Fall marks the beginning of so many holidays! September is the perfect time to start getting organized for all of the end-of-year holidays. I have found that if I have a place to keep all of my ideas, that I am more successful in following through with my plans for the holidays.
I am going to focus on organization, holiday home décor, cards and gifts, and documenting your holiday memories.
Holiday Project Box
It is my hope that you were able to complete your holiday project notebook from the pre-class assignments; the holiday project box is where this notebook will soon live. Remember that I like everything to have a place! This box is going to become a resource file for you to keep all of your ideas for the holiday season. I really LOVE this box as a resource file, plus it gives me a place to keep all of my ideas in a small format! Throughout this week, you will learn how this box works for me and how you can make it function best for you.
This will be an amazing box full of resources for you to use.
Prepared to Plan
Now that the holiday project box is created and ready to go, it is time to talk about what will go inside this charming little container. I have designed some resource cards to add into the holiday project box. These resource cards are used like a recipe card, because there are areas on each card for specific information, space for sketches and lists, and the best part is that they will help you save your sanity!
Holiday Project Cards
Being prepared sheds anxiety from your life. I suggest making enough project cards to have blank cards on hand when you want to work on a project card. The exact number to make is completely up to you, but I made ten cards for each subject area to start with, knowing that I can make more if I begin to run low! Let’s get to it!
Creating Holiday Project Cards
For this project, you will use plain white copy paper and lined 5”x 8” index cards.
Print the project card templates onto plain white copy paper. To create each card, you will need a
1. gift, project or page card plus a sketch card. Cut each card to 5” x 8” following the template guides.
2. Adhere the sketch template and the project, gift or page template on either side of the 5” x 8” lined index card.
3. Using snippets of patterned paper in holiday themes makes the cards easy to identify.
bigtip:
By printing the templates onto copy paper, you can faintly see the lines of the index cards through the copy paper. This is great for keeping your writing organized.
Cut little snippets of patterned paper to adhere to the top of each card.
Keeping Things Simple
I like to keep things simple. This is true with project cards as well. These cards should be easy to use and label. For this reason I keep two clear plastic cups in the back of my project box to hold items that make using these cards super simple.
The first cup is used to hold snippets of patterned paper for each holiday card. This way when I grab a project card to write my ideas and plans onto, I can quickly add a color label to the card to help me identify the cards category quickly by sight.
The second cup is used to hold precut squares of graph paper. I cut my squares 12 boxes x 12 boxes. I adhere squares onto the sketch section of the cards, so I can sketch any ideas I may have for a project, gift or page design. It also leaves lots of space for me to write myself notes, so I won’t forget where my mind was going with a specific idea.
I also place a 5” x 7” sheet of patterned paper and graph behind each holiday tab, so that I can quickly grab a sheet of paper to cut more snippets and squares to place in each cup when they begin to run low.
Creating cards that are simple to identify and use makes this system doable. And I know from experience that I simply cannot follow through on any system unless it feels doable!
The holiday project box is your new resource file system and it is set up to organize your future ideas and action plans. Over the next eight lessons you will learn how I used these cards to organize my ideas. Plus, with each lesson from here on out, you will get a holiday project card to print out and add to your box that has all of my sketches and ideas written on them. Feel free to add your own notes to these cards as well, and then add the cards to your holiday project box as a resource.
What I have found from using holiday project cards, is that one idea may spark another. One project card may have been created originally as a gift, but also will work great as a piece of décor. A page design may work well as a gift idea. Plus often times I have created something for a specific holiday only to realize that with a change of color and theme it will be perfect for a different holiday as well.
Being Prepared
Keep your mind open to all of the creative possibilities that the holidays bring. Use your holiday project notebook to quickly jot down your fleeting ideas, so that they are not lost. When you have an extra fifteen or thirty minutes sit down with your notebook and project card and start creating an action plan. The project card is your action plan or recipe. It is this plan that makes your project easy to remember, and also gives you a place to know where you can begin.
Beginning something is often the hardest part. Hopefully this holiday project box gives you a place to begin that does not feel overwhelming. The best part of this project box is that if you do not have the time to do a specific project this season, your idea won’t be lost forever. You now have a resource system to remember your ideas, and you can always create it next year, or for another holiday. That my friend is how you can truly save your sanity!
