First Quarter 2016 Crafty Goals Revisited

Did you set some crafty goals for yourself at the beginning of the year? Time to check in with each other and see how we are doing! I gave updates in bold below. This is a great way to keep yourself on track! I just had another idea for a Midori Insert - Tracking my crafty goals!! That way it's something physical that I can look at more often!

Please note that most of the product/service links throughout this post are affiliate links. Our blog makes a small amount if you click through and decide to purchase something, at no added cost to you. We thank you for supporting us!

Go here to see the original 2016 blog post.

 Update on 2015 Goals: 

 Ok, I do need to improve upon the "Organizing my Stash" goal. I did pull stuff and put them in some awesome IRIS containers, (image link below to a bundle of 4, I have 2 bundles!) but I feel like I just moved stuff around and still have too much stuff that I don't use. So, I'm going to re-do this goal. I'm going to go box by box and drawer by drawer (in my fave IKEA furniture above) and be ruthless! Anybody here a Konmari fan? If it doesn't spark JOY, tell it thank you for serving its purpose and get rid of it/give it away. Well, most of my stash sparks joy, so this may be difficult. 😂

I will be doing a post soon on how I used these boxes, so stayed tuned!

  

Goal #2 was working on 2 years at once. 2014 and 2015. I did kind of do this, but not in the way I originally intended. Since that post I have had the amazing opportunity to be on the Take 10 Kits Creative Team for The Studio 29 Designs, LLC. It's a dream! I love it! It keeps me scrapbooking on a weekly schedule! I found that having all of my 2014 not done became a very positive thing. It was much easier to look at the current month from a year ago and pick photos to create my layouts/projects each week. A whole month of photos to work with that work with that month's kit! So, I completed a lot of 2014, but also did the occasional 2015 layout if it made sense. And I will continue the same way this year. I put my pages in chronological order, but have also given myself the freedom to skip around between the current and previous year! It's liberating! 

Goal #3 was doing more pre-planning for Project Life. I do this, but my approach changed! I mainly use the Project Life App to record which photos and write out the journaling. I did a post on that last year, find it here. I only use the PL App now for planning! It's great. I should do an updated post on my process! Because, it's evolved...

New Goals for 2016: I'm gonna get a lot more specific here.

1. Finish DD2015 (so close!!!)   I did this! I just need to create a finished project post to share!
2. Put together Shutterfly Photobooks for previous year's professional family photos. I want to go back to the year my oldest was born, so that is 2009, 2010 and 2011 that I need to create. And make some Christmas Card books, like Luly has been doing! Here's a Shutterfly link, I'd love if you used on your next order.
3. DONE! I did a review of Amy Tan's class here. Finish my Craftsy Online Classes! I've started one with Amy Tangerine. I love her tips and style. I immediately had new ideas to use. And next up is a Mixed Media class with Olya Schmidt (Paint Paper Studio!). Sign up for Craftsy classes here.  
   
4. Set up and make current my kid's School Albums! I plan on doing a post to share more about what I'm doing there. My oldest is only in First Grade, so if I can do it this year, I think it's totally manageable. I have been hunting for 2 each of solid color leather 12x12 albums! I'm 2/3rd  of the way there. I still need albums for my youngest that starts PreK in the Fall. I've been researching what I want to do for each! 
   
5. Finish my #LoveWhereYouLive album that I did withLittle Paper Projects. If you sign up for any classes with them, tell them Holly Genc or Painted Ladies Journal sent you! They have a nice affiliate program. I've made progress but still need some photos for my last week. And I'd like some more photos for the first week. I did get all the covers and dividers done. Hope to do a post in the next few months on the final project!
   
6. Finish my Midori Traveler's Notebook I started for our Oregon trip. I got a new brown leather Midori I found one that is beautiful. I just love it! Go here for a post I did on this book! And here's the Midori I purchased:

I added to it recently! See custom insert cover below. And I'm getting ready to order more (hopefully the rest) of the photos to go in it!





