2023 Crafty Goals

Hey crafty friends!  I know – you thought I fell off the face of the earth right!?  Nope, I’m still here, but did horribly on my craft goals for 2022.  Hubby and I accepted a new position in our township sports program, and it ate up sooo much of our time.  We love helping the kids, but are really trying to find a better balance this go round.  I hope my 2023 crafty goals are realistic and attainable.

2023 crafty goals

I don’t post about it often but in addition to my cups, scrapbook and cross stitch I also diamond paint.  If you haven’t heard of diamond painting before here is a good beginner tutorial. It’s a similar concept to cross stitch, but uses drills and you place them on a sticky canvas.  I currently have five unfinished paintings.  There is a Disney castle, winter barn scene, two supernatural ones, and a Neuschwanstein castle.  My goal is to finish all five this year.  That would free up an entire drawer in my Alex set and an entire shelf in my raskog cart.   Going forward I would then like to do one painting at a time to reduce supply storage.

Scrapbooking – oh where to begin.  I did abysmal last year at getting anything done.  I honestly think I got less than a dozen layouts completed.  I also failed at not buying any new collections.  I didn’t do horribly (I think I bought four), but still.  I have more than I’ll ever need.  This year I want to use up at least two collections and make at minimum 12 layouts.  I know that isn’t much, but it’s at least one per month.

Cross Stitch – my first craft passion.  I don’t really have a goal for this this year.  I’ve found every goal process I’ve tried to make with stitching just kills my mojo.  I’m going to just go with…as the mood strikes.

I also have a book goal for the year, but that could be a post all it’s own…haha

Please feel free to check in on me – keep my accountable to these goals – kick my butt – etc.  Have you made any 2023 crafty goals, and if so, how do you keep yourself motivated to get them done?

Taxi Taxi Scrapbook Layout – Get Inspired

Hey crafty friends!  Long time no talk to.  I’ve been sooo super busy that very little scrapbooking is getting done, and even less posting…obviously.  The end of the school year here brought a Kindergarten graduation and a fifth grade moving up ceremony.  We got one week off, and then summer swim started.  I’m exhausted!

When I saw this layout on the Scrapbook Generation squad group I had to use it though.  It totally sparked my creativity to get this Taxi Taxi scrapbook layout done.  The original layout was created by Amy Grohs Vandiver.  I unfortunately do no know if she has a blog or socials since it was shared by the group owner for Scrapbook Generation.

Scrapbook Generation inspiration photo

The first thing I did with the inspiration layout was flip it on it’s side to accommodate my horizontal photo.  Since I was using only one photo on the layout I used a 4×6 so that it didn’t get lost on the page.

I don’t usually save scraps or mix and match collections, but since I knew I wanted a fairly simple color palette that worked really easily here.  The only papers I know where they came from are the darker yellow and the black are from Echo Park dots and stripes pack that were sold VERY long ago.  I went looking, and it doesn’t look like they make them anymore.

All of my embellishments were left overs as well.  I’ve been keeping any embellishments I think I’ll use when I finish a collection.  I have them stored in cd envelopes by color.  The envelopes are getting fairly full though so I think I’ll need to switch containers soon.

Taxi Taxi Scrapbook Layout

The story for this photo is pretty cute. For whatever reason our daughter had been talking about taxi’s forever last summer.  We went to a car show in August, and she was going doing every row asking if there was a taxi.  Finally we found one!  She was thrilled, had to take a picture with it, and declared it her favorite car of the whole show.

Okay – back to your regularly scheduled programming.  Thanks for stopping by my blog today and seeing what I created.  I hope you have a great day!!!

***THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS.  PLEASE SEE SIDEBAR FOR COMPLETE DISCLOSURE***

TAXI TAXI SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT SUPPLY LIST

Travel Themed Scrapbook Layout

Hey crafty friends! Welcome back to another layout here at The Paper Addict.  This time I created a travel themed scrapbook layout with three photos…even though you only initially see one.

