Mish Mash

PIP Day....Project Life In Progress..Week 4

2012-02-01T15:40:00.000-06:00

I'm back today for PIP Day....where I show you my Project Life in progress for Week 4. Can you believe that February is already here? Can you believe it was 63 degrees in Kansas today? No & no!! By now you should be finding your groove for your Project Life. Whether you keep it simple or get scrappy with it, I hope you are enjoying the process. I really love when that last photo for the week is snapped and I can get to work on laying out my PL week.

Here's my PIP photo for Week 4. Just a random bunch of photos with no real color scheme or theme.
Product Picks:

This week I was inspired to use items from my Take Note kit that was in my shop recently. A great little collection of grid themed embellishments + a few goodies from Elle's Studio.

Challenge:

My challenge for this week was to blend together my main pages with 2 inserts that I plan to do about a few road trips this week. I thought this photo of a vintage suitcase that I have sitting on my porch would be a fun photo to tie in all my pages this week. This will be my main title insert that will slip into the upper left hand corner.

Chit Chat:

I am keeping in mind that I would like to really have just 2 albums for 2012. With the number of inserts I have been adding, I'm not sure that's going to work out. It it doesn't I'm fine with that. I know that here in a few years the girls might be out of the house and I won't have nearly as many fun photos to take. I'm just soaking it all up right now and am loving every.single.minute.

Inspiration:

Lisa Truesdell is always great for providing fun ideas for Project Life. Plus her 3 boys give me a glimpse at how life would be with boys. I found this week of Lisa's to be so cute with the little sucker wrapper from Sam. Last week I snapped a photo of Jordan at the basketball game with her goodies from the concession stand. She had a handful of suckers to hand out to friends. Later that night I found that my purse had been turned into a trash receptacle. It was full of those sucker wrappers, wadded up popcorn bags and empty pop bottles. Lovely. As I was throwing it all in the trash, I was reminded of Lisa's cute insert with the sucker wrapper so one of them made it's way into my PL album. Thanks for the inspiration, Lisa!

This week:

A few new kits in the shop (in very limited quantities) plus a sale on the Wrinkle Ribbon. I'll also be cleaning out my stamp & supply stash to make room for new CHA goodies. I'll have boxed items in lots here on the blog soon. Man, did you see all the fun new stuff coming out? I can't wait.

(The Buttercup Embellishing Kit)

(The Aqua Embellishing Kit)

NO ballgames this week. Very nice to have some bean bag time in front of the television and something other than hotdogs for supper. Josey is recovering from her concussion she got last week and will be able to practice and play in this weekend's tournament.

Hoping to play with some new Washi tape I got today. Thinking a few of these will be great for Valentine cards. Plus they'll look fabulous with Project Life's Clementine, don't you think?

Okay, off to finish up some work and then head outside. It's wayyyyy too beautiful of a day to be inside....in February!

Project Life Week 3 (January 16-January 22, 2012)

2012-01-27T12:38:00.001-06:00

Here we go with Week 3 of my Project Life. Lot of sickies hanging around still, basketball tournament all week long and just life around the house.
Lots of cheery color + white this week which was inspired by the journaling cards I chose from both the Clementine and Cobalt Project Life Core Kits. I also picked up some pads from Target which had some really fun, fruity colors that you can see in my PIP post for this week.
I did meet my goals of keeping my embellishments flat this week + I used more 4 x 6 photos. I also used a week in review card + made some of my own label embellishments.
Here's the insert cards, starting on the left side. This first card is my week in review which features a sticky note from Studio Calico. The right card features a goofy photo of Jordy along with an Ali Edward stamp + Basic Grey snippet of patterned paper + a grid label sticker that I made.
Here I used a card from the Cobalt kit on the left + a card from Marcy Penner's shop on the right. I got out my Hero Arts wood mini alphabets to create some of my journaling this week. Stickers were used for the numbers.
Here I had 2 Instagram photos on the left....one sticks out of the pocket because I didn't want to trim it down. On the right I used my typewriter for journaling + an Ali Edwards stamp.
Here I have a small Instagram + Diptic photo on the right + another small photo on the right. I also used more of the Hero Arts letter stamps.....I think they add such a homespun feel to projects.
And here's a 4 x 6 photo that has added embellishments of my small tags + grid label + sticker. I love how these simply add-ons really help tell the story.
My favorite 4 x 6 slot this week features 2 square photos + stamped images + Studio Calico chipboard butterfly + a sticker. On each 4 x 6 insert I trimmed down a day of the week from the notepad from Target. Love how that worked out and will probably use it more since I have an entire notepad....from the $1 spot! For the 2 tone looking word *love* I used Ali's stamp and 2 ink pad colors.
Here's Jordan's homemade bread, the before and after shots. I also used a handmade label using my Label Basics set. A little Washi tape, a tiny staple + small stickers finish off the photos.
I also had an insert page this week. You can see how that looks with the main pages below. I like to keep all of my inserts smaller than the 12 x 12 main pages.
Using another sticky notepad I got from Target, I used a sheet as a base for some extra square, Instagram photos. I used each photo to prompt some journaling about how Project Life helps me remember the important things in my life.
The top corner with a sticker and a cut out portion of a notepad sheet. I also added in some Ali Edwards stamps.
And the backside of my 8.5 x 11 insert. I used my iPhone to take lots of photos around the house. I turned them all into Instagrams and created a giant index sheet of sorts. Love how I could fit 15 photos on one page. Will definitely be using this strategy again. Thinking it will be great for photos of Charlie at each month of his first year. Tip: Think extra birthday photos, sporting events, projects you take photos of, your kids, vacation photos, photo booth shoots, meals, etc. Lots of ideas brewing here. Note: I printed this collage at home...simply emailed my photos to the big computer and printed them using the settings on my printer. No other editing programs involved.
Here's my embellished edge. Lots of stickers + a stamped tag from my shop + a portion of a Clementine journaling card that I ran through my typewriter.
And another week is in the books. I'm feeling great about getting my insert pages done at the same time of the weekly pages. I'm finding the inserts are nice for those extra stories I want to tell. Stay tuned for next week's Project Life....I'll be using items from my Take Note Kit.

This weekend:

Off to another ballgame tonight. Josey will be sitting out this game as she's recovering from her bang to the head. Tomorrow we might be heading to the movies, doing a little shopping for dress shoes for dances and who knows what else. Looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, that's for sure. How about you? How are your Project Life pages going?

Take Note Kit

2012-01-26T16:50:00.002-06:00

New kit just up in the shop......Take Note. Features nearly 30 fun grid themed embellishments including tags stamped with my Take Note set from Papertrey + Elle's Studio goodies. I'll be using items from this kit for my Week 4 of Project Life. Available in limited quantities.

Cards from Project Life leftovers....

2012-01-26T08:55:00.002-06:00

Edited for questions: My card sizes today are A2, half sheet of 8.5 x 11 cardstock.

Back today with some cards I made from my the leftover products from my last week of Project Life. Just a nice handful to add to my stash. Both sets of cards use Take Note for the circle focal point piece. The base cardstock for all cards is Rustic White. I used Dainty Doilies on these first cards under the layered embellishments. From my stash of Project Life leftovers I used some October Afternoon Flower Sack elements, Washi Tape, and patterned paper.
Lately I've been using these grid labels on my Project Life pages for journaling. They've come in really handy so I thought I would use them on my cards today too. Here I stamped my sentiment from Tag-its #12 twice and then cut the label in half.
I used half a label on each card for an added embellishment at the bottom. I love using grid & graph papers lately so this adds a fun twist. Look for these labels in a new shop kit hopefully coming this week.
I also had fun using my new file folder label punch from Jenni Bowlin. Perfect for all of us office supply lovers!
My next set of cards also uses Take Note + I added a sentiment from Script Sentiments. The heart and butterfly accents are more of the OA Flower Sack embellishments. The stamp at the bottom is an old, old Stampin' Up! stamp.
I also had fun using my Studio Calico mask & Mister Huey spray ink on these cards. A strip of Washi tape adds a fun layer to my cards without adding a lot of bulk. This floral tape is from 2Peas.
And that's it for me today. I'm noticing that I have zero manly cards in my stash for get well or birthdays. Definitely need to add those to my stamping to-do list. :)

Today:

Finishing up a Project Life insert for Week 4, working on some fun kits for the shop.....and dealing with my Josey girl who got a mild concussion at this week's basketball game. We took her in to get checked out yesterday and all is okay. A lingering headache is her biggest symptom. Man, it feels like forever since I've had a full day to work. Heading there right now. Have a great day everyone!

PIP Day....Project Life In Progress..Week 3

2012-01-24T09:20:00.002-06:00

It's PIP Day for Week 3 of Project Life. Can you believe that January is almost over? If you've been keeping up with your Project Life you can now see the photos turning into pages. Isn't it wonderful to see your album filling up? These are the days.

Here's a shot of this week's Project Life in Progress. First thing you might notice is the rainbow sherbet color palette. I'm loving a little more white + some fresh color for the new year. I worked last night while watching tv on getting all my journaling cards in place + gathering a fun pile of embellishments.

Product Picks:

This week I mixed journaling cards from Marcy Penner's shop with cards from the Clementine & Cobalt Project Life Core Kits. From my stash I pulled several stamp sets including my Label Basics from Papertrey + some Ali Edwards stamps. I also pulled some fun Washi tape, Basic Grey 6 x6 paper pad, and some printed grid paper + grid labels(my printer has a feature that allows me to print grid + notebook paper, so fun). The fun days of the week pads are from Target, some happy little finds that made their way home with me.

Challenge:

1. Keep my embellishments fairly flat. I'm really trying to keep my albums down to 2 like I did for 2011.

2. Use a week in review insert.

3. Use more 4 x 6 photos.

4. Make my own stamped labels.

Chit Chat:

I'm finding that I have a lot more photos lately. It will be interesting to see if this continues or perhaps we're just particularly busy right now. I'm definitely having to plan my pages when I have the extra photos. I don't like to have extra photos sitting around so I just print what I need for my album. On the flip side, sometimes you don't have enough photos for week. Check out Jennifer Hufford's Project Life week over at Elle's Studio to see how she makes up for a lack of photos this week.

Inspiration:

This week's inspiration comes from 2 great blogs I found. First is Ann-Marie Morris. Her pages are full of color, fun embellishments, lots of photos and great insert pages. Leena Loh's blog is another blog full of eye candy. I immediately fell in love with her beautiful Instagram blog header and was very happy to find this inspiring page of Instagrams. I just took a bunch of household photos and will definitely be using this for inspiration for a fun collage page. Leena's PL pages are full of fun photos, beautiful finishing touches that seem so simple but perfect, lots of hand journaling and good use of white space. Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

Your questions answered:

1. I'd love if some week you could explain what sizes you choose for your pictures, since I noticed you used all small ones this week. The sizes of photos I use all depends on how many photos I need to squeeze into that particular week. If I only have one photo for a day then it's usually a 4 x 6. If there are two photos I usually turn them into Instagram squares or smaller rectangles that fit into (1)4x6 slot. If there are even more photos for a day I will start fitting them into the 3 x 4 slots. The more photos I have, the more I really have to plan my weekly layout.

