Guilt-Free Resolutions

Happy New Year! I can’t believe 2008 is gone. It’s been a year of major changes for me, and I’m glad to put it behind me. I always love the feeling a new year brings. I like having a fresh start and the chance to look back on the previous year and make goals for the new one.

I have a whole list of resolutions, most of them not related to scrapbooking. My scrapbooking goal for the year is to learn more about digital scrapbooking so that I can start doing more of it myself, as well as be able to share more tips and techniques with all of you.

Scrapbooking may not be a high enough priority in your life to even make it on your resolution list. And you know what? That is perfectly okay with me. I’ve done my share of making resolutions that are sure to do nothing but make me feel like a failure and pile on the guilt. I’ve decided I don’t need that. Believe me, I’m good enough at the guilt thing, I don’t need to make goals to achieve it.

This year, as you make resolutions, scrapbooking or otherwise, be sure to pick ones that are realistic for you, your timeframe, and your current situation in life. Scrapbooking is somewhat of a paradoxical situation. When you have a young family, you take lots of pictures and want to scrapbook them, but don’t have the time. I’ve spent a lot of time feeling guilty for not being able to keep up on my children’s scrapbooks. I’ve finally decided, It’s okay. If I don’t have the time, there’s no purpose achieved by constantly feeling guilty about it. Once I came to grips with that, I decided the best I could do for now was to keep the pictures that I take organized so that when we are searching for a picture, it’s easy to find, and then when I do have more time to spend scrapbooking, the pictures will be sorted and labeled.

So with that said, here are a few ideas for scrapbooking resolutions. Many of them are designed to produce less guilt about not being able to do more. And some are just fun ideas I ran across that I’d like to incorporate when I have the time:

• Worry less about scrapbooking. The pictures aren’t going anywhere.
• Spend time journaling. The details will then be available when you have time to scrapbook.
• Start a Blog. Blogging is a great way to record the simple details of life that make it so interesting.
• Use up the supplies you have. Don’t purchase more supplies just to store them on the shelf.
• If you have products you know you won’t use, sell them. Ebay is a great place for this.
• When making cards, make two instead of one. It only takes a little more time and will save you time when you need a card in the future. Or you can use the extra cards to give away in a set as a gift.
• When making your own layouts, make an extra one to have “Just add pictures” scrapbooking pages you can give as gifts.
• Complete one layout per week.
• Hold a monthly scrapbooking party with friends.
• Learn one new digital technique every month.
• Attend one scrapbooking weekend retreat this year.
• Submit a layout to a scrapbooking magazine.

I wish you a very happy New Year and I hope this year will be a great one. I look forward to sharing ideas with you and learning right along with you as we discover together the amazing world of scrapbooking. If there are ever any topics you’d like me to cover, please leave me a comment.

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