Resolutions have never been my strength. They tend to be monster-sized goals that seize your attention for a few weeks until your best friend says to you, as you're carrying your gym bag out to the car with the greenest of green smoothies, there is a super sale at (you fill in the blank) and we will need humungous lattes to survive the rush. Resolutions can be behemoths if you let them.
But resolutions really are simply goals; we just tend to make them at a critical time when the world is bellowing sentiment of new beginnings and fresh starts. Therefore we often take a reasonable, probably meaningful, goal and turn the little critter into a mountain of an accomplishment.
With that said, I have made two "resolutions" this year (I have many goals but two of which I really want to be mindful): (1) Organize better so that I may (2) spend more time with family and friends. The first resolution may surprise those of you who know me. I am quite the organized person. Everything has a home and events and activities are always well planned and prepared. What I need is a schedule.
I read this article (Here’s What You Should Do Instead Of Making New Year’s Resolutions It’s called a “rememberlutions” jar and it’ll make you feel good all year) posted by Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine and decided to, in addition to my two resolutions, celebrate the smaller resolution successes as they come as well as all of the magnificent things, memories and accomplishments over the next twelve months by creating my own rememberlutions jar.
That coupled with our design team inspiration, I was off to the races.
I created a pendant for each of the four seasons of the year so that I have something to look forward to at the end of each season as the jar turns.
winter:
spring:
summer:
autumn:
And here they are all together and assembled:
Whether you create resolutions this year or a rememberlutions jar, do what makes you feel good, makes you giggle and smile and let's you celebrate you all year long.
I'm entering my rememberlutions jar in the Sweet Stampin Challenge: New, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #8: Something New for the New Year and Anything But A Card Challenge New Beginnings. The rememberlutions jar is a new project created for the new year.
It is starting to look a lot like Christmas! Mother Nature has definitely prepared us Edmontonians for the winter solstice with a HUGE amount of snow just before the weekend. And although the snow and the road conditions have fostered a number of colourful words, when all tucked up warm at home, sipping my Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte (no whip, non-fat if you're in the neighbourhood), past the din of tires spinning and snow plows beeping there is something so magical and peaceful with the world covered in white.
Is it any surprise then that white is the in colour again this winter? White ornaments, white trees, white deer heads. White. Which totally adds style to our December inspiration photo all that much more. My Mind's Eye kicked it out of the park with their Sleigh Bells Ring collection.
Using MME's Sleigh Bells Ring collection and Prima's Coffee Break Cup O Joe paper I put together this fun, wintery, sparkly layout. It has been a super long time since I worked on a layout. For those who can date Alex's age by the toque he wears, you will recognise that this is an early 2014 winter layout. Oscar has now been retired. Not sure what it is about my monkey but he can definitely make a toque look good.
There are quite a few layers to this layout. I started off setting up the first layer by laying down the book page, the burlap pieces and Prima's Coffee Break Cup O Joe papers. I then inked splatters and hot chocolate cup rings using distress ink (pumice stone)/Tim Holtz splatters layered stencil and added stars and random droplets with dylusions sprays and izinks. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, because this is the second time I will sing their praises in two posts for the Design Team, I will once again mention how great those little bottles of ink are. Izinks are super easy to use and have a fantastic dramatic effect for very little cost. Afraid to use them, you say? Let me know in the comment section if you are interested in a class and The Inked Stamper can set something up if there is enough interest. So don't be anxious about letting us know if you would like a demo on how they can be used. Classes at The Inked Stamper are always super reasonably priced and you definitely get your bang for your buck.
I outlined some of the stars to ground them. A technique I learned at The Inked Stamper from Dawn.
Once that first layer dried I was all set to start building. I added the photos, the snowflakes (Lawn Fawn stitched snowflakes) and the MME embellishments.
I love dimension and I love creating dimensional pieces so that each time you look at it you find something new to notice which is why I will often add a pop-up piece or two. The Prima cups O Joe and the little toques were perfect for adding that additional layer.
Thank you for stopping by, remember to leave a comment and if you have any questions do not be afraid to ask! I always love hearing from you and the Design Team have the bestest and mostest craft knowledge to share. I am always learning from them.
Stay warm and craft-on my North American friends and to those in warm wintery locations: send us warm crafty thoughts. We will need them until April.
I am over the moon excited to share with you my first official post as an Inked Stamper Design Team member! Courteney, our Design Team Coordinator, has prepared some very sweet items to motivate our creativity for our projects this month. I fell in love with the kaisercraft paper, the pearl berries and gems and was inspired by olive (julie nutting doll), the angel wing and snow marker. I started off with the idea of a gift-giving angel and after some deliberation it morphed into having my girl perched on top of a pile of finely wrapped presents. The presents in my mind originally were designed as simply layered paper but when you have an envelope punch why wouldn't you actually build presents?
And then I found the on top of the world (ototw for short)gorjuss urban stamp set at the Inked Stamper - what a perfect fit! First off let me just say that I am obsessed with the gorjuss girls line from santoro. Obsessed. No, let me rephrase and set the record straight, I am obsessed with santoro. Designing is a breeze when you have such incredible sweetness at the centre of your project. Seriously.
Ototw was coloured in using permanent ink markers in black, blue
and gold. The silver bib and stocking lines were painted in using silks and as the name suggests, silks are very easy to apply. If you have not yet played with silks I suggest you try a bottle. They are lovely paints with a fabulous little shimmer. I used 130lb white cardstock for both ototw and the base of the card and she took the silks paint very well. The face and arms were coloured with coloured pencils and I highlighted the top of the bib and her hair with stickles glitter glue (rose gold and star dust).
I stamped snowflakes on the base of the card using my Versamark and clear embossed them to finish the base and pull the card together.
Each present was punch cut using the envelope punch, folded and affixed to the card base using a heat glue gun. The main present was given a bit of snow using the snow marker and all were embellished with pull-offs bits and glitter ribbon. You can decorate your presents with a whole host of odds and ends. Can you imagine steampunking it up for a birthday version? The mini tags were cut from the same papers as the presents: kaisercraft (north pole collection), bo bunny (woodland winter), pink paislee (peppermint patty), echo park paper (snowflake furry), gemstones (gem opal) and blue cardstock.
I had an amazing time designing and crafting this 3D card and I am already planning out the next project. I think it is time to create a layout again. It has been a really long time, hasn't it? Stay tuned to see what our December inspiration is and what develops. And if you are in the greater Edmonton area go on and check out ototw in person. There are a few left on the shelf.
