Scrapbooking in 2019

When I look back a few years into the archives, I sometimes can't believe what this blog used to look like...and scrapbooking was pretty much my whole (crafty) life. I mean, I know it, I lived it, but it's still a shocker. Hmmm.

I know I've written on here before about my transition away from scrapbooking (a bit of the why and the how), but it is still a medium that I come back to. Just not as often. It is a muscle memory that I still have so why not use it! I make the rules for my life, so I decide when and how to dabble in this art form that used to consume me.

For that reason, I wanted to share what (traditional) scrapbooking looked like for me in 2019.

I created seven layouts for my Currently album, that fit in among the photos.

I only scrapbooked major events like Lucas' birthday, my birthday camping adventure, and our Yule dinner.

And then one as a sort of "title page" for the August-December album. This one is 100% vanity ;-) and showcases a few cute selfies that didn't make it into the rest of the book.

REAL TALK
One of the major reasons I stopped heavily scrapbooking is the sheer amount of waste I was producing, and the subsequent waste I knew was happening farther up the chain and in most scrapbooker's craft rooms around the world.

I'm not here to judge anyone's choice of art or craft. You do you boo. I will however state again (and again and again) that the current scrapbooking industry is a huge suck of resources and contributor to  literal garbage in the form of single use plastic packaging (at the consumer end) and who knows what kind of waste at the manufacturing end. There are other ways to document moments without trashing the planet. My own practices are still a work in progress, but it's a job I am excited and proud to do.

That is all.
xo
Lisa

December Daily 2018

I think I promised you week #2 of my 2018 December Daily album ages ago, but tis the season to forget to pick up your photos from London Drugs, and then scramble to finish your December album before January is over amiright?!

So instead of getting a few DD posts throughout the month, you got two early on and a summary post...now. Yep, this is it.

I guess to get this started, I don't think I ever shared the album I was using. Another example of when your parent's "pack rat" tendencies benefit you in the long run. My Dad gave me a few of these small binders from his old job. This one was perfect for my December Daily. I used the pages of the book as well. All the cover needed was the Christmas card I received from Lucas. Cut the back off, apply some adhesive, and voila!

As per past books, I added some of the Christmas cards we received to the back of the book. It makes the book a bit bulkier, but it's important for me to include them. I also stuck an envelope to the inside cover to include all the newsletters we received. The envelope is also significant, as my Dad always sends me one with a cool stamp!

And that's it! I think I have one page left to finish, as I always forget to print at least one photo. This is definitely one of those projects that you can tailor to your needs/supplies/goals. I have learned over the years that I love being constrained for my December Daily. Limited supplies, limited space, limited design...it's much less overwhelming and ensures I will actually complete the book. This year I limited myself farther than I have before, and the ease at which this book came together proves that I am on the right track.

Dan & I (mostly Dan) even built an amazing storage/display for my albums that I can't wait to share with you! This book is going in there so we can enjoy it throughout the year.


My December Daily 2018 Album from Lisa Kercher on Vimeo.

FURTHER READING
My first December Daily Post of 2018
December Daily 2018 - Post #2
My December Daily 2017 album
My album from 2016 is the first December Daily I ever finished!
Some DEEP THOUGHTS on the pressure of a December Daily
All of my December Daily posts are here.
A little background and intro from the creator of December Daily - Ali Edwards - is here.

xo

December Daily 2018

This year's December Daily mini album is coming along very smoothly - it almost feels like I'm jinxing it by saying that. But honestly, every year I do one of these, I learn new lessons about WHY I do this and WHAT I want to get out of it when I'm done.

Here we go with WEEK ONE...

The name of the game - again - this year is KEEP IT SIMPLE. Photo, words, word sticker, move on. I always add our holiday card (and letter), and this year I want to especially focus on getting more photos of people, myself included.

As you can see, I haven't done a lot of activities that are "on theme" for the month. And to be honest, thank goodness for that. When I look at all the festivals and festivities that are scheduled to hit Edmonton this month, my anxiety starts waving at me and running in a swervy line to the front of my brain. NO THANK YOU! Now, while trying to be intentional about what events I attend this year, I have inadvertently done none of them, and now I am running out of time (here comes anxiety again...). I'm still trying to find a balance, but I am going to keep enjoying myself while I work that out!

"Stocking Stuffers for Seniors" is one of my favourite traditions. A big thanks to Operation Friendship Seniors Society for organizing it. and making sure our inner city seniors receive their gifts. This year Constance got a few books, a cozy blanket, and some toiletries.

