Create Everyday

One of my resolutions (yes, I love to set resolutions) for 2011 is to be creative everyday.  I feel like I already do this, in one form or another.  Sometimes it's an entire layout, or a card, or an embellie for a future project, or a bit of crochet.  A lot of the time it might be an entire project, but sometimes it's just a little something that let's me say at the end of the day, "I was creative today."

Tonight I am so thrilled to have visited Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog (I just adore her art) and found her endeavor for 2011:

Oooooh, I am giddy with excitement.  I've never kept an actual art journal.  I've done a few pages here and there, and they're scattered in different books and journals that lay unfinished (I'll share them sometime if I get brave).  But I've never kept an art journal for an extended period of time, and certainly not one that I worked on daily.  This is my year, and if it might be your year, too, please join me (and the hundreds of others).  I'm so excited to see where this leads!

Pocket Envelope Mini and a Reveal

Happy New Year!

It's a new year, a new month, and time for new kits at Scrapbook Heaven.  These kits are beautiful, feminine, romantic, and simply gorgeous.

Since I'm surrounded by the boys over here, I decided to create a little mini just for me.  It's made from business sized envies and was really a snap to put together (especially with the gorgeous papers in this month's Elite kit).

I'm pretty sure I am going to fill it with my 2011 goals and resolutions.  There are tons of pockets to keep track of my progress through the year.  Here's the video I watched to learn how to create the mini:

And there was still lots of product left over to make some layouts.

Baby's First Year Box

This little project was born from a new Mom's look at the Gratitude Box I had made for Thanksgiving this year.  My youngest's teacher, new Mom to adorable baby girl Mackenzie, saw it as the perfect place to record baby's first year milestones.  Inspired by her great idea, I just had to whip one up for her for Christmas.

The cards are double-sided: one side labeled with the month and lines to record milestones and special remembrances, the other embellished to hold a special photo or collage.

Top 10 of Twenty 10

This year is coming to a close, and it seems customary for scrapbookers to do a post of their favorite layouts of the year.  So here's my top 10 from the pages of my albums (or more accurately, the stack on my shelf--filing these into albums is my first task of 2011. Promise.)

Before 2010, I was rarely found on the pages of scrapbooks.  

This year I did several introspective LO's.

January 11

This year I played around more with fabric as a replacement for paper.

January 20

Prompted by my friends' blogs and inspired by the season of love, I documented my top 100 list:

March 24

 Realizing we probably were done with the baby phase of our lives, I documented a bit of the nostalgia.

April 14

Grids were a favorite for me this year.

May 6

I took a look at what exactly I love about this hobby/craft/artform/expression of mine.

This may just be one of my all time favorite LO's ever.  I enjoyed the process of this one so thoroughly.  I felt a sort of out-of-body experience when I created this.  My muse came out to play, and really, it was she who pulled this one together.  Hokey, I know, but oh so true.

June 7

Created lots of my own embellishments this year, and loved playing with old book pages.

July 18

Worked on improving my photography this year and shooting in manual mode with lots of natural light.

July 24

Revisited my One Little Word for 2010. 

 September 20

Simple & quick--another theme for this year.  And song lyrics for journaling.

September 20

So there they are.  My top 10 of twenty-10.  Total LO's completed in 2010: 103.  

Can't wait to see what's in store for 2011!

Happy New Year!

Crochet Coffee Cozy x3

There are just too many projects I want to do at this time of year.  Is it bad that I haven't cleaned my bathrooms in over a week?  And my Christmas cards?  I should have just put Happy New Year on them and mailed them after Christmas!

Well, at least I'll have some cute little coffee cozies for people on my gift-giving list: