I am continuing with the creative roundup series to show you how I lead my best creative life. I like to document this to remind you (and myself) that being creative doesn’t have to be huge undertaking. It just means taking the time to be creative in whatever ways I can throughout the month.
August was a fun month of creativity and organization for me. I started some new projects, worked on organizing my scrapbooking and crafting supplies, and prepared for a scrapbook getaway in September. My goals for August were to be creative every day this month. I was not able to be creative every single day, but I tried to make time throughout the whole month to do something creative.
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Projects
With good intentions, I had hoped to complete that photography DIY project that’s been on hold since June. It just didn’t happen in August. It will come one day soon as I’m winding down some other organization projects and space to work on bigger projects.
Since I have been following more scrapbook influencers and creators on social media, I have found some great projects to work on. One of those projects is the Day in the Life project hosted by Ali Edwards. She hosts this project a few times a year and she planned one on Saturday, August 19. I decided to jump on the bandwagon at the last minute and took photos throughout the day to document my Day in the Life.
It was a great project for me to do something different and document our life as it is now. The mundane (and sometimes not mundane) details are some of the stories that I want to tell. I enjoyed the project and want to participate the next time she plans one.
Along with Ali Edwards Day in the Life project, she also does a project called December Daily. I wanted to begin preparing for this project and found some great Project Life products on sale in Becky Higgins shop. (Spoiler Alert: I also ordered December Daily products from Ali Edwards during the September launch.) Along with that order, I also got a few notebooks that just launched as a part of the Becky Higgins Home product line. These notebooks are now my go to for ideas, notes, and also for my to-do list that I wrote about here.
Becky Higgins Shop Order with Simple Notebooks and Holiday supplies
Another project that I did a little quick update on was my One Little Word. I haven’t been following the prompts with Ali’s class as best as I had hoped, but I’ve kept my word in mind throughout the year. My word is Intention this year and over the month of August I was being intentional about my health and exercise. I wanted to document this as a part of my One Little Word project. I printed the photos I had from the month on my Instax Printer and added them to the album.
Four Layouts from my One Little Word project in August 2017
Organization
Last year we ended up moving my crafting space to the basement, so the organization for my scrapbooking supplies hasn’t been ideal. Without a good storage solution I couldn’t find half of my supplies when I needed them.
To get things organized, I decided to get new shelves and organization trays that I’ve been seeing from Ikea. On my first trip to Ikea (ever!) I got storage bins for two rolling carts, two Kallax shelves, and Tjena storage boxes in different sizes to use in the Kallax shelves.
It worked out perfect and the next day we put together the shelves. I was able to start organizing all of my crafting supplies. It’s still an ongoing process, but I’ve sorted through a lot of supplies and even got rid of some.
The Ikea Kallax shelves setup and starting to organize my supplies
Along with organizing my scrapbooking supplies, I also tried to plan projects for an upcoming scrapbook retreat in September. I tend not to get a lot done on the retreat trips because I don’t plan ahead. This year I wanted to accomplish at least one project, so I created a little mini kit to finish my first Day in the Life.
Inspiration
I’ve been wondering if there is a scrapbooking podcast out there and lo and behold, there is! It’s called the Scrapgals Podcast hosted by two amazingly, hilarious woman, Tiffany and Tracie. The podcast became my new obsession and I listened to some great shows that they put out recently. (Find it on Podomatic here or find it on iTunes here.)
One of the episodes called “Telling Stories with Heidi Swapp” from August 28 had a great conversation. Tiffany and Tracie interviewed Heidi about her new product called “Storyline” and I was immediately inspired. I think I listened to that podcast 3 times just to soak up all the information. That podcast even inspired me to write about Why Every Mom Must Be a Memory Keeper.
They post once a week and have a lot of episodes in their show history. I have gone back to listen to some older episodes. Some of my favorites have been about December Daily, an interview with Becky Higgins, and The 100 Days Project.
As strange as it may seem, listening to the Scrapgals podcast is very fun and informative. Tiffany and Tracie have great camaraderie and you want to be their best friends immediately. It’s fun to hear them talk about scrapbooking, new products, interviewing people in the scrapbooking world, and also getting their community involved in the discussion.
Learning
At the end of last month, I started prepping for an upcoming watercolor challenge that started on August 1. The challenge was called the “Watercolor Floral Challenge” hosted by Becca Courtice The Happy Ever Crafter.
Becca normally does modern calligraphy challenges and courses, but for this watercolor challenege she partnered with a friend, Stephanie Fehrenbach. I loved learning new watercolor techniques and how to paint peonies. Previous to the course, when I tried to paint any watercolor florals I would have a hard time achieving decent results.
My Watercolor Floral Challenge attempts at peonies and greenery
The course was really helpful and she had a follow up booklet for purchase to learn different flowers besides the peony. The challenge was only for one week so I continued working on some watercolor painting throughout the month. I still need a lot of work, but having the challenge and follow up booklet have been a great source of information.
Business & Blogging
This month didn’t go as well as I had planned. Content creation took a back seat so I didn’t meet all of my blogging goals for this month. I came up with a lot of great content ideas, but need to start sharing it with you. I have been continuing to work toward my 90-day goals and September is quickly approaching!
Also coming up next month is a blogging conference and I am sure I will feel so overwhelmed! But I’m really excited to go and learn so much great information, meet like-minded people, and be inspired to create more for the Crafty Julie blog.
Wrap-Up
I was very pleased with my crafting this month especially since it was the last full month of summer. Although I still have a few unfinished projects and working on the organization of my crafting supplies, my creative cup has been full this month and that makes me happy.
Finding the middle ground between being creative everyday and not at all can be a struggle. This month I was able to work towards that middle ground and achieving my best creative life.
So now, I want to hear from you! Share with me your August creative accomplishments, crafting projects, scrapbook layouts, or whatever you’ve been working on. Let me know in the comments and let’s inspire each other!
As always, go lead your best creative life today 🙂
Julie
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