This layout was started with a sketch from Laura Whitaker’s book that she put out when she “retired.”  I printed it out, and had it bound, so that I could also pull it out without needing an electronic device.

Travel Themed Scrapbook Layout

I’m going to keep this post VERY short because you can hear all the details, and watch me create this, over on youtube.  I don’t want to bore you with double details.  Please let me know though if you’d rather them typed out over watching the video…I’m open to doing both!

Okay – I know – short and sweet, but it’s time to make supper.  Hopefully I get more time to create soon.  I so miss it when I’m away to long.  Until next time….stay crafty!

***THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS.  PLEASE SEE SIDEBAR FOR COMPLETE DISCLOSURE***

TRAVEL THEMED SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT SUPPLY LIST

Back To School Scrapbook Layout

Hey crafty friends…welcome back!  I’m here today to share with you a new back to school scrapbook layout.  This layout using a sketch from the January challenges over at Paper Issues, and a collection from Jillibean Soup.

If you’ve been following with me the last few months the January sketch challenges Paper Issues had has really been my jam.  I’ve used so many of them.  There are even ones I’ve used and haven’t shared. Here is the one I used for this layout.

The sketch called for torn papers, which is something I haven’t really mastered yet, so I used the same general shape of the papers, but kept the edges straight cut.  The sketch also called for the embellishments in a vertical fashion across the whole page.  I didn’t have anything that worked in that fashion so I just went with what felt right.

The paper collection I used is a very old one from Jillibean Soup.  So old that unfortunately the company doesn’t make paper anymore 🙁  It’s really sad because they always had nice neutral embellishments and papers.  Back To School Scrapbook Layout

I titled this layout Hello New School because it really was for both of them.  Our girl started Kindergarten this year so for her it was a whole new school.  Our son had been here previously, but did cyber school last year due to everything going on with the pandemic.  His return to the elementary school had him in a new part of he building since he is in 5th grade…all new.

Well – I’m signing off to go and try to come up with what my next creation will be.  I have a die-cut title I want to use, but no papers that really match so it will be a challenge.  Until next time….stay crafty!

***THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS.  PLEASE SEE SIDEBAR FOR COMPLETE DISCLOSURE***

BACK TO SCHOOL SCRAPBOOK LAYOUT SUPPLY LIST

Cross Stitch Update February 2022

Hey guys – back with my Cross Stitch Update for February 2022. If you want to see what I got done last months click here.

If February I started Tall Seasons by The Sunflower Seed here.

Tall Seasons by The Sunflower Seed

Half way through the month I found myself not wanting to stitch and I couldn’t figure out why.  I decided to put this aside and pull out something different to see if that motivated me.  I ended February with this much done, and think this one will be really pretty once I get back to.

Tall Seasons by The Sunflower Seed

The piece I pulled out in order to try and get my mojo back was Nobody Loves My by Moira Blackburn. I have changed some of the colors on this one as my chart shows different colors than the ones I see now.  The project started the month here..

Moira blackburn

I didn’t do to badly on this one, despite having to go get missing thread colors, and ended the month with this progress…

nobody loves me

Finally I started a new piece!  Im doing an astronaut riding a dinosaur pieces that I purchased on Etsy from XCrossStitchPatternX. I already know what you’re thinking…that doesn’t sound like a pieces I’d normally be doing.  Its not!  I was asked by my best friends 19 year old if I’d do it for her since her mom can’t stitch anymore…well duh…yes 🙂

I only got the fabric two days before months end so there isn’t much progress, but here it is.  Since this is all full stitches and only like 12 colors I hope that it will be done fairly quickly.

Astronaut dinosaur

Well – that’s all I have for right now.  I’m pleased with getting three projects worked on, but would always loved to have more progress.  Please let me know if you’d like to see anything else, or something in a different fashion.  Also, if you have updated of your own leave me a link with where to see them and I’d be happy to pop over.  Until next time…stay crafty!