One Little Word | Finishing off 2015 & New Word for 2016

I'm taking time out of my Saturday to share this post I'd planned on sharing yesterday, but of course things got a little out of hand. Happy New Year to all of you, today I'd like to share a little bit more about my 2015 word DO, and share my word for 2016. For more information on One Little Word, or to sign up for the workshop, you can visit Ali Edwards' website (here).

2015 was my first time taking this class, and while I have enough content from this year that could help me get through this next year, I need the push from the monthly prompts to actually follow through. The excitement of knowing there was a new prompt every month to work on was possibly the only thing that kept me on track with my word every month. I may not have completed the prompt during that particular month, but it was always at the back of my mind while I went through the month, and even when completing it in the next month, I felt that I had a better understanding of the prompt and what I wanted to do for each prompt.

I didn't keep up with the monthly reviews and actually pulled out the ones that I had in my album from this year. It's not that I didn't want to look back at the month, but it wasn't something that I felt I needed to keep up with. Or perhaps my format for documenting my thoughts/feelings each month wasn't the best for me. This year instead I've decided to keep a notebook nearby to write my thoughts/feelings down throughout the month. I won't limit myself to doing it once a month, but I also won't force myself to write every day. I just hope that having somewhere to get all that out and see the change throughout the year will be good for me. I can tell I'm not the same person I was at the start of 2015, but I have nothing to reflect back on and see how far I've come.

In 2015 I started doing more writing. It wasn't on any of my goal lists, or intentions, but it's something that just sort of happened. I used to write all the time in school and it's been amazing to get back to that. While I didn't complete all the things that I wrote down I wanted to do this year, I did take a few small steps towards being where I want at this point. I did a few things that scared me a little (or a lot) like applying for the Kellie Stamps team (and making it onto the team) and applying for one other team, but being turned down (which is okay too). This next year is going to be full of amazing things, and I'm hoping that my word (which found me back in October) will help me out this year.

Here's the last few pages of my One Little Word album for 2015;

This year, I've decided that I'm going to follow Ali into the 6x8 album. I bought all the new supplies she listed in the shop for One Little Word (grey album, month dividers with stamp set, journal). I might go back to the 8.5x11 album in later years, and that's fine, but I want to try something smaller. Especially since I've been having so much fun with the 6x8 size that I used for Week in the Life and December Daily.

Alright ladies and gents. It's time to share my word for 2016. It's going to be BRAVE.

After my word chose me, I started listening to the Big Magic audio book. I fell in love with it immediately (I'm a huge Elizabeth Gilbert fan). I listened to it 5 times before I bought the physical book. When I read the book I fell in love with it all over again. Hearing the words and seeing them is a completely different experience and I loved it. I got so much out of it every time I listened to it, but I got so much more out of it when I read the words on the paper. When I realized a few pages into the book, that this was the book I'd forever come back to, I knew for certain that my word for the year was going to be BRAVE. That I needed a little more courage in my life, but brave was the word for me.

I'm so excited to take you all on this journey with me throughout 2016. If you've chosen a word for the year (through the class or just on your own) I'd love to know what it is! I'm not letting go of last years word DO, but my main focus this year is being brave. That might mean Brave Doing, but we'll see where this year takes us.

Happy New Year. Here's to another year.
-Alexandria.

One Little Word | May Prompts

Good morning! Today I'm sharing my May One Little Word prompt. This was exactly what I needed right now, and how Ali knew that when prepping this class, I have no idea. Maybe she's been doing it for long enough that I should just trust that she knows best! I loved this prompt so much. It was so much fun, and is definitely something I will do again in the future. I loved making these cards, and it's definitely something I recommend. It's fun to get a little messy and just create and not care that you're getting messy.

