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Happy New Year 2024

Good Monday morning my friends! A new day, a new week & a new year all rolled into one today.

Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! I don’t know about you, but I am ready for a new beginning. We have been super busy around here the last couple of months.

We started a remodel on our master bath, we have been house hunting, trying to finish some other home improvement projects and wrap up going through all the stuff we brought in from Scott’s mother’s house.

I have also been working on a new opportunity for my handmade cards. I answered an ad for arts & crafts vendors recently and was asked to be part of a new retail store dedicated to independent vendors selling handmade goods.

I am so excited to announce the grand opening of Shoppe Caddo will be this weekend and I will have a space selling cards, gift tags and bookmarks. I plan on expanding the selection to other papercrafts and small gift items as well.

Right now, my plan is to get everything stocked and ready to go in the store and then I can get back to the website and catching up on my social media channels, too.

I still have SO many ideas to share with you about saving, organizing and enjoying your photos & memories. I am still a Creative Memories Advisor & there are a lot of new ideas and products coming out soon.

I will share my new Word of the Year with you soon, why I chose it and my new planner vision board to keep it front & center in 2024.

If you want to stay up to date on all of the news, please be sure to sign up for my newsletter, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or join my VIP Facebook Group.

Thank you for your support this past year. I hope to continue to inspire and encourage you to enjoy your memories and tell your stories!

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year 2024!

Machelle

March 26, 2023

4 Year Anniversary

Photo Organization Categories Example

Happy Anniversary!

Wow! I can’t believe it’s the 4 year anniversary of Small Town Scrap.

When I first started this blog in March, 2019, it was just as a hobby. I wanted to connect with other crafters and people who love their photos as much as I do.

While I do talk a LOT in person, writing has never really been my strong suit, so I am surprised I have been posting for so long.

There have been several changes to the blog colors and logo, but the message is still the same.

I want to provide inspiration, encouragement and direction to preserve, organize, share & enjoy your memories through photographs.

Over the last 4 years, I have also made a few handouts and freebies that I wanted to gather in one place for you.

The first one I made was a handout titled 5 Mistakes to Avoid Making with Your Pictures. This is directly related to saving, organizing and sharing your photos.

Then there is an organizational handout to help you decide what categories might be helpful so you can find the photos you want when you need them.

There is a previous blog post about that from July, 2021. Click the links below to download each handout:

Photo Organization Categories

Once you have all your pictures saved and organized then it’s time to share & enjoy them.

Don’t forget to tell the stories behind the pictures! This blog post from March, 2022, gives you some story starter ideas to help get you going.

I also made a handout with 3 more Story Starters as a freebie for subscribing to the blog. Click the image to sign up!

There are some seasonal wallpapers just for fun that you can download for your phone. Click this image to download those.

Since an anniversary is a time to reflect on how far we’ve come, I would like to know what you have enjoyed and what you would like more of.

Please leave a comment with your feedback on what topics you would like me to cover or any questions you might have.

My intent is to keep inspiring you to tell your story. I will continue to post here and on my social media channels, so be sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest.

You can also sign up for my VIP Facebook group. I am working on a National Scrapbook Day online crop that will be held inside the group.

It will include sketches, challenges and a review of some of my must-have scrapbooking tools.

I hope to add a gallery to the website with examples of cards, projects and page layouts as well. Stay tuned for that.

I am here to help you – save, organize, share & enjoy your photos in the way that works for YOU!

Thank you again for visiting and celebrating the 4 year Anniversary of Small Town Scrap with me.

Come back soon!

Machelle

January 5, 2023

Word of the Year 2023

Welcome to a new year, which for me means a new planner & a Word of the Year 2023. I always enjoy reflecting on the past year and updating my goals for a new beginning.

I have been choosing a Word of the Year for several years; sometimes it comes easily and sometimes it takes a while to decide on one that feels right. You can read about the previous two years here: 2021 and 2022.

There is a class taught by Ali Edwards every year called “One Little Word” if you are interested in diving deeper into ways to use and live with your word each month.

This year it took me quite a while and a long list of words to settle on my Word of the Year 2023: Value.

I am excited about this one because I can already see that it will be very versatile and can be taken in different directions.

