Happy New Year, friends! I pray everyone has welcomed 2021 with open arms and slammed the door on 2020! To be honest, I really wasn't ready for the holidays to end. It was cooler than normal in December for us here in Florida. I couldn't get enough of cozy nights by the lighted tree, Christmas-scented candles, and wearing a puffy jacket in the mornings when walking Zoe. But it was time to turn the final page on 2020 and begin to move forward. I am taking a little break from removing holiday decorations to write my first post of 2021. Over the weekend, I did a Facebook and Instagram Live, where I spoke about variety of things–my background in documenting, my collaboration of a digital kit with The Practical Scrapper, my plans for documenting 2021, and a few exciting things I want to do with Pixels to Pages this year. I want to repeat some of that here in this post, and even mention a few other things that I forgot to in those social media videos.
If this is your first time visiting Pixels to Pages, welcome. I am so happy you are here. Really I am. I'm not going to go into a deep introduction of myself here, but to learn a little bit more about me just click on the "About" link in the navigation bar above and you can get to know me in a nutshell! Please be sure to follow me on Instagram accounts–@pixelstopages is where I share all things documenting! My @kmsill account is where I share more personal and family things! I'd love to connect with you there!
So now on to my 2021 Brain Dump. The past several days I have had so many ideas of what I want to do in 2021 that it is causing me to lose sleep. From documenting projects, to home improvement projects, and business plans. There is a lot swirling around in this girl's 52-year-old brain. And even though I discussed some of them in the Live social media videos, I just need to do a little more to get them out of my head. Writing them down helps, so that is what I am doing here.
My 2021 Word: Self
While I am not participating in the One Little Word project by Ali Edwards, I do have a word that will be my focus in 2021–it's "self." This particular word started to show itself to me in the last few months of 2020–self-taught, self-starter, self-employed, self-care, self-assured, be true to yourself, self-discovery. I could go on and on. I just feel like this word is talking to me and I look forward how it makes its appearance throughout 2021. What about you? Do you have a word for 2021?
Family Yearbook (Project Life)
2021 will mark the 6th year I am creating my yearbook in the Project Life App. That is not to say I am completely caught up on my 2020 album. Come to think of it, I still have a few more months to go in 2017 (I was working on both years at the same time. 2018 and 2019 are done though!). In 2020 I documented in a monthly format. I am almost done with September and hope to share that soon. I seem to go back and forth–one year I document in a monthly format, and the following year I do a weekly format. For 2021, I am going back to a weekly format.
I will be using the Project 12/52 Foundation Kit throughout the year. This is the kit The Practical Scrapper, Meagan Johnson, and I collaborated on. I'll talk a little bit more about that kit at the end of this post (and there is a freebie there for you!). Something new I want to incorporate into my album this year are the weekly story prompts that Becky Higgins publishes on her My Modern Story Instagram account, using the Editorial Templates in the Project Life App. I absolutely love the concept of these story prompts and look forward to including them in my album somehow. I enrolled in her My Modern Story class when she first released it several months ago and just went through the course this morning (January 3). Wow. So much inspiration! I don't care how seasoned of a scrapper you are, or how comfortable you are with the Project Life App, you will always find little nuggets of knowledge in Becky's classes that you can take away with you and work into your own documenting process. Seriously good stuff in there! And you guys, the class is free! Here is a link to the classroom for you to enroll. No affiliation whatsoever. I just like to share!
Live the Story You Want to Tell
"Live the Story You Want to Tell" is an audio course by Becky Higgins and her podcast partner, Becky Proudfit. This class was gifted to me a while back, but is no longer available to enroll in. I have been holding out for 2021 to begin the class and I'm super excited to dive in. The reason I am bringing this up now is that upon finishing the My Modern Story mini course, Becky really inspired me to dive even deeper in telling MY story. Sure in my family yearbooks I document about good times, bad times, etc. But I just want to write something a little more personal. Maybe I will share those pages here and on social media, maybe I won't. But I know I feel compelled to write more about myself (see, there is my 2021 word). I look forward to beginning this audio course and taking a journey into self-discovery and documenting it using the Editorial Templates. I've already decided that I will be doing 10x10 pages, printing them through the app and using the Greige binder she sells in her shop. Again, I am not sure how much of this will will share on social media, we'll see!
