Looking Ahead - 2022 Scrappy Focus

Hello, everyone! Happy New Year's Eve to you! I cannot believe that another new year is upon us - they just seem to go by so fast! I missed doing a scrappy goals - or focus - post for 2021 and thought that I would take a little time today to post about my plans for 2022.

It's been pretty quiet here on my blog this month - I just needed a bit of a break from blogging and from scrapping. The break has been wonderful and I think it was just what I needed to get excited about scrapping again. This past year I have taken a good hard look and done a bit of soul searching at how and what I am scrapping and what I want to scrap. I have so many 12x12 albums full of layouts, and so many 12x12 layouts just waiting to be added to more albums, that I am running out of room to store them all. Not only am I running out of room in the album/layout department but I don't think I can add one more supply to my scrap room! So much so that if I really let myself think about all of this for too long - well, it starts to give me anxiety! I want my hobby to be fun so a few changes are in order!

All of this soul searching this past year has led me to step down from all but two of my design team positions. I have loved being on each and every design team over the years and it was a hard decision to make. I have met so many wonderful people through these design teams that are now such wonderful friends and I have truly enjoyed my time on each team. But, I came to the realization that if I am ever going to make true progress on the albums I have started - then I needed to start scrapping for myself again. Scrapping what I want, when I want. If I feel like working on my Project Life albums or working in my traveler's notebooks for a solid week - then that is what I am going to do!

I am staying on the Sketch N Scrap design team and I will continue to be the Design Team Coordinator at Lasting Memories - playing along whenever I have the chance. Lisa and I are continuing with Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash and with TN Time With Lisa & Lori in 2022. Let's face it - I am on a forever mission to use my stash - if only I could STOP buying! - and traveler's notebooks are my obsession right now! So, I will still be posting my scrappy projects here on my blog and over on Instagram throughout the month.

Now, let's get on with my scrappy goals - or what my scrappy focus is going to be in the new year. Every year my goals are to work on and finish particular albums and so far not a single one has been finished! Mostly because I had design team commitments that I had to get done and not a lot of time to work on anything "extra." 2022 is going to be the year for me to work on some of these unfinished albums. 

Here's a list of some of the albums I have been "working" on the last several years:

2014 to present Project Life albums - none of which are close to being finished.

Ada's 1st-year album - she turned 8 last month...

2018 Favorite Photos of Ada TN

2019 to present 52 Week Favorites TN's

Ada's 2019 Summer Bucket List TN

Ada's 2021 Summer Fun 6x8 Flipbook

Ada's 2020 Elf on the Shelf/Advent Calendar December Daily album - and we can now add 2021 to that, as well.

My 2021 December Daily album

The list could go on and on and on! Now, here is my plan for 2022. For my Project Life albums - I am going to pick the album that I have the most layouts made in and I am going to concentrate on finishing it up. I think that this is going to be my 2019 album but I need to double-check. I would also like to try and keep up with my 2022 album, as well.  I am going to set aside at least one day each week to work on these albums and if I can get my 2019 album done before the end of the year, then I will start working on another year.

Ada's 1st-year album - it has been ages since I have picked this album up and the last time that I did - I wasn't too crazy about it - which is probably why I haven't picked it up since. I will be pulling it out in the next couple of days and making a plan - either to finish it up or to start completely over with it. 

My 52 Week Favorites traveler's notebooks - I plan on finishing out 2019 for sure this year and once it is done I will work on the others. I have not fully decided if I am going to continue this in the new year. I guess I still have a few days to get that figured out!

The Christmas albums - I am not too worried about. I think I will set aside at least one day each week in January to work on one of them and then I will try to pick it back up when Christmas in July rolls around or for sure in November when all the hype for the 2022 December Daily is going strong!

All of the other albums I will work on as the mood strikes, but I would like to get Ada's 2019 Summer Bucket List TN done before this summer. 

I guess my main scrappy focus is just to scrap! Work on what I want - when I want and hopefully get an album or two completed!

Before I can work on anything I need to get into my scrap room and get my desk cleaned off! The kids will all be over a little later for our family New Year's Eve party. None of them usually stay until midnight since they live anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour away so maybe I can get in there tonight and start getting my room cleaned up. If not, that is my plan for tomorrow. It's going to be very cold with some wintery precip so the perfect day to stay in my scrap room all day!

I am so excited to get started working on these goals! Here's to a great scrappy new year!

