Done with Carina's First Year Album and What's Next in Scrapbooking

Well, it's done, and I'm so glad! There's a great sense of accomplishment, particularly since I pretty much stayed on track with this and got her album done in just over a year whereas it took me three years and three months to finally finish up Ellie's album.

Here are the last two 1/2 layouts that I made, the cover and end pages.



The cover page is super simple. It echos what I did with Ellie's album. No journaling, just a few pictures of Carina's first day of life. I toyed around with making it fancier, but since I didn't get into stamping until about half way through the album, I didn't want to mess with the flow of the album.

The last page also mirrors the last page in Ellie's album. Just two photos, at one day and one year. I also added some scripture, a few verses from Phillippians 1, vs 6, 9-10. This is a passage that I love and pray for both the girls and Andrew: "...being CONFIDENT of this, that He who began a GOOD WORK in YOU will carry it on to completion until the day of CHRIST JESUS...And this is my prayer: that your love may abound MORE and MORE in KNOWLEDGE and DEPTH of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be PURE and BLAMELESS until the day of CHRIST.



In addition, to being happy to have finished the album, I also feel a great deal of relief. I feel like I've grown a lot/expanded my repertoire during this year, and I'm itching to try new things. I feel relief because towards the end of this project I was starting to feel tied back by the format, and it felt more like a chore. I'm glad that I've completed this project, it really is a gift for Carina, but I'm not ready to jump into another year of very structured scrapbooking. I actually think that that last page is a good indication of where I'm heading....PATTERNS, backgrounds that aren't white, possibly even fewer pictures on a page (although I'm not quite ready to commit to that yet).

So this is my scrapbooking goal for this year: I want to be free from the feeling that I need to scrap certain events, or that I need to do it in a particular order. I've always been very chronologically/project oriented. I'm ready to let go of that. I want to focus this year on scrapping the things and events I want when I want. I want to find joy, fulfillment, and relaxation in my craft. It may be that after I do this for a year I decide that I really do need some structure, or that part way through the year I decide to instill some structure into my scrapbooking, but I want to at least start out the year with a blank slate and see where it leads me.

There are a whole bunch of events that I've been anxiously waiting to scrap, but have kept myself from so that I could get Carina's album done. Now that it is, I'm excited! You'll probably notice that many of my layouts in the next few months will focus on Ellie since my focus has been Carina the last year.

I also want to continue to grow and try new things/techniques. I'm planning to switch from the old Creative Memories style pages to drop in pages, which I think provides a lot more flexibility. Here are just a few of the things I want to try this year:
1) Stitching on my pages
2) Misting/painting
3) More interactive elements
4) Using embellishments (this one is going to be hard for me, I describe myself as a Flat Stanley scrapbooker, I like my pages to lie flat, so I'll be looking for embellishments that aren't going to add a lot of bulk to my pages)
5) Digital/hybrid scrapbooking (I'm not quite sure about this one. I'm very traditional, I like to be physically part of the creative process, but I want to at least try it)
6) Not being afraid of patterns, mixing them, and even using bolder prints.

Have you come up with any creative goals for the year? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Hope that your year has been relaxing so far.....it's back to work tomorrow for me... :(

P.S. If you just love the papers on the second layout, they are from the Dreamin' Level 2 Paper Pack which CTMH is retiring at the end of this month...

Supplies Used:
First page: Tulip, Blush, Lagoon, and White Daisy Cardstock, Lagoon ink, Playful Caps stamp set.
Last page: Dreamin Level 2 Paper Pack and Creme Brulee Cardstock, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, Cocoa Ink (for edges), Zig blue marker.