First, the Definition:

Noun: the importance, worth or usefulness of something; a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgement of what is important in life.

Verb: consider to be important or beneficial.

Now let’s consider how that can translate to our goals and everyday life. How we divide our time is one of the most important decisions and for me, one of the hardest.

I love setting up my planner & writing down my goals, but then comes the hard part – deciding which of those will make the top 3 or top 5 or how many you decide on for the year.

I love to make the goals and feel they are worthy and important but then I tend to let everyday life get in the way of actually executing them.

I am hoping this Word of the Year 2023 will have an impact on what I choose to focus on every day.

Inspiration:

I also love to set up my planner with a Vision Board including my word to refer back to when life gets hectic or busy. I can look at my inspiration page and remember the things that hold the most Value.

I also love to find a quote each month to write in my planner to keep me motivated and engaged with the different ways to use my word. The quotes always give me a new perspective.

In my #wordsonwednesday series on Instagram I will be sharing my quote each month. Here is the one for January:

This year I want to Value:

My health – I have had several years of random health issues that I feel are finally under control and manageable. I want to continue to improve and value my progress.

My self – I tend to put other’s wants and needs above my own, so I want to focus on some “me” time this year. Not being so hard on myself when I make mistakes & also pampering myself a little more. Putting myself first sometimes.

My space – I want my home to be cozy and peaceful. For me, that means decluttered and there are several projects we need to finish. Some painting and rearranging; adding storage options, etc.

My personal time – I also need to prioritize my time off work. I need to schedule fun outings with my husband and time for hobbies and crafts on the calendar & stick to them. So much of our weekend just slips away doing chores and more work. This is a BIG one!

My website/crafts/side business – Again, this is something that gets put last a lot of the time. I need to make sure time is fixed into my planner & make this a priority as well.

The Plan:

So my plan for the Word of the Year 2023 is to use my daily/goal planner more; block out time in my schedule and stick to it and be more gentle with myself.

Do you choose a Word of the Year? If so, please leave me a comment and let me know your word & why you chose it. I would love to hear other’s thoughts and ideas.

Also, if one of your goals this year is to focus on your photos, please let me know. I would love to help you save, organize, share & enjoy your pictures! You can leave a comment or send me a message on our contact us page.

Talk again soon,

Machelle

Blog News Scrapbooking

October 29, 2022

Simplified Version

Hello friends! Welcome to the new simplified, softer version of Small Town Scrap.

When I started the blog I wanted a country, rustic feel that would remind you of sitting on the porch for a visit. I was thinking of country blue & cranberry red but I realized that everything just mostly looked red, white & blue.

While there is nothing wrong with that at all, I really wanted a softer look and more muted colors. My blog is actually hosted on a family domain by one of Scott’s brothers who is very techy, so a while back he decided to switch the hosting company. This meant that the blog needed to be switched, too.

When I found out, I decided that would be a good time to do a complete refresh and update to the logo, colors & font.

So I am here to apologize for being away SO long. Everything always takes way longer than you ever anticipate.

However, I am really happy with the new look. Please leave me a comment or send me a message & let me know what you think.

Most of the website stayed the same but there are a couple of changes I want you to know about.

Please check out my new Products and Services page – I am no longer a Forever Ambassador but do still love & use all their services. I am still an Independent Advisor for Creative Memories and my plan is to start showcasing more of their products in my posts.

I have started an Etsy shop for cards and small gift type items. Coming soon I will also add a gallery & handmade crafts that can be customized to order.

Please know that my mission statement is the same & my goal will always be to help you save, organize, share & enjoy your photos! I want to encourage & inspire you to document your family in the way that works best for you.

I have also simplified some of my scrapbooking processes and let go of the “should do’s” when it comes to telling our family history as well. I will talk about that soon.

There will also be some just general crafts and ideas as I love to do all types of paper crafts, card making & cricut type projects.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope to be around more often & as always if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know in the comments or send me a message. I would love to hear from you!