7. And lastly, I want to try out the Shotbox that Luly got. It's just awesome and I might need my own. She just did a review on it. Go see what she says, here!  I did get a chance to use it! Go here for my review! "I Tried the Shotbox For Photographing Stuff!"

Ok, I could keep listing things, but I'm gonna start with these!! What do you hope to accomplish this year?

Well, I hope I do better at the next update to this list. ;) I hope I have inspired someone else to check in on their own goals or to set some goals for the year!

Thanks!

Holly Genc with www.paintedladiesjournal.com
Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

Holly's 2016 Crafty Goals!

Please note that most of the product/service links throughout this post are affiliate links. Our blog makes a small amount of you click through and decide to purchase something, at no added cost to you. We thank you for supporting us!!

Luly and I are sharing our Memory Keeping Goals. It's January! Seems like a good time to re-evaluate and focus. Luly posted her goals here. My turn! 

So, first, I went back and looked at last year's post on goals. Wow, we are going to hit our ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY next month! So my goals last year kind of evolved. I won't say I failed, they just changed as my year unfolded and I learned new things. 

 Update on 2015 Goals: 

 Ok, I do need to improve upon the "Organizing my Stash" goal. I did pull stuff and put them in some awesome IRIS containers, (image link below to a bundle of 4, I have 2 bundles!) but I feel like I just moved stuff around and still have too much stuff that I don't use. So, I'm going to re-do this goal. I'm going to go box by box and drawer by drawer (in my fave IKEA furniture above) and be ruthless! Anybody here a Konmari fan? If it doesn't spark JOY, tell it thank you for serving its purpose and get rid of it/give it away. Well, most of my stash sparks joy, so this may be difficult. 😂

I will be doing a post soon on how I used these boxes, so stayed tuned!

  

Goal #2 was working on 2 years at once. 2014 and 2015. I did kind of do this, but not in the way I originally intended. Since that post I have had the amazing opportunity to be on the Take 10 Kits Creative Team for The Studio 29 Designs, LLC. It's a dream! I love it! It keeps me scrapbooking on a weekly schedule! I found that having all of my 2014 not done became a very positive thing. It was much easier to look at the current month from a year ago and pick photos to create my layouts/projects each week. A whole month of photos to work with that work with that month's kit! So, I completed a lot of 2014, but also did the occasional 2015 layout if it made sense. And I will continue the same way this year. I put my pages in chronological order, but have also given myself the freedom to skip around between the current and previous year! It's liberating! 

Goal #3 was doing more pre-planning for Project Life. I do this, but my approach changed! I mainly use the Project Life App to record which photos and write out the journaling. I did a post on that last year, find it here. I only use the PL App now for planning! It's great. I should do an updated post on my process! Because, it's evolved...

New Goals for 2016: I'm gonna get a lot more specific here.

1. Finish DD2015 (so close!!!)   
2. Put together Shutterfly Photobooks for previous year's professional family photos. I want to go back to the year my oldest was born, so that is 2009, 2010 and 2011 that I need to create. And make some Christmas Card books, like Luly has been doing! Here's a Shutterfly link, I'd love if you used on your next order.
3. DONE! I did a review of Amy Tan's class here. Finish my Craftsy Online Classes! I've started one with Amy Tangerine. I love her tips and style. I immediately had new ideas to use. And next up is a Mixed Media class with Olya Schmidt (Paint Paper Studio!). Right now all new classes are on sale! Sign up here.  
   
4. Set up and make current my kid's School Albums! I plan on doing a post to share more about what I'm doing there. My oldest is only in First Grade, so if I can do it this year, I think it's totally manageable. I have been hunting for 2 each of solid color leather 12x12 albums! I'm 2/3rd  of the way there. 
   
5. Finish my #LoveWhereYouLive album that I did withLittle Paper Projects. If you sign up for any classes with them, tell them Holly Genc or Painted Ladies Journal sent you! They have a nice affiliate program. 
   
6. Finish my Midori Traveler's Notebook I started for our Oregon trip. I got a new brown leather Midori I found  one that is beautiful. I just love it! Go here for a post I did on this book! And here's the Midori I purchased:



7. And lastly, I want to try out the Shotbox that Luly got. It's just awesome and I might need my own. She just did a review on it. Go see what she says, here!

