project {gift album}

back in late february, i hosted a bridal shower for my husband's niece. i used black & white damask with red accents for the decor. as my gift to the bride, i pulled together a quick and easy photo album of the event.

i was lucky enough to find this perfect album at target. i added the ribbon and the "c&j" accent, which was used throughout the shower.

inside the front cover, i used another (larger) "c&j" accent and included a copy of the invitation

the next page included their engagement announcement from the local paper. the remainder of the pages simply contained 4x6 photos slipped into the photo sleeves. nothing fancy. the lines running along the sides allow the bride room to write her own memories or label photos if she chooses.

at the shower, i asked all of the attendees to fill out an advice card for the couple. i designed these in 4"x6" knowing i would be including them in this album. they were placed after the photos.

using a photo album with 4"x6" sleeves is a great way to put together a gift album with just a few creative touches. it's quick, yet still personal. 

::cheers::

looking forward {2011}

if you are interested on my thoughts surrounding new year's resolutions, read the first part of my post from last year. i will spare you a recap.

with the new year here, i'm once again pondering what lies ahead. what has worked this year. what needs to change. i'm reviewing my major posts from last year: look forward 2010 and mid-year update, and sharing how i did.

i've been pondering goals for this new year, but more importantly, i've been pondering how to be better focused on making them happen. a blog i follow (ap freewriting 101) has put together a concept of 3 in 30. the idea is to set 3 realistic and attainable goals each month. these can be small, stand-alone goals or individual steps to bigger goals. i'm hoping to lay out the big stuff below and then work to break them down. i think i fell short of a lot in 2010 because i didn't make an attempt to break the "big things" down into "little things".

one significant change: last year's list consisted of a lot of conceptual things. though most of these things are still relevant to my life (patience, balance, etc), i feel my current list needs to be more concrete.

{organization}
i'm a pretty organized person. but i often feel totally unorganized. i'm not sure why that is. it might be because i have great organizational ideas that i never implement. or it may be that my type-a personality just leads me to believe i'm not organized, but i actually am. i typically don't lose things or forget appointments, so overall, i guess i'm doing ok. but there are parts of our home that are getting out of control (in my opinion) so it's time to deal with them.

{time management}
i wavered as to whether to combine organization and time management but ultimately decided to separate them. my biggest struggle with time management is actually based on motivation. after a day at work, it's difficult for me to find the energy to be motivated once i'm home - to do something beyond the standard taking care of coleman and feeding the family...something other than vegging in front of the tv. some days, i can't even find the motivation to get on the computer, and that's pretty sad!

{blog improvement}
i want to work my way through the online course that will (hopefully) help me visually re-design this blog. i also want to get better at planning posts ahead so that there are not so many peaks and valleys in my posting. i want more good quality content, but plan to still wiggle in my useless ramblings (if i didn't, it wouldn't really be *me*).

{scrap studio}
though this kind of falls under the umbrella of organization, i feel it's large enough to deserve it's own official goal. i have accomplished absolutely nothing in 2010 as far as improving this year. no improvements to work flow. no adapting so that coleman can be in there with me. very little purging. as a result - very little creating.  i need to get the room under control and get back to creating!

included in this, i should mention library of memories. i haven't done much of anything with this in 2010. right now i'm not feeling the *pull* to work much on it, probably because of other priorities. but a year is a long time and hopefully other things will come together so i can put more emphasis there. my focus will be on general organization of that room and improving my ability to create. the LOM process is secondary.

{weight loss}
you knew it had to be on there! this was on last year's list. i didn't lose any weight. but sometimes people asked if i did. when i look at pictures from last christmas, something is definitely different. i think what happened is that my body shape kind of recovered from the whole "having a baby" thing. even though i didn't lose pounds, my body resituated itself back to where it was. NOW it's time to lose the poundage. luckily, matt's on board with this. his focus is more on "toning up" which involves exercise (something i hate). my focus is more on controlling diet (a tougher thing for him). i am hoping that by our focus & strengths being different, we'll be able to support each other in the areas where we are weaker. in other words - i can help him eat better and he can motivate me to exercise.

{faith + spirtuality}
matt and i have continued to fail at finding (or even searching for) a church home. i have been consistent in my daily time with God and the Bible in the mornings. i've worked my way through the Old Testament and will continue my current plan until i'm done with the New Testament. then i will find a daily devotional plan that will allow me to dig deeper into scripture. as coleman gets older, i need to search for ways to share my faith with him.

{financial}
matt and i totally fell off the dave ramsey bandwagon and both agree it's time to hop back on! again, matt is on board with this and will take will power from both of us!

{writing}
continue to focus on writing, not only on this blog, but in journals. i am sometimes able to do this during my morning quiet time but not often. during december, i've used the reverb10 prompts for my writing, but i want to get back to the "pen to paper" journaling more often. this seems to be an "ebb and flow" type thing for me. i'm aiming for consistency.

so there you have it. eight main goals for 2011. stay tuned for my focused january plan.

reverb10 {day 6}

december six: make
What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

the last thing i made was the cover for my december daily album. unfortunately, it's the only thing i've done for that album so far. but, looking on the bright side of things...at least it's done. well, almost done.

as for the details...i cut two pieces of chipboard to the size i was planning for my album (5.5"x8.5"). i chose a pretty, sparkly sheet of patterned paper and adhered it to one side of each (for a front and back cover).  i used red acrylic paint around the edges. i found some metal rectangles with raised numbers and actually had the correct ones (2,0,1,0)...but they were pink and white. so i painted those with the red acrylic paint as well. and that's it...i haven't gotten any farther. maybe it doesn't even count as 'making' something since i haven't made it entirely. oh well!

as for clearly time for a project...obviously the december daily is my first priority right now. once that's done, i want to finish up coleman's complete first year album (preferably before his 2nd birthday). i'd love to do some christmas crafting projects this month as well, but i'm not sure if that's realistically possible.

***what is reverb10?***
Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what's happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we'll do both.

sidenote: i decided to back date these posts to match the prompt dates. new posts will always show up "on top" in a reader, but if you come directly to the blog, you may need to scroll down a bit to find these daily *reverb* posts.

paper craft {welcome gift}

not too long ago, we had some neighbors move in next door. i'd been meaning to do some type of welcoming gift. when i saw the instructions for this paper cone on the first day of the big idea festival that just wrapped up over at big picture scrapbooking, i knew it'd be perfect. i have to confess...this was SO easy.

this is the cone and matching card/envelope when i first made it.

then i made some cookies and wrapped them up using brown ribbon and coordinating tag i made.

and here's the finished product that was delivered to their front door.

we just had someone move in two doors down so i guess i should be whipping up another one of these!

do you do anything special to welcome new neighbors?

LOM {Pledge & Clipboard}

As part of the LOM class, we have to sign this 'Scrapstrong' pledge :)

In our class kit, we were sent a plain clipboard. We could alter it if we chose. I've been hanging onto this "organization" themed paper forever and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use it. The round lined die cuts just happened to fit perfectly in the circles of the patterned paper (and I hand wrote quotes on both of them).

photos {stores in hand}

our class assignments for the first three days (monday thru wednesday) were basically to compile the tools we'd need for the rest of the class. there was a TON of printing and trimming. i created my "stories in hand" notebook using my zutter bind-it-all machine (my first attempt at it!) in a 6x6 format. i also used the machine to bind my notebook for jotting notes. i wasn't able to work on the project monday or tuesday but was glad to get caught up today so hopefully it'll be a tad easier to play along from here on out. i didn't stray far from the basics provided by jessica sprague, but i did experiment in photoshop and was able to personalize the family member dividers (which i also added b&w photos to).

{gift card holder}

as part of my mom's birthday present, i made her this gift card holder with some gift cards to a few of her favorite spots...

{ornaments}

this year, me, my mom and two sisters decided to do a homemade ornament exchange. these ornaments are the ones i received from them.
the first ornament is filled with feathers, which is perfect from that sister - her boys are always outdoors hunting, fishing..stuff like that. needless to say, it wasn't difficult for her to get authentic feathers around her house.














the second ornament was made with alcohol ink and glitter. it is so pretty in real life.


















my mom went a little psycho crazy and made us all a TON of ornaments. she did three felt stockings with some stamped images on that weird tinsel looking stuff (can't remember what it's called). she did two folded paper ornaments and then the cute tag snowman was actually on the outside of the gift.

{christmas ornament swap}

i participated in an ornament swap at red velvet art. this was my first time doing one and it was pretty cool. it's a great way to get really unique ornaments. here are the three ornaments i received:

the felt apple is from amanda - so super cute! i love that she stuffed it a little bit.























this unique frame is from michelle. perfect for this year's family photo.

this is the beautiful fabric star from ashley. i love the pinking shear edges and the homey feel of it.

{christmas ornaments}

this year, my sisters and mom (4 of us total) decided to do a handmade ornament swap (and plan to make it a yearly tradition). here are the ornaments that i made for my two sisters.

for the first one ("m"), i was inspired to use monogram because my sister, brother-in-law, and niece all have 'm' names (and their last name starts with an 'm' as well). i'd seen some at 2Peas and thought they'd be the perfect family for it. the base for the ornament is a paper mache circle and i chose papers (basic grey) that reminded me of my sister. I painted the chipboard letter and the edges of the ornament. I added light blue glitter on the letter as well.






















for the second one ("h"), i created the ornament first with the intent of matching a themed tree that my sister does with silver and seashells. i felt it needed something at the end, so just added the monogram as an afterthought. this is just one of those plain glass balls with that fake snow stuff inside.






















i already posted my mom's ornament here - i'm giving her the white tree because she has a very shabby chic decor and i thought it would go well.

{christmas ornaments}

last night i made these felt ornaments while watching tv. i am participating in a couple of swaps (one through Red Velvet Art and one with my mom & sisters), but haven't decided what i'm going to do with these yet. just wanted to make something.

{best wrapped gift ever}

my mom gave me some stamps for my birthday...super cute but i must confess that they were, by far, the best wrapped gift ever. check out this box she made and decorated. wow. wow. wow.