I love the feel of playing with paper and real-life items, but understand that digital designs can be a brand new tool for our scrapbooking and crafting fun. My focus will be on sharing how we can bridge the gap between new technology with the old fashioned love of paper. In the coming weeks, this blog will transform piece by piece…

Please watch out for the big party on June 15th… in the meantime, grab my old products at a huge discount, before they retire out the shop.

Announcing BackToPaper at {scrapflower} is from BackToPaper

Also, my digital scrapbooking designs at CatScrap. As a bonus, use code may2012 for 35% off my shop!

Digital Scrapbooking Designs at CatScrap is from BackToPaper

There are days when I make more of an effort to dress up, but realize that I don’t feel in my own skill. Other days I myself down, taking the easy way out. But maybe I’m just a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl? How to know, if my feelings are true in the end… we are all so affected by what is around us and what we see and what people say. It makes me wonder if we can ever truly say what we ourselves, feel? Suppose I’m getting a bit too philosophical for a simple project of cleaning up my closet and finding my own style.

I have learned that there are coaches for this kind of thing, just as folks have fitness coaches, career coaches, life coaches… now there’s style coaches. Interesting…

Daily Outfit Update is from BackToPaper

BIG NEWS! You really do need to grab my products this weekend, while there’s a great deal… because… everything you see will longer be there soon. I can’t reveal any other information – changes are coming and everything old has got to go! So grab ‘em while you can…

CatScrap is also offering a wonderful grabbag with purchase of $10!

Visit my CatScrap shop today! –>

I hope you have a wonderful weekend of scrapping. I’m definitely checking out The Daily Digi NSD post to check out all the fabulous festivities, as well as the Two Peas In A Bucket events… enjoy!

Happy interNational Scrapbook Day! is from BackToPaper

Inner Dreams: Outer Accomplishments

by Melanie Bowen 

Sometimes the best place to look for outer inspiration is to look within. Having a
chronic or life threatening illness like diabetes, mesothelioma or lupus can create
times when you just want to sit down and give up. However, no matter what your
prognosis is, you can still take the appropriate steps to create the future you
want for yourself despite your current situation.

Write Down Your Goals

Writing something down is a very powerful experience because it can give you a
sense of accountability and drive to actually accomplish things when you put
them in black and white. This is the reason that we write down contracts or
agreements we make with others. This is also true when you write down goals
for yourself; you create a written agreement with yourself that you will actually
meet the goals that you write down for yourself.

Goal setting for yourself can be as fanciful or as concrete as you want to make
it. For example, you might decide that you want to write out daily goals for
yourself like walking for 30 minutes daily, sweep the kitchen floor, or going
grocery shopping. You can keep this list of goals posted some place where you
will see it every day and work your way down the list throughout the day.

However, you might take personal goal setting a step further and really have
some fun with it. If you could imagine yourself doing whatever you want, without
being concerned about how much it cost, what your health is or anything else,
what would those things be? Would you climb Mount Everest? Would you write
an amazing book? Would you create your own fashion line? Let your
imagination soar and write down whatever fantasies come to mind that you really
could see yourself doing.

Turning Dreams Into Reality

The great thing about personal goal setting is that usually those things we
fantasize about actually accomplishing are things that we can actually do if we
set our minds to it. If something is really important to us, we will find a way to
make it a priority and set events into motion that will bring it about and make it
happen. It is an unconscious process and often it takes a long period of time,
but it also gives us something to look forward to and something to be working
toward in the future.

Turning our dreams into reality is also an uplifting and invigorating
experience. Suddenly our mood improves. We wake up looking forward to the
adventure of a new day and everything just looks brighter. So start making goals
for yourself and turning them into your own personal reality. Be as concrete or
as fanciful as you want, but create something to look forward to for the
future. Your quality of life can improve and your future may become more enjoyable if you simply take the time to put your dreams on paper.

[Guest Post] Inner Dreams: Outer Accomplishments is from BackToPaper

But when I actually start creating layouts, I realize that many of my purchases are beautiful and cute, but note useful for me. There are many cases when something looks super cool or adorable, but that doesn’t mean it would apply for my pages, unfortunately!  Maybe that means I need to be more carefully with my purchases, but I started wondering about the absence of scraps. Whatever happened to using everyday materials and whatever we had around for our scrap-books?

I tried to make use of my materials at hand, ripping them apart, cutting things out, collaging it all back together.  There are lots of classes and tutorials about using your stash, but I can’t help but think it’s bizarre… to have to learn to use what you buy for the purpose of scrapbooking.

I tried to use my alphas for embellishment, cutting apart those 6×6 paper pads and smashing things together. Probably the only true scrap I used were the tags and menu from our Easter luncheon.

Those pieces are actual scraps of our lives. The actual scrap in scrap-booking.

Do you use actual scraps in your scrapbooking process? Does it even matter at the end of the day?

Where are the Scraps in Scrapbooking? is from BackToPaper

However, I have to admit that I’m feeling a bit stuck. There are good days and there are bad days. I can’t seem to get consistent. I’ve definitely donated a whole load of clothing, but I also have piles or unsure… or I might make something out of that. Perhaps that’s a crutch?

Despite my confusion of where this is all going, I continued onward while thinking about it. And today I’ve realized that perhaps I’m thinking about too many things at once (duh!). I just started thinking, okay… instead of trying to go through so many different pieces of clothing. Why not concentrate on one, experiment to see how it can be used… and then decide if it’s a keeper or not. Hopefully this pans out to be something productive!

Daily Outfit Update is from BackToPaper

Also, take a look at how these cards have been incorporated into layouts. Traditionally as journaling cards, as embellishment, as a title – the possibilities are endless, eh? Pretty darn cool – thank you to the CatScrap CT!

By Lex (mrshobbes)

By Kelley

By Amanda

BIG Journaling Card Releases at CatScrap is from BackToPaper

For the month of April, I didn’t exactly remember to take a whole lot of photos throughout the entire day. But I think what I captured, reveals so much about my daily life on a normal day nevertheless. I’m often looking inward, creating art. Then I also spend time outside with my dog, Vash. They seem like such opposite activities – yet, that’s my life right now. Full of dualities.

I have a feeling that a lot of folks who do Project Life or similar scrapbooking, would find Week in the Life, just another week of documentation. But I do like the idea of perhaps, focusing on something in particular or putting a twist to it. I suppose, it’s best to simply let time take it’s course and see what happens naturally in my scrapbooking.

12 photos on the 12th of april is from BackToPaper

It’s madness. I really need to bop myself out of this cycle. I’ve also realized how far from reality my imagination can be at times. I think that I look a certain way or am portraying myself a certain way. But when looking at the photo, I realize – whoa… way off base. I think it’s an interesting lesson for many things in our life. We think we are saying something, but others interpret or see from a completely different perspective. Hmm…

I feel like this project is seeping into deep thought and self-analysis territory, rather than just cleaning my closet. I hope it can do both though. Really do need the Spring cleaning bit…

Daily Outfit Update is from BackToPaper