Junie Moon: scrapbooking

Showing posts with label scrapbooking. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Gifts for my Sorority Sisters

Whether you are young or old—friends are important and help us through life, both the good and the bad. I am blessed to be a member of Kappa Epsilon Phi—no matter how many years go by or where our lives, jobs, or interests take us in life—my sisters and I are still friends. Today, I thought I’d share a few of the projects I’ve done over the years for my sorority sisters.

After moving here from Tucson, I was teaching at the college and care-giving for my mother-in-law. I could not easily leave town, so I invited my sorority sisters to come here to the beach.

I sent each of them a special invitation I made on my computer using a wedding invitation kit found on clearance at A.C. Moore. The seashell theme works for my beach/house party just as well as for a wedding itself.

When thinking of a gift for my sorority sisters when they came, I thought a glass vase acid-etched with our sorority’s letters would be perfect as place settings at the table, especially when filled with flowers. Flowers always make people happy.

Some blue glass beads and Windex were put in the vase so you could see the finished etching better. I crafted my own stencil by printing the size Greek letters I wanted onto paper, tracing them onto white contact paper, and the carefully cutting out the stencil with a craft knife. The glass vases were purchased at A.C. Moore on sale.

The scrapbook project was actually done years ago before I moved to Florida. I ordered a scrapbook for each of us to document our adventures together and had each one inscribed. We all have a special “sister” name; naturally, I am Sister Junie Moon as that’s what I’ve been called for numerous years.

Scrapbooking our shared experiences makes for wonderful memories. When we are truly so old we can’t hobble about wreaking merry mayhem together, we can always look back on the fun we had.

To keep paperwork together, I purchased Martha Stewart cases and stenciled those as well. We stick bits of souvenirs, tickets, meeting programs, invitations, postcards, or whatever in the case until we can put our little memories in our scrapbook.

I love thinking of little projects like these I’ve shared with you today and over the years on my blog. Not only does it make me happy to do something creative, it gives me great joy to gift people.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A Splendid New Beginning

Since they were way too heartbreaking, I’m closing the battered door on the past three years and opening a freshly-painted door to hope for 2014. Although I really don’t care about making resolutions at the beginning of a new year, the turn of the calendar does give me a benchmark by which I can start fresh. This is my year for doing so.

While we all carry a bit of tattered baggage with us, we can celebrate our lives in myriad ways as advocated by Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book. Breathnach’s opening essay challenges us to look for “the splendid in the simple gift of the everyday”. It is my intention to do just that.

Source: Project Life Becky Higgins

Project Life is one of the ways I plan to celebrate 2014. It’s a simple scrapbooking system that means I will not have to spend hours recording my adventures but will be out enjoying them instead.

I chose the Seafoam edition of Project Life and its associated peripherals which I have completely assembled so it’s ready to document my year by simply popping in my photos and making a journal note.

Today I’ll insert pictures from our fun at last night’s Commodore’s Ball at the yacht club. It counts as part of Day 1 since we partied until the wee hours of this morn to welcome in 2014.

I’m keeping this documentation of my year relatively simple—my entire toolset is gathered in a basket. The point is to keep it easy to being mindful and grateful for the simple gifts life gives me over the year as encouraged by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

Resources

Project Life web site

Project Life by Becky Higgins Binder - Seafoam Edition

Romancing the Ordinary

Goodbye 2013 and hello, my love, to a splendid new beginning of 2014!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Project Life

This year I’m trying to be more mindful of all my activities by making the effort to photograph and document them on a regular basis instead of waiting until the task is overwhelming.

I’m giving Becky Higgins' Project Life a try for 2011 and chose the Turquoise Edition (currently unavailable). I’ve already stashed the Project Life - Amber Editionaway to use for 2012.

The divided photo pages and journal pockets make it easy to quickly record moments in my life I wish to savor. Although traditional scrapbooking is also fun, Project Life has made it easier to keep current as there is no worry about designing special page layouts. I simply print my photos once a week, journal my activities, and pop everything in the binder. Done!