Scrappy * Project Life - July Part 3/August Part 1

Finishing up July and heading into August. Nothing too special here... more food and bunnies. ^_^

Scrappy * Persistence

Still diligently working on finishing up my 2011 album. It's not my favorite and I'm trying to finish it just so that I can get it off my desk for good and shove it into a closet. I know, I know. Life is short and I shouldn't be scrapping things that I don't really want to scrap but I'm just too darn stubborn and anal to let it sit around unfinished. Since I'm not all that wild about it, it's been a good place to experiment. Some experiments turn out good, others make me want to bang my head on my desk. This layout falls in the later category.

I really loved this layout by Ashli Oliver for Shimelle.com. So different from what I normally do and a good opportunity to really put my stamps to use. Ashli makes it looks so easy! Look at those pretty soft watercolors! This layout will come together in no time, right? Wrong.

First attempt. Ehhh... too dark. I was using black ink and it's just too jarring and bold against the white background.

 

Second attempt. Tried it with grey ink. Much better but still not really loving it. Stamping twice before re-inking gave it a much softer look but it still was too much. Too many different designs jumbled together.

 

Third attempt. Oh now this is just ridiculous. I didn't realize that I still had the safety pin stamp stuck to the same side of the block as the heart. Starting over!

 

Fourth attempt!! I reduced the number of designs and liked it much better. Enough to add the watercolor and then my photo and proceeded to write the story. And then mess it up royally. Now, I have such rubbish handwriting that almost all my pages have at least one or two words scratched out. But this was too much. GAHHHH! Definitely hating myself by this time. Why oh why did I ever try this??

 

FIFTH ATTEMPT! Complete! I de-cluttered even more by using only five stamp designs. The simple circles got it to that easygoing place I was looking for.  And I liked that it looked like bubbles (I may have been a bit delirious by this time). I didn't have a simple circle stamp so I had to take a stamp that had a circle with a word in it and put a tiny bit of tape over the word. Ink it up, remove the tape and stamp a neat empty circle. Now repeat that 12 times.

While I don't love the fact that it took me so many tries to get this right, I do realize that I learned something with each attempt. Every page showed me something that I could change to improve the design. But goodness, there must be an easier way. 

Thank you Ashli and Shimelle for the inspiration!

Scrappy * Project Life - July Part 2

Woo it's been a busy couple of months. Weddings galore but now they're done and I can catch up on life before the holidays come charging in. Speaking of life, here's part 2 of my July Project Life.

 

Bunnies and food... yup.

Scrappy * One Design, Two Layouts

Still working through my 2011 photos. I'm a lazy scrapper so I reuse designs a lot. Once in awhile, I'll work in batches, making a couple of layouts using the same design but with different supplies. I don't mind having repeats in my album and it speeds up the process! Keep it simple folks, keep it simple.




Studio Calico Atlantic papers and stickers, Heidi Swapp polaroid frame, American Crafts gold embossing powder (Ooo I love this stuff).





Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm papers, Lily Bee Design letter stickers

Scrappy * An Unintentional Two Page Spread

So close to finishing up my 2011 albums! These photos are from our trip to SF. The photos are darker and have an urban feel to them so I paired them with some Crate Paper Storyteller paper from the 6x6 pad. I also pulled in some My Minds Eye enamel dots, Crate Paper The Pier stickers, and a couple of journaling tags from Basic Grey Hello. This wasn't meant to be a two page spread but using different papers from the same collection definitely created a coordinated feel and a shared personality. Love when that happens!

I love the giant black ink splatters. I used black acrylic paint thinned with a tiny bit of water which made the black really nice and opaque. It looks as if it had dripped out of an inkwell which is exactly what I wanted.

Scrappy * Project Life - July Part 1

Closing out a long weekend spent with family in New Jersey. I love quality family time. I hope you had a relaxing and long weekend too :) And now, a July Project Life spread.

