A couple of layouts, 2015 scrappy goals and just a little rambling LOL

Well hello there and happy Wednesday!!!  Finally, you say?  Of course, you would be right LOL... so happy happy New Year as well.  May I take a minute to wish you and yours a fantastic 2015 filled with health, happiness, fun, giggles and lots of scrappy time, or reading time, or gardening time ... or whatever floats your boat!!!

As many of you already know, I have a grueling work schedule from mid-December to mid-January - Christmas and New Year's is our busiest time of the year.  So no posting.  But I did quite a bit of scrapbooking anyway - often in 15 or 20 minute increments when I got home, or just before bed.  It is my sanity-saver and I also make a lot of Christmas presents.  I won't go back and post any of those layouts since I pretty much put them up on our various Facebook pages so you have probably seen them.  I was also honoured to be asked to be the Scraptastic member spotlight for December (see their blog on the 31st of December).

The main point to today's blog post is to set out my scrappy goals for 2015, explain them a little, challenge myself (and you if you so choose LOL) to stretch my creative limits a bit, to think outside the box and generally to have lots of fun this year in my scrap room (I know, I know some people are under the impression that it's my dining room - go figure!!!).

But, just before I get to that main point, here are a couple of my most recent layouts :

On to the goals :

The numbers :  I want to make 150 layouts this year, which translates to a little over 12 per month.  But, since I mentioned that I wanted to stretch my creative limits a little this year, they won't all be 12 X 12.  Within that 150, I want to make:

• At least 12 pocketed page 12 X 12 layouts as inserts into my normal 12 X 12 album.  I am not ready to jump on the "Project Life" bandwagon just yet, and frankly I don't think I have enough going on in my life to warrant it LOL, but I do want to get at least one spread a month done to document some of the everyday, but in particular what I read, the tennis I watch, the netflix movies or series I watch... None of these warrant 12X12 pages but I want them documented.
• I also want to try my hand at some 8½ X 11 pages, at least one a month.  Rory Vaillancourt, one of the Scraptastic DT members (kateroar on YouTube) scraps mainly in that format; her layouts, and videos, are awesome and inspiring. 

I also want to make 50 cards; my card stash is dwindling.  And, what better way to clean up the scraps after creating a page LOL

The product:  As you know, I joined Scraptastic last May and I love, love, love it!!!  I tried many ways of using the kit for the first few months and bought sometimes only a main, sometimes a main with a few extra bits, sometimes a main plus the add-on.  I sometimes added from my stash, other times not.  In late summer, I found the formula that worked for me (I did blog about it  here :   http://lifescrapsbymoira.blogspot.ca/2014/08/did-i-kill-june-scraptastic-kit-and.html ).  My strategy for this year is :

• I will buy a main kit plus an add-on every month, with the occasional additional flair, wood veneer, or the new acrylics.  I will also prepare a small add-on from my stash and then I will scrap away.  That brings me to 

My budget:  Yes, I do have to talk about it LOL !!!  My challenge to myself for the entire year is to not buy anything other than what I mentioned above. I have a stash the size of a small store and need to use it.  The exception of course will be basic tools, like adhesives, trimmer blades etc... and I will treat myself to  a birthday haul in October.

The combination Scraptastic kit, add-on and my stash is a winning one for me.  The other thing I love about getting a kit is that I do get my "new product fix"!  I am not as tempted to watch haul videos, new collection videos etc... because I know I will get lots of the great new goodies out there.  I will also get some really fun exclusives.

The kit is nicely coordinated so pulling product is so much easier.  The end result is that I have never scrapped as much as I do with the kit subscriptions.

Another big factor in my increased productivity and fun is:

My inspiration:  I am quite active on a couple of awesome, awesome, awesome (did I say awesome) facebook groups; mainly:

• nicolejones911
• victoria marie facebook group
• scraptastic member forum

These groups are amazing, full of talented, creative and fun scrapbookers sharing their layouts, their inspiration, their techniques, tips & tricks.  We encourage each other, we challenge each other, we have an amazingly fun time!!!

I am also an avid process video watcher and that community is the best as well.  It has grown leaps and bounds this year and there are so many talented scrappers showing us beautiful pages (I really wanted to post a top ten of that for you here, but when I reached top 30 and realised the list was not done; I decided against it LOL).  So hop on over to the FB groups and you will find that most You Tubers let us know on the group when they have posted a video.  There are new ones every day !!!

And finally, I want to increase my participation in challenges this year.  So my goals for that are :

• Do the nicolejones911 challenge every month
• Do at least one of the Victora Marie FB group challenges every week (if I can do both, yay me)
• do as many of the challenges run by my friends Ronisuescrapper, Megan and Jennifer as I can (at least two a month)
• participate in as many of the challenges as I can  issued by my favourite You Tubers
• Do the sketch challenge and the Pinterest challenge posted on the Scraptastic blog, as a minimum from their blog.

So there you have it - my 2015 Scrappy plan!!!  I did not make the goal of short blog posts because that, of course, would be a monumental fail.  Like always, thanks so much for sticking with me.  I hope to post every Thursday this year and one day on the weekend about twice a month (so six blog posts per month is the goal!!! :) :)

Have a wonderful scrappy week!!!  Check out the FB groups mentioned above, go have fun on You Tube ... join us!!!