Pass the Page Kit Please - A Thanksgiving Tribute

2014 is quickly coming to a close.  It has been one of those years that I don't think I will miss when it is over.  There certainly have been some memorable events that took place, but between the craziness of work and family life, the focus seems to have been more about just getting things done. 

I am thankful that in years past I have always had time for my creative outlets - cooking, writing, photography and scrapbooking - but this year, my time was filled with other things.  One might say that I'm imagining it and that I still took as many photos as years past, or I spent plenty of time piecing together pages for the girls albums.  But I'm here today to tell you that's just not the case.

At the beginning of the month, I sat down at my kitchen table, the first time in a year, to start working on page kits that I purchased about a year ago.  My intent when the kits arrived was to do a page a week.  As you can guess, that didn't happen.

Halloween 2013

It was at that moment I realized that I wasn't making time for myself anymore.  I was so focused on work and my family that I briefly (or not so briefly) forgot that I needed to make time for myself.  I openly pledged on Facebook, that I was going to try and complete one album, a 2013 album of the girls, before the years end.  Now, for some of you that might not seem like a big deal, but for me it is a huge undertaking. 

 

In order to accomplish this task, I hate to say it, I'm not relying purely on my own creativity.  I have given into the time saving, lovely page kits that I have found on the internet and been able to order.  I am thankful that these kits exist, because without them, I don't think I would even have a chance to accomplish my goal for the year. 

 

To make the pages my own, of course I add pictures of my beautiful girls, age with inks, write personal notes and embellish with buttons and ribbons if the mood strikes me. I am thankful I have my beautiful family to photograph and I am still able to find time an hour or two a week to put these kits together.  But on some level it makes me sad that I just don't have the time to play with the paper combinations and make the pages work myself. 

 

The good new is that I'm well on my way to finishing a 2013 Sisters Album.   I have about six months covered and I have six more to go with five weekends left in the year.  

 

Sisters 2013

My goal is clearly set.  I will achieve it.  I'm looking forward to the new year, when I can carve out some me time and hopefully get some much needed time away for a scrapbooking weekend so that I can return to the paper crafting activity I love so much.

 

PS - I am thankful for my followers...for those of you still following.

 

 

 

Books - Through the Eyes of a Child

I came home from one of my work trips to find my four year old had made me a book.

A Valentine's Day book for Mommy - by A. Myers 

I didn't really take a look at it until the next morning when I saw her working on another one.  Sitting at her art table, she was very carefully folding her construction paper in half, putting a straight line of Elmer's glue down the crease in the paper she just folded and then placing another piece of paper on top of it and repeating with the glue and another layer of paper.

A Sunday art project for Mommy - by A. Myers

While she was doing this, I was sitting in the kitchen with her trying to get caught up on a few emails.  Here she was working in the world of paper, and I was in the e-world.  Now of course this story would be better if I was saying that I was reading an e-book, but then, that would have been too perfect a fit for this blog.  But my point is, that even in this day and age where kids have access to so many electronic devises, including e-books and e-readers - which my daughter has - many of them still like paper.

From the very beginning with her, my husband and I made sure to expose her to the world of books.  We tried to keep her exposure to electronic devises to a minimum in the first year or two of her life so she would develop an age appropriate appreciation for books, which she has.  While she enjoys listening and following along to her books on my Nook and her Leap Pad, she still wants us to read a book to her every night before bed and likes "reading" her baby books to her baby sister in the morning.

But what I find most fascinating is her desire to create books.  Of course these two were for me, but she has created others.  One of them is a letter book where she practices her letters.  Another is her Hanukkah book - a place for her to put her Hanukkah wish list  and the other I'm not sure about, but it is definitely one of her creations.

Hanukkah wish list

She has alway been a creative soul, crafting with paint, beads, clay, paper, rainbow loom, and pretty much anything that you could find in a craft store.  But this paper craft is different than the others.  Not only is she taking the time to make the book, she is then going back and defining it, giving it purpose. While it is not always words on a page, it is her...her raw emotions, thoughts, creativity...right there in multicolor for all to see.  She has titles for her books and I document them so that both she and I can remember them after the years pass by.

I will encourage her to continue with her book making and hopefully over time, she will seek other ways to enhance her books, either through a different method of binding, starting to write stories in them or even using them as her own personal journals.

For now, they will be her simply created paper and glue bound books for her to paint, sticker and practice in.  And I will cherish them as they mark her creative milestones.

1 2 3 Paper books:

1 tube of glue
2 lines of glue
3 pieces of construction paper folded in half

Take the first piece of folded construction paper and put a line of glue in the fold.  Next take the second piece of folded paper, line up the folds and place the piece on top.  Then put a line of glue in the fold of the second piece of paper, line the fold of the third up on top of the second and place it down.  Apply a little pressure so the papers stick, but not to much that the glue pushes out onto the pages.  Allow to dry and then decorate.

Great craft for a 4+ year old.