Ok, I could keep listing things, but I'm gonna start with these!! What do you hope to accomplish this year?

Holly 

Make No Little Plans - 2016 Scrapping Goals

So when Holly and I started our blog last year we started with a joint post on our goals for scrapping. Well we have been at it for almost 1 year and I think we have both accomplished a lot... But still there is always more to get done.

2015 was the second year that I am 100% digital.  I am still loving every.single.minute... With my crazy work schedule I find that I can get short bits of time to work on layouts through out the day - commuting to and from work on the train, traveling on an airplane or in the evenings. I don't have to "find" my stuff or pull anything out other than my laptop which I have with me all the time anyways! I have completed challenges at various stores (you often win freebies this way), have a few assignments on digital CTs (Creative teams) and generally kept up with Project Life.

Here are some of my favorites:

Using Janet Phillips templates from the Daily Digi and kit by Just Jaimee Storytellers

Glamour Ghoul collab by Libby Pritchett and Amber Shaw at Sweet Shoppe

Using Chelle's Creations and Prismatic from Heidi Swapp for Project Life

I also started a project that I have mentioned before - my Christmas Card albums. I have 6 years of cards already printed in 2 books. In 2015 I will add my December Documented (like Ali's Edward's December Daily - just not daily stories)

Here is the first of 2 Christmas Card books I completed

Officially I am complete through middle Sept, with several other fall weeks completed in Project Life. I have a Shutterfly coupon which expires on 1-31-16 so I am trying furiously to finish up... This is the first year I have printed a bound book - 10x10 size and I am loving this size! I do love the printed 12x12 from Persnickety but I only have so many shelves so something has to give.

I also have worked (inconsistently) on my vacation album from our trip to Spain last Dec/Jan. I am using the Month of Challenges at The Lilypad to try and get some of these missing pages completed. So far I've been very successful at using the challenges to fill these holes.

By the numbers- PL layouts completed - 110+ ( I did a lot of pages from our summer vacation)
Fun/Challenge pages completed - 60+
Spain vacation pages -40+
Challenges completed- Iron Scrapper at Scrap Orchard - 24+
CT teams -2
Guest CT- 2 teams

Studio Basics Hello World at the Daily Digi

So what are my goals for 2016.. as Daniel Burnham said "Make No Little Plans..."

Finish was my One Little Word last year and I did get a lot finished but I was derailed mid year by some extended family health issues and did not finish My Week in the Life- but that is life (pun intended!). I will have a full blog post about my project and my process using the Project Life app.

Finish my Spain trip album - and take some of my favorite pages and create mini albums for each son so that they can have their own  This album I am printing 12x12 through Persnickety

Finish my December Documented and Christmas card album for 2015.  Depending on the number of pages I may combine this with 2016... I love the ease and size of the Shutterfly 10x10 books. (will link you direct to Shutterfly site with affliate link)

Finish my 2015 Project Life and continue in 2016 - I love this project.  I may change it up a bit this year - blog post to follow on this too.

Continue on 2 creative teams - realistically work and family come first but I find being on a CT really helps grow my digi skills and my productivity and proficiency...Plus I LOVE playing with pretty new stuff (you noticed I never said I spent less digi scrapping vs. paper scrapping...)

Finally and most importantly I want to document/scan lots and lots of old photos, scrapbook layouts and memorabilia.  To that end I got the BEST gift ever from my hubby - A Shotbox! I don't know if you have heard about this yet but it will revolutionize they way I am able to incorporate memorabilia.
I promise to do a whole blog post this weekend but for right now I'll share some pics and a link to their website...Shotbox.me. (This is an affliate link so if you are so inclined to purchase I would love it if you used my link.)

Extremely portable and comes with its own bag - which was a surprise to me

I also got the side shot to photograph 3D objects

As I said the carry bag is awesome - everything has its own spot and can be easily carried on your shoulder.

