Sorry, I’ve been gone a lot longer than I anticipated.
After some of my more recent badge releases, I explored things I wanted to add as well as refine the way the badge programs worked.
This week, I’m going to be sending out a post a day explaining briefly the direction I’ll be moving. Why briefly? To keep myself from getting confused, I’ve created myself a task list with almost every item I’m anticipating updating or creating in this full set of badge program updates. I have over 2,500 pieces, so this is going to take quite a bit of time to update. While it’s a lot of work for me, I’m hoping that breaking some of these things down will benefit YOU in the end.
For today, I want to discuss a bit about why I’m doing these adjustments.
Sites
Last year, I joined a mastermind group. With the idea of adding items that can make some money to help pay for all the hosting / plug-in fees / etc. that I’m currently paying for. It was brought to my attention that if I added EVERYTHING to larajla.com it would be hard to find anything. So, the first thing was to make finding things easier.
New Sites
larajla.com will continue to be the main blog and releases will go out here as usual.
larajlaenrich.com will hold the free membership site and all the newly created files for the Enrichment Project. WordPress is currently winning, but I’m stubborn and hope to have everything working soon. As badge programs are updated, the old posts and files will be removed from larajla.com and placed here. It will help me keep everything straight. An infographic will go out as each updated badge is re-released.
larajlacreates.com will reflect what’s happening in my newly opened Etsy shop. Items released there will link back to badge programs. For example, the original Zentangle badge program is now Zendoodle and I’m working on a third set of design cards for the site. A sample of each will go out free with the badge program for you to play with. If you like the cards, feel free to purchase them. If not, let others know who might be interested.
larajlabooks.com will reflect what I release as a publisher. My first coloring book is at the printer. I have two more laid out and almost ready to go. The theme is “Color on the Round” which reflects the design of the books. And, yes, I have a set of badge programs already written out to explore and make color sheets. I wanted to do the entire process before releasing the badge programs, though. I’m *very* close.
Across the Board Badge Updates
In August 2016, I finished releasing the Challenges badge set. Many of our existing badge programs could benefit from a challenge. As I update, I’ll be looking into that. The Challenges badge set will be the last I update to include all the challenges I make across the badge programs.
I’m also working on a series of ebooks on event planning for volunteers based on the Event Planning badge set. As part of this, I want to add events to each badge set to give examples of how you can create your own events
After I released the Activity Box and Digital Activity Box badge programs, I took a long look at the supplements. While the Grab ‘n’ Go series was pretty much a single activity per sheet, most of the other supplements were not. To make event planning and archives easier for you, all supplements will become one activity / recipe / game / song / etc. But, I’m not going into that on this post. I’ll explain more in Wednesday’s post.
Also, due to the classes I took in coloring sheets / books and puzzle making, I will be adding more of these to the badge programs. I’m sure you noticed the puzzles in the Science Center set. I was told I needed to add more for younger earners. I’ve been tearing apart puzzle books to see what I can add that works with the badges.
Your Feedback is Important!
If you have ideas, links that you feel need to be included or even have some sheets / PDFs you’d like to send me to be included, let me know at larajla gmail.com.
Tomorrow, I’m sending you a new introduction to the Enrichment Project. This will give you an idea of what the infographics for the badges will look like as the elements, fonts and colors will be consistent. I’ll be creating a new style guide to go with the Graphic Design Basics badge program so you can see how it carries through in case you’re interested in doing something similar.
I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
I hope you have a great day!
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