Friday, January 6, 2012

Family Photo Albums ~ Let's Get Started!


Along with January comes it's many resolutions, promises and big plans. Many of us resolve to be better photographers, better Moms, better scrapbookers and definitely better organized! If you're like me, you have a few plans for your family albums this year which fit in to one or more of these categories. We get so excited making our big plans and then halfway through spring we've hardly had time to tackle that elephant. Don't set your self up for failure. Instead be smart and plan accordingly! Here is a great site I ran across today highlighting how to tackle that elephant (one bite at a time) and set yourself up for success.

Family Photo Album Tips {Photography Project} | I Heart Faces

I can tell you I have resolved to do all of the things listed above and since I have no patience and am a self-described procrastinator, I will probably be seen stuffing my mouth full of that elephant now and again. Just don't beat yourself up about it! Get back on track and try, try again.

That said, I have resolved to redefine the way I scrapbook this year. Last year, I created my first Week in the Life scrapbook and learned so much about myself and my methods. You can read about that here. As a result of the New Year and deliverance of the most precious baby ever (see him here). I want to do something more involved and also easier (contradictions, that's me!) Let me explain. That will take too long. Let me sum up. (2 points to the person who can name the movie that quote came from!)

I really like the philosophy of Becky Higgins and Ali Edwards after doing the Week in the Life and following Becky's Project Life on her blog. Do I have time to do this? Obviously not judging by the big piles of stuff on my desk. Still. I want to get this done for my children instead of getting frustrated trying to catch up. And I'm gonna do it the Close To My Heart way!

So I'm gonna take a page out of my own book here and follow my own advice to take it one small bite at a time. The first thing I'm going to do is start scrapbooking  the now. I'll try to catch up as I go, but honestly, the now is passing us by as I keep focusing on things I'm trying to tie up from 6 years ago in my anal chronological way. No more.

I'm starting a reduced version of Project Life, which is, after all, still Project Life. It doesn't have to be 365 days a year. Becky even said so, so there. =) I'm gonna do it in 12 months per year. This also goes along with the 12 12 12 project. 12 Scrapbook Albums for 12 months of 2012. The key, as we learned from iHeart Faces is to start NOW on the now.

So get your file structure in order and download your photos accordingly. Then at the end of the month complete your first page for January 2012. And guess what. You can do your title page now and design your game plan. So let's get started chewing that elephant so we're not gaggin' on it in February.

Warm wishes,


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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Let's Start With Halloween


Happy New Year! Ok, so this is a little out of season... I created this layout a while ago for my Stamp Camp and it's been sitting naked since. I just didn't have the right number of Halloween photos to use. Admittedly, these are not the most technically correct photos I've ever taken, either. The blur that resulted from the wrong setting on my camera, made for some super spooky creepies! I also started with the Sweet Leaf and Silhoutete to begin with, thinking Silhouette was perfect for a webby wayout, er.. layout.

This past week, I saw a challenge on the Heart to Heart blog with a color challenge involving Pear, Sunset and Gypsy. I knew this was a perfect layout to modify so I could pursue that! Sadly, I couldn't quite get the Gypsy to fit with what was already there since I had absolutely NO gypsy embellishements.. Hmm. So here is what I came up with. The spider is courtesy of Aidan, by the way. Let me know what you think and leave me some love!

Warm wishes,




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