Hello Lovely 2017

Hi All! Welcome to the Rose Blossom February 2017 Blog Hop featuring Close To My Heart's Hello Lovely Collection. If you've just arrived from the ever-inspiring Shelly Nemitz's blog Just One Pretty Piece, you're in the right place. If you're just starting with me, you can find a full list of participants here.

Here's a look at the Hello Lovely Collection. This Art Deco inspired collection might be my favorite so far!

Now on with today's project. I started out this paper crafting journey as a scrapbooker. But between keeping up with my family and wanting to spread my creative wings, I have really gotten away from it. Nevertheless, toward the end of 2016, I decided that I wanted to document each month of 2017. I didn't want a complicated daily narrative, just a snap shot of who I am and what I am thinking about or doing on a single day in the month. So on the 17th of each month, I take a photo or two that gives a little peek into my life on that day. So let's take a look at February:

Most months will be single page layouts, but it just so happens that on the 17th of this month I'll be at Disney World with my hubby. The kids have their own gig to attend over the long weekend, so it will be just the two of us. I suspect I will need two pages to document everything for that day, and I might just document the whole weekend! The 6x8 base layers for both pages are cut from Kraft Cardstock.

To create the pages, I started with a sheet of patterned paper from the collection cut to 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches. To that layer, I added a 3 3/4 x 5 7/8-inch piece of pattern paper at the bottom, and then adhered 3 different zip strips cut to 5 7/8 inches from the collection above the patterned paper. To created a smoother transition between the floral pattern and the zip strip immediately above it, I added a 5 7/8-inch length of Blush Shimmer ribbon that covered the seam. I cut a 4 1/8-inch square photo mat from Kraft Cardstock and popped it up toward the top of the page using foam tape. I then added a bow from the Blush Shimmer Ribbon to the right-hand edge of the page. To finish it off, I added my title using letters from the Hello Lovely Complements pack and "my" and "life" from the Journaling Prompts stamp set stamped in Desert Sand ink and then colored over in Gold Metallic Marker and outlined with a 0.03 Copic Multiliner. The arrow, "remember," and flag stickers are also from the Complements pack. I then adhered the entire page to its Kraft Cardstock base.

Here are some close ups of the page:

Page two was made exactly like page one. However I adhered Kraft Cardstock photo mats (cut at 3 1/8- and 2 1/8-inches square) directly to the page. I created a hidden journaling area using a 3 x 4-inch flip flap and a journaling card from the cut apart page in the collection. I added two stickers from the complements pack and a Kraft Cardstock mat to the journaling card and slid it into the flip flap. I then added two journaling cards from the Picture My Life Journaling Cards pack beneath the flap. Finally, I embellished the page with three more stickers from the complements pack.

Here's a look at the embellishments and journaling area:

And here's the layout in its album:

Once I get the pictures in place and the journaling finished, I'll make a slit in the page protector and feed the flip flap through it. That will allow the journaling to be read without having to remove the page from the protector or the album, and yet it will still remain hidden when you are just thumbing through the book.

And there you go! A scrapbook layout from me! I hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to document your own year. Now hop on over to Tweetscraps and see what the oh-so-talented Morgan Vogt has in store for your inspiration.

And have a wonderfully creative week!

CTMH Hello Lovely Paper Packet	CTMH Hello Lovely Complements	CTMH Blush Shimmer Ribbon	CTMH Kraft Cardstock
CTMH Journaling Prompts Stamp Set	CTMH Desert Sand Ink	CTMH Metallic Markers	Copic Multiliner SP (0.3)--Black
CTMH Picture My Life Journaling Cards	CTMH Flip Flaps (3x4)	CTMH Memory Protectors (6x8)	CTMH 3D Foam Tape
ATG Gun

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#CultivatingCreativity: CULTIVATE GRACE

Hi All! Welcome to part 2 of a 4-part series on #CultivatingCreativity. Each Sunday in the month of July I will be looking at ways to cultivate creativity through combatting some Creativity Killers. (Rachel McGough at Handmade U talked about 5 Excuses we use to keep from creating. I refer to them as Creativity Killers or Thiefs.) :)

So in part 1, I wrote about combatting Comparison with GRATITUDE. Today I want to talk about the the most pernicious creativity thief: Perfectionism. Let's get one thing straight from the get-go. Perfectionism is NOT about doing something well. Perfectionism is not really even about doing something perfectly, though that is the standard definition. No, at the core, Perfectionism is really the FEAR of not doing something perfectly. And it is that fear that kills creativity. Someone who is truly a perfectionist eventually comes to the conclusion that perfect isn't possible and really ceases to function. I know this from personal experience. Perfectionism threatened to stop me in my tracks as an artist, as a wife, as a mom, as an academic, as a person. I spent years in counseling trying to overcome it. I now refer to myself as a Recovering Perfectionist.

Eight years ago, I started a blog as a way to face the fears that drove my perfectionism. It's since morphed and changed into what you know today as Violets & Sunshine. But my first post was an explanation about the difference between Excellence and Perfectionism. You see Excellence motivates our creativity. It keeps us learning and growing. And at the heart of Excellence is GRACE. Here's an excerpt from my very first post:

The difference between excellence and perfectionism is grace.  In excellence there is the grace of knowing you have done something to the best of your abilities, the grace to be content in a job done well done (regardless of mistakes made in the process), and the grace to constantly improve, but never fully master.  In excellence there is understanding of limitations and permission to try again.

In perfectionism there is no grace.  Everything must be done perfectly with no room for improvement and no chance to try again.  Where excellence finds joy in the task, perfectionism finds only the cruel, exacting taskmaster.  Perfectionism leads to paralysis.  If something cannot be done perfectly, it cannot be done at all--and so nothing is done.  The painting remains unpainted, the book remains unwritten.  The perfectionist remains neutralized by the bonds of guilt for being imperfect and the fear of never attaining perfection all.  Every mistake that the person of excellence accepts through grace is a leech that sucks life from the perfectionist's soul.

Perfectionism is deadly to the human heart, soul, and mind.

So there it is. The antidote to Perfectionism is GRACE. Pursue Excellence in your creativity. Keep learning. Keep trying. But give yourself GRACE. Don't compare your talents with other people's, and don't think you have to be perfect. Try new things that push you out of your comfort zone. Nothing cultivates GRACE quite like doing something that you can fail at.  And as Rachel said in our chat together, no matter how bad it is, it's only the first layer. That's GRACE!

Until next time, have a fabulously GRACE-filled day full of Creativity!

Planners Gonna Plan!

Hey All! Just in time for Christmas or to get a jump on 2016....

Close To My Heart has just released their new planner system called Everyday Life. The system starts with a beautiful black and gold binder. You can choose to fill it with planner pages, My Crush Everyday Life pages, pocket pages or mix and match them all. The planner pages come with dated pages, monthly tabs, a pocket, a page finder, and loads of stickers. There's also a roller stamp that is perfect for planning out lists, menus, reminders and more. (LOVE this stamp!) 

For the month of December,  Close To My Heart is bundling the binder, planner pages, and roller stamp for $29.95. That's 15% off the regular retail price if you bought these pieces separately! And might I suggest, while you're at it, picking up one or two of the InstaLife roller stamps? This Happened and Day-To-Day are fun little roller stamps that are perfect stocking stuffers for all the planner addicts and scrapbookers in your life!

So let's get some planning done!

And have a wonderfully creative day!