So here's my cards that I made. I used light molding paste, some Heidi Swapp stencils and watercolours. It was so much fun. I love the texture molding paste creates, but I hated the white on white, but I also didn't really want stark white on coloured paper. I took my stencil and my molding paste. Using an old card I spread plain white molding paste over the stencil onto each of the cards. I drug the card across the stencil leaving a thin-ish layer of molding paste on the paper. Enough to create texture, but not so much that it was really thick.
Once the molding paste dried, I took my water colours out and decided where I wanted each card to go and chose my colours. I painted the bottom left card first. For no reason, other than I just chose to do that one first. I brushed my watercolours across the molding paste and the paper, and once the whole card was covered I lightly pressed a piece of paper towel over the card to remove some of the paint. The result was an uneven colour on the molding paste and the paper. It removed most of the paint from the molding paste (which I wanted) and added to the texture, but most of the paint remained on the paper behind it. I'm so happy with my rainbow cards.

Here's my two finished pages together. I put all of my I am statements onto my cards, and printed out my full page of review. I thought about backing it with a simpler paper, but I love these two together.

I printed my I am statements onto vellum. I used the digital "I am" stamp and changed the colour to grey, then I typed out 9 I AM statements that are relevant to right now. I cut them out with 1/8" around the words (each piece is a slightly different size) and used my tiny attacher to staple them onto my cards. I thought about writing my I am statements onto the cards, but the texture would have made it hard, so I printed them on vellum so I could see all my hard work through it, but still easily read my words over the backgrounds.

Here's my review. I love the colours of the background paper. I feel like it connects the two pages, without making it too overwhelming.

Thank you for coming by to check out my One Little Word prompts. I had so much fun with this project and I look forward to trying more mixed media projects.

Have a great day! -Alexandria

One Little Word | April Prompts

Today I'm sharing my April One Little Word pages. I was reluctant to do this page, and as I stated in my review, I found myself setting my word aside for a little while and just not worrying about if I was DOING things related to my word, or this journey. I didn't think about it, I didn't stress about my word, I just did whatever and if it was relevant, so be it.

This prompt wasn't hard for me, I was just very reluctant to do it. I don't know why I procrastinated it for so long, but now that I'm done, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. I love the way it looks, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I love the photos and the labels, and I'm surprised by how visible my word became without me trying very hard to make it visible. It's wonderful to not worry about it, and look back and discover how visible your word was without you realizing it in the moment.

I love this circle paper. I love that it's kind of soft,  but not really soft. I've been enjoying adding a little something extra to my pages through patterned paper behind my monthly reviews. It's helping me use up my stash a little bit, and as a paper hoarder, I'm loving that.

Here's a closer look at me making my word visible in my life. I need to stop fighting it, and accept that it will make itself visible without me FORCING it to be visible. I love these photos.

Thank you for coming by to check out me making my word visible, and using some labels from the One Little Word mini kit (no longer available). I hope you have a wonderful day!
-Alexandria

One Little Word | March Prompts

Good morning, today I'm sharing my March Prompts for One Little Word. I'm not going to say I struggled with this prompt, but it definitely did take me a bit of time to get through it. Even now I find myself thinking I'll add more to it. It's almost addicting to create goals that you're going to work to achieve. I find that writing them down and outlining little steps to make them happen is the best way for me to achieve my goals. I can talk about doing something until the world ends, but until it's written down and I put little steps towards achieving it, it's almost impossible for me to even take a single step towards achieving a goal.

Here's the first two pages of action items. In the beginning, I had a hard time getting to 5, but then I started to really think about things I wanted to DO this year, and I made it to 10. I was happy to leave it at those 10 things, no need to overwhelm myself, but I found a few  more things I wanted to DO and so I have 15 action items. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, Ali did suggest that you don't go overboard, but by outlining all the things I want to DO, I feel like there's a better chance of me DOING most of them.

I was inspired by one of the girls in the Facebook group, to add small steps with little boxes I could check when I complete a step towards my goal. It's so rewarding to know that you're making progress, without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the goal.