Until next time,

Machelle

April 5, 2022

Scrapbook Overhaul Part 2

My Scrapbook Overhaul Update

It certainly took longer than I expected to get back to the project of re-doing my scrapbook albums so I wanted to update you on my scrapbook overhaul. You can read why I decided to change album sizes from 12×12 to 8×8 in this post. I started out with 15 very large, very heavy 12×12 traditional albums that had a lot of pages of extended family. There were many pages of school activities, sports, graduations, weddings, etc. The majority of these were pictures that my husband & I took, but I wanted the individuals they were about to have them to enjoy.

Since a lot of these albums were in chronological order, the pages had to be taken out (and in some cases, taken apart) and re-grouped into families. Some also had multiple family members together on one page. So for several weeks my scrapbook table looked like this:

This was certainly an extreme scrapbook overhaul and it took me about 3 months to sort through all the pictures and pages. Most of the time this level of upheaval is not necessary, though. I only did this so I could gift organized, complete albums to family members. For me, the time and effort were worth it. My family loved their albums and I know they will enjoy them for years to come. I was also glad I didn’t have to move them again!

Completed 12x12 Creative Memories Scrapbook albums; from my Scrapbook Overhaul blog post on Small Town Scrap

I did not get rid of ALL the 12×12 pages, as some of them were about my husband & I or our pets, trips, etc. So the next step in my scrapbook overhaul is to decide which pages I want to keep and/or are my favorites and make a 12×12 “pages I love” album. The rest I will decide if they need to be redone into 8×8 pages or maybe I am ready to let them go completely.

I am also still working on making a couple of digital albums from my Heritage photos and Family Tree style pages. Since I have not done much digital scrapbooking, this is also taking longer than expected. I will update on this in a later post.

Is a Scrapbook Overhaul for You?

If you have decided that you would like to make a change in your storytelling and do not want or need to downsize the amount of pictures or albums that you already have, just start from where you are now. Leave everything you have done intact. Then think about what is frustrating you – is it the size, or maybe you want to tell more stories? Maybe, like me, you like more project based albums. See if you can pinpoint the issue(s) with your current system and then look for alternatives. Some of those could be mini-albums, traveler’s notebooks, a different size or style (pocket-pages or even digital).

It might also be a different approach to your starting point. For example, maybe you prefer doing more event based pages; start with a story in mind instead of the pictures; start with a quote or a product with some word art. If you have a story, look for pictures related to the person, place or thing even if it is not at the same time. If you do not have a picture, look on the internet to see if you can find something that represents your subject. This works well with “currently” type pages: like what are you reading or watching.

For additional ideas about starting points, look at my previous post “3 Story Starter Ideas” and also download the handout. Don’t forget you can keep up with new ideas and inspiration in the Facebook Group or check in here again soon!

Thanks for visiting,

Machelle

March 2, 2022

2022 One Little Word Update

While I am not “officially” taking the 2022 One Little Word class that Ali Edwards teaches, I am keeping up with my word in my planner. I use the Living Well Spending Less planner & there are sections in the front for yearly goals as well as sections at the beginning of each month to break those down.

I made a mood board for the year with my word “Accomplish” and love to refer back to it for inspiration. You can also read my original post about my 2022 One Little Word and why I chose it.

Mood Board for my 2022 One Little Word, Accomplish - Small Town Scrap

I wanted to have a main quote as well as monthly quotes for my word. I feel like the main one pretty much encompasses every situation: “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” I know a lot of the time we talk ourselves out of even trying because we have already decided “insert your project” won’t work. You never know until you try!

In addition to my 2022 One Little Word, I also recently won a membership to the Simple Scrapper community. There are so many resources and discussions to help you make your scrapbooking a priority, but she also has a book club that relates to each of the Journey topics that run throughout the year.

During the last two months, we were reading “Soundtracks” by Jon Acuff. It is a book geared to help you stop overthinking by using positive phrases to replace the negative ones.

This has paired perfectly with the monthly quotes I am using to keep my OLW front & center. My January quote was, “Starting is easy ~ finishing is hard.” (Jason Calacanis) So my new soundtracks for that are: “Start from where you are” & “One bite at a time”.

“Start from where you are” is a great one if you tend to get overwhelmed like I do. Just take a deep breath, don’t worry about the pile of papers, list of chores or whatever your current situation is. Just start from right here – one thing. Pick one thing & do that, then move on to the next. This sounds simple & is definitely not something new, but it seems really hard to do. Taking a breath, saying the phrase & focusing seems to help.

