Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!  I hope to be back later this week with some projects!

Sketchabilities and Final Day Big Idea Festival

The final word for the Big Idea Festival was revealed Friday: play. Since most of my layouts involved self reflection and improvement I decided to think about what ways I need to work on play. I make it a point to make time to work on my hobbies, but I often don't make the same effort to play doing the things my kids enjoy. So my final page talks about what I need to work on.


I also completed this layout this past week using the current sketch at Sketchabilities. As you can see, I used more photos than are shown in the sketch, but otherwise I stuck pretty close to the sketch.

Big Idea Festival: Days 7 and 8

Two more days and some more thought-provoking words. Yesterday's word was "cherish." Saturday evening into yesterday were kind of rough. Will was cranky at dinner and then was up from 10 until midnight throwing a tantrum, so I was exhausted and feeling inadequate. So the word kind of smacked me upside the head as a reminder of what I should be doing, which is where my journaling came from.


Today's word is "live" I had an easier time coming up with a page for this one. The instructor for today, Lisa Day, posed the challenge to do something you are afraid of and scrapbook about it. It took me a bit, but then I remembered my trip to visit my sister and brother-in-law a few weeks ago and I knew what I wanted to scrap!

Big Idea Festival: Days 5 and 6

Yesterday's word was "enjoy." I had all day to think about what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing this recent photo of the kids and talking about those precious moments when they are all getting along.


Today's word is "nest." I struggled a bit with this one, I knew I wanted to do something on what I do around the house to make it a "home." I had opened a few photos and two of them were of flowers so I decided to go with that angle.

Big Idea Festival: Days 3 and 4

Our word yesterday was "less." I decided to do a page about my weight loss. I have been about 10-15 lbs. more than I would like to be for as long as I can remember. I've worked out fairly consistently but was never able to get rid of those last few pounds. When I signed up for TEAM Fitness, one of the requirements was to keep a food journal. I wasn't thrilled, but knew it would be good. I ended up downloading the app My Fitness Pal for my phone. It was the best thing I ever did! I enter in everything I eat and it keeps track of my calories throughout the day. If I exercise, I can enter that in and it will allow me to eat that many more calories. When I set it up, I entered my current weight, my goal weight and how quickly I wanted to lose it. It has a bar code scanner so if I eat something packages, I just scan the label using the camera on my phone. It also has the option of entering in my own recipes, so it makes keeping track of home cooked meals super easy! In case you are wondering, they also have a website, so you don't even need a smart phone to use it! (Okay, sales pitch done.)

Here's my layout:


Today's word was "give." The instructor for today, Wendy Smedley, gave us the challenge to scrapbook about giving of something non monetary. At first, I was going to talk about all of the things I do for my family, but then I started to think about giving blood and the impact that has had on my own family and that of a friend. So I ended up with this:

Big Picture Classes- Big Idea Festival

Big Picture Classes is holding a free class/festival for the next 12 days called the Big Idea Festival. I signed up last year, but didn't do any of the challenges. This year I wanted to actually participate and so I decided to work on my digital skills and make a digital page each day that I hope to make into an album at the end.

Each day we are given a word to scrap and journal about. We are also given a template that we can work from if we choose. I have decided to use it to simplify the process. Yesterday's word was "share" and today's is "wonder". I have had fun making my first two pages and it has provoked some very thoughtful journaling on my part.

Here are my first two pages: