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For this second installment of my 2012 in Review, I want to share with you some of the stuff that I really enjoyed and made my Life easier. I am all for simplicity sometimes (I am a complex person, but I love simple)

«Workbook + Planner» from Leonie Dawson.

You know I am a total fan of what Leonie shares in the universe, right ?

Last April, I decided to finally jump and join her Goddess Circle, that has thousands of women from all over the World, gathered in one place and sharing about business, about life, about struggles and great accomplishments. I do not regret any penny spent for it. You can never feel alone in that circle, and will always have someone glad to help you out if you need it.

This year, Leonie switched up things a bit. Instead of only having a personal Workbook+Planner, where you can plan how to create your own beautiful and perfect year, where you can safely write your heart out about your big, tiny and small dreams. Where nobody will tell you you are silly for wanting to birth this to the World, or if your secret dream job is to be an astronaut for example.
Do it for you, include what matters to you, excluding all fear of judgement (and I am talking here even about your own judgement of what is reasonable, what is stupid etc.).

Here is what Leonie says about it on her website:

The Create Your Incredible Year In Biz + Life e-workbooks are DIFFERENT. They are powerful catalysts of change that not only inspire a new direction but make you feel good about yourself at the same time! They call out your highest potential, and your ability to make it all happen.

And this year, she added a second workbook+planner, the Business edition ! Such a great thing to help plan your business month by month *she has monthly calendars in it*.

I printed mine, and used my spiral binding maching to bind it.

Thanks to these tools, I am not afraid anymore. I am confident in what I want to achieve, and how to actually get there, step by step.

Get more infos about it right here (affiliate link).

«Project Life» by Becky Higgins

I.am.not.a.scrapbooker.I love some scrapbookers like Lisa Truesdell, Amy Tangerine, and more.

But this is not my thing, I suck at scrapbooking, to be totally honest with you (I did try…).

And this year, Project Life was simply all over the interwebs. Even if you are not in the scrapbooking universe*, you are most likely to have one of the artist you love sharing about her own Project Life albums (hey ho Miss Fei-Fan Balzer 😀 she is just an example).

For those of you that are not familiar with PL, this is a simple (and I do mean it: SIM.PLE) way of memory keeping. Everything can be made for you: you need a 12×12 photo album (the one with 3 big rings), you purchase one of the BIG photo pockets pages pack, a core kit, and you are good to go. Of course, you can make it as simple as tucking your pictures, writing your journaling in the pocket pages (and so the only other items you would need would be your printed photos (of course) and a good pen; or go crazy and create your own cards, add embellishments, etc in it.

We live thousands of miles aways from our families (they are in France, we are in the West of Canada). I want to keep track of our life. I want to remember when our minds would be too old to do it by themselves. I want our girls to have pages and pages of pictures and comments to browse through when they’ll leave home to start their own life.

And so Project Life is the perfect solution for me. I purchased a small Selphy printer so I can print from home (but I still print at Costco when I have a big batch to get).

Now, as Project Life is getting bigger and bigger, a lot of scrapbooking brands create papers on the 3×4 and 4×6 sizes (and the 4×4 as well) so you can use them in your PL album.

I am pretty excited that Studio Calico and Becky Higgins teamed up to create a Project Life monthly kit (I dropped my Card kit from them to subscribe to this one instead). It will contain exclusive cards, a stamp set and who knows what else yet (the first kit will ship in January).

Becky also teamed up with American Crafts. This means her products will now also be available for purchase in your local scrapbooking store instead of online only. It will be in Spring 2013 I guess. I will soon post what I use and how 🙂
Because for now, if you are in the US you buy Project Life items in Amazon. And if you are elsewhere, you can buy them via Scrapbooker Inner Circle.

I wanted to add something else, but after reflection, I think it does belong to an all different post («My great lessons received in 2012»).

Do you use Project Life as your memory keeping system ? I plan on blogging about it on a regular basis in 2013. Sharing what I love, what I do, what works and what is a total failure 🙂

Did you discover tools this year that helped you ? Would love to know.

Hello dear Souls !

I tend to love December for one specific reason: it is the month (with September, my birth month) when I introspect about the year coming to an end. What was amazing, unexpected, loved. What was a challenge, an issue, a mistake.

And I decided to share a bit of them with you 🙂

For this first edition, I wanted to talk about online classes.
I decided last year that in 2012, I will be way more careful in the classes I would get involved in, in my choices. Not wanting to spend money on classes that I thought were for me and then, never watch a single video of it.

«Paint you story» and «Neat stuff» by Mindy Lacefield (aka Tim’s Sally)

I remember being waiting for «Paint Your Story» to be announced. I knew that Mindy’s class would be what I was needing at the moment, that it would help me to go deeper in my own style without becoming her (no wonder how much I love her art, but I still want to be me).

Her style is recognizable. You see it, you know it is from her. And usually, I instantly fall in love with it because it speaks to my Soul, to my deeper core. She is a maker of magic.

And what is very important to know is that once you sign up, you also will be part of an amazing community of artists. There is Ning, and Facebook where we all connect. We share our art from the workshops. We talk about our doubts. We seek for support, knowing we will receive kindness and understanding. The classes are now available at self-pace. But the community around it is still strong. I met

And a while after, she announced her she will also be doing an art journal class, «Neat stuff» in which she would demonstrate her way of doing a more realistic face. I was sold…

And I still do bind the journal the way she shows it at the beginning of the class, for me if I want a quick, small and easy journal. And for my daughter Koala who is a drawing machine (lol).

I think these two classes were the most life-altering for me, as an artist and as a human bean, this year. And I don’t regret any penny spent on it.

Can’t wait to finally meet Mindy next June in Port Townsend !

«LifeBook 2012» by Tamara Laporte (aka Willowing)

This is a year long journaling and healing oriented classe, in which Tam has gathered lots of teachers to share their techniques and healing with us every single week.

And at the end of the year (so for the current edition, last week or this week I don’t remember), Tam shared her way to bind all of our pages into a journal.

I love that all the videos are downloadable because I often run behind, so I download everything when it is available, I classified it by months’ folders on my computer, and I can watch the videos and read the pdf-s whenever I am ready for it.

Tam succeeded in gathering a very diverse line up of teachers.

I know you may be afraid of not being able to follow, and I did have that fear. However, as I said: you can download all the content, and go at your own pace.

There are already more that 700 people registered for next year’s LifeBook (I will be one of them), that will begin in a few weeks (you can still sign up if it has already started, don’t worry). The teachers line up is out of this world, just to name a few: Christy Tomlinson, Mindy Lacefield, Jane Davenport, Aimee Myers Dolich (from Artsyville), Dawn Devris Sokol, Shiloh Sophie McCloud, Dion Dior and more more more.

Tam has several options you can choose from when you decide to sign up, here is what she says:

There are 4 different packages to sign up to! 🙂 I am offering several packages which include 1 or 2 more of my courses for a reduced price, yay! These are the packages on offer:

1. Basic package (Life Book 2013 only) – £60 GBP (approx $99 USD) for the whole year)
2. Premium package (LB2013 + 1 course of Tam’s) – £75 GBP (approx $120 USD)
3. Rainbow package (LB2013 + 2 courses of Tam’s) – £85 (approx $137 USD)
4. Life Book Extreme (LB2013 + all of Tam’s lesson from LB2012) – £95 GBP (approx $153 USD)
5. Super Art Party Bonanza! (LB2013 + all of Tam’s lesson from LB2012 + 2 of Tam’s art courses) – £120 GBP (approx $190 USD)

Installment plans are also be available.

It is really a good opportunity to commit to your art journal, to learn from so many different artists (that all have their style, their take on art and on healing).

«Artsy Bangles» by Christy Tomlinson

I have a love for bracelets. If you’ve watched some of my {Painting In Motion} videos, you can often spot the many bracelets I wear on my right wrist (I wear my big cuff watch on my left one, so no place for anything).

I love to alternate everything that is «me»: some simple gem bracelets (currently: my favorite gem, Labradorite, Quartz, Landscape Jasper and Cornaline). A cuff I bought on Etsy, and other kind of bracelets.

Artsy Bangles is a class Christy did with her daughter Allie. They teach us about 25 different styles of bracelets.

There are very surprising bracelets (like repurposing a plastic bottle for example), some I already knew, some that were totally unknown to me.

It is a «mini» workshop. And I guess it is still available to work at your own pace. Christy had a kit available to purchase, that was a really good addition (sometimes, I just don’t want to run around to find what is needed, honestly).

«21 Secrets» from Connie Hozvicka (Dirty Footprints Studio)

I was honored to be one of the 21 teachers on this third edition of 21 Secrets.

If you are not familiar with it, it is a virtual playground focused on art journaling. Techniques, healing, fun were honored.

This session is coming to an end, but you can sign up for the 2013 one, that has a real good line up of teachers as well (if you like Kate Crane, this will be her first online class ! I have been waiting for it, personally. My friend Danielle Daniel will be teaching there too). The classes themselves won’t be announced before January though but I am sure it will be diverse and amazing. I signed up for it every year, and never was disappointed by the content.

The teachers pour their heart into it, and you can totally feel it in their lesson.

I also love the community that builds around it.

Next, I will talk to you about what made my life easier in 2012 😉