TN Time With Lisa & Lori December Challenge

 Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that you had a good weekend and that you are ready for this week heading into Christmas. We had a pretty quiet weekend but I'm pretty sure that will change as the week goes on seeing as how Ada wants to have a sleepover before Christmas. We introduced her to Yahtzee last Thursday and she loved it! I am sure we will be doing a lot of game playing - Uno, Sorry, and now Yahtzee - while she is here. Oh, yeah, and she wants to watch the movie Ron's Gone Wrong with us, too. Abby and Shawn took her to the theater to see it when it came out and loved it. She may have to spend a couple of nights with us to get it all done!

Anyway, it is time for December's TN Time With Lisa & Lori challenge! We're a little late this month - the holidays and life have kept us busy - but we are here with the challenge now and hopefully, we will get back on track in the new year!

Here is how it works - this is a just-for-fun monthly challenge that starts on the 10th of each month and ends on the 9th of the following month at midnight CST. If you complete my random challenge for the month - link your TN, bullet journal, or planner spread below. If you complete just Lisa's sketch challenge, link up over on her blog - My Creative Endeavors. If you combine both challenges - be sure to link up on both Lisa's blog and here on my blog.

Here is my challenge for December:

It's Anything Goes this month! Use whatever colors and embellishments you would like!

Here is the fun sketch that Lisa has created:

This is what I came up with for the challenge:

I am back to working on my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada TN this month. This spread is one of two for November. I already had all of the papers and photos together in my November kit for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash and this layout came together so quickly and I love how it turned out! I used Simple Stories' Freezin' Season for this snowy spread of Ada building her first snowman with Pops.

We just happened to get a good snowman building snow while she was here at our house. It was one of those super wet, super heavy snows and by the time she and Pops were done building her Ada-sized snowman - the hair that was sticking out of the bottom of her stocking cap was soaking wet! She was ready to head back inside and get warmed up!

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I added a label from my stash for this cluster base and I love how it turned out. Since the snowman sticker that I used had some yellow in it, I added a yellow snowflake to this cluster to bring that color around my spread.

This phrase sticker could not have been more perfect!

I was afraid this snowglobe sticker might've been too big for my spread, but I really like it.

Now, even though this is a just-for-fun challenge we do have a few rules:

1. Create a TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK, PLANNER, OR BULLET JOURNAL spread based on the CHALLENGE THEME and/or our sketch. 
2. Create a new, not previously posted project.
3. You are welcome to combine with other challenges.
4. If you have a blog please include the challenge graphic & a link to our challenge in your post.
5. You can link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you show your project on Instagram, please make sure to use #TNtimewithLisaandLori 
6. You can submit multiple projects but they must be posted to InLinkz or social media separately.
7. Most importantly have FUN!

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog and check out her beautiful spread for this month's challenge. I hope you have some time to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

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Grown With Love - Sketch N Scrap #239

 Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you! I hope that you are having a good week! Can you believe that Christmas is just a week away? We have been having unseasonably warm weather - like 60s and 70s when it's usually in the 40s - so it's hard for it to feel like Christmas is just a week away! And, trying to get everything done before the holidays has made me neglect my blog this month! Hopefully, I will get back on track before long!

Today I am sharing the layout that I created using Sketch #239 from Sketch N Scrap. This sketch is courtesy of Sketch Artist Lisa and it is going in my favorites folder! Here is a look at the sketch:

This sketch would be great for a single 6x4 photo, or 3 - 3x4 photos, and you could always straighten the paper that is angled for another look. 

This is what I came up with: 

These papers are from Bella Blvd and I had included them in my October Stash Bash kit. I had already printed the photos and everything was all together -  ready and waiting - for me to just use them. I am so happy that I got around to it before the end of the year! 

The photos are of Ada picking one of the watermelons that she helped us plant back in the spring and take care of all summer long. She definitely has a green thumb because we have never had much luck growing watermelons and this year we had a bumper crop! This one that she picked weighed 31 pounds and it wasn't even the biggest one! The biggest one weighed in at 41 pounds! Holy cow, that is a lot of melon - and they were delicious! We'll definitely get her to help us plant again next spring!

Be sure to check out the Sketch N Scrap blog and the Sketch N Scrap Facebook page for more inspiration!

