Little Summer Joy | Introduction and Manifesto

Hello again!

I'm excited to announce I will be a contributor for a fun *free* little summer project called Little Summer Joy! I'm excited to be contributing online again. I had started a little mini book to document the little things that bring me happiness this summer and had even used the "little things" concept from Ali Edwards Story Kit for my title page (more on that below.) But as many of my projects go, I feared the title page would be about all that I finished! :)

So when I saw my Instagram friends Jen Lake and Julie Gagen create a new site called Little Paper Projects and launch the first project: Little Summer Joy, I knew this would be a great fit for me. Lucky for me they had a spot open for a contributor! Maybe it will give me the spark I need to actually do something more with my site. Or maybe I will just enjoy my summer, documenting what I can and enjoy sharing that. How about we just enjoy living, creating and sharing with one another? That's pretty exciting!

I really like the idea and philosophy behind Little Paper Projects as well. I love the idea of using memory keeping as a way to explore how we see and experience our world. That using little projects like this can create more self awareness and self love. I've been pretty much on board with that philosophy since I started memory keeping and I like how they are creating a community around it. Hooray for an awesome community of folks wanting to build each other up! It's awesome.

THE PLAN

Okay, so here's my plan for my Little Summer Joy book this year. I'm using a 4x4 mini album from Seven Paper, some of Ali Edwards "Little Things" Story Kit™ and a bunch of my stash. I am not looking to go super minimal with this project. You totally could and that would be awesome! Jen and Julie shared several options here. I've done simple journals before--for an example is my 30 Lists journal that I still adore. So, I might do a journal on the side with it. But right now I just want to PLAY with some of the cool stuff I've collected and make something with it. I've decided I need to make more stuff or I need to put the collecting on hold. And since I really like it, why not use it?! 

Also, I recently picked up the Fuse Tool and am really loving playing with it too! So you'll see some fun sequin pockets as well. Let me know if you would like to see a video "how to" on that. It's quite simple to use! Here's a look at my main title page. I just added some confetti I had plus some sequins. You start from the bottom pocket and just build up. Love how it turned out!

The first lesson for Little Summer Joy is to create your summer bucket list / manifesto or whatever you want to call it. I really liked Tracy's idea to also include things that might be holding you back from joy. I primarily included things we want to do as a family, plus a few things I wanted to include on my own. 

Here's a look at my title page plus my manifesto. I kept it simple and just used the back of the 3x4 title cards to create a 4x6 canvas to write on. I stamped Summer Manifesto with this stamp set from Kellie Stamps. Wrapped the edges in some glitter washi tape from Target and just wrote my list. Simple and done!

The nice thing about including my summer manifesto here is that I can easily refer back to it, but I'm not creating a book solely on these items. Some of them while will be included and who knows, maybe all?! But one of the focus points for me for this book is to be documenting the little things that are making me happy. Things I want to do and how to inspire myself to actually DO them. Plus, a reflection component of noticing things that brought me joy just because and not because they are on a list. Does that make sense? Plus, I want to include some of the prompts for the class. So I'm keeping a pretty open mind and heart here. It's summertime after all! Keep it easy!

I hope you will join us!! You can sign up at Little Paper Projects here + many will be sharing their projects on Instagram. #littlesummerJOY. p.s. did I mention it is free?!

And mostly I just hope you enjoy your summer or the season in which you live!

SUPPLIES: A few pics of my basic supplies:

1. Seven Paper Amelia 4x4 mini album
2. Seven Paper Number Transparencies
3. Seven Paper Transparent cards
4. Seven Paper gold foil letter stickers
5. Fuse Tool - This one is from Becky Higgins
6. Little Moments Kit from Ali Edwards (no longer available)
7. Lots of my stash! (note the Summer cards are an old set from Ali Edwards)

Check out the hashtag: #littlesummerJoy on Instagram to see the latest posts.