Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is enjoying 2011 so far! I know that I am excited and pumped about the new year and all of the beautiful things it is going to bring. I have been working on my personal resolutions and thought that I had better start working on my scrapbooking goals as well. One of the goals I have set this year to catch up on my Christmas album and pages. I have a tendency to only want to scrapbook Christmas pages at Christmas time. This can be fun, however; most of the time it isn't because it puts me WAY behind!!

As I work towards my goal of finishing holiday projects and pages, I wanted to share with you my most recent two-page layout. I absolutely love the line Christmas Chestnut Soup by Jillibean Soup and had to do another layout with it. These are from the pictures I took of Owen decorating our Christmas tree. It was all about him and the way he wanted the tree to look. So I stopped being a control freak about it and let him have at it!

As I look back on 2010 I am reminded once again that I am truly blessed in many different ways. I look forward to working on and obtaining my resolutions this year. I cannot believe the life that God has give me. God is good!

Happy New Year and first Challenge of 2011!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year celebration.  I have officially entered the "Club." You know, "the Club"  It is for members like me who stay home on New Year's night, put the kids in bed and watch Dick Clark's rockin' New Year's Eve on TV.  Watch the ball drop and go to bed.  Now there is nothing wrong with that, except, I live in Iowa which is Central time.  So needless to say, I stayed up until 11:15pm to watch the ball drop on the East coast and then I was out like a light.  What did you do last night?

With the New Year comes new resolutions.  And for many of us, the top of that list is organization.  Well, friends, you are not alone.  All of the Mega-Stores must think we need to organize our lives because all of their storage and organizational tools are on sale.  As I finalize my personal and scrapbooking resolutions for 2011, I am excited to announce Mojo Monday's.  Each Monday, we will bring you a new challenge to ignite your Mojo.  But here's the catch...you need to participate.  We want to hear from you and see what you are doing.  I have created a flickr group for everyone to post their work and spark some good ole' conversation. 

{Mojo} Monday #1 (we'll get a early jump this time) is to, you guessed it: Organize a hot spot.  Take 15 minutes, set a timer, put on your favorite tunes, grab a coke...whatever you need, but organize just ONE area of your craft room.  Don't take the whole day.  Don't make this hard.  Just one area and organize it.

Here's my 15 minutes:

{Before}                                                                                

{After}

Good Luck and get to it!  Make sure you post to the flickr group.  We want to see what you are organizing.

{{Hugs}}
Mimi

End of another year!

So in keeping with New Year and New Resolutions I have decided to get a jump on organizing my scraproom.  Hubby has taken the kids to a "kid-friendly" event and I decided to finally put away all of the layouts that I have created through out this year.  I'm allocating 2 hours for this task...that's when they get back home, but first a quick blog post and a little funny!

"We're scrapbookers...that's imposibble!"

I typically scrapbook chronologically, but with the help of Lain Ehnman and her LOAD challenges, I was forced to scrapbook what I had available.  With that being said, I have officially counted 52 completed layouts.  These are all unique designs and not a one scraplifted.  And to toot my own horn one more time, all 52 layouts are completed with journaling which as many of you know is my biggest struggle.  So, on average I completed 1 layout a week...not too shabby!

So here's to another year.  Keep scrapbooking friends!  The design team and I have a lot of fun plans for the upcoming year, so stayed tuned!  Happy New Year. 

{{Hugs}}
Mimi

Reflections of a year past!

The holidays are over and this is the time of year that I start reflecting on the past year.  I suffer from "ambitionitis" and  "my eyes are bigger than my stomach" disease.  So this year my resolutions are going to be a little different.  My resolutions are going to be more thought out and fewer.  I truly want to concentrate on doing a few well and actually making them a new habit as opposed to a huge list of resolutions.

So what exactly is a resolution?  According to Wikipedia: A New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year's Day


Reflecting back I had to go back to a blog post to find my resolutions for 2010...you could just imagine how well I did with those especially since I couldn't find the list...So let's see how I fared:

2010 Resolutions
10. I resolve to scrapbook more this year...especially with all my peeps.
Happily, I can say I did this. Off to a good start.
9. I will keep my scrapbook room organized this year.
Well, it's clean right now, so that counts right?

8. I am going to challenge myself to teach some scrapbooking classes this year

Didn't teach any classes, but I made a video.  WooHoot!

7. I am going to learn how to create at least 1 digital/hybrid scrapbooking page

I did one on trial and error, so I wouldn't call that learning.  Sorry digi girls, this just wasn't for me.

6. I will step out of the box and learn new techniques

I learned how to use COPIC markers and loving all that I can do with them.

5. Set a goal to attend CHA Summer - it's back in Chicago this year...YEAH!

Bummer.  Didn't make it this year.

4. Take more pictures of my kids and family

Wow, I really bombed this one!  Maybe I should try Project 365 this year.

3. Organize my photos on my hard drive

Yeah, I'll do that in 2011. Wink! Wink!

2. Sew more on my pages...especially using felt

Still need to work on this, but I am signed up for a beginning sewing class starting Jan. 10th

1. Pray that God continues to bless my business so I can be an inspiration to my family and others. 

Hands down, God has blessed my business this year.  The more time I make for Him, the more he blesses me and my business.

 

So 4 out of 10...Okay, all of you teachers out there I know what percentage that is; Next year is a new year right?

 

As I continue to work on my resolutions for 2011, I truly want to hear some of your resolutions, so PLEASE leave a comment.  P.S. They don't have to be scrapbooking related. 

 

Scrappin' with Scrappy Friend

Hello everyone! I am Mimi's (a.k.a. That Scrappy Girl) friend, Jamie (a.k.a. Scrappy Friend) and I will be posting on this blog starting after the new year every Saturday, so be sure to check back on Saturday's to Scrap with me.

For my first blog post I wanted to share with you a layout I did using the new Jillibean Soup Christmas Line - Chestnut Soup. How adorable is this line? I just love Jillibean Soup and I am always so excited to get my hands on their new lines. This layout was done in less than thirty minutes and was so much fun to do. It highlights Owen's (my son) first time making Christmas cutout cookies which is a tradition in my family. Owen was such a mess after we were done making the cookies, however; we had so much fun so it was worth the mess.

I enjoy mixing different patterns in my layouts, as you can see I did a bit of here. I made the "photo corners" by cutting a 2x2 square, cutting it diagonally, and then cutting a triangle out of each of the middles. It is a technique that I learned a few years ago and use from time to time when I want to highlight more of the patterned papers.

Jillibean Chestnut Soup page layout

Jillibean's Christmas "gift" Book

This cute little "gift" book is created with Jillibean Christmas, Chestnut Soup. I attached the ribbon from the back cover so it will wrap around and tie into a cute bow, Wrapping this book into a cute little gift. I made a folder to fit inside that holds each person's wish list and other Christmas list that I need. My other favorite piece in the album is the little snowman. I made him from layers of tissue paper that I ran through the snowflake embossing folder in the sizzix. He's so fluffy and cute.