Documenting the Not-So-Good

The Sleeping Bear Dunes area of Michigan is one of our favorite places in the country, and we try to make a trip up there every year. Last year we planned an epic 10-day camping vacation, and we were super excited about it.

Unfortunately, the morning we were scheduled to leave, I woke up feeling awful. I tried to fight through it to get us packed up and ready to go, but I felt like death. About half-way through the 8 hour drive, J reached over to discover that I had a high fever. For rational people that would have been a good point to turn around or maybe find an urgent care center. But not us. I convinced him it was only a 24-hour bug and that I would be fine the next day.

I spent the next five days miserable in our campsite. I refused to go to a doctor, and the only reason I can think of to justify that decision was that I was in some kind of fever-induced delirium. There were good points during the trip, moments when I felt well enough to enjoy some time at the beach or around town, so it wasn't a total loss. But overall, I was miserable. I couldn't sleep, could barely breath, and I was in a lot of pain.

So how do you document a trip like this? How do you scrapbook the times that you want to remember but that you'd also sorta like to forget?

I put it off for a long time. I knew I would make a mini album eventually, but I wasn't sure how to approach it. Finally, this month I decided to tackle the project, and I made the decision to focus on the good.

I'm not completely ignoring the fact that I was sick or that there were times during the trip that were incredibly difficult for me, but I'm not focusing on those times. I've made note of my illness, mentioned a few of the issues I was facing, but then moved on to the parts that I want to remember most. We took some beautiful pictures and had some really wonderful moments. That's what I want the album to be about.

I'll be sharing pages a few at a time on my YouTube channel. Here are the first three sections:

How do you document the hard times? I'd love to hear your strategy!

Products Used:

Citrus Twist Kits Life Crafted Album in teal

Citrus Twist Kits September "Explore" Life Crafted Kit

Citrus Twist Kits September "Explore" Digital Papers

Citrus Twist Kits September "Explore" Digital Cards

Citrus Twist Kits September Add-on Kit

Citrus Twist Kits September Traveler's Notebook Stamp

Citrus Twist Kits September This is Life "Let's Wander" Stamp

Citrus Twist Kits Simple Words Version 2 Stamp

Citrus Twist Kits June "Around Here" Life Crafted Kit

Pinkfresh Studio "Out and About" New Places Paper

Pinkfresh Studio "Out and About" Ephemera

Pinkfresh Studio "Out and About" Puffy Stickers

#The100DayProject 2018

Have you heard of #The100DayProject? You can learn all about it by visiting their website.

Last year, I chose to do 100 Days of Commonplace Inspiration. Basically, I wanted to create a sort of commonplace book filled with quotes and other inspiring bits of encouragement. It's what I needed at the time, and I'm not gonna lie, it's come in really handy several times since. It serves as a little pick-me-up when I'm having a rough day, and I'm so glad I completed it!

Here's a closer look at the entire album:

This year's project starts on April 2nd, and although I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing, I know I'll be doing something. Will you be playing along? I'd love to hear what you have planned!

Books in 2019 - Life Crafted Mini Album

I decided to use my Life Crafted album from Citrus Twist to document the books I read in 2019. I've set a somewhat bigger goal for myself than I normally do, and I really want to challenge myself to read more this year. So I thought it would be fun to document my progress and the books I'm reading in a min album.

I had considered using a traveler's notebook insert to document my reading, but I knew I would be hard-pressed to fit all 24 books in one album. Enter the Life Crafted album! The pages are the same size as a standard TN, but because it's ring-bound, I'll be able to fit as many pages as I need. It's the perfect solution.

But before I start documenting the books I've already read, I needed to create a title page. Every album needs a title page, right? So I grabbed the gorgeous February "Love Stories" Life Crafted Kit from Citrus Twist and chose a few items I knew would work perfectly for this project.

I started with the oversized tag that came in the kit. It fits perfecting into the Life Crafted album, so it seemed like the obvious choice The kit also contained a CTK exclusive dictionary print paper that I HAD to use. Then I chose a journaling card and some embellishments and just had fun putting the whole thing together!

I especially loved the little butterflies that came in the acetate pack. There were matching die cuts in the ephemera pack, so I decided to layer them and stitch them together to add some texture and dimension to the page. I love the way they turned out!

Here's a quick look at my process:

Happy Crafting!

2016 Michigan Mini Album Walkthrough

I actually created this album about a year and a half ago, but I had never shared it here, so I thought the easiest way to do so would be to do a quick album walkthrough. Scroll down to see the video.

I used a bunch of different supplies for this mini. The cover is cut from a plastic placemat that I bought on clearance at Target. I just cut it to slightly larger than the 6x8 page protectors, then used my Crop-A-Dile Power Punch to punch the holes for the binder rings and the Corner Chomper to round the corners so they wouldn't be sharp.

Inside there's a combination of bits from old Studio Calico documenter kits, A Beautiful Mess Messy Boxes, Pebbles Lakes collection, Pink Paislee Outfitters collection, Studio Calico Atlantic collection, and Crate Paper Open Road collection.

The page protectors are a variety of Simple Stories, Echo Park, and Becky Higgins. I used my Fuse Tool to cut and seal some of the page protectors to fit some of the pieces of ephemera I brought back with us.

Here's a look at the entire album:

Happy Crafting!

2017 Week in the Life: Album Walkthrough

Since we are currently in the midst of documenting our Week In The Life for this year, I thought it would be fun to share my album from last year in a quick walkthrough.

Last year I decided to purchase the WITL kit from Ali Edwards, mostly because the majority of my supplies were boxed away or still at our other house, and I didn't think I would have the time to pull together a kit of my own. Plus, I loved Ali's kit.

During the week, I took pretty extensive notes every day and of course, I tried to photograph as much as possible. Some days I did better than others, but I still feel like this album gives us an accurate picture of our typical week at the time...which is the whole point of this project.

Although it was my intention and I was well-prepared to do so, I did not finish this album in a timely manner. In fact, I didn't finish this album entirely until this month. But I am happy that I was able to complete it before this year's WITL began, because having two albums "in process" would likely have been too much for me (and one or the other would have been a failure).

So here's a brief look at my album.

And here are a few close-up photos.

Happy Crafting!