Mini book for Constance Lake

Starting to put together ideas for what I want to do for a mini book/journal for when we go to Constance Lake this year. Each time we have gone I have wanted to do something. The first year I was able to do a huge album with many pictures and journaling from each day. But it was a lot of work and overwhelming for people to sit down and look through and takes up a lot of room. My second year I went with the thought to do something similar but didn't really do a lot of journaling and then as September rolled around life got crazy and it just never happened. I have many photos in an album but no journaling to go with them - I'm disappointed with it but also don't know what to do to make it come together - just not feeling it right now. And when we went at Christmas - it was a shorter trip and personal life issues kept me again from really doing any journaling/scrapbooking for it.

So moving forward I'm starting to think about how I want to document this trip, this huge time in my life as I prepare, organize, bring together a team, work alongside my friends and husband and then travel into another culture and learn stories, tell God's story and embrace what God is having me do in this time of my life. Its a lot to document. And yet I know if I don't make it simple and plan ahead I will lose the ambition, the focus, the thoughts to really document it.

So I was thrilled when Ali Edwards put together an affordable online class called "Scrapbook on the Road". Perfect! Sign me up! She provides pdf's and videos to walk you through her process of putting together mini book ahead of time, while travelling and when she gets back. I finally got to start watching those videos and reading through the material this week. WOW! Love all of her ideas. Made me start to think ...

This year will also be the first year we will actually have a team member responsible for taking photos and video. THis always me to be more present with the kids and still have the great photos afterwards. Thrilled! So as I start thinking about this process and knowing that we will have hundreds of photos I'm loving the idea of doing a mini book with some photos, much journaling and a place to include "stuff" from the week. And then also doing a photo book - with the great shots from the week - best of both worlds and allows for others to purchase the books as well. So I'm still in the planning stage but enjoying the process

Inspiration everywhere...

Lately I have actually been feeling like I want to scrapbook ...

...its been a long time since I did anything ... scrapbook wise....creative wise....

Yes I have been doing Project Life and I have been loving it! If you haven't heard about it or seen it (first crawl out of that cave you must have been living in ) and go check it out on Becky Higgins site. Fabulous product that makes scrapbooking very easy and it has gotten me to take more pictures (something I have been struggling to do for some time now).

So that being said though I wasn't doing anything else - nothing really was inspiring me, until..... I was listening to Paperclipping Roundtable one night on the way to Ottawa. In one of their podcasts (LOVE!) they were talking about Get It Scrapped and Masterful Scrapbooking Design and an upcoming event called True Scrap. So I had to check these out....

A few days later I signed up for Masterful Scrapbooking's March edition (and got a free edition as a part of a promo they were doing ). The March issue was all about Inspiration - and just a few days of looking at these new sites, listening to more podcasts I was inspired to sit down and create something! Love that - love listening to creative people be passionate about what they are doing and wanting to encourage others to just get out and create. So it was a simple creation - birthday cards for some April birthdays, but it was something. I also got caught up on Project life, did a few layouts for it and started putting together scripture journals for April and I.

I was excited, I was creating!


(Photo - one of the cards I created)

I found that by listening to the podcasts from Paperclipping Roundtable, Paperclipping Digi, Creative with Jamie, and audio from Masterful scrapbooking I was getting really excited about my hobby again. I even found a way to get my iPod shuffle to work in a set of speakers so I could listen while I was in the shower and getting ready in the morning!

I started looking into the True Scrap event - and was excited to see that it ran in between April and mine birthdays - bonus as we were trying to figure out what to do. So we signed up and created our whole birthday celebreation around this online scrapbooking event from April 7th - 9th. Each day had hour long classes with videos and q&a times and teachings on a variety of subjects including inspiration, journaling, stamping, photography, etc.


(Photo - screen shot from one of the classes)

It was great. It made me think about my own scrapbooking style - what is it? how to figure that out? what do I use to get me inspired? what are my methods? what are my favourite design principles? Lots of great questions!

So I am enjoying this process right now of falling in love with this hobby again - loving the creative flow, the people involved in it and how it can relax me after a stressful or eventful day. I will continue to examine what my style is, where I get my inspiration and how do I go about putting together a page or project. One thing I am starting to try out is an inspiration journal - just a place to put all of my thoughts, quotes, ideas, sketches, techniques, products, etc down in one place.

Looking forward to this time of being creative!