I know it's a busy time of year but I hope you have a chance to take some time to play along with us before the end of the month!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

Eight Is Great - Sketch N Scrap #238

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! This week is moving right along and the weekend is almost here. Ours is sure to be busy with a birthday party for Miss Ada who turned 8 this week! I can't believe that she is 8 - time needs to slow down just a little!

Today I am sharing the layout that I created using the December 1st sketch from Sketch N Scrap. This sketch is courtesy of Sketch Artist Heather and I love it! In fact, this is actually my second layout using this sketch - you will be seeing my first take on it a little later on this month! Here is a look at the fun sketch:

Abby snapped this photo on Ada's birthday at the end of the school day. Ada was so excited to finally have her chance at wearing the birthday glasses and she made sure to go to Abby's classroom at the end of the day and have her take a photo of her in them before she had to give them back. She looks so stinkin' cute in them and I could not wait to get this photo scrapped!

I used Pebbles' - Happy Cake Day - collection on this layout. The blues in the papers were a perfect match to the glasses. Here are a couple of close-ups:

I fussy cut the cute little cool cat in sunglasses with a birthday cake for part of my embellishment cluster. He looks like he could very well be hollering "You are Fab-u-lous!"

For this cluster, I fussy cut a set of balloons from one of the patterned papers and die cut a couple of circles from two others. I finished it off with a gold crown - she is our little princess after all - and a few hearts. 

I love the big blocks of paper on this sketch and it is definitely going to be added to my "Favorites" folder for later use. 

Be sure to check out Sketch N Scrap for more sketch inspiration.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash December Kit

Hello, hello! Happy December 1st! Can you believe that it is December?! My goodness, this year has gone by so quickly!

Today I am sharing my December kit for Lisa and Lori's Great Stash Bash. If you don't know what the Great Stash Bash is - it is a challenge that my good friend Lisa and I do every month. We pull items from our stash based on a "recipe" (which you will see below) in an effort to get our scrappy stash used up!

I am not going to lie, I struggled with what to do for this month's kit! I still want to work on my 2018 Favorite Photos of Ada traveler's notebook and I have a few layouts that I have planned from past kits that I would like to make, and I need to make some Christmas cards and work on my December Daily...what to do! I finally decided that I would pull together a couple of Christmas page kits and keep the other kits out that I would like to work on, as well. Let's get started.

Here is this month's recipe:

Our "recipe" is to pull 10 patterned papers, 5-7 scraps, 3-4 embellishments, and our focus item for December is - stamps.

Here is my first kit:

This kit is made up of the 2019 Fancy Pants collection - Wishmas. I had received this collection in a kit from The ScrapRoom and loved it so much that when I found it either on Peachy Cheap or at Tuesday Morning, I picked up another one! I'm pretty sure that I have another die cut pack around here somewhere, but it wasn't with the papers so I will need to look for it and add it later. There's plenty here for me to work with - as is! I have at least one layout planned and we will see if I can get a card or traveler's notebook spread made from it, too.

Here are the scraps that I have left:

 I am in love with that red and green stripe paper! I could have 20 more sheets of it and be happy!

My second kit is another that I received in a kit from The ScrapRoom last year. It is made up of PinkFresh Studio's - Oh What Fun - collection:

I have one, maybe two, layouts planned with this kit. The stickers and die cuts will work great in my December Daily, too, so I am hoping to get quite a bit of this used up!

Here are the scraps that I have:

Our focus item for December is stamps and I have pulled quite a few of my Christmas stamps from Elle's Studio:

I will keep these in a bin on the side of my desk so I don't forget to use them!

I am anxious to see what I can get used up this month! I know with all that I want to work on this month and with Christmas being just a few weeks away that I might not have a lot of time but having these kits all ready to go will make it quick and easy when I do have time to work on things. 

I will be back in a day or two with an update on my November kit. I am so happy with all that I got done and can't wait to share it with you!

Now, be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to see the fun kit that she has pulled together for this month. This is a just-for-fun challenge, but if you do play along and put together your own stash bash kit - add it to the linky below and we will be sure to check it out and cheer you on! Here are the rules:

1. Follow the challenge prompt to create a kit to work with throughout the month. You may use other items, but please concentrate on using your kit. 

2. Create new, not previously posted projects using your stash kit.

3. If you have a blog - please include the challenge graphic and a link to our challenge in your posts. 

4. You may link to social media if you don't have a blog. If you share on Instagram, please make sure to use - #lisaandlorisgreatstashbash2021

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

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Click here to enter