30 Days of Thankful – November 2017

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Finally, after years of just watching from the sidelines, I have completed a 30 Days of Thankful Album <happy dance!>.

Every November since 2012, Cathy Zielske has done this project “to help (you) remember all that is good, from the tiniest of things in this life to the most humongous, to everything in between.” Every year, I follow her posts with the full intention of joining in. In 2014, I even got as far as signing up for the private Facebook Group created for anyone who needs inspiration and support for completing their projects, yet year after year, I end up with nothing.

It doesn’t matter that it took me five months to complete an album that was meant to be done in 30 days – what matters is that I did it!

Here’s a flip-through video of my completed album:

I loved working on this album and being reminded to find joy in the smallest of things, and to be grateful always.

This project also helped me come to terms with how I’d like to approach memory keeping:

  • I love memory keeping and the Project Life system. I almost chucked off scrapbooking as something I would never really get around to doing. I have a lot of physical products, and I also have the App. It seemed like I would start an album, make a few pages, and then never finish anything. I thought it was something I already needed to give up and get off my plate so I didn’t have to feel bad about not accomplishing anything. Completing this project changed my mind.
  • Having a home printer is important for me to stay on track with documenting life. By the end of the first week, I had completed my cover and the first six pages. Then I ran out of Paper for my Canon Selphy printer. That really set me back big time. I know fully well that I can still build my title Cards and journalling, then add the photos later – but for me it needed to start with the printed photo. Not having the printed photo felt like a mental block from going forward with what needed to be done.
  • Color coordination and embellishments are not all that important to me. Although I had always admired scrapbookers who do great embellishments, and have cohesive album pages – I realized that mine didn’t have to look that way.
  • Stamps are wonderful tools that you can use over and over again for your pages, but I just can’t stamp effectively. Maybe my ink pads are low quality, or maybe they‘ve dried up or lost their pigment after I’ve had them so long and not used them. I don’t know. I may really just be awful at stamps.
  • Alpha and number stickers are LOVE. I don’t have a lot. When the self-imposed moratorium for spending on hobbies is lifted, I am getting more. Gifts are WELCOME too. 🙂
  • Maybe not everyone can read my handwriting but I’m not about to let crappy handwriting stop me from adding journalling to my pages.
  • Speaking of journalling – I didn’t plan it, but it just came naturally to journal in English. Next time, I’ll try to express myself in Filipino or TagLish (Tagalog-English).
  • Great photography would be awesome for my pages! But not having great photos is just another roadblock I’d rather not stop me. Not all my photos are great, but they are photos that show what life is right now, and THAT’s what’s important.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE DOING THIS ALBUM? I really, really do.

Supplies: 6×8 album, photo pocket pages, and assorted cards from Project Life by Becky Higgins

2 of 100 done!