Pixels to Pages Classroom
If you are a memory keeper who used to scrapbook using physical product (papers, stickers, etc), you are very familiar with ever-changing product lines, trends, and techniques. You may find the same holds true when you are a mobile memory keeper–new apps are released, tried and true apps are updated, new digital techniques are discovered. Many of you may remember that I used to teach a series of online classes at Scrapaneers.com called Art of the Apps. They were a big success and I had so much fun teaching others how to use document their photos and stories using a variety of apps on their mobile devices. I haven't taught an online class in several years and man, do I miss it. I've been wanting to host my own classes in my own classroom for a while now, and I am determined that this will happen in the first half of 2021. I'm not going to give any other details other that what I am writing here or what I said in my Facebook/IG Lives a few days ago. But I will keep you posted as I get closer to opening the classroom for enrollment! Stay tuned!
Social Media
While I do publish posts and photos on Facebook and Instagram, one of the things I want to become more comfortable with in 2021 are Facebook and Instagram Lives. I want to connect more with all of my Pixels to Pages friends and have you get to better know the person behind the logo. I did my first Instagram Live this past weekend. I think it went pretty good–although I think I messed something up when I tried to end the Live. But it's a learning process, so bare with me as I move forward with this! For Christmas my oldest son and daughter-in-law gave me this really cool phone and tablet stand to record video and/or live stream. I plan on putting it to good use this year!!!
2021: The Year of DIY
Do-It-Yourself. Again my word for 2021. This will be the year of DIY for me. From simple home decor, to building a custom cabinet in our family room, I've got this need to create like you wouldn't believe. Ryley, our youngest son, gave me a sewing machine for Christmas. I am so excited! I haven't sewn in years and I can't wait to make all. the. things. And I am planning on sharing what I create here on the blog. So I hope you all don't mind a sprinkling of other creative endeavors here along side of my scrapbook pages! Joann's, Michael's, Home Depot, and Lowe's are going to be my new favorite places to shop!
Project 12/52
I mentioned earlier in this post the Project 12/52 Collection that Meagan Johnson and I collaborated on. Meagan is so talented! Make sure you are following her on her Instagram–@thepracticalscrapper. I am so, so, so very grateful for her helping me get this kit out of my head and into our shops! The idea for this kit has been in my head for 2 years and it is so freeing to have it out there! It really allows me to move forward with other things! But I want to explain in a little more detail about the Collection and what you can expect from it throughout the year:
Project 12/52 Foundation Kit: This is the main kit in the Collection. It is full of over 600 cards for you to use in the Project Life App. To use them within the Project Life App, simply save your cards to DropBox or other cloud storage (I keep mine in iCloud Drive) and then you place them on your Project Life App page just as you would a photo. Feel free to use the cards in other apps, too! Or, if you are a digital scrapper (creating pages on your desktop or laptop), these cards can be used in Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Affinity Photo.
Project 12/52 Add-on Kits:
Meagan and I know that not every app-scrapper are die-hard users of the Project Life App. There are many apps mobile memory keepers use to document their stories and photos. This is the main reason why we decided to offer the Digital Papers and Overlays in separate kits. We didn't want the Foundation Kit to have products in it that those who use scrap strictly with the PL App wouldn't use. Make sense? Right now there are 3 add-on kits in the Collection:
Digital Papers: 25 patterns and 12 solids. Use them in your desktop software or in mobile apps such as Affinity Photo, Over, or Letterglow.
Monthly Overlays: This kit has 3x4 and 4x6 overlays in black and white. They come in both horizontal and vertical orientation.
Weekly Overlays: Same as the Monthly overlays! The kit contains the overlays in 3x4 and 4x6 sizes. They come in black and white, and in both horizontal and vertical orientation.
The Project 12/52 Collection is available in both of our shops (you can get to mine by clicking the link at the top of the page). It doesn't matter which shop you purchase from! And guys, Meagan's shop is great! She has a ton of kits not related to the Project 12/52 Collection that you may be interested in! Click this link to go to her shop!
We know that sticking with one kit throughout the year can get a little boring. So Meagan and I will be releasing seasonal add-on kits throughout the year! Yay! There may be a few other surprise kits added as well! And here is the first one–a mini Happy New Year Kit. Thank you to all those who have purchased the kit so far! We appreciate you! For those who haven't decided on a kit to use for their 2021 album, we hope you will consider Project 12/52 and use the cards below to help you get started!
Click the image below to download!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!
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