I am still reluctant to use our label maker - what if I mess up! - but I wanted something easy and flat to cover the tabs in this binder. I thought this was a fitting touch, and a sweet line from an excellent Christmas song. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - sung by Just Garland - is from one of my favourite Christmas movies: "Meet Me in St Louis".

And that's the first week! Check back next week for week two.

xo

FURTHER READING

Operation Friendship Seniors Society in Edmonton is always looking for donations and volunteers!

My 2018 Intro post

My December Daily 2017 album

My album from 2016 is the first December Daily I ever finished!
Some DEEP THOUGHTS on the pressure of a December Daily
All of my December Daily posts are here.
A little background and intro from the creator of December Daily - Ali Edwards - is here.

December Daily 2018

 Well, I am doing "December Daily" again this year, but I have changed everything again. New album, new plan for documenting...I continue to look for ways I can simplify this project and allow it to fit with my goals and needs for the season.

This December I need to demand less of myself, and allow for spaces of peace and understanding. I am dialing it way back this year, and my December Daily is going to reflect that. It already looks so different from previous years' albums. One piece of advice I would give to anyone looking to start a December Daily - or "Journal your Christmas"or 30 Days of Lists, or some other way to document this month - is to keep it flexible, keep it easy, and pre-forgive yourself if you can't add to it everyday.

More to come...
xo

FURTHER READING
My December Daily 2017 album
My album from 2016 is the first December Daily I ever finished!
Some DEEP THOUGHTS on the pressure of a December Daily
All of my December Daily posts are here.
A little background and intro from the creator of December Daily - Ali Edwards - is here.

Scrapbooking - This is 38

I am mostly finished my "This is 38" mini album from my recent birthday. Turns out I forgot to print two photos, so once those go in, I will be done-done. But there's no use waiting to post it!

As you can see, it's mostly photos. I used an old album I had in my stash, from a long forgotten thrift store visit. I love buying these types of albums because they are usually perfect for a quick mini album of an event or vacation. The photo sleeves are about 3.5 x 3.5, so I had all of my photos printed at 4x4 and trimmed them down accordingly.

Interspersed with the photos are a few journaling spots.

The stamp in the top photo is one I carved as part of my 100 Days of Stamp Carving projects. I cleaned it up a bit before stamping. And then I tidied some of the lines that weren't very dark, but I think I went too far! The leaf stamp is also from that 100 Days project. I grabbed a few autumn coloured stamp pads and applied the stamps to the side of each journaling card, which themselves are cut from some white cardstock I had already. I wanted a little bit of colour, but not too much.

In a small book like this, with limited journaling, I made use of a lot of "white space" in my photos and wrote or stamped on them.

This allowed me to add some notes, as-it-were, to some of the photos when I ran out of journaling space.

As you can hopefully see, I had a weekend full of love and peace, which is just what my heart needed.

FURTHER READING

This is 38 Birthday Post

All Birthday posts (That one from 2013 brings on ALL the FEELS)

Scrapbooking - Family Photo Mini Album

This album came together so smoothly, and I am excited to finally share it!

One of my favourite ways to make the bones of a mini album is to re-use those random greeting cards you used to get for free when you donated to the Diabetes Foundation or Easter Seals or whatever. They are the perfect thin, but not too thin cardstock, and they are already a folded page! I tape them together with packing tape - however many I need to make the book - then add photos and embellishments.

All of the bits in this album are "leftovers" from my stash. Random paper, embellishments, and stickers that I pulled together that were sort of the same colours and theme. This is a super easy way to put together a mini album, and a very low stress way to use up some leftovers from other projects.

That flourish sticker in the photo above is so dang old and I used the other half of it on something else. I love that I still have these bits that remind me of how I got started in scrapbooking and memory keeping, and how the things I loved then are the same as things I love now.

SCRAPBOOKING TIP
Don't throw out your old rub-on letters! They are a great way to create a patterned background! Even if they don't rub-on perfectly...they look so dang cool!

PHOTO STORY
These photos are from our family photo session in October 2017. Our photographer - Jamie Hunter - gives us 7-8 photos as part of our package, and while I print a few to hang up at home, I love to be able to have them all in one place to look through as well. Hence the mini album.

When I flip through, all the memories from that day come flooding back. Lucas & I met a couple of my friends for brunch that morning, so we were late to the session. Dan was working that day, but drove back into town, got changed in his truck, and did the photos before heading back to work. It was so cold that day, so I would take my coat off for a photo, then put it back on as we walked to the next spot. Lucas & Jamie talked about Pokemon Go as we wandered through Whitemud Park, and we talked about Halloween and our fave horror movies and shows. Jamie & I had a great chat in the parking lot after our session, while Lucas played on his phone in the car!


xo

Happy Birthday Dude

Today is Lucas' 13th birthday. To celebrate, I thought I would share some old layouts. Ack! Memory Lane! I promised myself I wouldn't do this on Sundays anymore! Oh well...it's worth it.