So that's it...of course that is plenty!! I also will be a much more regular blog contributor - Holly as been doing such a fantastic job and as you can tell I have been creating so I just need to share more and more regularly.

Don't forget to visit us on Facebook and Instagram. Make sure to hit Like if you enjoy our content!

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram

Scrapbooking Two Years at Once

This is a repost of my Creative Team post over at The Pocket Source. If you don't know them yet, hop over and check it out. It's a fabulous community.

I got so far behind I decided to do 2014 and 2015 simultaneously. It was a goal I posted about back in February, here. I had visions of getting tons done and being caught up with both by the end of this year. Well, I'm not trending in that direction but I've revamped my plan to make it more doable. That said, I have been doing some simultaneous months. It is fun comparing pictures that are a year apart. Sheesh, kids grow too fast. They are not going in the same book, I'm just doing January layouts, for instance,  from 2014 at the same time as those January 2015 layouts. Here are two I just did.

  

I used cards from Project Life Jade and Plus One in this 2014 layout, studio calico wood veneers, Target washi and my good old embossing label maker.

These cards and embellishments were from the April Paper Issues Swag Bag. I tried it out when they had it on sale. Love!! Will definitely be shopping with them again.

So, my process has morphed since the idea of doing 2014/15 simultaneously. I'd love to do another post that gives more details on that, but I'll just give you the abbreviated version.  

• I planned out all the layouts in the PL app for Jan-Apr 2015. It was getting a bit old by the end, but it makes printing and putting them together quicker. And now, I keep that up along with journaling in the PL app, just so I can get more of those cute little stories written down. It's is so good for me to do it this way! 
• I already had Jan-Feb 2014 printed. For 2015, I did ALL the photo editing on my phone, using a combination of pic stitch, pic tap go and Dropbox. As I referred to my layouts, I saved my edited photos to a new "print" folder in Dropbox. 
• Then, I uploaded that whole folder to Persnickety Prints. Wow, my first order from them. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go anywhere else. I was overwhelmingly happy with my prints. 
• I could barely contain my excitement, as I filled my pocket pages, again referring to that PL app of planned layouts! So, then, I had this book full of just photos, and I've been happily skipping all over the place working on whichever layout suits me at the moment. (I just had a mental image of myself literally skipping on top of my scrapbook pages with a big grin on my face. Anyone else? The horror!). I'm loving this system, people. It is so freeing to just have the photos where they go and dig into all my supplies and get it done!

EEK, I need a mani.

Go get some scrapbooking time in this week.

Holly Genc

Follow us on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to up to date happenings.

One Little Word by Ali Edwards

If you haven't heard about Ali Edward's fantastic class called One Little Word - I'm here to tell you its not too late to sign up. This class and the group of women that are in the class are outstanding... there is a closed Facebook Group where we are sharing our journey - and I have already been so inspired! This is the first year that I have signed up for the class but have heard about the concept before - pick one word (or in many cases the word picks you) and explore how that word can shape your life.  Sometimes it's an easy word or a hard word - but in either case, exploring how your word impacts your life is what Ali's class is all about.

There are monthly topics and "assignments".  There is a 6x8 album that Ali uses to document her yearly journey.  I will be creating 12x12 digital pages to go into my 2015 album.  I am looking forward to seeing the year progress.

January prompt for One Little Word
Digi supplies: The Lilypad Memory Pockets Monthly - Folio
A New Day Papers from Amber LaBau

For this year - I have chosen the word "Finish".  This word definitely chose me - it's been screaming at the top of its lungs at me for at least a year, maybe longer!  You see I'm a starter - I'm great at it in fact... but I am a terrible finisher!! I even get close often but never far enough...never far enough so that I don't constantly have that little voice at the back of my mind reminding me that X project or Y project just needs a little more of my time to get completed.  It's the last bit of journaling for my wedding album, the stack of memorabilia that I keep holding on to to scan, or the almost 25 years of Christmas cards that I am going to do something with one day...  The problem with that nagging voice is that it doesn't let the rest of my creative juices flow and it burdens me with guilt.  I need to let that all go - I need to wrap up and FINISH those small little things and more importantly I need to be able to say with confidence that maybe some of those unfinished projects really are done and to let that go, too.

