Introducing My 2021 Story Mini Album

Hi everyone – thanks for visiting my blog – I am so grateful you’re here!

I admire so many amazing creators in our paper crafting industry, including Stacy Julian who used to be a Close to My Heart consultant, and who created Close to My Heart’s Story by Stacy line. I’ve had the incredible pleasure of hearing Stacy speak and of meeting her on a few occasions – she is amazing! As Stacy’s website says, she adores stories. I can relate! I have been journaling and scrapbooking for a very long time – I used to scrapbook in the magnetic albums with puffy smelly stickers – who remembers those? 🙂 I now journal daily in my Erin Condren planner/journal but don’t actually put journaling (other than date, place, peoples names) on my pretty and elaborate scrapbook pages. Why, you might ask? I have to admit that I got wrapped up in pretty pages and not the stories.

I’m changing that this year. Like many of you, 2020 was a challenging year with many ups and downs. It reiterated to me that life is too short. Too short to play life safe, too short to be complacent, too short not to share our stories and focus on what is truly important. To me, that includes my family, faith, health, profession, and CTMH business. I was able to take some breaths over the holiday season and was reminded, as my hubby, two daughters and I were looking at old photos and reminiscing about those stories, that the stories are just as, if not more, important than the pretty scrapbook papers and dozens of photos. Yes, pretty scrapbook papers and photos are fantastic but the stories make it come ALIVE!

When I saw Close to My Heart’s brand new Months of the Year stamp series in the January-February catalogue I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to create a monthly My 2021 Story Mini Album using one of our 8 1/2 x 11 albums.

I invite you to join along with me in creating this album throughout the year. I will be posting a new double page layout on the 5th of each month featuring that Month of the Year stamp set (so please come back again tomorrow). The idea is to document your year simply and beautifully with no pressure or guilt – this mini album is about you, for you. What do you think? Are you in? I know I usually feel guilty about not taking photos for holidays such as New Years (yup, I only took a picture of the sunrise this year – as shown above) and other special days but I’ve decided to change my mindset. I don’t need piles of photos of people or come to think of it, any photos, to document special moments and memories – I can document it with my words – whether using my handwriting or using a computer font. I am passionate about sharing the deeper story – yes, it takes effort sometimes – and documenting your story – your unique story. You are special, you are unique, your perspective matters – I invite you to join me this year to create your own My 2021 Story mini album. I’m excited to be on this creative journey with you in 2021!