 

A lot of the memories that I want to record don't have photos (I actually don't take many photos these days) so I've been adding in doodles. I don't do anything fancy with my photos and I'm sticking with the Dear Lizzy core kit. I'm all about going as fast as possible so no time for embellishment! I like that the pretty designs of the cards keep things from looking too plain.

Scrappy * Waukegan's Hideout

Our bunny loves her hideouts. We had several around the living room and often we wouldn't know where she was until we heard a rustling from one of her boxes. This one was under one of the end tables. I used to keep a box of my stuff under there but gave up when she claimed the spot as her own. The lighting in the photo is terrible... it's so orange. I wanted to balance it out with cool colors so I pulled out all my aqua and blue papers from my scrap basket. Super fast and easy layout. I love working with a limited number of colors because my pages get done in no time and I use up my scraps!

Scrappy * Project Life - June

For my birthday, my sister got me the Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic Project Life kit. It is such a pretty kit! I love how the new kits have so many more designs than the original kits. It takes me about five minutes to choose a card! I love all the soft, sweet colors and designs. Lots of florals, birds, hearts, home, and library icons.

For this year, I decided to change from a weekly format to monthly. The weekly thing just wasn't working for me. I would stress out over having enough to fill a two page spread and frequently had to go down to a one page spread but then would have to leave out some things because really what I needed was a one and half page spread. This also meant that I didn't start documenting a week until it was over because I never knew how much stuff I would have for that week. I was losing the "now" in my Project Life. A monthly format makes so much more sense for me. I don't feel confined to one or two page spreads. And I now have the freedom to doodle and write up cards as I feel the urge to so and I don't have to worry about where they'll go.

 

Scrappy * She's Here!

I love this layout for so many reasons. These photos are from the day my niece was born. It was a long, and at times, difficult road getting her here so it was a really important day for our family. My sister texted me when she went into labor and we kept texting up until the moment my little niece was born. As soon as I got the text "She's here!!!!" I flopped on to my bed and started to sob. My Mr. thought it was hilarious and snapped a photo to send to my sister. I couldn't be there for her birth so the texts that my sister and I sent each other mean a lot to me and I wanted a way to preserve such a huge sister moment.

I took several screenshots and arranged them in rows in a Word document. I made sure to leave a tiny space between each screenshot so that there was room for a fold. Then I printed the document onto white cardstock and cut the rows into strips. I taped the strips together so that they formed one long strip then folded it like an accordion. Depending on how many screen shots you have, you may need to fold it differently. I had a lot and didn't want a two inch stack on my page so I created a fold after every other screenshot. I also had an odd number so since I was folding in twos, I had the backside of one of the screenshots on display. But that actually worked out well and it became the perfect spot for embellishment. I hope that makes sense.

I hope I get to share this page with my niece some day and that it will show her how much we've loved her since before she was even born.

Scrappy * Nail Art

This is an older page and it's up in my Two Peas gallery but since that will be going away soon, I thought I'd share it here. I followed Shimelle's 4x6 photo love sketch for July. It's such a fun subject, I wanted to use really bright, whimsical colors and patterns. And yes, those are tiny robot and tiny tuxedos on our nails. If you want to read more about our girly nail art day with local nail art celebrity, Nina Nailed It, you can view this older post.

A love letter to Two Peas in a Bucket

Last week, scrapbookers received some very sad news. Two Peas in a Bucket, an online scrapbooking store, will be closing their doors. To me, the news was unexpected and made me so sad. I know it may sound a bit silly being so down about a shop closing but Two Peas is so much more than just a scrapbooking store.

I started scrapbooking in high school many, many years ago. My cousin was a Creative Memories consultant and I learned to scrapbook from her. Over the years, my scrapbooking style remained the same. I didn't know any other way of scrapping other than the Creative Memories way. Which wasn't a bad thing at all. I love those scrapbooks. But it was a very specific way to scrapbook. After graduating from college, I poked around the internet for scrapping inspiration but nothing really caught my eye so I went back into my bubble and kept on scrapping the only way I knew how. I didn't see the internet as a good source of scrapping inspiration because I just couldn't find anything that really called out to me

One day, in 2012-ish, I stumbled upon Two Peas in a Bucket. I don't remember how I found it but the moment I entered the site, I knew it was the place for me. I had found my scrappy home. So many pretty products! Endless videos! The Garden Girls! The Garden Girls completely changed how I scrapbook. I was learning about techniques, patterned papers, paint and mist, design principles... so much to learn!! The Garden Girls all have different styles but they all called out to me. Two Peas had a great eye and brought the very best talent out there together in their Garden Girls team. And all that top notch inspiration was free and open to all. It boggled my mind. I wasn't very active in the gallery because I'm pretty shy about my scrapping but I did post a few things here and there and the support and feedback I received from fellow peas made my heart swell. I don't have any friends who scrapbook and I've never socialized in scrappy ways (never even been to a scrap) so to have that kind of interaction was so meaningful to me. I participated in the NSD and CHA celebrations which was so much fun I couldn't believe I had been missing out for so many years. Until Two Peas, scrapbooking had been a very solitary and private hobby. Two Peas really opened up the world of scrapbooking to me.

I loved shopping there not only because they had such a wonderfully curated shop but because I loved knowing that I was supporting this amazing company. For two years, I purchased nearly all my scrapbooking supplies from Two Peas because it was a way for me to support them and thank them for all the free videos, workshops, forums, everything. On top of all that, their customer service was so great I often wished I could hug someone through a support ticket. Really, this company makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

I can't imagine how difficult this must be for the owners and staff of Two Peas and the Garden Girls. I doubt they'll ever read this but I just wanted to say thank you. I love to scrapbook and Two Peas has had such a huge influence on me. It breathed new life into my scrapbooks and introduced me to some amazing scrappers. It really opened my eyes and has completely changed scrapbooking for me. The day of the announcement, I filled my bucket with a few things I didn't really need and made my last purchase just for the sake of making one last purchase at Two Peas.

Thank you Two Peas... I'll miss you!

project life: update

i started project life on my 29th birthday and i thought the half year mark would be a good time to share some thoughts on this new (to me!) style of scrapbooking. i talked a little about it back in this post but basically, project life is a scrapbooking method developed by becky higgins. it's meant to encourage the documentation of everyday life and to simplify scrapbooking. the best part is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.




getting started
i started off with a three ring binder by we r memory keepers, a big variety pack of page protectors and the amber core kit which i had won from a giveaway hosted by paislee press. my plan was to keep it simple and stick to the kit...

where it all went wrong...
by the time i hit the six month mark, i just wasn't feeling it. i wanted project life to be a big journal but it was becoming a lot of work and more of a "i have to do it" than a "i want to do it". i missed my old journal. then i saw this blog post by document life workshop on why she "failed" at project life 2012 and suddenly, everything became crystal clear.

the amber core kit is great but there were a few problems for me. i like softer colors, blues, neutrals and simple designs so the amber kit just didn't feel quite right. there also weren't any horizontal 3x4 cards or vertical 4x6 cards so when i need these (or was looking for my fave colors), i tried to make my own or print freebies. this led to stress and a jumbled hodge podge look to my album which led to more stress.

there are so many great project lifers out there. it's easy to get distracted by what they create and think, "ohhh i should totally do that too!" some people can design layouts for every 4x6 and 3x4 pocket and it looks incredible. but that's just not for me. this is meant to be my journal where i save photos, hoard bits and pieces, doodle and write about "dear diary" moments. it takes me AGES create one 12x12 layout and trying to make a layout for 16 little boxes a week will destroy me and make me forget about my doodles and "dear diaries".

how i'll make it right again
for christmas, my sister got me the seafoam core kit. she didn't know that i had decided to stop with project life but that's okay because this kit changed my mind in an instant. it's everything i've wanted in project life and more. i love the colors (really, these are my favorite colors) and the design feels so right. all the cards are reversible so that they can be use vertically or horizontally, as a journaling card or a filler card. woohoo!!

