Just Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenge: Quotables!

Welcome back to another monthly Just Two Midwest Girls scrap challenge!  Before we dive into April's challenge, let's announce the winner for March!  March was all about getting sketchy.  And the winner is Heather Adams! Go check out Heather's project on her blog.  Heather, please email me your mailing address at heather.sweet12@gmail.com so I can get your lovely prizes into your craft room!  And, just a little reminder, this was the prize up for grabs:

Okay, now to get on to this month's challenge.  For my birthday, Kelly sent me a mixed media spiral notebook, clear gesso, and a mini mister...because she is sweet, thoughtful, and awesome!  

When Kelly and I first met as pen pals, we wrote about how we both wanted to start art journaling.  Well, a year later, Kelly put our creative dreams into action!  When she sent me this lovely birthday package, she had a note in there that said something about just diving right in.  I thought our challenge this month would be the perfect starting point to my art journal:  creating with an inspirational quote.

My first ever art journal page!  I can't even begin to tell you guys how much fun I had when creating this page.  It really is freeing to just get messy.  Besides the perfectionist side of me freaking out about art journaling, another aspect I will have a difficult time with is not using dimensional elements as much.  But, I can use layers, lots and lots of layers!

I thought this quote, from Mary Oliver, would be a great way to start my art journaling journey.  If you can't tell, I'm also trying to dabble with calligraphy, but I need to practice and get better with my flourishes.  

So, this month's challenge is to use any quote as an inspiration to your creativity.  Create anything!  It doesn't have to be an art journal page.  It could be a layout, a card, canvas art, anything!  Kelly and I want to see what quotes are inspiring you creatively!

How to Play Along

1. Create a new project inspired by a quote you love.
2. Link your project to my comments section on this post OR Kelly's comments section on her post OR onto our facebook page, which can be found in my side bar.
3. Link up your project by 8 PM CST Thursday, May 1st for a chance to win this month's prize.

April's Prize

A Teresa Collins Memorabilia Collection Kit is up for grabs!

Coming Soon

Kelly and I will be creating a Just Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenge blog!  We were thinking that hosting a challenge on two blogs may be confusing and a barrier to participation, so we thought creating a scrap challenge blog would be a great solution.  We will be working on the new blog this month and will launch it with our May challenge. 

What this Means  All of the Just Two Midwest Girls scrap challenges will be hosted on the new blog.  You can still read about our projects on our respective blogs, but anything having to do with Just Two Midwest Girls will be linked back to that blog.  We will still have our facebook page.  When playing along with us, you can link your project to just one blog, without having to scroll through blog posts to find the scrap challenge post.

Okay, now hop on over to Kelly's blog to see how she was quotably inspired!  And don't forget to play along!  You just may win (insert prize)!

xoxo,

Heather

Hello 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  My goodness, I cannot believe how quickly 2013 came and went.  It was definitely a year of challenges, realizations, growing, learning, and happy, happy memories.  I feel like I've become more mindful of myself and how I portray myself to others.  I've become more grateful for my life as it is, but still not forgetting about my dream for the future.  I've been better at being present in the moment.  I've been so much better about communicating with my husband. (Boy, that was something very different for me after I got married.  My husband and I had been together for 3 years when we got married, but 2 of those years I was living in another state getting my Master's degree.  It was difficult for me to open up and talk to him about stuff I used to take care of myself since I'm pretty independent.)  And that will always be an ongoing thing in my life and it's extremely rewarding to have someone like him by my side.  

Some things I want to work on/achieve in 2014:
-making my Etsy shop into a small business/part-time work
-running a 5K
-getting back into yoga regularly
-joining a gym (not to lose weight, but to get in shape and be healthy)
-planning and making more meals
-saving more money
-using my mint.com account (I signed up a few years ago and used it for 6 months or something until I went to graduate school, then I completely stopped.)
-being more thoughtful about my purchases, especially when it comes to papercrafting
-sending out more cards
-visiting my friends
-journaling more
-cleaning out our basement, painting the floor and resealing/painting the walls (it's unfinished)
-painting the living room
-learning calligraphy (I have been loving this trend of modern calligraphy.  Definitely want to jump on the bandwagon.)

I lot of these goals are more of a lifestyle change and will take me awhile to get accustomed to and make a part of my daily life.  Some stuff can just be crossed off a list after it's completed.  I just need to remember that change takes time and work.  I'm not going to succeed overnight.  It may take weeks, even months.  But I need to actively work towards making these goals a part of me and who I am.  There's no better time than the present.  Plus, we don't have kids yet, so I want to make a habit of things so they don't go on the wayside when little ones do come in the picture.  

And here are just some words of wisdom to get you pumped up for 2014:

Here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous new year to you and yours.  Let's make 2014 a kick ass year!

xoxo,
Heather