Reflecting and archiving the year: 2012

I think I should dedicate a day (or two) a week as my creative outlet day. Take a day to slow down on the operational/logistic side of the shop and use my hands & right brain to create something... possibly using materials and supplies we have available at our shop.

Making a book for the year of 2012 has been on my "things I like to do" list for a while (it was really supposed to happen in December... oh well.) so it was a perfect project to tackle today. For last six years, I put all the trinkets from the year's adventure in glass jars. I always enjoyed this annual ritual as a way to capsule some of the great memories with the hope that we will open them someday and look back with smile.

This year, I wanted to try something different - to create a system that is little more accessible to look back whenever we want to. And that's when I realized that MIDORI Spiral Bee Notebook with windows will be just perfect!

Since we were on the road quite a bit last year, 2012 box was filled with travel memorandum. Mix of Japanese, German and American trinkets. A perfect caption to our family:) This is how my desk looked when I emptied the box...



I decided to dedicate the back of front cover to our 2012 letter to ourselves since this is how we welcomed the year...

Then filled each page with bits and pieces of our life from the year. In order to keep some visibility to the items, I avoided putting everything in the envelope with window. Instead, I glued and clipped some of the larger items like photographs on the page. For example..., while we were traveling, we mailed a few postcards to ourselves with special quotes, so I inserted the postcard on the back of the page using Film Pocket Stickers in Postcard Size.  (left side of the page on the below picture).

More photos after jump!

... of course we had to put some photos of ultrasound in one envelope. 

 

It was also nice to have some "real" photos printed via Printsagram ... left over from this project.

They add a lot of life to the pages, don't they?? Also mt masking tapes were great in adding some colors!

The book got really thick after putting everything inside... so I made an Ad Hoc eyelet & string closure by cutting out some existing envelopes so it stays closed when the book is put away.