“One bite at a time” is just the next step of “Start from where you are”, do one thing at a time. Block out the voice listing the other 50 things that need to be done today – anyone else? – and just do one thing. Even if you don’t get all 50 done (spoiler alert: you won’t), at least you will have accomplished something.

I have been doing this for a couple of months now, and it is amazing how much better I feel about daily tasks. Instead of avoiding all the things, getting overwhelmed & worrying about all the stuff NOT getting done – I am focusing on what is actually getting accomplished. Then I feel good about that & it makes me get more done. A cycle of accomplishment – just from One Little Word.

Come back soon for some updates to what’s been going on in the scrapbook room.

See you soon!

Machelle

January 2, 2022

One Little Word for 2022

How many of you have heard of One Little Word or choosing a word for the year to live with, ponder or make a project around? Before I get into my One Little Word for 2022, let’s look at how well I did with last year’s word.

Looking Back

One Little Word 2021 - Create — One Little Word 2021 – Create

Looking back on my One Little Word for 2021 – Create. I really enjoyed my word last year. I liked that it was an action word as well as that it was so versatile. It could be used in so many different ways. You can read about why I choose that word in this blog post.

I did end up creating a good morning routine, we finished our remodel project and toward the end of the year I felt more creative in my hobbies. I still have work to do on the house as we are still trying to adjust to less space and therefore less storage. But we are making progress.

Looking Forward

Which leads me to my One Little Word for 2022 – Accomplish.

I usually don’t start thinking about my new word until the last half of December. As I started trying to come up with a new word I kept thinking of all the projects (crafty & home) that were still in progress and how much I wanted to finish them. I pondered that one for a few days, looked up the definition and decided I wanted something more versatile. (Create is going to be a hard one to follow!)

So then I thought about complete. So instead of just finishing something, making it feel complete as well as completing the project itself. I liked that one better, but it still didn’t feel quite right.

I finally settled on accomplish because you can accomplish something without actually finishing it. To me, accomplish means making progress or moving forward.

The dictionary definition of Accomplish is: to bring about a result by effort; to succeed in doing something or to succeed in reaching a stage in a progression.

In addition to choosing a word each year, I use a planner that guides me in setting goals for different areas of life. Unfortunately, I am okay at setting these goals but not so good at accomplishing them. Too many days I feel like I am running around in circles and never really accomplishing anything. There are usually so many household “to do’s”, I never get around to the things that I set as my “big” goals. So I definitely need to work on accomplishing at least one small thing that makes progress toward a bigger goal. I hope to do better this year with Accomplish being my focus word.

As well as the projects that I started last year that I would like to see finished, I also have some personal and professional goals I would like to succeed at. I would like to feel like I have accomplished something worthwhile at the end of the day and made some type of progress toward those goals.

One Little Word Project

You can definitely choose a word to ponder on without actually doing a specific project; however, if you are interested in having a prompt each month or prefer to follow along with a classroom community you can go to Ali Edwards website and sign up for her One Little Word Workshop.

I would love to hear from you! Do you make resolutions, set goals or choose a word for the year? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Thank you for stopping by, be sure to check in again soon!

Machelle

Scrapbooking

October 31, 2021

Papercrafting Projects Roundup – October, 2021

Time just seems to go faster every year. I can’t believe it’s the end of October already! This was a busy month, so here is a roundup of my completed papercrafting projects.

First of all, I was selected as the Guest Designer for this month’s Counterfeit Kit Challenge. You can see the inspiration kit & my take on it by going to this blog post.

As well as making a kit, I also participated in the two challenges. The first challenge was to pick a title from their list and use it as our inspiration. I picked “Ordinary Moments”, which was actually a stretch for me as most of my scrapbook pages are about events, holidays, birthdays, etc. It just so happens I had recently printed some random everyday photos from different times to use in a gift album and they were perfect for this title.

"Ordinary Moments" double page scrapbook layout for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge #1, October, 2021

The second challenge was to see how many tags and labels we could use on our project. I managed to get 4 on an 8×8 scrapbook page.

