paper crafts

I have made it my goal to spread light with my words and my deeds during this holiday season that concludes what was a difficult year for many.

People have many ways of coping with difficult times. For me, I turn to my journal. I have added many holiday pages to my 2016 junk journal:

2016dec12-journal

2016holidayjournalpages

I have been giving some thought to how I want to record the holiday this year. I have been taking photos of my decorations. Many of my keepsakes are still at my old house, so I have had to decorate in a new way and keep things very simple.

2016-dec-19-xmas-decorations

I have been reflecting on 2016 and trying to decide which memories I want to carry forward into the new year. I know I developed some healthy rituals such as practicing journaling daily that I want to continue in the new year. I am also very pleased that I decided to take something I love doing, journaling and working with paper, and make it into a business on Etsy: Old School Jenny

My shop is currently in vacation mode while I dedicate the following weeks to caring for myself and for my family. Meanwhile I have some projects going on to prepare for the reopening in January. I would like for the new focus of my shop to be custom junk journals. I experienced immense joy creating a junk planner for one customer:

After that I made myself a personal junk planner, one that I plan on writing down only positive memories as well as dreams and intentions in:

2016-my-junk-journal

I would love to make similar journals for other people. I really do love making them.

I hope you are having a good holiday season and that you find a positive way to celebrate the holiday in a way that is meaningful for you.

You never know when a moment will become a lasting memory. This month we are moving again. It’s our fourth time moving as a couple but the first time we have moved in ten years. We are moving from a very small town in central Michigan to another small town (but not quite as small) in Southern Michigan on the border of Ohio. The catalyst for this change is my husband Chris, who graduated this year with a degree in electrical engineering, landing his first engineering job at Adrian Steel Company.

The last ten years have been good to us. We moved from California to Michigan after we both had ended our contracts with the US Navy. We quickly learned that houses were out of our price range in Southern California and much more affordable in Michigan. We have lived very comfortably in an old craftsman house along with our two basset hounds, Willy and Flash, and our neurotic Jack Russel named Fez. Although we have been very happy here, I am excited about a new start.

As for the memory…shortly after moving into this old house I was rearranging my papers and as I walked into the living room from the hallway my clumsy self tripped and fell and the papers scattered across the floors. Chris observed this all with a smile and said “there she is, Jenny is being old school again.” This turned out to be one of his favorite memories of me and he continues to call me “old school Jenny” whenever he finds me working with my crafts. He says its me being old school because as long as he has known me I have loved everything to do with paper. Things like making paper crafts, writing in my journal, creating art journals, and just browsing the office supply section of stores.

For the better part of a year I have been trying to figure out the best way to share my arts and crafts with others. I gave a lot of consideration to creating a portfolio to take with me to the local artists outlet but once I opened my shop on Etsy I found that this was the absolute best way for me to take the next step for sharing my passion. For those of you considering opening a shop on Etsy, I can’t recommend it enough. It is a very affordable, relatively easy way to market your goods and Etsy’s popularity helps you to reach more people than one might otherwise.

Old School Jenny is my work of love. In my Etsy shop you will find all kinds of both paper crafted gift tags and digital tags, premade scrapbook layouts, digital scrapbook pages, home made greeting cards, and printable journal kits. I aim to use this blog as a place to give you the background story of the items that I have for sale and to help you get to know me better. Please comment if you have any questions or if you would like to give me some feedback. All input is enjoyed and appreciated.

Other places you may find me:

Old School Jenny on Facebook

Old School Jenny on Pinterest

Old School Jenny on Instagram

Old School Jenny on Twitter

Celebrating the Solstice

Old School Origins