Hi everyone!!  How are you faring after the holidays?  Are you back in the memory keeping groove or do you need a creative push to start?   

January is always a good month to make fresh starts and new beginnings.  It’s the perfect time to start a new project.  A question that I always get from beginners is “How Do I Start?”  Beginning a project is always the toughest part.  We all have a lot of memories made but what do we scrap about?  Here’s my advice: I always start by picking a singular theme.  Choosing a theme helps me narrow down which memories to document.  It also makes hunting down for pictures easier when I know what I am looking for, rather than just browsing through the camera roll and picking out a photo haphazardly.

Here are some themed albums I worked on over the years.  I have done Summer, Holiday, Dessert, Coffee and December Daily themed albums.

Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned scrapper, here are some themes you could work on when starting a new project:

*Christmas/Holidays

*Snow

*Travel/Vacation

*Summer

*Baby/Childhood

*Pregnancy

*Favorite Things

*Memorable Food Experiences

*Desserts

*Things That Make Me Happy

*The Year That Was

*This Month

*This Week

*A Day In The Life

*My Hobby

*Home

*Dreams

*Worklife

*Accomplishments

*New Experiences

This month’s Paper and Ink kit has an ‘art journal’ look and it inspired me to work on a related theme: my creative life.   As soon as I decided on a theme, it became easier for me to hunt for pictures to use as I recalled the highlights of my creative career.

I started off decorating my cover by layering the pocket cards and a tag.  I searched for craft puns on the internet and really liked  “A Well Crafted Life”.  I especially loved these vintage black tabs that came in the kit.  They are a joy to use.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was a book that changed my life.  I jotted down my favorite takeaways on my spread.  I loved using these rub-ons to embellish my page.   When using your rub-ons, make sure to cut out the portion you will use so that you will not accidentally rub-off the other elements.

I love sharing my creative work online so I wrote about a story of how I got started doing that after a friend invited me to create with her handmade products.   I used this acrylic sentiment die-cut on the left panel.  Love how it makes my Dori chunky.  I am so looking forward to fattening up this Dori with craft related memories.

Are you working on a special theme this year?  I hope you can share about it in the comments section.  Thank you always for passing by. 🙂

Ria