8x8 scrapbook layout for Counterfeit Kit's 2nd Challenge, October, 2021. Part of my Papercrafting projects roundup post.

I always enjoy seeing the new inspiration kits & how everyone interprets them. There are so many options for a starting point; color, theme or one particular paper or embellishment.

I also hosted a Creative Memories Croptoberfest this month in my Facebook VIP Group. I started with a Scrapbook Bingo Card and posted a new challenge every hour. Below are my papercrafting projects for each of the challenges.

Scrapbook Bingo Card for Croptoberfest; Papercrafting Projects roundup post

The first challenge was to make a kit for either a page layout or cardmaking. I decided to go with a card kit. Here is the kit along with the card I made with it.

Thinking of You Card made with a card kit for Croptoberfest 2021. Layered patterned paper and cardstock with a doily, enamel dots and stamped sentiment.

I always think of a kit as just a starting point. As I am in the process of creating, sometimes I think of other things in my stash that would go perfectly with the current project or I realize that something in the kit is just not working and I need to swap it out with something similar.

That happened with this card, I just knew that the brown ink would look great with the brown accents of the patterned paper but it wasn’t stamping properly with my sentiment stamp, so I had to change it out for my black ink pad. Problem solved!

I also had some sketch challenges – a one-page layout, two-page layout & card sketches. For these sketches I stayed pretty true to the originals but again, most of the time I use these as a starting point and the end result doesn’t look much like the original.

There were also some organizing and sharing challenges but these were all the papercrafting projects for my event.

I have felt more productive creatively lately and hope to have more projects and inspiration to share soon. I have also been working on changing out my albums and gifting some of the pages I have made over the years to the family members they are about.

Come back soon to see more of that process. Thanks for stopping by!

Machelle

January 2, 2021

8 comments

Word of the Year 2021

One Little Word 2021 - Create

My Word of the Year 2021

How many of you choose a word for the year? I have been doing this for 7 or 8 years after learning about it through Ali Edwards blog. I have only taken the class once but love having a word to focus on through the year. For me it’s a general concept, not a specific goal or resolution that can be broken or not obtained. It’s just to think about and keep in mind what you want your next year to look like. If you want to document your word, you could make a scrapbook or use a journal. I am going to use my planner. There is a spot in the front for a vision board & I intend to use my word as the focal point of the page.

My word of the year for 2021 is Create. According to Merriam-Webster it means: to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior; or to produce (something new, such as a work of art) by using your talents and imagination. Having recently moved & in the middle of a remodeling project this really speaks to me right now.

First I need to create new routines. This would be to bring about by action or behavior. We downsized when we moved, my husband changed jobs & I am now working from home. As I’m sure a lot of you know, working from home especially requires a routine! Is this something that you have struggled with recently? The mornings are a whirlwind of feeding pets while trying to get myself ready for the day. Everything I do is through email (no conference calls) so I have decided make-up is not a necessity these days. What have you changed that has helped you with your routine or what still needs some work?

I am creating an organized, cozy new home. One of the first things that needed to be organized was turning our front bedroom into an office/scrapbooking room. It is a small room but has a nice sized closet so we will be adding shelving in there to hold home files, office supplies and some of my papercrafting supplies that I don’t use as much. One side of the room will be for my work desk and the other for our home computer and crafting area. We also downsized our living room furniture and have a nice open concept living/dining/kitchen. Painting and some new wall art are on the list of things we want to do in this area.

I also want to create using my (limited) talents and imagination. I have not been crafting on a regular basis this past year and am looking forward to starting several projects that I’ve had on my mind for a while now. In addition to working on my ongoing scrapbook categories and cards, I want to make a special First Year book for a family member’s son and a custom photobook of my ancestors. How many of you can relate to having too many ideas and not enough time?

I also want to create a feeling of community here on the blog. I want everyone to feel welcome, like neighbors who stop by for an afternoon chat. Any questions or suggestions are welcome.

All of these will help me create a happy life. Having routines and organization make me feel more productive and a cozy home makes me calm & relaxed. My creative hobbies energize me and giving homemade cards and gifts to family and friends makes me happy.

I would love to know what your word is & why you chose it. Leave me a comment or send an email and let’s talk!

Thank you for stopping by!

Machelle