Looking over what I made seems like a good place to start as I get ready to work on stuff for 2019.

I've started keeping a little gratitude journal where I keep little thoughts from the day, as well as little bits and pieces that get left on my craft desk. I have a quick hybrid process video for you today creating a spread in this notebook.