 front and backs of the cards. pretty! lighting. not so pretty!

the matching vertical version is on the reverse side

i still would recommend project life to anyone whose looking for a way to document their life. it's a simple concept that can be adapted to whatever you want and need it to be.

i'm determined to use up the rest of my amber kit on the remainder of this year. why waste a good kit? then in june when i turn 30, i'll bust out the seafoam and start fresh. go project life!

new supplies

last weekend, i went to michaels looking for some replacement blades for my cricut (was there a national shortage of cricut blades?? it took months to find a store that had them in stock) and i came out with a bunch of new crafty things to play with and i thought i'd share my finds.

i stepped into an aisle and found myself looking at a wall of washi tape. holy guacamole! michaels' brand, recollections, makes washi tape in a huge variety of styles and for really great prices. this is going to be dangerous.

 i find it hard to resist anything travel themed.

crocheted flowers. not something i usually use in my scrapbooks but these were in the clearance section and i love the colors. i suppose i could make them myself but i feel like crocheting with thread would make me go blind(er).

i love new supplies and how they inspire me to try something new. woo!

scrapbooking... 2010 complete!

i can't express how satisfying it is to complete a scrapbook.

it takes ages for me to finish one of these and i love putting in the last page and then lugging it over to my bookcase (these babies are heavy).

i'm oddly very shy and secretive about my scrapbooking. it's almost more like a diary or journal than a photo album. a part of me cringes when someone flips though one of my albums ("will they think i'm crazy? will they think it's bad??") and i usually yell out, "don't read the journaling!" but i'm trying to be prouder about who i am and what i love to do so i thought i'd share a couple of pages here just to put myself out there a little and to try and get over my crafting shyness.

inspired by misssmith

i usually don't do the one-photo-per-page thing but this deserved its own page. at the age of 27... i finally got my drivers license.

my scrapbooks were usually filled with photos from gatherings with friends or special events. i'm finding that i take less and less photos each year and i don't take as many when i'm out and about with friends. so for this album, i started making pages that sum up a season with daily life type of photos that normally wouldn't make it into the album or to document events that i have only one photo from.

washi tape detail. yay! shake shack shroom burger. double YAY!

this is terrifying for me so please be nice! especially since in this album, i branched out an tried out several new things. i've been scrapbooking since high school but for the first time, i'm actively looking to learn new techniques and to see what else is out there. and i'm finding so much inspiration! i'm really excited about how much i'm learning.

happy weekend and rabbit, rabbit, rabbit! 

how is it already june??

project life win!

remember when i was hemming and hawing over whether or not i should try out project life? well, apparently, the universe thinks it's a good idea and gave me a push in the right direction. about a month ago, becky higgins and members of the project life creative team hosted a bunch of great project life giveaways. and somehow... i won one of the prizes!? i nearly fell out of my chair when i saw my name on the list of winners. i won a project life amber core kit from the giveaway hosted by paislee press! woo hoo!

that's me at the bottom! :D

i got my amber core kit a couple of weeks ago but never got around to sharing it. let's dive in shall we?

thanks liz!

this little box is so dense. i couldn't believe how much it held.

60 3x4 filler cards

60 blank grid journaling cards

32 bi-fold journaling cards + colored day and number stickers

a few of the 380 decorative journaling cards

this is only a portion of what the core kit comes with. i love the colors in the amber kit and i can't wait to use everything!! the plan is to start on my 29th birthday. hold me to it friends! i'll be sure to share my thoughts on this new way of journaling/scrapbooking once i get started. i hear it's especially great for moms with little ones (or anyone who leads a hectic/busy life) since it's a quick way to record each day's little memories and you end up with a beautiful scrapbook at the end. ohh i hope becky higgins will come out with baby themed kits! how great would this be as a gift to help new moms document their baby's first year?

thanks so much to becky higgins and liz from paislee press for their generosity :)