Welcome to my blog! Not only is today the Happiness Blog Hop hosted by Scrapworthlylives.com, but it is also:
Day 3 in my 31 Days of CREATIVE INSPIRATION Series.
Today's creative inspiration is all about SCRAPBOOKING. And what better way to be inspired than to hop around the web visiting other scrapbookers who are finding HAPPINESS in their PASSION for the hobby?
A little background on the hop for those of you that are new here. Each month Stephanie of Scrapworthylives.com chooses a theme for the hop based around themes in Gretchen Rubin’s book: The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. Basically all themes from the book are applied to the overall theme of SCRAPBOOKING and how it leads to more HAPPINESS in our lives.
This month's theme from the book is pursuing PASSION.
As Stephanie points out on her blog, in the book, Gretchen Rubin identifies four tasks for pursuing a passion (that will then bring more happiness into our lives):
- Write a novel
- Make time
- Forget about results
- Master a new technology
I can easily relate to MAKE TIME & FORGET ABOUT RESULTS.
Title page for my Week in the Life Album
Since late in July I have been working on my Week in the Life Album. As explained in this post, I was hoping to get it finished in a timely manner and post the link of my finished album on Ali Edwards' blog. Although, I did make a lot of time to make progress on the album, I did not allow enough time to get it completed in time to post on her blog.
That didn't mean I gave up on my album. I was determined to finish it! And the occasions of the 31 Day series and the blog hop were just the motivation I needed to finally MAKE THE TIME and LET GO OF THE FINAL RESULTS (perfectionism) to complete it today!
The bonus for me was that I also got to MASTER A NEW TECHNOLOGY (or more accurately renew my knowledge of an old hobby I hadn't done in over a decade).
I finally set up my new (to me) sewing machine and taught myself how to use it and sewed on several page protectors to make them the size I wanted them to be. I had a few false starts but when I was finally successful, I had a wonderful sense of accomplishment which I would imagine helps me achieve greater happiness for the day.
And it also gives me great pleasure to share with you my final album!
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed THE FIRST FEW PAGES in my Week in the Life Album (to see the rest of the pages click here. Finally getting this huge project accomplished in just over two months is a HUGE accomplishment for me. I am one of those people that is afraid to start a themed album of any kind for fear that it will never get finished!
I hope the fact that I can get something like this finished INSPIRES some of you to give a similar project (or any scrapbooking project for that matter) a try! With a plan and a little determination, it is possible.
TO SEE ALL PAGES OF THE ALBUM, CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ON FLICKR.COM.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME TO GET MY Week in the Life Album COMPLETED:
**finding a space on my desk where I could keep the album open at all times and work on it at any time
**compiling a small basket full of supplies that I would be using for this album and keeping that out on my desk
**having a loose plan before the week of the project started (see this post for more information).
**working on it in small chunks so that I wouldn't get too bored
**finding inspiring designs online that I could adapt for this project - simple yet elegant/sophisticated
**printing out my journaling papers all at once (I ended up doing this 3 or 4 different times but had I planned better this would have saved me time and allowed me to finish faster)
**pre-cutting my patterned paper rectangles
To see all my posts related to the making of this album including my loose plan, click here.
Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 4!
Tomorrow will be all about Project 365/Project Life & Everyday Photojournalism.
31 Days of Creative INSPIRATION Series (Links to Past Posts)
Day 1: Design Your Own Cupcake
Day 2: Storytelling Sunday
Day 3: Scrapbooking (Week in the Life Album)
Day 4: Project 365/Project Life (Everyday Photojournalism)
Other topics in the works for my 31 Days of Creative Inspiration Series:
Photography - I answer the question, 'Should I buy a DSLR or upgrade my Point & Shoot Camera?', Find out who INSPIRES me; Photography Pet Peeves
Recipes - my husband's delicious salsa, HealthIER (Yet Still Delicious) Recipes
Scrapbooking - My favorite mini album, 30 minute scrapbook challenge
Family Photo Fun, Cupcake Ideas, craft ideas...
AND LOTS, LOTS MORE (I'm posting for 31 Days straight, remember?!)
NEXT STOP ON THE HAPPINESS BLOG HOP
There are a lot more blogs to offer you plenty of SCRAPBOOKING INSPIRATION today. The next stop on the hop is Kiss & Tell Scrapbooking. There is a list of all blog hop participants below in case you get lost.
