The Expectations of Christmas Future by Stephanie

First things first ... 

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE to you all! 

I hope your last day of 2016 is spent doing something you enjoy with people you love. My mom and I have a tradition of scrapbooking together while we watch the festivities live on television, so I am definitely looking forward to that later tonight - assuming, of course, that my 4 month old cooperates and doesn't decide to forgo her evening nap. 

This has been ... a quiet year for me on the scrapbooking front. I prefer the word "quiet" to "unproductive" as it makes me feel less guilty about the pitiful number of layouts I made! I think all of us go through seasons where our inspiration is stifled or our creativity channeled into other, non-paper-crafty projects ... that was 2016 for me.

I only made a handful of layouts this year, but the ones I did make are some of my all-time favorites. 

Looking back, I realize these layouts actually have a lot in common. From a design perspective, they're all relatively simple layouts, on white 12x12 cardstock with lots of "white space" and just a few embellishments (mostly ephemera and enamel dots). I've decided that I quite like this look and plan to stick with it for my 2017 layouts. From a memory keeping perspective, the layouts I made in 2016 were all about things that truly matter to me and my family. With a new baby, I have very limited time to scrapbook so I have to choose which photos and stories are most important to me. Believe it or not, I actually LOVE having to make that choice. I love looking through my album and seeing a collection of carefully curated layouts, each one deeply meaningful and crafted with the utmost care. In 2017, I definitely want to continue documenting only the things that "truly matter" - which is a very good thing, since I don't have time to scrapbook any other way right now.

To summarize my creative goal for 2017: I'm hoping to become a bit of a scrapbooking minimalist.  

I plan to go into more detail about this on my personal blog, Skyline Paperie, but the general gist is that I want to create fewer, but better, layouts. I want to spend more time selecting the photos, creating the design + journaling the memory and less time perusing online scrappy stores and buying new products. I want to take my time creating and enjoy the process of putting a layout together, not rush things so I can upload them to my blog or meet a design team deadline.

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Postscript - 

Hi all, Susanne popping in here to give you all a sneak peek at January’s inspiration kit.  Once revealed I think you will agree that this selection ties into Stephanie’s idea for a simpler, more focused approach in the New Year.  It is something new, just released, and serves as a great entrance to 2017.  It is going to be a great year for counterfeiting – you would agree if you could only see what’s behind that door!

See you in 2017! Yes, that’s tomorrow!