I take a lot of pictures...

Project Life was a really great way for me to scrapbook a couple of years ago. It was "easy" and I could just slide cards into slots. But as many of you know, I'm a perfectionist and I like to do things by the book. So when I had nothing to really scrap for a week, I didn't know what to do and I eventually gave up.

The last memory I scrapped was March 2016-ish and I haven't touched it since. Sad, I know. Until I realized there was a WHOLE WORD of traveler's notebook (TN) scrappers out there. It's a form of memory keeping that was free flowing, no rules, no pressure, no prompts... So I thought, why not. Let's just start with Year 6, Month 10 and see how it goes.

For those new here (or maybe you just forgot since I disappeared for so long), my "year" starts on October 24th - my anniversary. My very first scrapbook page is my wedding day and I keep going from there. Project Life has a "weekly" feel to it (even though I know you could do whatever you wanted, but like I said... I play by the rules) and I scrapped up to sometime in Year 4. I felt very accomplished, but my pages and layouts... well, looked like shit.

But do I want to open it up and look at them? No, not really.

I can't wait to show you more of my memories and how I'm keeping them... Even if there's only one thing to scrap about or a hundred!

Stay crafty my friends,
XO. Lauren

So far this year I've kept my craft desk pretty clean and while I didn't get any holiday cards out, we made some at Make & Take Club. My favorite seasonal craft was watching Abigail create beautiful eggs using the Egg-Mazing! Have you played with one of those before?

The best thing I did this year was go to crops. I took all my old Bloom Box kits and was able to get them all done... Even old Paper Pumpkin and RG Studio 360 kits! Well, except for 2 that are sitting under my desk right now... :)

So that's really where I am this year... Caught up on the kits that have been looming, made goodies monthly for Make & Take Club and just trying to stay afloat with crafting with Abigail. I'll see you next week for some regularly schedule programming... I've been making lots of cards, keeping up to date in a planner and even memory keeping! I even tried to make a video!

Thanks for reading,
XO. Lauren

Uhm, it's literally been 588 days (yes, I googled it) since I've written a blog post. I still had a Halloween project up that I made in 2016 as the header of my blog. I mean, what gives, right? Well besides a very demanding job and a now four and a half year old daughter... I haven't exactly had the same amount of free time as I used to.

But honestly if it wasn't for Make & Take Club and my own kiddo's parties, who knows how much crafting I would have done! In January we made Valentines at M&TC and my kiddo turned 3 and requested a Trolls party. I did my best to make some fun and bright trolls cupcakes, but I guess cotton candy hates being outside.

This was also around the time the big boss of our lab (where I work full time) was let go and so things were just kind of weird at work. There was a lot of transitions going on and I kind of just went with the flow until they hired my new boss around March to take over our lab. He was currently our Medical Chief Engineer so I already had some type of relationship so it really worked out in my favor. I was also getting into watercoloring and made a cute Lawn Fawn card for Jonny's birthday.

I wasn't promoted to Team Lead until later that year, but that didn't mean I wasn't doing the job MUCH sooner than the money came in which means... Team Lead duties on top of Project Engineer duties on top of trying to be present with my family... Basically meant I don't think I even looked at my craft desk, let alone sat at it. Abi is always crafty and I helped a bit at my cousin's wedding with some freehand script. How amazing is her pom pom card?

When things started to adjust, I started to craft more and stayed on top of my designs for M&TC. I even tried to get on a Design Team which I hadn't thought about doing in quite some time. While I didn't make the Team, I did feel a small shift in my style of projects. I really wanted to use more mediums and try new things in my crafting.

Of course around late October I was finally promoted and was given more duties at work. It has been a crazy (almost) year of just trying to find the balance and flow of work and family (and crafting). I thank God just about everyday for the patience my family has had with me... From my husband who cooks and cleans and let's me go to 12 hour crops on a Saturday, to my daughter who is my carpool buddy to work/preschool as we sing in the car together and even to my momma who had to handle M&TC a little bit on her own.

So really the blogging break was because I really just didn't have the time. I think it happens to everyone... I didn't have a lot of crafts made so what was I even going to blog about? I can tell you I have been very busy catching up on kits that I was still purchasing during this time (if you've seen my Instagram, you know). I'll share more about how things have changed for me crafty wise in my next post of the last six months.

Until then,
XO. Lauren

What are your goals for the year? I'd love to hear what you're doing. :) Are you doing a word this year? I'm still debating if I want a mantra this year...

​XO. Lauren

I actually a card on the FSJ blog from a previous Halloween season and I love it so much, I re-created it with this year's product and with what I had on hand. I really wish I had the Boo! die... I would have gone perfectly!

This is another card with no stamping! I thought it would be fun to use dies to create a scene. The clouds are cut from the Spooky Prints paper pack and I used the bright colors from the Be Amazing collection.

Using a sponge and some Whisper White ink, I softened the background to give a moon like glow around the moon and clouds.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do! This card is simple and easy to put together. It would be really cute as a scene for a shadowbox, too!

​XO. Lauren