December Daily 2017

Last year was my first ever year of finishing a December Daily album, and I was feeling pretty proud of myself in January! Whoa! This year I am finally finishing it up in April, but I am still finished and I am still feeling very proud of myself!

It used to be that I couldn't finish any longer mini album to save my life, so this new trend is leaving me feeling very optimistic! Two years in a row! Boo yah!

With a set number of pages in this book, I had to get a little bit creative with adding extra photos on days when I needed them. Enter these fun little tags and envelopes! I punched holes along the edge of them - just like the cardstock for the journaling - and inserted them directly into the album at the proper date.

Embellishments are limited with this one, as I don't want to add much bulk to the book AND I don't want to over complicate things for me, or else this would never get finished. Trust me...that's why most of my previous December Daily albums sit in the shame corner. (That's not a real thing, I don't get scrapbook shame, but you know what I mean!)

Numbers, a few stickers, and that's about it! I talk a little bit about making a "Christmas Kit" in the video I did, but I am having some major technical difficulties with everything right now, so that will have to wait.

I'll try to post it soon, along with the short video I recorded about putting together a themed kit to make scrapbooking a little bit easier on you.

All of my Christmas newsletters, photo cards, and handmade cards go at the back.

I am really glad that I found a format that works so well for me, and allows for repeated success!

Are you a keeper of a December Daily? Do you finish your album/documentation on time every year? Do you stop on December 25th, or continue until the end of the month?

xo

FURTHER READING
December Daily 2016
ALL of my December Daily posts
Ali Edwards - December Daily

Scrapbooking - Christmas in September

Cannot, will not get over the fact that in retail, Christmas starts as early as July. So while I should not have been surprise to receive a Christmas line in my most recent Treasured Memories Design Team package, but I was.

For someone who doesn't really "do" Christmas scrapbooking, I did okay with these ones!

Pulled out some of my fun embossing powders to finish off these chipboard stars. I forgot how much I love playing with this kind of thing.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Google Photos and their easy collage making feature? 'Cause I LOVE IT! I selected the photos I wanted in the collage, clicked "make collage" and presto chango, I had a lovely collage! An easy download then upload to the London Drugs online photo lab, and I've got a really cool and easy way to add a lot of photos to one layout.

My 100 Days of Watercolour Whatevers (see my Instagram) has inspired me to add watercolour to my other art and crafting. I was struggling with finding letter stickers to use for this title, but who needs letter stickers when you can make your own!

As part of my current minimalism challenge, I have been sorting through my scrapbooking supplies, and being kind of ruthless with what stays and what goes to the Reuse Centre. This also - thankfully - means that I am discovering cool old supplies I forgot I had, and using them in my layouts and mini albums.

The gal who runs the December Daily project that I take part in is already selling kits, and her design team is already prepping their albums! But I think that this is the only Christmas scrapbooking I will be doing until December 1st, thank you very much!

xo

Scrapbooking - Treasured Memories Design Team

These two layouts were completed at the same time as the one from my last post, but I forgot to take photos of them! I am so out of practice, it's not even funny!

Nadine - gods bless her - gave me a whole stack of papers from the cutest Simple Stories line! There are little houses, and plants, and vacuum cleaners, and washing machines! Wait, what?! Now, I am not the type to scrapbook my chore list (any more...I probably did so at one point in my career), but I am kind of enamored with plants and pie charts, and this line had more than its fair share of those!

In fact, two of my stamps from #100daysofstampcarving were inspired by this line!

The pattern paper you can see peeking out from behind the photo was made with one of my #100daysofstampcarving stamps.

I love pie charts!

***

This was actually a really fun way to USE some of my hand carved stamps. When I started that project, I wasn't sure what I would do with the stamps when I was done, and didn't have a plan for designing them other than "what looks good today." But what looks good to me, works with my art as well. Handy!

All of the stamped leaves on this page are from stamps I created during my 100 Day project. Can't go wrong with leaves...

Photos were taken on Moving Day Part Two, and a week or so after moving day. First beers on our patio felt pretty good!

I may only scrapbook in fits and bursts, but it still feels good. I feel out of touch with things going on in the scrapbooking world (so out of touch), but it's still fun to play with paper and pretty things on this scale.

xo

Scrapbooking - Treasured Memories Design Team

Scrapbooking. This is a hobby that I really haven't been spending much time on lately. But every once and awhile Nadine gets me back into it with a Design Team package from TM!

Now, this one I wasn't too sure of when I first got it as the main image on the papers and stickers was of a mermaid. So my apologies friend, but I did not use the mermaid aspects of the kit.

I did, however, LOVE all the rich blue, turquoise, and gold and immediately thought of how vibrant they would look against some photos from my recent trip to Iceland.

And so I came up with this...

***

I LOVE the look of chipboard or stickers (or anything) layered under vellum. I cannot throw my vellum scraps away because they always come in handy.

#100daysofstampcarving was happening while I built this layout, so I carved a stamp to match that sweet "fish scale" pattern and made my own golden fishscale patterned paper. You can see it tucked behind the cluster. The word "love" is also from my 100 Days project.

***

When I'm struggling with a layout, I just grab a bunch of cute things and cluster them or layer them around the photo. You can also see in this photo that I sanded down the surface of the chipboard "fish scales" border so it wasn't so shiny and new looking.

***

Reynisfjara was a highlight for me on our trip to Iceland in May. The Black Sand Beach is very popular with tourist and tour groups, but it is a dangerous and harsh environment. There is a huge warning sign on the path from the parking lot, alerting visitors to the "sneaker waves" and the potential to be swept out to sea if you get too close to the water. Our tour guide told us to stay as far away from the water as possible, and never turn your back on it. There was a huge windstorm in the area that day, and the resulting sandstorm made the sky so brown that you couldn't see far out to sea.

The "black sand" is actually black pebbles and stones for as far as the eye can see. The cliff that faces the water here is uniquely jagged, like it was carved by giant hands. Many birds nest in the cliff face, and it was mesmerizing to watch them swirl overhead, fighting the winds.

The noise and wind were an assault on the senses. My hair was full of sand, my glasses so gross, but I could have stayed much longer. Our world is beautiful and terrifying...and Iceland is the perfect place to see and discover those elements side by side.

Scrapbooked anything lately?

xo

Scrapbooking - Flashback

I recently received some paper for my Treasured Memories Design Team commitment. The title of the paper line from Echo Park is "Grandson", and all of the images and patterns are completely adorable! But I don't have a Grandson, and I was on a tight deadline with no easy current photo choices coming to mind.

Thank goodness I hold on to old shit.

I had also recently dismantled an old photo display with printed image from what I thought was only a couple of years ago. You know how time gets away from you?

Turns out this photo of Lucas drawing with sidewalk chalk outside my old house is almost 5 years old. He looks completely different, yet also exactly the same. Children blow my mind.

For those of you who might be wondering, I added the text to my photo directly in Photoshop Elements. Then I ordered a 4x4 print from London Drugs same as always. The photo is actually a screen grab from my Instagram page. Oh man it took me a LONG TIME to scroll through 4.5 years of photos to find this one. But it was the best long time ever. So many good times.

xo

MORE Disney World Scrapbooking

"Funny" story about this photo! The professional took 3 photos of us in front of the castle: a close up, this one with Tinkerbell added, and a third one where some JERK WHO HATES HAPPINESS photobombed our nice family picture with his fucking dumbass face and hands or whatever. And he was so close in I couldn't even have cropped him out. So by "funny" I mean Stupid Jerk. But this one has a cute Tinkerbell at the top sprinkling her pixie dust magic, so I can't be all mad!

We didn't get a lot of photos taken in the park by the professionals, but the ones we did turned out really nice and were a great addition to our memories. I definitely recommend getting the photo package, even at Disney World where it seems like an exorbitant price when you are planning your trip, but is actually quite reasonable when you get home from your trip and realize that the few photos that you now have to buy individually pretty much add up to how much you would have spent on the package to get unlimited photos. So there. That's my Disney Tip. Get the damn photo package.

xo

Treasured Memories Design Team - March Scrapbooking

When I was checking my tags and my titles for this post, I noticed that I haven't posted a scrapbooking layout since NOVEMBER! Which means I haven't created a layout since November. Wow!

I remember a time when I couldn't go more than a day without scrapbooking. Funny how things change, but also not funny or surprising at all. I am still figuring out my relationship with this hobby, and I think this unsettled state of affairs is just my reality now.

In the meantime, here are some layouts!

I won't be cutting these down to 6x12 to fit into my album because planning that required more brain cells than I had available.

Both are to fulfill my duties as a Treasured Memories Design Team Member, a job I love mercilessly. Thank you Nadine for giving me such thebomb.com paper lines. I am saving the pineapples for something super special.

xo