Something I've been doing...

Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed?

I have! There are days when my day, my kids, my husband, my work, my LIFE, seem too overwhelming that I can't even begin to relax, nevermind sit down at my scrap area and try to create beautiful pages!
These kinds of days often make me feel uncreative, unproductive and frustrated. 

So, this is a little something I created to combat those feelings, and my lack of productivity.

This is a 12 x 12 coiled scrapbook that I was given awhile back.  I have a hard time scrapping in coiled books, but didn't want to waste it, so it sat on my shelf, staring at me...begging to be used.

One night, after having an incredibly stressful day, I put the kids to bed, and I holed myself up in my room with this book...determined to come up with something to do with it. 

I started gluing, journalling, drawing (well, more like doodling) and using some of my favourite embellishments and materials (though not always strictly scrap items) and what I ended up with, was a unique blend of scrapping and journalling.

I use this book ONLY WHEN I WANT TO.  I feel absolutely no pressure to create something in it everyday, or even every week.

This book is incredibly personal (akin to one of those diary's I had growing up...with the lock on it...you know the ones).  I don't show the pages to anyone (except SOMETIMES my hubby). 

I use this book as a release.  A way to remember (or forget) how I'm feeling...and it often works as my own brand of therapy. 

Now, because it's so personal, I have created a "sample" page to show you.  It IS a page in my book, but while the journalling is not as personal as some of my pages are, the style is similar to some pages I've done in it. 

These pages are (clearly) not as "pretty" as my regular pages.  But with this book, I don't judge myself on how it looks.  More on how it FEELS to me when I'm done (or how I feel when I'm done). 

The greatest part about all of this, is that I now feel like I have an outlet.  I don't have to show anyone.  I can take 5 minutes to complete a page (or portion thereof...I have 4 days on some of my pages; 2 on others) or 2 hours.

And it is one thing I do just for me.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I know this is not a brilliant idea, but it was an idea that brings me some comfort when I've had a bad day, and helps me relax. 

I hope your day is filled with relaxing moments, creative thoughts and a small chunk of time to do what we all love best...scrapbooking.