So join us before February 28th and see where your One Little Word can take you!
Ali Edwards One Little Word

OUR 2015 GOALS (Project Life Related)

Holly, here.  Luly and I want to kick things off with a post on this year's goals. I've been thinking about how to get more of my Project Life albums done. The simple answer is I need to be more efficient. This is THE YEAR FOR REORGANIZATION AND STREAMLINING. I have three main goals I'm striving to implement to make this happen.

1. REORGANIZE MY STASH. I've been scrapbooking for many years (since 6th grade, but more seriously for the last 15 years). Project Life style scrapbooks started in 2011. But, guess what, I still have most of the stash from traditional scrapbooking. Sound familiar? What do you do? My newest idea is to organize my stash by PROJECT versus by embellishment type. It needs to be mobile, so I can pick up a "Project Box", an album and the corresponding pictures to go to a crop. I have many other projects in my to-do-list besides my annual book. (Wedding, several vacations, 2 1/2 baby books, school albums, etc.). I can't wait to implement this and update the blog with how I tackle this.

The majority of my supplies (and currently many other things) are in these two pieces from IKEA.

2.  CATCH-UP & STAY THERE. So, I got a little behind, as in none of 2014 is done, nor 2015. I've always been one to jump in with current and work backward when this happens, since those memories are freshest. In this case, I've decided to go month-by-month simultaneously. (Jan 2014/Jan 2015, etc). Then, I'll be back on track by the end of the year (what will I do with all my time only doing one annual book? I'll think of something.) 

Doing TWO simultaneous albums this year, 2014 AND 2015

3. PRE-PLANNING. I typically try to do some rough pre-planning so that I'm not printing all the thousands of pictures that I take of my kiddos. In order to accomplish Goal #2, pre-planning is going to be so important. I take a few approaches with this. Keeping track is key. I use a printed book with dates/notes for current memories I want to jot down while they are fresh. I use a sketchbook to draw out my older layouts with less notes. And I also use the ProjectLife App for those times that I'm waiting (doctor's, etc) and have my phone handy. I'll be sharing more of this process in another post.

PL :Planner Book bound with the Zutter.

And now to Luly....

So my goals are different than Holly's since my life is very different than Holly's at the moment. However, no matter where you are in your life the best way to be able to get to your scrapping goals is to WRITE them out.  I don't know about you, but seeing them in black and white keeps me very accountable!

My goals this year, which go hand in hand with the Ali Edwards One Little Word class that I am taking (hurry you can still register until February 28th! Find it here.) is to FINISH a lot of my outstanding projects.  They have been weighing down my creativity and causing me guilt.  Scrapping is NOT about guilt!  It is about enjoying the process and the outcomes of your crafty life.

1. Continue to document weekly(ish) with Pocket Style Digi scrap layouts. I did paper based Project Life starting in Dec 2011 - Dec 2013.  In 2014, I went all digi and I haven't looked back.  2015, I will try my hand at printing in a book - style to be decided.  Maybe Shutterfly or Adorama.  Much more to come on that as I research the options and best way to organize!

2015 Week 6&7 - Just Jaimee Son kit at The Digital Press

2. Christmas Card Album - I've collected all the photo Christmas cards I have received since 1990 - that is a long time, people!!  I will use the Becky Higgins Project Life app to document simply and then print in a Shutterfly book.  This goes hand in hand with my other goal for the year - Purge. It will be great to get rid of 99% of these cards.

2013 Christmas cards - compiled in Becky Higgins Project Life app.

3. Since I've gone to all digi I need to PURGE my paper supplies.  I will never make that many cards - EVER!! This is going to be hard, as I am a huge sentimentalist - I can remember where I got almost every piece of paper - but someone else will love it just as much as I do (or at least I can tell myself that!).

Come back and join us as we tell you all about our journey and how we are able to keep up with our scrapping goals in 2015.


Holly & Luly