I am going to focus on organization, holiday home décor, cards and gifts, and documenting your holiday memories.
Holiday Project Box
It is my hope that you were able to complete your holiday project notebook from the pre-class assignments; the holiday project box is where this notebook will soon live. Remember that I like everything to have a place! This box is going to become a resource file for you to keep all of your ideas for the holiday season. I really LOVE this box as a resource file, plus it gives me a place to keep all of my ideas in a small format! Throughout this week, you will learn how this box works for me and how you can make it function best for you.
This will be an amazing box full of resources for you to use.
Prepared to Plan
Now that the holiday project box is created and ready to go, it is time to talk about what will go inside this charming little container. I have designed some resource cards to add into the holiday project box. These resource cards are used like a recipe card, because there are areas on each card for specific information, space for sketches and lists, and the best part is that they will help you save your sanity!
Holiday Project Cards
Being prepared sheds anxiety from your life. I suggest making enough project cards to have blank cards on hand when you want to work on a project card. The exact number to make is completely up to you, but I made ten cards for each subject area to start with, knowing that I can make more if I begin to run low! Let’s get to it!
Creating Holiday Project Cards
For this project, you will use plain white copy paper and lined 5”x 8” index cards.
Print the project card templates onto plain white copy paper. To create each card, you will need a
1. gift, project or page card plus a sketch card. Cut each card to 5” x 8” following the template guides.
2. Adhere the sketch template and the project, gift or page template on either side of the 5” x 8” lined index card.
3. Using snippets of patterned paper in holiday themes makes the cards easy to identify.
bigtip:
By printing the templates onto copy paper, you can faintly see the lines of the index cards through the copy paper. This is great for keeping your writing organized.
Cut little snippets of patterned paper to adhere to the top of each card.
Keeping Things Simple
I like to keep things simple. This is true with project cards as well. These cards should be easy to use and label. For this reason I keep two clear plastic cups in the back of my project box to hold items that make using these cards super simple.
The first cup is used to hold snippets of patterned paper for each holiday card. This way when I grab a project card to write my ideas and plans onto, I can quickly add a color label to the card to help me identify the cards category quickly by sight.
The second cup is used to hold precut squares of graph paper. I cut my squares 12 boxes x 12 boxes. I adhere squares onto the sketch section of the cards, so I can sketch any ideas I may have for a project, gift or page design. It also leaves lots of space for me to write myself notes, so I won’t forget where my mind was going with a specific idea.
I also place a 5” x 7” sheet of patterned paper and graph behind each holiday tab, so that I can quickly grab a sheet of paper to cut more snippets and squares to place in each cup when they begin to run low.
Creating cards that are simple to identify and use makes this system doable. And I know from experience that I simply cannot follow through on any system unless it feels doable!
The holiday project box is your new resource file system and it is set up to organize your future ideas and action plans. Over the next eight lessons you will learn how I used these cards to organize my ideas. Plus, with each lesson from here on out, you will get a holiday project card to print out and add to your box that has all of my sketches and ideas written on them. Feel free to add your own notes to these cards as well, and then add the cards to your holiday project box as a resource.
What I have found from using holiday project cards, is that one idea may spark another. One project card may have been created originally as a gift, but also will work great as a piece of décor. A page design may work well as a gift idea. Plus often times I have created something for a specific holiday only to realize that with a change of color and theme it will be perfect for a different holiday as well.
Being Prepared
Keep your mind open to all of the creative possibilities that the holidays bring. Use your holiday project notebook to quickly jot down your fleeting ideas, so that they are not lost. When you have an extra fifteen or thirty minutes sit down with your notebook and project card and start creating an action plan. The project card is your action plan or recipe. It is this plan that makes your project easy to remember, and also gives you a place to know where you can begin.
Beginning something is often the hardest part. Hopefully this holiday project box gives you a place to begin that does not feel overwhelming. The best part of this project box is that if you do not have the time to do a specific project this season, your idea won’t be lost forever. You now have a resource system to remember your ideas, and you can always create it next year, or for another holiday. That my friend is how you can truly save your sanity!
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