The bottom one on this page "Take more risks" was a really vague goal, so I wanted to outline a few things that were 'risky' for me, or were something that I wouldn't have even thought about doing before this class. Things like "apply for two design teams", "do something that scares me", "learn something new" and a couple of suggestions. It's all about seriously deciding what you want to DO and just writing it down.

Here's the second spread. I wanted my monthly review to face the last page of the month otherwise I think I would have written down more action items.

This page was less about personal goals, and more about just things I wanted to DO for myself, or both of us, or creatively. I listed things like "get a credit card", "open an Etsy shop", "Blog" (with specific notes), "paint my house", and "landscape". These were the easiest things to make smaller actions for. There are so many little steps that were quickly outlined and won't be too hard to complete. They're exactly the simple tasks that I needed to make myself achieve more items on my list!

My Monthly review is the same as the last two months. I enjoy having all that space to write, and adding a bit of colour to my pages with some patterned paper. I think it makes it pretty. This paper is from Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan line. I love it!

Thanks for coming to check out my March One Little Word pages. It means a lot that you came to read my boring goals. I hope you have a wonderful day! Hopefully the weather is nicer wherever you are.

-Alexandria

One Little Word | February Prompts

Good morning. Today I'm sharing my February One Little Word prompt, and my monthly reviews for January and February. When I share my March prompts, my goal is to also share my monthly review with it. For my reviews, I took the PNG files and cut out the monthly reflection portion and typed out my thoughts.

With my monthly review, I don't feel that I wrote what Ali suggested, or in the way that she suggested. I just started typing, and didn't do much, if any, editing. My review to me, was a place to be open, and share whatever was coming to mind when I thought about my word and the things that did, or did not happen. 

Here's my prompt for February. I struggled with this, so much more than the January prompts. It was hard for me because essentially, I HATE collages. I hate cutting and pasting things without structure. I feel as if this prompt pushed me away from my word a little bit. Like when you force yourself to do something you REALLY don't want to do, and you're not sure if you feel better or worse in the end. In this case, I felt worse.
However, looking at it now, I'm glad that I pushed myself to do it. There's a lot of white space, and overlap, and I'm okay with that. I tore out a page from a magazine, that was a bunch of eyeshadows. I loved all the colours, and so I stuck it down first. It filled in a lot of white space. Then I stopped planning and just started sticking things down, trying not to over think it. It has a lot of things that speak to me, for various reasons, and I needed it. It hurt me to make it, but I needed this vision board because I was losing touch with my word without even realizing it.
So a huge thank you to Ali for telling us all to do it, even if we REALLY didn't want to.

Here's my February review. Since I didn't actually complete my February prompt until the start of March, my review doesn't contain much (if anything) about my hate of the vision board prompt. It also doesn't contain much about my distancing myself from my word. Those things will probably be in my March review.

Thanks for coming by to see my vision board, and my monthly reviews. I knew when I was typing them, that I was going to mount them onto some patterned paper to add a bit of visual interest to them. I hate just plain pages, and I had way more to say than would have fit onto the little cards.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

One Little Word | January Prompts

Good morning! Today I'm going to share a little glimpse into my album for my One Little Word. I need to be honest and say that I didn't fill out my prompts and put them into my album until around the middle of January. The class opened on the 1st of January, and I listened to the video, read the message board, and tried to find my word. Like I shared in my post about my word (here), I actively searched for a word that I felt was inspiring. I soon realized that DO was speaking to me, and accepted that as long as my word inspired me, that was all that mattered.

I used the One Little Word stamp from the mini kit Ali created, and a little watercolor heart that says "Do" from the Amy Tangerine Stitched ephemera pack. As soon as I saw this, I knew I had chosen the right word. It couldn't have been more perfect!

Like Ali I love having a variety of sizes in my pages. I like to be able to see beyond the first page to what comes after. I have a love of little see-through pockets as well. Words can't even describe how much I love these first few pages behind my title page.

I cut a baseball card pocket page down like Ali did, and decided I would include a few recent photos (from present, to last summer), I added in a few quotes that I found on Pinterest, and printed them to fit in the remaining pockets. I added a "GO DO" foam sticker from Freckled fawn to a piece of clear plastic and slipped it into the top centre pocket.

Here's a shot of the pages that come after. The back side of my half page, and the prompts. I used the PNG files from the class downloads and typed out the definition, quotation and reason why to fit into a 6x8 pocket page.

On the back side of my baseball pocket page, I included two more selfies, three more quotes and a little foam star sticker to cover the back of the GO DO sticker from the other side.

Here's the back side of the 6x8 page. I used the PNG files again and typed out what I wanted to let go, and invite into my life. On the right side I just printed bout the other pages at 8.5 x 11 and wrote out all the notes I'd been making over the last two weeks. As I was writing, I tried not to over think things, and just wrote the things that were coming to my head.

Here's the final page of prompts. I highlighted the quotes I added that spoke to me in this section. The right side has some additional quotes I included to help motivate me whenever I needed some extra motivation to make my word visible.

I typed out each quote and printed it on watercolour paper. Then I got out my watercolours and painted away and didn't worry about how they looked. I love every one of them. More than I thought I would.

Here's the back side. I added more painted quotes here. I just need to find something to add to the circle in the centre pocket. I feel like all these extra quotes will help keep me motivated to let my word work some amazing magic in my life.

Thank you for coming by to see the beginning of my One Little Word binder. I purchased this WRMK - Grape Soda - binder from JoAnn.com. The colour is just perfect! I'm looking forward to continuing this journey with my word. It's only been a month since I chose my word, and I can already see it making a difference in my life. I'm so glad that I set aside my fears and decided to embark on this journey!

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

One Little Word 2015

Photo from Ali Edwards

In December, I was thinking a lot about the changes I wanted to make in 2015. I shared some of those plans in my post about my Goals for 2015, but even after I posted that, I continued to think about ways to create positive change in my life in the new year. I'd heard a bit about Ali Edwards' One Little Word class, and read all her blog posts about past One Little Word's. I couldn't quite understand what it was all about, and a few ladies in the different Project Life groups mentioned it, and those who had previously taken it were offering what information they could about what the class was all about.

I decided to take the plunge and sign up despite knowing too terribly much about it. In the message boards, all the ladies were very inspiring, and helpful with any questions people had, and I learned so much. I soon realized that this was going to possibly be the best thing I'd done for myself, now all I had to do was find a word. My word.

I started to think about it, a lot. Everyone described this seemingly fairytale feeling of knowing when you've found your word. I created a list of words that encompassed the changes I wanted to see in 2015, including: more, love, faith, do, accomplish, happy, kind, and focus. I tried out each of the words, but none of them really gave me that feeling everyone had been describing. Others said that their word chose them, and when they accepted that one word spoke to them louder than the others, they got that feeling. 

When I listened, the word that was speaking to me, was DO. It wasn't very inspiring to me, and so I found myself actively looking for a word that encompassed what I wanted my word to inspire in me. While actively searching for a word, I found myself doubting that this class would be the one for me. However, I found myself browsing blogs, and Pinterest for One Little Word inspiration, and discovered that several people have used DO as their word. It was the word that was speaking to me, and when I accepted that, I got that feeling they described.

It doesn't matter what word you choose, or chooses you. I feel that any word is only as inspiring as you make it. I feel that if it inspires you, you should go with it, and not care what others think of your word. I also think that you shouldn't judge someone based on their word. Not everyone is going through the same things, and not everyone is using their word to achieve the same goals.

I look forward to sharing my OLW journey with all of you. If you'd like to learn more, or sign up for the class, you can visit Ali's blog (here).
All images (except the first one) are from Pinterest.

Have a great day!

-Alexandria