2. How do you photograph your spreads? I'm struggling to get good photos of mine. I have a bench that sits right below 5 windows in my dining room. I photograph all of my layouts on that bench usually around mid-day when I have soft, natural light shining through. I scoot my table around if there happens to be any glare which can pose issues with the shiny page protectors. Natural lighting is your best friend.

3. How do you print the smaller photos you put in your 4x6 slots? Do you use a certain computer program? For any square photos I use Instagram on my iPhone. You can see this post for tips. I print all my photos at home using my Epson Artisan 730 printer. It has a great program for printing multiple photos on one sheet. I can customize the photos sizes to be whatever size I want. No Photoshop needed.

4. May I ask which photo album pockets it is you are using? I use Project Life's Design A Pocket Pages with an assortment of the other page protectors mixed in for insert pages.

5. I was wondering if you could discuss the process of getting your phone pics to your computer how you print them. How do you get them to have the white border like Polaroid pics or are those usually Instax pics. Can you make your iPhone pics look like Instax when you print them? This blog post is a good resource for your questions. For the white borders on my photos, I have a setting on my printer that allows for borders.

6. What kind of camera do you use? I am using a Canon Rebel XSI and I have an old Tamron zoom lens too. A lot of my photos lately are taken with my iPhone too, it's sooo handy vs. the big camera.

7. Will the area where the title page has chipboard letters get bulky? How does your nearly complete 2011 album(s)look? I'm worried that that corner of the album will start to get huge and puffy. I ended up using (2)12 x 12 binders for my 2011 Project Life pages + insert pages. They are pretty full so I'm paying close attention to my use of dimensional embellishments this year. I'd like to keep 2012 to 2 albums also.

8. I am curious about your vintage typewriter and wonder if it is manual or electric? My manual typewriter is a pretty little gem from Good Will. I paid less than $15 bucks for it and had to re-thread a new ribbon (from Staples) onto it's existing spools. I use it each week as my hand journaling is rather large and loopy and takes up a lot of space.

9.I'm curious where you got the letters you are using to spell out words. Those are chipboard letters which can be purchased at most stores that sell scrapbooking supplies. Most of the ones I've used lately come in the main kit from Studio Calico each month with my paid subscription.

10. I have noticed that when I turn my pages the cards are falling out, how do you stop your album from falling out everywhere? Hmm, I'm not having these issues with my Design A Page Pockets. Not sure if that's what you're using. For any pockets that have the opening on the side instead of on top, there is a little movement. I simply add a little sticky dot to keep photos in place.

11. Are you able to share money saving tips on starting PL and how to maintain the project without spending too much money? There are several options. You will definitely need some sort of page protectors. Lots of options from Project Life. From there you can use your existing supplies to create journaling cards, etc. If affordable, the Project Life Core Kits are great if you want to add in a year's worth of journaling card inserts. For this, all you would need is to just add photos + journaling to page protectors. The rest of the embellishments are fun but not necessary if you looking for simple, easy and affordable.

This week:

The girls are all better and back in school. Both basketball tournaments are over so it's a tiny bit less hectic than usual this week. I'm working on some fun new vintage kits for the shop + I'll be posting some cards I made using leftovers from Week 2 of Project Life. My Project Life Week 3 will be up on the blog later this week also. Have a great day everyone!

Project Life Week 2 (January 9-January 15, 2012)

2012-01-21T10:50:00.000-06:00

Happy Weekend to you! We have a busy day planned so I have to type fast to sneak in this blog post. Josey's BB team is playing in the championship game tonight in their league tournament. Go Lady Cats!! But for now I can't wait to share my Week 2 of Project Life with you. It's my favorite week to date. In my Week 2 PIP (Project Life in Progress) post I challenged myself to use mostly items from a Studio Calico kit + make cards with the leftovers. The cards are coming soon and I did use mostly SC kit items. I got totally scrappy and treated each insert as a mini scrapbook page. My spread is very mixy matchy but I think overall it blends together pretty well. I'm also very excited because I completed my insert pages in the same week that I got the 2 page spread done. I have lots of incomplete insert pages for 2011 because I thought I would go back and scrap those pages in the traditional method. Not gonna happen probably. I used divided page protectors this time and got my inserts done so much more easily. You'll see those at the end of my post.
Here's the left side of my Week 2 layout. I had so many photos this week that I to bypass my main, dated insert and the week in review insert. Those extra slots come in really handy when you have excess photos you want to use. I also didn't use one single 4 x 6 photo this week. I love the slots filled with those big photos but there was just too much to record this week.
There were tournaments, a party for Josey, card night for Eric, homework, lots of traveling, lots of sickies at our house + just lots of photos that I captured.
Here's shots from my 3 x 4 journaling inserts. I used a PL Clementine card on the left with typewriter journaling + an Ali Edwards stamp set from Technique Tuesday called It's OK. I used this stamp set several times this month. On the right I used patterned paper from Studio Calico's January County Fair kit. It was fun to just reach into this box knowing that I had a nice selection of items to choose from. Easy thinking. I also used some October Afternoon Flower Sack die cuts that I ordered from SC last month also. The little dog and girl was perfect for this photo of Josey and Charlie. The best friends banner was from that Flower Sack collection too and I used several these as an ongoing theme for my inserts this month.
Here I used a die cut from the kit from Ormolu. I backed it with grid patterned paper + added butterfly die cuts from the OA Flower Sack collection. The small alphabet also came in the SC kit and is from October Afternoon. It's nice to use pick 1 small alpha + 1 chipboard alpha and use those to tie everything together for my pages. Behind the butterflies I added a wadding of string and then stitched down the center of the butterflies with my sewing machine. The right uses more Flower Sack accents + alpha stickers. You'll see lots of typed label journaling on my pages today. The journaling card with "Tuesday" on it is from Marcy Penner's shop.
Here I used another Clementine journaling card + the coordinating patterned paper from this kit on the right. I love the light and airy feel of the Clementine kit and I'm noticing the look in my last few weekly layouts. On the left I used a white tag from my shop as a base for some chipboard letters that I stitched on. On the right I used small photos + an OA banner + alpha stickers. Don't forget the date stamp. Love to add that to each insert.
Here I used 2 Clementine journaling cards that have photos on them. The OA Flower Sack puppy accent was just perfect for this photo of Charlie.
And now on to the 4 x 6 inserts.Here I used a Clementine piece that has photos of my mama's famous scalloped potatoes. Does potatoes have an E? Well it does in my pages, ha. I used some Washi tape, OA accents and a chipboard piece from the SC kit from Basic Grey I believe. Funny how so many of those accents worked perfectly with my photos this week.
Here I got really scrappy with an insert that features some kit items from my new Big Cartel shop. I challenged myself to find a use for the "C" circle accent from the OA Flower Sack pieces. I added it to another white tag from my shop + a bracket from Ali's It's OK stamp set + small alpha letters. Love that Jenni Bowlin plastic flower you see on the right. That was a kit item too.
More kit items + a sticker that came on a Sonic bag + a stamp from Ali's It's OK set.
Here I used 2 photos that both have a "celebration" theme. More OA accents + typed sticker labels. I think those are becoming a mainstay on my pages. Must keep them on hand.
I used an Instagram photo here along with an Ormolu die cut from the kit. I typed right on these die cuts.
And here's my 2 page spread shown with my insert page. I used a Project Life Design G Pocket Page which will available sometime in February. I like all my insert pages to be smaller than a 12 x 12 size so that the main weekly pages can be seen.
Our little Jordy gets sick every year and has a hard time shaking it. With her asthma, every cold or flu symptom gets magnified and it's a big deal. She was down for nearly 2 weeks and is just now feeling better. It's an event that I wanted to document on it's own. I saved a Jell-O box and some prescription pieces for memorabilia. Lots of label stickers with typing for journaling. My handwriting is just too big and loopy for the small amount of space I had.
I used more papers from the SC kit + a few from the Clementine collection + the same alphabet letters that I used on the weekly pages. A blank grid card from Project Life is a perfect backdrop for lettering.
Here's the back side of that insert page. We've been to so many games this year and the traveling and coordinating times with having one red in grade school + one red in high school has really kept us busy this year. I wanted to make a special page that shows the girls' biggest fans and how we love going to their ballgames.
I really love the insert pages because you can use one full page that focuses on one theme, therefore making it feel like more of a traditional scrapbooked page. I used 2 separate inserts for my chipboard stickers because I knew I couldn't fit it all onto one insert. When the inserts are added to the page protector the letters just flow from one insert to the other pretty seamlessly. The basketball was hand cut from a larger sheet of patterned paper.
I used photos of all of us that attend the girls' games + a text message Josey sent to Jordan + these two photos of the girls in action. I like how it looks like Jordan is playing defense against Josey dribbling the ball. I happy little thing that was not really planned. I used sticker letters for their names + chipboard letters that were stitched to the photos. Love adding #'s to inserts whenever I can.
Okey Doke. That's it for Week 2.

Project Life in Progress:

Stay tuned Monday or Tuesday for my Week 3 PIP post + I'll be showing some of the cards I made using leftovers from my Week 2 product picks. I love reading that Project Life has brought many of you back to scrapbooking. I'm right there with you! I know that I would never get as many photos scrapbooked the traditional way. Love that Project Life gave me a new option. I'll be answering your weekly questions in this post so be sure to leave a question in the comments section.

Shop happenings:

I'm waiting on a few new products to come in as soon as some snow clears it's way for some delayed deliveries. I have a few styles of sacks left in the shop + lots of tags that are great for Project Life, cards and more. Look from some vintage kits coming too. I found a few little trinkets at my favorite thrift shop last week and they are cute!

And now:

I have to go shut down Josey's marathon hot shower so that I can hop in myself. Then I gotta pump myself up for the big game tonight. Charlie will be home from his vet check soon too. Eric texted me that Charlie has bad gas today(just what you want to know) and really smelled up the vet's waiting room. Great. Now he's gonna be known as Smelly Dog from now on. Later friends! Enjoy your weekend.

Project Life Week of December 11-17, 2011

2012-01-19T08:55:00.000-06:00

Hi there. Thank you so much for the nice feedback on yesterday's PIP feature. I think it's going to be a great addition to the blog that I hope you enjoy! Today I have weekly Project Life from December 2011. You can visit Becky's blog to see my pages along with a few projects from the rest of the Creative Team.

This is one of the few weeks from back in December where I actually completed the insert pages. For the rest I have the photos + sticky notes but they're not done. I have a goal for 2012 to complete those insert pages the same week I finish the actual weekly PL spread. I'll steadily go back and complete the inserts for 2011 as I get some spare time. I think it's so hard to go back and play catch up when you really want to be working on what's current.

So here's my two page weekly spread without the inserts. I had a hard time figuring out if my December pages should look more holiday like or just go with the day to day happenings. I started my December Daily and was adding all the holiday stuff to that album....then realized that my December PL weeks looked very un-holiday like. I still have the last 2 weeks of December to catch up on so I know now that I want to add in some of those holiday happenings to my PL pages too.

One of the things that I feel like I'm kind of finding a good groove with is setting the tone for each week now. By this I mean that I feel like my pages are looking more put together, a little more organized and that the 2 pages are balancing out more with the overall color and look. I like to think of each little space as it's own mini scrapbook page.....but yet have the entire 2 page layout look cohesive.
Here's the left page of the spread. It was getting very close to Christmas and I hadn't done hardly any baking and NO shopping yet. I had a big list with lots to do. We were also in the midst of finishing up the re-design of the girls' Lounge + I was sewing on quilts, and moving out old furniture.
We were also heavy into basketball season, taking care of Charlie who looks so tiny in the photos and just living life.

I love that my main, dated 4 x 6 insert really sets the theme for this week....lots to do. I did my week in review on this insert instead of in one of the 3 x 4 slots. The typed portion was done on a Russel + Hazel sticky note from 2Peas.

Just a few snap shots which I outlined with my Bic Markits and added a stamped chipboard accent + Washi tape from the Smash Book line.
Here I've got a photo showing the back of my Blazer packed with Christmas shopping items + a photo of the quilted whiteboard I made for the girls.
I love this photo of Charlie that I captured with his soccer ball. He still loves to play with his ball every day so this will be a fun memory to reflect on down the road. On the right I've got a half of a Diptic photo that shows me at school with Jordan for her Christmas dinner day. Who wouldn't love to see what their school lunch looked like 20 years down the road? I get lots of look and sighs when I take photos like these out in public. I just smile and say *I'm a scrapbooker* and that seems to explain it all.

The photo on the left shows yet another one of Jordan's goofy poses. She's holding her book that she finished just the day before her AR reading goal was due. She was quite the slacker this semester on her reading. I also included a small snippet of a texting session we had where she texted me that she made her goal. I love the text messages because they really capture conversations word for word. On the right the girls are getting their groove on with the Wii and Just Dance 3. I like to fill in these dark blank spots of photos with an embellishment like the stitched on chipboard letters I used...or a sticker or tag, etc.

Here's a 4 x 6 insert using an Instgram photo of some hot sauce that Eric got at the gift exchange for work. He brought a big container of pub snack mix and the cheapest 6 pack of beer he could find. Duct taped it all together and go figure that it was the most stolen gift in the exchange that night. Too funny. I used lots of the small address labels for journaling...just ran the label sheet through my vintage typewriter. If you look at some of my other 4 x 6 slots you'll notice that I used lots of sticker labels there too.
This is another 4 x 6 photo that coincides with the smaller insert of Charlie playing soccer. I love shots like this that capture something up close but then there's stuff in the background too. I can see Charlie and our house with Christmas lights. The big blank spaces allow for the stitched on chipboard letters which I love.
And here's my 12 x 12 spread with the inserts shown. I used a 6 x 12 page protector and an 8.5 x 11 which has some simple school papers from the girls. Here is a great tip and Ali Edwards does this too(along with many of you I'm sure): Any inserts that go in between the 12 x 12 weekly layouts are smaller than 12 x 12. I feel that this helps showcase the main 12 x 12 layout + it tells that the smaller inserts are supporting stories. You always get a glimpse of the 12 x 12 pages from both the left and the right. You can use regular inserts or trim down any 12 x 12 inserts that you choose. Or create a custom size by stitching around a photo or whatever you include in the insert, then trim around it. I just love the look of this.
Here's my 6 x 12 insert which has a separate story on each side. I used papers from the 12 x 12 layouts to keep it all looking uniform. For this page I include my shopping list torn right out of my list pad. It coordinates with the photo in the main 12 x 12 page where I show the mother load of packages in the back of the blazer.
And here's the back side of the 6 x 12 insert. It features a not-so-fun but oh-so-real moment where Eric got a warning ticket for speeding. I love that I was able to use the 2 naughty/nice Elle's Studio cards for journaling, just perfect! I have a 4 x 6 slot in the main 12 x 12 layout that shows Eric's face + the officer's lights. We were just talking about going and seeing the Christmas lights and I joked to Eric that these were not the kind of lights I was talking about, hence the vertical title on the right of the layout. I know this layout will be a fun one to look back on. You don't know how badly I wanted to ask the officer to "say cheeeeese" while poking his head in our window. Note to self: Keep the iPhone handy at all times.

With that I'll sign off for today. I really hope you are enjoying the entire process of Project Life. Find your groove, capture those moments & stories and just roll with it. Your pages will change, will evolve into your own great style where it be very simple or very detailed. You will love to see your PL album fill with days and weeks of memories. I promise!

PIP Day sharing:

For my Project Life in Progress days I'd love to feature inspiring projects. Please feel free to link me to your blog if you update regularly with PL happenings. I love looking at other Project Lifer pages. :)

Shop re-stocks:

I added some sacks and other items to the shop this week. Am looking forward to getting an Elle's Studio assortment of goodies to create some fun PL kits + I've found a great lineup of tags that I'll be offering soon...perfect for adding journaling to all your cards and layouts. I've got a few items left in my Etsy shop also if you're looking for the colored variety of tags.

PIP Day....Project Life In Progress..Week 2

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

I thought it would be fun to start a new feature on my blog for all you Project Lifers. I'm calling it Pip Day, for Project Life in Progress. I get so inspired by seeing other PL pages whether in progress, a sneak peek or a finished week. So why not share the mid-week progress along with a little chit chat?

I'll be sharing a photo of my PIP each week, like the one below. This is the part I love and look forward to each week with Project Life. The putting it all together. Digging through my stash for little embellishments. Seeing what colors I choose for the week. Stealing a few moments here and there to work on my pages.

The posts are going to be random in nature. I have a few weekly topics in mind but we'll just roll with it and see how it goes. Please feel free to leave comments and let me know how your PIP is going. :)

Products Picks:

For this week I saw my Studio Calico box sitting on my chair, calling my name. Okay, why not? So most of my products this week are from the January County Fair main kit + a few other fun items that I purchased last month from SC. It was fun to have all the choices narrowed down. In particular I'm using the alphabet stickers, patterned paper, lots of October Afternoon Flower Sack pieces, Ormolu die cuts & journaling cards and pieces of the BG Picadilly chipboard stickers. I have some inserts for this week so I'll be using more from this stash on those too.

Challenge:

1.Use mostly items from the Studio Calico box.

2.Use leftovers to create cards for my stash using card sketch from this post.

Chit Chat:

1. I didn't use any 4 x 6 photos this week, just lots of smaller photos. I was just saying to myself how I really liked the 4 x 6 photos with white borders. Go figure.

2. Was thinking, you CAN work on your pages even if you don't have the page protectors. Simply lay out 2 pieces of 12 x 12 cardstock or (2) 12 x 12 page page protectors. Use 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 sections + items from your PL core kit and you're in business. Lay it all out like you would if you had the page protector, snap a photo of the finished layout and tuck it all in a page protector or envelope. When your page protectors come in, slip all the pieces into place.

3. Listened to a podcast that Ali Edwards participated in yesterday. They brought up an interesting discussion in keeping up with PL. Will I keep up this year? Are we committed to this project this year? It definitely takes time and effort whether you use just the basic products or are getting scrappy with your PL. I feel confident that I'll stay up to date this eyar. Stay with it friends, the payoff is worth the effort. :)

Inspiration:

1. Definitely loving Marcy Penner's free page layout printables. Very helpful for laying out multiple photos. You can see mine in the top photo today.

2. Monica McNeil has written some insightful posts about her perspective for Project Life. Good reads indeed.

3. Ali Edwards' weekly PL pages are just so fun to look at. To me it seems that Ali selects each and every embellishment very thoughtfully. I love that her pages are full of eye candy but very simple in nature. Definitely about the photos + the words.

4. So excited to see Nichol Magouirk's first PL creation, her 2012 title page. Nichol gives me my traditional scrapbook layout fix each time I visit her blog. Looking forward to see her take on PL this year.

Your questions answered:

1. How do you take a screen shot of weather and text messages with the iPhone? Hold down the home key and the power button simultaneously.

2. I have a hard time dealing with each space. Do you plan it as a whole or just go with it? Lately I've been using lots of photos in both the 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 slots so I've been using Marcy's printables (see above link) to plan out my pages. I have an Interior Design background so this just seems natural to me to sketch it all out.

3. How much time do you spend on a Project Life layout each week? I spend 10 minutes or so each day jotting down notes in my calendar. Probably 30-45 minutes printing at home and trimming photos. And about 2 hours working on a 2 page spread, not all at one time.

4. Do you sew/attach embellishments directly on the photos or on the page protectors? Right on the photos.

5. How do you sew through chipboard letters? Very slowly, sometimes helping the needle along manually. A sharp needle helps.

And that's it for this week's PIP. Since my weeks go Monday-Sunday I'm thinking I'd like to do a PIP post on Tuesday with a weekly PL update on Thurs/Fri. We'll see how that schedule works.

This week:

Jordan is sick again. That's 4 days in the last two weeks she's missed school. Josey is out today too. Bleck. Also I have some re-stocks of products in my shop here. Some new kits will be added to the shop soon when new product arrives. Also, look for a huge new selection of tags coming soon. Perfect for cards and pages. :)

Project Life Week 1 (January 1-January 08, 2012) + my weekly process

2012-01-16T07:30:00.000-06:00

Hi there Project Lifers. I've been reading a little about your great successes with your first week of Project Life.....and a few posts about being overwhelmed, not knowing where to start, etc. With my Week 1 of 2012, I'm going to share a little behind the scenes look at how my weekly process works. Sometimes you just need to see what others are doing to get things clicking. So here's my process:

Photo taking for the week:

The idea behind Project Life for me is to capture a week's worth of everyday moments and not much more. I have been using my iPhone for the majority of my PL photos because my phone is handy most of the time. I am not looking to take 20 photos a day and then sort through them. Usually I take a couple of photos a day and then weed them out (unless it's a special event, ballgame, birthday, something really cool happened, etc). Having completed almost 3 full years of Project Life albums I can look back now and know that the single photos turn into weeks which turn into months...which turn into years. I just want to capture the general everyday highlights...not every single moment.

Getting the photos into the Project Life album:

1. I set my PL album up with a stack of blank page protectors, all Design A to begin with. Using sticky notes (which I love so much), I write the weekly dates down for about a month's worth of pages. My first week of 2012 was a little different because I used January 1-January 8th so that my next full week would start on a Monday. I place the dated sticky note in the upper left hand corner of each page protector. This helps me know what dates to refer to on my calendar, in my notes I took and if I ever get behind a little.

2. When a week has passed, I'm ready to print photos. I started printing at home using an Epson Artisan 730 and I love it! I started using Marcy Penner's awesome PL printables to create a plan of what photos I want where. Having an Interior Design degree, making little floor plans of my pages is so natural. To start printing I usually sit my album right next to my printing desk. Referring to my calendar and notes I print the full size photos for the 4 x 6 slots first. These may be full 4 x 6 photos or Instagram photos. I then fill in with any smaller photos that fill the 4 x 6 and/or journaling slots. I've definitely been adding more than just 7 photos for the week lately. For the extras, I just print them smaller and add them into the journaling slots. For this week I think I used 14 photos which captures even more stories. My goal is to not have a ton of insert pages so I really try to fit in all that I can into these two pages + still have room for journaling. For 2011 I ended up with 2 albums packed really full and my goal is to keep 2012 at 2 albums also.

Putting it all together:

Now is where the visuals come in. Once I have my photos in my page protectors, it's time to move my album into my work room. If you are using Project Life in it's simplest form, you don't need any other supplies than journaling cards and a pen. I have chosen to get scrappy with my Project Life because I love to scrapbook and I love to purchase new supplies & get all crafty. Project Life works so well for me because I can complete a weekly spread in about 2 hours and I totally get my scrapbooking fix. Sometimes that 2 hours is at one sitting but most of the time it's 15 minutes here or 30 minutes there that I get to work on my pages. I don't do many traditional layouts simply due to time constraints. Would love to but I know it just isn't gonna happen. I'll have an occasional insert that is more traditional style here and there though.

First up I reach for my journaling cards and main dated 4 x 6 pieces. I'm using a mix of ALL of the core kits. I just love the variety and mixy matchy style. I just shuffle through them and pick out ones that coordinate with my photos, usually color being a main element I look for. I'll also use some of my own handmade journaling cards that I make using the grid journaling cards + I've started printing some digital journaling cards that I purchase online...like Marcy's great lines.
Once I have the journaling cards picked out I lay all my photos and cards out on top of my page protector for the week. I work right with my album on my table....there's no losing items, it's all organized,etc. If you don't have the space for this you could certainly remove the page protectors from the album and just work with those.
Next I reach for the goodies...the embellishments, Washi tapes, stickers, chipboard letters, patterned papers, etc. I really try to pull out only a handful of items each week. I just want to embellish my pages, not create a shrine to scrapbooking supplies on each weekly layout. For me, photos + the stories come first. The embellishments are just icing on the cake. They are just filling in little leftover spaces, and that's it. Plus, the idea is for me to get the pages done in a timely manner. I don't want a huge mess of products to clean up afterwards.
Then I just start filling in. I embellish the photos and journaling card with all kinds of accents. I find that I'm loving little file folder/address labels for journaling. I run the full sheet through my vintage typewriter and then just peel off however many I typed on and stick them to photos or journaling cards.
After I've added all my embellishments, labels, etc I usually add some stitching to my weekly inserts. I gather up the whole stack and head to my sewing machine. Man I love sewing on my paper projects. Love. Lastly, I tuck all the photos and journaling pieces into the appropriate slots. My favorite part, having a weekly spread all done.
But wait. Then there's that little creative mess I've made. It's not overwhelming but do I have clean it up?Yes. Almost every time I clean up after each weekly spread I do. It's so, SO nice to start with a clean work space. Don't even ask me to see what's under my table though....that's a different story and entirely different organizational "issue". Another day, perhaps.
And here's Week 1 of 2012. Complete, yay! Red and blue were kind of my color themes I worked with this week.
Here's the left page spread. New Year's Day, got the flu this week, preparing for big shop update, Pinterest and Josey grew.
Here's the right page. Awesome weather to hang out clothes, 7 loads of laundry, Josey driving to school for the first time by herself, basketball games, hanging out with the family, movie nights and taking down the Christmas decor.
A few close-ups. Here's my main, dated insert. Stitched on chipboard letters, the date stamps, typed labels and 2 photos. I usually don't include photos on this insert but I had a few extra days in this week. Did you eat black eyed peas on New Year's Day? A family tradition that I continue with my family....they hate it, hate the peas and only eat one. Just one. To make Mom happy.
Here I have a photo of our chalkboard + a PL journaling card. I added small sticker letters and half a sticker label that I typed on.
Another PL card with a ruler sticker + a plain journaling card that I added a photo to along with a sticker with the date, typed labels and some patterned paper.
Here I used a folded journaling card to add the story about how nice it was this day + doing SEVEN loads of Josey's laundry. Good grief is right! I really love the Studio Calico chipboard cloud that I stapled on and added the word "pull" to. This is a reminder that there's an insert here for other viewers of my album. On the right I used a screen shot of a text message Josey sent me after making it to school okay. I love that I'm capturing real conversations via texting. These take me right back to that particular moment in time.
Here I used a PL journaling card with typed labels and a small photos. On the right Jordan saved me a Skittles box from her 8th grade movie night. She was supposed to snap me a photo with her phone but I'm pretty sure she forgot. The candy box worked for me!
I embellished a 4 x 6 photo with some stickers + chipboard letters + a typed label. Josey finally grew 1/4" after more than a year. She was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I'm glad I captured the wall with our pencil marks. You never know when a fresh coat of paint might cover it up.
Here I added a portion of a Fed Ex sticker that was stuck on my front door to a photo of some new shop kit items. I typed on a grid label I created and stuck/stapled that to my photo.
I love my clothesline photos. Don't know why but I just love to see clothes out on the line, whipping back and forth. Looking at this photo I can almost smell the freshness. I added a stamped label and stitched on a chipboard number. I love adding numbers to my layouts. They're such a cool design element and I think the eye is drawn to numbers.
Here I used an Instagram photo that I divided using the Diptic app. I typed on a Medium Manila Parcel Tag then added an Amy Tangerine key sticker. Tags are one of those universal supplies that I use on everything. You can find more at my Made by Mish shop and my Etsy shop. I'll be getting more fun sizes too. You can slip them right through a typewriter or use removable adhesive to adhere them to a piece of copy paper & then run through your typewriter. You can also run them through your printer in the same manner. I find that my handwriting is so loopy and big that I run out of space for journaling sometimes. My typewriter journaling is just perfect for longer stories.Another number stitched to a photo + a typed label. Look for corners of photos that have no real content to add little embellishments to.
And lastly, my last 4 x 6 insert for the week featuring 2 small, square photos with typed journaling labels above. I used 2 arrow stickers from a PL core kit to point to each photo from the journaling label. Arrows are a great design element to use on your PL pages as they really draw the eye to a photo or accent.
Another fun week of our lives in the album. So happy. So excited to start a brand new year. How did your first week go? Just dive in if you haven't started.....start by printing those photos and everything else will fall into place. If it's too overwhelming just stick with photos + journaling card these first few weeks. Good luck and please ask questions or leave your great tips in the comments section.

Today:

The girls are out of school today. My little Jordy is sick so she'll be taking a trip to the doctor to have her lungs checked out. We always worry about her so much with her asthma. It seems to just make everything worse. I'll also be printing my Week 2 Project Life photos.

Basketball updates:

Jordan had her league tournament last week and they got 1st place! Yay, Lady Cats!! Josey's team won 1st in league standings and has their tournament this week. We'll be on the go once again.

Shop update:

I'll be putting more sacks in the shop this week + I'll have some fun kits to use for your Project Life soon using some Elle's Studio products.

Papertrey January Release Projects...

2012-01-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

It's time for the January Papertrey release. The entire Papertrey Design Team will have their projects up for viewing today. Please see my left sidebar for links to all the designers' blogs.

This month will be the last of the series for the Flower Fusion sets and dies. I used Flower Fusion #12 and it's coordinating flower die to create some fun additions for my Friendship Jar set. Such a happy little flower with the plaid markings. I also used Handmade Hodgepodge for the oval labels combined with a sentiment from Friendship Jar. It was also a fun discovery to find that the new Limitless layers 2.25" Oval dies work perfectly with Borders and Corners: Oval.
I went for a bright and cheery look so I could get a good start on my springtime stash of cards.
Next up I used Celebrations to create a fun happy birthday sentiment on a card front. The felt flower was cut from the new Kraft felt using the Flower Fusion #12 die. It's tied with a button and chocolate twine.

For the rest of my cards today I created a giant sheet of hand stamped patterned paper using images from the Mat Stack 5 Collection. I combined this patterned paper with lots of other images being released this month for a total mixy matchy stamping session. Here I paired the patterned paper with Flower Fusion #12 and Script Sentiments + some of the new patterned paper
Here used a punched image from Tag-its #12. This is also the last of the sets from this series too. Die cut patterned paper and felt finish off the bottom of the card.
This colorful set of card really shows up the handmade patterned paper I made + some more of the adorable flowers from Flower Fusion #12. You'll also notice that on most of these cards I used a little snippet made from Handmade Hodgepodge....not just for the back of your cards.
Here I mixed up some oval shapes from the new oval dies with an older stamp set and the oval stamps. A wadding of shimmery thread is behind both tags.
And finally a few more thank you cards.....can you tell I need to send out Christmas thank you's still? On the top card you get a good glimpse of the new Kraft ribbon layered with twine and buttons. On the bottom I used a big piece of the Dearest Jane patterned paper. I used a large tag to stamp my Handmade Hodgepodge sentiment. I love this on the front of my projects.
I hope you enjoy my projects today. I know a lot of you have been missing my Papertrey creations. I'll be sure to post them as I create. Be sure to visit Nichole's blog as she'll have a fun post up today too. Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life Week of Oct 2-Oct 8, 2011

2012-01-12T09:10:00.000-06:00

This is a Project Life week from October. Going back and blogging the past months of my Project Life pages really helps me put this project into perspective. If you are new to Project Life this year, please know that as the pages build up in your album so does the feeling of satisfaction that you've done something awesome. Looking back at these pages really puts me right back in those photos. From this week I feel like I'm at the Homecoming parade again....watching a Fall football game....attending the girls' volleyball games. I've captured the moments that I want to remember. All of the embellishments are fun but it's the photos and the memories that matter the most. With our busy lives, the days go by so quickly. It's really nice to be able to look back and see what had us running so much.
This week I used a color scheme of Kraft, cream and gray which really coordinated well with my photos. I used lots of products from My Minds Eye Everyday Fun collection + items from a monthly Studio Calico kit.
A fun week full of school events, ballgames and lots of family time. I love that I'm capturing lots of photos of the girls' friends. Those are some of my most treasured photos from when I got my first camera in grade school. The kind of camera where you had to use your thumb to progress the film....wow, we've come a long way in technology.
I love this main, dated insert. It combines my handwriting + Kraft accents + canvas pieces along machine stitching.
Here I used a chipboard number to create a simple journaling card. I love to integrate my handwriting in with purchased accents.
Here's another week in review journaling card. A lot of you liked this idea and I'm happy to hear I could give you a good tip to use in your PL albums.
Here I cut an Instagram photo in half and used them in 2 journaling slots. Just a fun way to get more photos in for this week.
A few My Minds Eye accents + a label that I ran through my typewriter. For small labels, sticky notes, etc I just run the piece through my typewriter if it's large enough....or for smaller pieces I adhere them with temporary adhesive to a piece of copy paper and then run that whole sheet through my typewriter.
This week I have a few extra school photos of the girls that I didn't get around to adding into extra page protector inserts. I simply slip these into a page protector along with a few accents that I want to use. I'll come back to these pages at a later date. At least they are in the right spot with a few embellishments and a sticky note of what I plan to do.
That's it for another week from 2011. As I'm working on the first week of January's Project Life, I'm snapping a few photos as I go along. I'll be sure to post those when I post those pages so you can get an idea of how I go about doing a weekly layout. I'll have that layout up as soon as I get it completed.

Shop Update:

Thank you so much for the wonderful response to my new Made by Mish shop. All orders are being sent out today. I have a big re-stock of sacks so for those who inquired I'll have more within a week or so. Also for those who asked, I plan to keep my Etsy shop open as I transition everything to the new store front. There are still some items that you can shop for there too.

On the list for today:

Trying to stay warm. It's 17 degrees with a wind chill of 1! I'm also wrapping up my Papertrey projects for this month's release so look for a post on the 15th. A run to the post office then I'm back in the Craft Department for a little tidying up....and then it's Project Life time. Hope your day is warm and cozy, friends.

New Shop Update + a few more creations...

2012-01-10T09:57:00.004-06:00

It's time to ring in the new year with a fresh shop update. I have re-stocks of many popular items + some new kits just in time for Valentine cards, packaging, scrapbooking and more! Today I am try out my NEW Big Cartel online shop. It works pretty much like Etsy.....simply add the items to your cart, adjust the quantity if desired and check out with PayPal as usual. My Big Cartel shop name is Made by Mish and the link is right here. I still have items in my Etsy shop that you can shop for at this link. Please note, if you shop for items from both shops, product and shipping charges will be on a totally separate PayPal transaction. If the Big Cartel is as successful to use as I'm hoping, I will eventually phase out my existing Etsy shop. I'm hoping for a smooth transition but please hang with me on any little unforeseen glitches today.

Shop items include tags, tickets and other existing items in my shop plus items like the popular SOLD OUT...Kraft polka date sacks:
The lined notebook paper sacks:
Small lined sacks, small grid sacks in blue and gray, and all of the small chevron sacks with the exception of the red sacks. Perfect for small gift items + these are the ones I've been using in my Project Life:
SOLD OUT...Large red striped sacks:
SOLD OUT....A combo sack kit perfect for Valentine goodies:
Divine Twine in a Valentine stripe:
A new regular kit item, the Simple Sack Gift Wrap kit. Simply fold a doily over the sack & attach tag with clothespin:
Limited quantities of my Sending You Love airmail themed kit:
SOLD OUT...For the girly girl, limited quantities of this girl Bling It On kit:
And here's a few more samples made from the Sending You Kit. Here I folded an airmail envelope to make a small gift enclosure. Perfect for a mini card or small, flat candies.
I embellished the enclosure with kit items like the blue seam binding, clothespin, chevron tag, airmail Divine Twine ribbon and my own date stamp.

Here I made a very, very simple embellished envelope enclosure using a blue grid label sticker that I ran through my typewriter. A simple airmail twine wrapping and clothespin finish up the envelope.

A misting of Studio Calico's ampersand mask reinforces the sentiment that I typed on the grid label sticker. 2 punched hearts from the kit adorn the envelope. So easy to just slip in a card, candy bar, gift card, and more.
Okay, enough of the chit chat. The shop is open with all the fun, new items. Enjoy!!

A few notes:

1. Due to the amount of new product offered and working with the new Big Cartel shop, shipping time may be 3-4 days. I'll be making post office trips each day this week until all the orders are sent out. All orders placed will be shipped out by Friday afternoon.

2. Quantities of kits and Wrinkle Ribbon are especially limited and other items such as the sacks may sell fairly quickly. If so, I'll have regular re-stocks of sacks and my standard shop items fairly quickly.

Sending You Love.....Etsy kit creations

2012-01-09T09:49:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday! I'm getting ready for a big Etsy shop update tomorrow. I have a sick kiddo home from school today so a definite time has not been determined yet. I'll have re-stocks of chevron sacks, grid sacks, large Kraft polka dot & notebook paper sacks......lots of kits for Valentine packaging including a hot pink Bling It On kit.....Divine Twine Valentine striped baker's twine.....embellishments...and more. Here's a sneak peek at my Sending You Love airmail themed Valentine kit that will be included in tomorrow's shop update:
And I have a few projects made from the Sending You Love kit too. First up I used airmail envelopes from the kit to make some goodie enclosures for the reds for Valentine's Day.

iTunes cards are always a great gift for the girls so flat envelopes are perfect for tucking in the card + a candy bar, pack of gum, money or other flat treats. I used Heather's Tag-its #11 stamp set and a 1.75" circle punch to create the heart circles. Other kit items that I used include cork punched hearts, airmail baker's twine, and a paper doily.
Another fun kit addition is the grid label stickers. I ran these through my vintage typewriter and then stamped on the girls' names using Hero Arts mini letter stamps and Papertrey Enchanted Evening and Pure Poppy ink. I love to personalize little gift items/cards and I think these fun labels will be just the ticket.
My second project using the Sending You Love kit features a card with a portion of an airmail envelope used on top.
Base card is Rustic White with chevron patterned paper on the bottom portion. Other kit items used were the blue seam binding, an old postage stamp and more of the grid label stickers.
Scraps from the airmail envelope and patterned paper were used on the inside to create an additional Valentine greeting.
Fun stuff coming up tomorrow so stay tuned to the blog. I'll have more Valentine projects using kit items on the blog all this week.

Project Life:

A lot of you are just getting started with your very first week of Project Life. I'm reading a little about being nervous, a little anxiety even and just a feeling of where to start. To help you out I'm taking step by step photos of my first Project Life week of 2012 and will walk you through my process of assembling a weekly layout. Look for this post maybe Wednesday.....all depends on my little patient and how the week goes. If you're taking photos and jotting down a few notes on your calendar, you're doing good!! And thank you all for the nice comments about me offering encouragement & inspiration with getting you started with Project Life. I'm happy to share, happy to help.

Papertrey Ink:

It's sneak peek on Nichole's blog. And starting on the 10th, countdown posts with fun new projects will be up. I'll have my projects using this month's new products up on my blog on the 15th. Stay tuned. :)

Project Life....Week in Review Inserts

2012-01-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

Project Life fans, here's a little something you might want to consider adding to your weekly layouts. Some time ago I started filling the blank journaling card insert with a "week in review" insert. Since there are 8 journaling smaller journaling slots, there's one slot left over for the week. It's the perfect place to add a bullet type list of events you might want to jot down. Events that don't need/or you don't have a photo for but that complete your week. I absolutely love looking back and seeing how busy our weeks always were.

Here's some specific samples I compiled for today's post. I highlight these in each blog post but I think you'll get the bigger picture when you see them here in one post. It's another fun way to make a little calendar of sorts for this small insert. Tip: Refer to your calendar and make your bullet list on a sticky note....then stick it right in your Project Life album for reference. Then you can just write or type out the list.

I hand write or use typewriter journaling for my week in review. Here I used a Bic Markits marker and my handwriting. I drew little boxes that I checked off.
Here I used a Bic Markits in yellow + my vintage typewriter.
Here on the left I used an October Afternoon sticker along with a typewriter list.
On the right I used *on the menu* because this week was all about handmade/homemade things. The small sticky note from Cavallini was stitched on after I ran it through my typewriter.
Tags are a great way to highlight the week. Here I used a white tag from my Etsy shop.
More typewriter journaling on a Russel & Hazel sticky note + a few snippets of wrapping paper from a present.
Another handwritten list along with a gray Bic Markits. I also added some stitched on embellishments to a Project Life journaling card.
This week I added a tag from a kit item and used my Bic Markits.
On the right card I used my date stamp to stamp several dates and then hand wrote the events below the date. Patterned paper and Washi tape embellish the side of the journaling card.
And lastly I used 2 Studio Calico sticky notes that I ran through my typewriter. I used some some alphabet stamps for the "on the calendar". I stitched around the sticky notes with my sewing machine.
And there ya have it. A little something fun you might want to try. Perfect timing since we're just starting a new year of Project Life.

One last tip: Take a photo of your actual weekly/monthly calendar. I've done this and it really shows just how busy our lives are.

Baby cards for twins...

2012-01-07T08:55:00.000-06:00

Happy Weekend everyone! Looking forward to a fairly relaxing weekend with hopefully some card making and Project Life updating on my plate. Jordan's got a 8th grade movie night planned to see Chip Wrecked so I think I'll rent us a good movie for here at home. Also, I'm going to take Melanie Bauer's lead and make us an adult version of her muffin tin meal to take down to the Lounge. Such a fun idea.

I've had many comments about readers missing my Papertrey contributions. I have taken a new role with Papertrey with a more relaxed assignment schedule but I'm definitely still a part of the team and am loving Papertrey for my stamping projects. I will still be posting my cards and stamped projects here on the blog along with my Project Life layouts. On the 15th of each month I'll also be posting new projects that are from the monthly Papertrey release. So stay tuned, I've got lots of cards that I need to refill for my gift stash since I gave away almost all of them for Christmas and birthday gifts last year. :)

Today in crafty department I'm sharing a set of baby cards I made for Josey's basketball coach. She's pregnant with her first twins, a boy and girl. How exciting! The team held an impromptu baby shower with not much time to purchase a gift when you live 15 miles outside of town. That's when I always go with cards as gifts. I created this cute little package of cards in a very short amount of time.
I reached for lots of baby stamps from Papertrey's nice selection. For the cute giraffes I used Sweet Baby in colors that are suitable for both a boy baby and a girl baby. For the sentiment I used Bitty Baby Blessings which is a great set if you need verses for twins.
My patterned papers are from a Studio Calico monthly kit along with a few scraps I had lying on my stamping table. The base cardstock is Rustic White. For the envelopes I used more sentiments from Sweet Baby and Bitty Baby Blessings. I love to make coordinating envelopes for card sets that are to be used as gifts.
For the packaging, I tucked the cards and envelopes into a Clearly Creative Card Box and tied on some Dark Chocolate ribbon. I love the professional look that the clear boxes lend to card sets. It makes me think of little boxed sets you pick up at the boutique shops. For the tag I used Medium Manila Parcel Tag from my shop with a sentiment from Inside & Out: Baby and Bitty Baby Blessings. A nice little gift that was inexpensive to make and I know will be very much appreciated.
Coming soon:

Next Tuesday I'll be doing an Etsy Shop update. I'll have restocks of all my paper sack goodies including the small varieties shown below plus the larger Kraft polka dot & lined sacks + the large notebook paper sacks. These are great for gifts, cards, Project Life inserts and more!
I'll also have a fun Valentine kit using an airmail theme available in limited quantities. Stay tuned to the blog for Valentines using kit items all week long.

More weekend plans:

After I had the flu this week, some major house disinfecting was in order. You know how that goes, right? It started with 2 loads of laundry with the bedding......and turned into 7 more load of laundry for just Josey's clothes. See what happens when you turn the laundry over to your children? It doesn't happen unless you crack the whip or intervene. Grandma to the rescue! She came over and we divided and conquered. With 65 degree temperatures, we made good use of the clothesline. Josey was very, very happy when I informed her of her good fortune. Little does she know that I have other chores in store for her today. ;) So we're back at it today with more bedding & winter blankets while the weather is SO, so nice. Windows are flying open too, the fresh air is great!

Then I'm taking some time to work down in the Craft Department. I hope to see lots of ink hit the paper and make paper scraps fly! I hope you have a wonderful and crafty weekend, friends. Any good movie recommendations?

Project Life Week of September 25-October 1, 2011

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

Hi there, I'm back to blogging today after having a awful case of the flu. I now have a nice lingering migraine but at least I'm functioning again. Today I'm posting a Project Life week from way back in September. I want to remind you that if you get stuck or behind or unmotivated.....it's okay. You can catch up just like I did. I was 17 weeks behind in 2011 because the summer months just got so hectic. I didn't think I could ever catch up but I worked hard, made a plan and I did it. You can read about my post on "getting behind, getting caught up" right here. And I have to admit, the Christmas holiday caught up with me too and then with the flu, I'm 3 weeks behind again. But I have a plan because I wrote down notes in my calendar, I kept on taking photos and will be printing those photos today. It's manageable and I'm confident that I can catch up this week. I've given myself a 2 week window of opportunity on being behind so I'm not far from that goal.

So here's a week from last year. This was Jordan's birthday week. I find it kind of fun to make a little title insert that highlights a big happening for that week. I don't do it every time but I think it's fun for birthdays, holidays, or some big event like the last week of school.

Here's my 2 page spread. This one is quite colorful because I used wrapping paper from Jordan's presents on lots of the journaling cards. Birthdays are fun and festive...especially when you turn 13, right?! As a whole, this spread is just a little mish mash of events...exactly what I want my Project Life to capture. The everyday events is what Project Life is all about to me.
Here is the left side of the 2 page layout.
And the right page of the 2 page spread. My photos aren't perfect, some are dark...but that's okay. The memories are recorded and that's what matters.
Here's the main, dated insert. I stitched on chipboard letters and a label sticker to let us know that it's Jordan's birthday week. I used a folded journaling card from a PL Core Kit for the base and then made 2 horizontal flag pieces from scraps of Jordan's wrapping paper.
Here I've used stickers and patterned paper to dress up some journaling cards. I like to use my date stamp to list several activities on one journaling card.
Here I used my typewriter to make a bullet list of this week's happenings. On the bottom is another snippet of wrapping paper. On the right is a mini Instax photo of my nephew. I just stapled it onto a journaling card that is topped with some patterned paper.
Here I used a tag from an Under Armour shirt. The girls always wore an extra layer at football games. On the right is another mini Instax photo of Josey showing her outfit for Pajama Day at school. Again, just another little memory that I caught. Not an event that I'd want to make a full scrapbook layout for but I'm so glad we snapped a photo.
Here's Jordan's birthday. I stitched on more chipboard letters on top of some crumpled wrapping paper. On the right I added a small photo FaceBook birthday greetings to Jordan. I just take a screen shot then send the photo to my email then save in my photos.
Here I used a 4 x 6 slot to keep some items from Jordan's birthday. There's her birthday wish list, a birthday menu, some wrapping paper and a cupcake flag that Jordan made herself for her birthday party. I want to go back to this week and add in an additional insert page which shows more of Jordan's birthday celebration.
Here's a few 4 x 6 inserts that show some 4 x 4 Instagram photos.
As I look back on these older pages of my Project Life album, I am reminded again of why I love it so much. While we're taking photos, it seems that we surely won't forget this moment. But as the days and weeks go by, the memory seems to fade a bit. We are so caught up in living the moment that once we go back to look at photos, we are given a precious little gift of a photo and a small story we scribbled down. We get to relive that moment all over again. Fast forward to a year from now.....5 years.....10 years.....20 years....we'll be so glad we did this!!

Printing Instagrams:

I've had a few questions about how I get my Instagram photos printed and/or onto my computer to prepare for printing. You can certainly send your photos to Postal Pix right from your iPhone if you have those apps. I recently started printing at home using an Epson Artisan 730 printer. To get my photos from my phone to my computer for printing, I simply email the photos to myself. If you use iCloud on a Mac, I believe those photos instantly get transferred over. Once the photos are in my emails, I save them to my iPhoto. Then I edit my photos as desired. From there I use my printer to resize photos to the desired size. You can also resize your photos in Photoshop. Ali Edwards just happens to have a great video tutorial on this today on her blog here.

My Daily December progress:

I've lots of requests to see my finished pages. Sorry, but I don't have my album completed yet. Once I started taking holiday photos, I couldn't decide whether I wanted my photos to go into my Project Life weeks or into my Daily December. So I decided to just complete my Project Life pages first and go from there on what I wanted to add to my December Daily. I will definitely have some duplicate photos in both albums, I am sure.

Etsy shop update:

I'll have a new Valentine kit up in the shop soon + next week I'll have restocks of the small chevron sacks, large Kraft sacks with stripes/polka dots, small grid sacks and large lined notebooks sacks. Stay tuned.

Project Life Week of November 20-26, 2011

2012-01-04T08:35:00.001-06:00

Hi there, back today with another Project Life week. This week I'm going back to a week from November 2011 which was Thanksgiving week.

This week I hand journaled all my journaling cards + I used my typewriter to type on some labels that were added to the 4 x 6 inserts with photos. Lots of papers from Lily Bee Designs this week, love the soft, muted colors.
If you're using Instagram photos, you'll more little spaces to design on the leftover portion of the 4 x 6 insert. I use a piece of solid cardstock or patterned paper and then add a few more embellishments or labels for more journaling.
Here's my main insert with dates. If there's a particular holiday or main event for a week, I like to highlight it on this small title card. Here I spelled out Thanksgiving Week with small sticker letters.
Strips of cardstock and banners for journaling cards here. I'm continuing with a journaling card that acts as a week in review. Just a small bullet type list with other little happenings from the week.
You'll also notice that I used my Markit markers to write some bigger sentiments at the top of journaling cards. Simple little titles that are quick and easy.
Again, a bigger title with a Markit marker + hand journaling.
On the left I printed an Instagram at home at a smaller size to fit into the 3 x 4 journaling space. On the right I added patterned paper, a sticker and a chipboard button with baker's twine.
A 4 x 4 Instagram with label journaling.
Another week into my 2011 albums. Hope you'r off to a good start with Project Life 2012! Remember....keeping a calendar is a great way to jot down the important events, photos taken and dates. You can check out my calendar system in this post.

Today:

Back to school this week for the girls. Back to work for me. It's just way too quiet around here, I miss my little reds. And so much to do......I have a list but don't know where to start. Guess I'll just dig in!

Etsy shop update:

I'll be updating the shop within the next few weeks with more of the small chevron & grid sacks, larger Kraft & notebook paper sacks, doilies and a Valentine kit soon. All colors and sizes of tags will be updated soon too. :)

Project Life Organization....My Work Space + Favorite Products

2012-01-01T16:30:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year! Here's to a fantastic new 2012 and for a lot of us, a new year of Project Life!! I'm very excited to be a member of Becky Higgins' first Creative Team. Please be sure to check out the other team members' blogs for more inspiring Project Life posts. You can also find links to their blogs and the PL product lineup at the left of my blog.

This will be my 4th year for Project Life(the 1st year was Becky's original kit). For me it's the perfect way to capture the every day moments of my family and preserve those memories in a manageable way of scrapbooking.
As I complete each weekly layout, I just smile a little inside. Knowing that each photo, each day, each week, and each month will be compiled into a wonderful album filled with all the little moments my family has shared....well, it's just a priceless treasure. Working on my Project Life pages is so rewarding for me. I get to fulfill my love of photography and scrapbooking while reliving all the little moments and memories. My little family is growing up. These are the days. The days I want to remember forever. Not just the big events like birthdays, holidays and graduations but all the little day to day moments in between. I'll hope you'll join me again this year as I share my love of Project Life with you here on my blog.

Just so you know my method for Project Life, I use the photo a day approach mostly. I try to take a photo a day and sometimes it works out that I just have a collection of photos for one week. These all go into a weekly Project Life layout with a few additional page protector inserts here and there. I use Photo Pocket Pages with Design A for my basic layouts but I'm excited to work in all the types of photo pockets this year for some variety. Here's the entire collection of Project Life products. You can purchase them through Amazon by clicking on the links. This year I'm excited to get the new Clementine Core Kit but I'll be mixing in items from all of the kits here and there, along with some of my own products from my stash.

Here's a sample below of a typical Project Life week from my album. This is the majority of the scrapbooking I do so I like to get scrappy with my layouts. I like to treat each insert space as if I'm doing a mini scrapbook layout, with all the spaces coming together to form what looks like a modified, traditional 2 page spread with 12 x 12 pages. This method totally gives me my scrapbooking fix. Here and there I'll add in some more traditional scrapbooked pages.

A while back I showed a snapshot of small portion of my Project Life organization. Since then I've had lots of requests for full photos of my work space + a listing of my favorite supplies to work with while creating Project Life layouts. So here we go....it's a long post because I decided that I'll just add everything I want to share in one post for easy reference.

My Project Life Work Space

This is a shot of my craft room work spaces. My room is compilation of about 15 years worth of crafting supplies and various organization items. It's a total mish mash of products that I'm always rearranging, purging, replenishing and organizing.
I have 2 standing height tables that I use for various tasks. The left table shown below is where I work on all my projects including Project Life, stamping and other crafting. The right table is where I work on special projects like my Daily December album, Etsy kit assembly, packaging, and sorting. One table is a yard sale find and the other was a cast off from my FIL's business.
Below I'm facing my Project Life work table. This is where 99% of my work gets done. The two off white divider units are the ones you've all been asking about. Each unit is 36" long. I got them years ago on clearance at Pottery Barn Kids. I believe they were intended for dressing table organizers. They're now discontinued...I did a lot of research trying to find something similar to link to but didn't have much luck. I did find some nice units from The Container Store that will maybe spark some ideas if you are researching Project Life storage for your own needs. You could also check out stores like Ikea, Target, office supply stores, thrift shops, etc for storage ideas.
The Right Divider Unit

I'll talk about each storage divider starting with the unit on the right. I love that both of the dividers are right in front of me when I work. Everything is in sight but just far enough back that I still have plenty of table space to work on projects and even lay out my fully opened Project Life album. I consider my Project Life a work in progress and keep all my pocket pages in the albums while I work. The pages are usually flagged with sticky notes of what needs to be photographed and blogged....what photos need to be added..what supplies I want to use, etc.
This divider unit is used for mostly my Project Life Core Kit components. This includes all of the 4 x 6 Title Cards, 3 x 4 Filler Cards, 3 x 4 Journaling Cards and Blank 3 x 4 Journaling Cards. You can see examples of more of those cards if you click on the thumbnail photos at this link.
All the components fit nicely into the divider slots as you can see below. I just reach for a stack of cards and thumb through them each time I'm working on a Project Life layout.
I've got a few other sticky type pads in this divider unit too. These include fun adhesive notes by Russel + Hazel and lined & gridded post-its from my local Staples office supply store. I use these both as organizing tools to mark pages, sketch ideas + as embellishments for my Project Life inserts.
In the back of this divider unit I have a section that I use to safely keep papers and collected items such as the Pottery Barn bean bag tag, notes from school, Eric's nice speeding warning ticket(!), miscellaneous photos and more. Kind of an in/out box of sorts.
The Left Divider Unit

Here's the left side divider unit. This lines right up with the right side divider unit on my work table.
This unit holds a ton of paper type products + stamps + labels + papers and more. Again, all in easy view so that I can do a quick scan and be reminded of what supplies I have on hand. I'm a total visual crafter. I like to have my supplies nicely organized but out in plain sight. That's why open divider units like this one, wicker baskets, old wire locker baskets and vintage items like jello molds and bread tins work well for me. My organizational goal this year is to get rid of all things plastic-y in my craft space.

I've photographed all of my favorite products that I use for Project Life. First up is labels, labels, labels. Check out this Project Life post to see how I love to use labels for journaling. Most of my labels come straight from my local office supply store or Walmart. You can run these through your printer, stamp on them or use them in a vintage typewriter which is what I do most of the time.
Here I've got a fun tin of Sticky Notes from Cavallini & Co. + index card file dividers from my local office supply store + small Chevron, lined and grid sacks from my Etsy shop (more coming soon)(you can see an example of how I used the yellow Chevron sacks here) + a sampling of plain, lined index cards + some handmade journaling cards that I made from a recent kit I had in my shop. The best way to use these little items is to just look at what photos and colors you have available for a particular week's layout. Then shop your stash. See what coordinates, or get mixy matchy. That's the best part of having a stash of goodies available at all times.
To keep all of my paper items in order but still in sight, I needed a way to keep them organized in small collections. I use simple Mini Clothespins and Small Clothespins. You could also use metal clips or paper clips too.
Here I've got another stash of the Russel + Hazel sticky notes + some regular office supply sticky notes that I use to organize my weekly photos & journaling + some old library return cards that I got from Etsy. Check out my post on getting behind & getting caught up to see how I use my sticky notes to keep my Project Life weeks organized. Sticky notes are my best friend when it comes to Project Life.
On to patterned papers, one of my favorite supplies for scrapbooking. Recently I have begun purchasing 6 x 6 paper pads for my paper crafting. I purchase most of them here at Two Peas in a Bucket. Usually I just add a 6 x 6 pad to my shopping card whenever a new line of products come out that I like. I'll add in a few of the 12 x 12 sizes that I like too + chipboard elements, sticker sheets, alphabets, etc from a particular line that I like. Shopping from a collection of a particular line like My Minds Eye's Everyday Fun line gives you a nice little selection of coordinating items to use if you want to have a PL layout all mesh together like this layout.
If you haven't purchased 6 x 6 paper pads before here's the scoop: The papers are usually 6 x 6 in size and are bound into a compact paper pad. The pattern is a smaller scale compared to a 12 x 12 piece of patterned paper as you can see below. The pads are easy to store and I love the smaller scale for the small insert cards for Project Life.
Here's some of my favorite lines of 6 x 6 paper pads. Picadilly from Basic Grey, although I don't see this particular 6 x6 pad listed at 2Peas right now. Sassafras Sunshine Broadcast, discontinued but you may be able to do a google search or find larger size papers if you like the line.
Studio Calico's papers which are available at 2Peas and the Studio Calico website. Currently there are 6 x 6 pads in the Autumn Press and Memoir . Studio Calico's papers give a great mixy matchy feel.
Crate Paper lines, some of my personal favorites offering wonderful collections of colorful and somewhat vintage looking papers. I often purchase 12 x 12 papers and coordinating embellishments from this company.
Lily Bee Designs papers, so colorful with a slightly distressed, worn look. I also love their Cardstock Sticker sheets. A whole lotta bang for your buck.
One of my all time favorite companies, My Minds Eye. Oodles and oodles of papers and embellishments and coordinating stamps.
Masks from Studio Calico. These are fun to use to create backgrounds using Studio Calico's Mister Huey spray mists.
Little sticky notes called Scrap Pads from Studio Calico. There are currently 3 differently styles, Autumn Press, Memoir, and Classic Calico. These are great to stick on journaling cards or use mini staples or machine stitching. I like to stick them to a piece of copy paper and run them through my vintage typewriter for journaling too. Look for them at 2Peas too.
Again, I keep all these groupings organized with my little clothespins.
Security envelopes from bank statements and bills. Kind of a weird thing to keep but I love the patterns on the insides of the envelopes. If you like to get scrappy with your Project Life, you'll be amazed at the new way you look at junk mail, catalogs, mailings, product packaging and more. Fun little items you can die cut, punch, etc. With that said, just be careful to not collect too much stuff.
Stamps! I am an avid stamper of cards so it's natural that my stamping would carry over to my scrapbooking. I really love Ali Edwards' line of stamps from Technique Tuesday. You can purchase Ali's stamps directly from the Technique Tuesday site or look for them at other online sites like 2Peas.
My Minds Eye has 2 fun stamp sets out that I've been using a lot too.
Jenni Bowlin has a fun Days Of The Week stamp set that is fun for making big and bold journaling cards. These are big, like 3" wide.
My Papertrey Ink stamps also get good use in my Project Life albums. I keep these in a separate cabinet nearby and reach for them as needed. There are lots of categories to choose from such as these Labels that have coordinating die cuts. The tags would be great to use on PL pages too. Most of the circles can be punched with a 1-3/4" circle punch. The background stamps can be used to create virtually any pattern you desire.

The Tool Basket

I think it's a great idea to keep a small basket that houses your most used tools. Tools you reach for almost every time you scrapbook. My little basket is from Longaberger and sits on my work table at all time.

The contents of my basket include my Tiny Attacher, We R Memory Keeprs Corner Chomper Tool, 1/16th hole punch, hammer, scissors, adhesive, date stamp, eraser tool and lip gloss.

The 3-Tier Storage Unit

This galvanized metal 3-tier stand from Pottery Barn is a favorite storage item in my craft room. It totally works with my *out in the open* method of storage. And going vertical is a great way to add storage to your crafting space. Whether it's stacking units, bins, baskets or shelves...use that vertical space to utilize more of your craft space real estate.
My 3-tier unit houses a variety of supplies that I use not only for Project Life but for my crafting projects in general. The little chicken is a vintage pincushion that I found at my local thrift shop.
I keep a small calendar clipped to my 3-tier unit so I can have it handy at all times. The small size is perfect for referring to dates of a particular week and when using my date stamp to create journaling cards.
You can find these small calendars at various business or banks that hand them out as freebie promotional items. I tear off the advertising and use just the calendar. Check out this post to see my calendar system that utilizes a bigger day planner type calendar.
Also in the top of my 3-tier unit is my growing collection of Washi tapes. Washi tapes, or Japenese masking tapes, are opaque tapes from from rice paper. They are tacky but can be removed easily so they're pretty forgiving. Most of the ones you see below are from Pretty Tape. You can see my tapes in action in this week of Project Life. To store my tapes I use vintage receipt spikes. I found these various spikes from Etsy, local thrift shops and Ebay.
In the middle tier of my galvanized unit I keep sprays, paints, and powders. Very easy to reach and see what colors I want to use.
Here I have a fun collection of Studio Calico Mister Huey mists, October Afternoon Sprinklers, and Zing embossing powders. I also have a small collection of Martha Stewart paints from Michaels.
I have this thing for clothespins. Tiny, small, big, plain, embellished...I love 'em. I keep a fun collection clipped to my 3-tier unit.
I use these to clip together anything in small collections.
In the bottom of my 3-tier unit, I keep a scattering of supplies that I reach for often.
Vintage jello molds are a favorite of mine for storing small embellishments like clips, tags, and buttons.
This vintage flower frog is perfect for storing pens and markers that I use for journaling. Circle punches are used quite often so they stay close by.
Here I've used more of the vintage receipt spikes to hold tags that I use for Project Life journaling cards, packaging and cards. Tags are just a staple item that I use all the time.
Here I have a vintage, aqua candy dish that holds mini clothespins and mini wooden spools + a small tumbler from Anthropologie that holds larger clothespins.
Marker Storage

I also love to use Sharpies and Bic Mark-its for journaling in my Project Life. You can find both brands of markers at Walmart or your local office supply store. The container for my markers is a wonderful vintage find from a local thrift shop. Here's a Project Life week where you can see my markers in action.
Wooden Tray Storage

I have an additional storage piece that can be easily moved to my work table when I need it. This wall is directly behind my Project Life work table.
The storage piece is a vintage wooden tray that is made from canteloupe boxes, I believe. I bought it at a local antique shop because it was just too cute to pass up.
Here's the top view of my tray. Another mish mash of sorts but all the supplies are neatly tucked into even smaller storage pieces inside the tray.
On one side of the tray I keep all of my Elle's Studio paper goodies tucked into a wooden divider that came with the tray + some smaller vintage jello molds. Elle has a wonderful selection of printed paper die cuts that are perfect for journaling cards. I use them all the time + they show up often in many of my Etsy kits. I also keep my Studio Calico chipboard pieces + brads, Smash items, tags and misc items in the little tins.
On the other side, I discovered that my prized enamel bread pan and muffin pan nestle into the wood tray perfectly.
If space is cramped I can take out the little storage pieces and keep them on my table.
The muffin tin holds more Studio Calico chipboard pieces, metal clips, more Smash items and wooden embellishments.

The bread tin holds more small stamps and a Smash date stamp.

Vintage Typewriter

My vintage typewriter is my special little aqua colored cutie of my craft room. A friend of mine called me one day from Good Will and asked if I wanted this vintage typewriter. She knew I was looking for one....who knew she'd find the perfect color! I purchased a new typewriter ribbon from Staples and to re-thread it onto the existing spools. Messy and inky but oh so worth the trouble. I use this for typing directly onto journaling cards, tags, sticky notes, stickers and more. If you're looking for one, I would scope out garage sales, antique shops, and thrift stores. About $20 bucks is a good deal around here. Mine sits on a vintage typewriter stand that has fold out surfaces. This tucks right under my table and I pull it out when I need to use it.

And this concludes the tour of my Project Life work space. I'm happy to answer any questions you leave in the comments section. I'll be adding this post to my Project Life Topics Page which is located at the top left hand corner of my blog. At this link you'll find my informational Project Life posts linked in one spot. For my actual Project Life weekly layouts, you can visit the "Labels" section of my blog on the left side and click on the labels "Project Life 2011" for last year's post and "Project Life 2012" for all of this years posts. All of my posts will be listed in the order they were posted.

If you're looking to get your supplies collected & organized, I hope I've given you a few ideas to toss around. I have a board on Pinterest dedicated to Project Life Inspiration that you can check too. Also, be sure to check out Lisa Truesdell's awesome blog post on how she makes Project Life work for her. Marcy Penner also did a fun series of blog posts on how she organizes her Project Life.

Whew. My fingers are cramped now so it's time to wrap it up. Here's to a great year with Project Life. Good luck, don't stress, dedicate time and most of all.....have fun preserving your wonderful memories! Check back often for more Project Life updates and informational posts.

Edited to answer questions:

1. I'm not sure about the acid content in the Sharpies but the Markits site said "no added acid; no measurable PH".

2. The Pottery Barn 3-tier unit does not have a rotating base available. If you found a lazy susan big enough I suppose you could sit the unit on it so it would spin. I don't mind just reaching around for what supply item I need though.

3. You can check the ways to add my blog to your feed at the left of my blog on the sidebar. At this time, I don't have an email subscription available.

Decorated boxes....for the girlies

2011-12-30T10:39:00.003-06:00

Back today with a fun gift wrap project that Jordan made for some of her besties for Christmas. We found these fun necklaces with each of the girl's initial. Now we just needed some fun packaging.
I knew Jordan would love the Loopsy-Daisy Die Collection as soon as I showed her the concept. Yep, she took over and made 4 sweet bows out of patterned paper. She added tiny store bought Christmas bows to the top. Very cute!
Next she made cute tags using Alpha-Blocks from Papertrey and Pure Poppy ink.
She splattered some Small Kraft Gift Boxes with white spray mist first then tucked her little necklaces inside with tissue paper. Using pinking shears, I helped her cut Pure Poppy Felt into some cute pinked strips that she secured around the boxes with tape.
She added a rhinestone to each tag than packaged all the boxes up. I thought Jordan did a great job and all of her little friends loved the necklaces....and the cute boxes.
I know that Christmas is behind us now but this idea could easily be used for Valentine treats, birthdays, etc. Be sure to let your kids help with the gift wrap. They really love to create pretty things for their friends. Jordan was so happy with her finished gifts and kept them save and sound under a little tree she had in her room. :)

Project Life Week of August 21-August 27, 2011

2011-12-28T12:24:00.001-06:00

Back with another Project Life week from the Summer. This week's big even was heading back to school. It's always such an exciting time, especially this year because Josey started high school and Jordan moved up to 8th grade. It's the first time the girls have been separated by different schools, different sports teams....we knew we were in for some challenges as far as getting to both the girls' sporting events, practice pick ups, etc.

Here's my 2 page spread. The main, dated insert dictated my color scheme for this week's layout. It's always fun digging through my stash to find just the perfect accents.
Here's the left page. "Back to School" was definitely the theme of the week. We were gathering up school supplies, taking inventory of clothes and we had just started cleaning out the old play room to make a new Lounge for the girls.
And then like a flash, the reds were back in school. Always a little sad for mama as I like the girls home during the summer. I miss them when they go back to school.
Here's the main, dated insert using a Project Life insert. Chipboard letters and an apple sticker from my stash were used for the school theme.
Here I used accents from a My Mind's Eye stamp plus a little sticky note from Studio Calico.These are bare bones photos of the old play room.
More embossed stamps from My Mind's Eye on the bullet list of this week's happenings.
On the left I used a piece of a name badge from a business trip Eric took to Michigan. On the right I used a journaling sheet and typed some journaling about Josey growing up.
Here I used a mini Instax photo of Josey with a Studio Calico chipboard butterfly. On the right I embossed some My Mind's Eye numbers and used 2 numbers from my Project Life supplies with a tiny little paper clip. On the bottom 4 x 6 insert I used a 4 x 4 Instagram photo of the girls' day at the lake with friends. A last summer hurrah. The "fun" was cut from a stamped My Mind's Eye image. The flag piece is from Elle's Studio with a chipboard number on top.
I'm so, so glad I went back and finished up these pages that I got behind on. Already, these weeks seem to have gone by so quickly. I love how each day and week leads into months.....and eventually a full year of my family's lives documented in one place. Such a treasure this album will be for my family.

Today's happenings: We're having a lazy rest of the day, relaxing after having 5 teenagers here last night for movies, Wii, pizza and lots of laughs. We broke in the Lounge and it was a hit. So happy that the girls have a hang out of their own. I'm taking a photo shoot of my Project Life work area so stay tuned soon for a full blog post on where it all happens......including my work table set up, storage for all my Project Life and other products, my favorite supplies to use for Project Life and lots of links.

Project Life Week of December 4-December 10, 2011

2011-12-26T15:30:00.001-06:00

Edited for question: Clem asked.......how are you doing the photo collages? The photo collages from this post were done using the Diptic app on my iPhone.

Happy day after Christmas. Did you all survive? Jordy woke us up dark and early at 5am. So we got a very early start to the day and enjoyed opening presents at home. Then we had lunch at my folks and supper at the in-laws. A very nice day spent with loved ones. Today Eric installed the new flat screen in the girls' Lounge. They're playing Dance 3 on the Wii right now. This week we have two big parties planned to break in the new room....one for Jordan's friends, one for Josey's friends. Yes, I am nuts but it's a great way to get the girls to clean. Fun with friends=a clean house for mama. ;)

Today I'm working on cleaning up the Craft Department so that I can take photos of my Project Life work area and do a post soon. In the meantime I have another recent week of Project Life to share. The Winter weeks became a lot busier as we neared Christmas so most slots were filled with photos.
For this week I used papers and accents from My Mind's Eye's Happy Days collection. It's a real favorite of mine from MME. I had lots of areas that I wanted to add journaling to also so I reached for some return address labels and used my vintage typewriter. I love adding these labels to my Project Life for journaling. Here's my left page.
And here's my right page.
In a recent blog post, I showed some hand made journaling cards that I made from an Etsy kit. This week, I put all of those cards to good use. I really like having a collection of journaling cards available that will all fit into one week's theme. I easily filled in the blank spots with photos or other journaling cards. For the main, dated insert I added some buttons and my date stamp.
Here are the first 2 journaling cards. They each have My Mind's Eye patterned paper as backgrounds and then small photos on top. The ticket is from MME's as well. Here you see the small, typed labels come into action. You might notice that I stitched over each label. Once I had my 2 pages completed I noticed that the labels did not stick well to the thick Kraft paper of this particular line of MME. No biggie and I kinda like the look.
Here I used another journaling card that I had already made. On the right I added 2 square sticky notes from Studio Calico's Classic Scrap Pads. I stuck them to a sheet of copy paper, inserted them into my typewriter, typed my journaling, then stitched to my journaling card. A portion of the journaling was done with small letter stamps.
Here I used two more journaling cards from the little batch I made. I love these two....Washi tape, paper doily, Tiny Tim staples, chipboard star, ticket, stitching, old dictionary paper, small Hero Arts letter stamps, Mister Huey. Lots of crafty goodness in such a small amount of space. Definitely gives me my scrapbooking fix. :)
Here I've done some fancy work with 4 Instagram photos that I made into a collage with the Diptic app. I trimmed the photo in half and then added them to two, separate journaling card slots. They end up looking like 1 square photo with a few embellishments like the Papertrey number die and MME ticket. I love that I can capture 4 photos of one event, like Josey's basketball game, without having to add additional page protectors.

Here I used Diptic for this photo also. I typed my journaling onto a Large White Tag that was stapled & stitched to my 4 x 6 base + I also stitched on the typed labels.
For this 4 x 6 insert I added an Instagram photo of the day we finally got our tree up. I added some My Mind's Eye mini circle garland and stapled on some Washi tape.
Another insert that uses an Instagram/Diptic modified photo of the girls' Lounge room. I added a banner from My Mind's Eye + used 3 labels for journaling.
Same type of photo here that shows progress on one of the girls' quilts. Note: The quilts went by the way side due to the holiday happenings. I'm planning on working on them again once things settle down. I did get one top completely done, the one you see below. The chipboard arrow square is from MME. Those fun products really got a work out this week.
And one last 4 x 6 insert that shows more typed labels, MMY product, Washi tape and a photo collage of the girls with their friend Megan. I hung up a small chalkboard that I forgot I purchased at the thrift show this Fall. I thought the girls would like to write holiday messages on it. First thing on the chalkboard said: "My mother is crazy". I could really feel the love on this day from Josey.
And that's it for another week down in the scrapbook. Wow, there was a ton of memories added this week....and I got them all recorded. This year's album is gonna be so awesome. I'm so glad I'm nearly caught up. Stay tuned for a year in review post coming soon in addition to my Project Life work space. Okay, I think I'll go kick some Dance 3 butt on the Wii. Watch out, Reds. ;)

Project Life Week of November27-December 3, 2011

2011-12-23T22:38:00.000-06:00

It's almost Christmas Eve by the time this goes live. I hope your holiday is merry and bright and filled with love & laughter, family & friends.

Today I have a Project Life layout scheduled just in case you get a chance to pop on the computer. This week presented itself with an interesting pile of photos. I had a few holiday looking photos and then the yellow VW bug photo. There was no getting around that bright yellow car. So I decided to focus on the color yellow and just work with it. By using yellow through my 2 page spread, I was able to balance out that main yellow photo a bit. I also did a fun application of some ruffled ribbon to the outside of my page protector. I'll talk about that a little later down the post.

Here's my left side of my 2 page spread. I didn't make a main dated page this week because I thought the photo of my December Daily album cover was good enough. I added a simple label sticker that had the week typed on it. This week you might notice that I also started using my new printer, hence the white border around my photos. I love how the white frames the photos so I'll probably continue to print with the white border.

This week was a mix activities including starting my December Daily album, working on the girls' Lounge room, documenting photos of Charlie harassing the cats, a funny photo of Jordan and more basketball.
On my right page, I experimented with Diptic photos and the ways they can fit into the journaling card inserts. I discovered that if you use a Diptic layout that has a vertical division, you can trim those photos in half, insert them into two separate slots and they still look like one photo. Here on this full page view you can see how I used the Diptic photos to create a vertical look to an otherwise usual horizontal layout. I'll show you more at the end of the post.
Here's my journaling cards starting from the left side of the first page. I used My Mind's Eye stamps and mini garland, Chevron patterned paper and a Chevron bag from my Etsy shop.
I embellished the front of the bag and then used a Large Manila Tag to journal the story. All of my Kraft colored patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye. For the metal clip, I used a small silver clip, removing on of the clips and then smashing down the metal parts with my hammer. This way the clip lays more flat in my album.
Here are two Project Life journaling cares that have been embellished with patterned paper, stamps, chipboard pieces and a packaging piece from the Pottery Barn bean bags that were delivered this week. If you look closely you'll see that each one of my journaling cards has been stamped with the tiny star border from My Mind's Eye with gray ink.
The last two journaling cards on the right side of my 2 page spread. I used more patterned paper, some tickets from My Mind's Eye, misted chipboard stars and some small letter stickers.
On this 4 x 6 photo of Josey playing basketball, I added a smaller square photo. I like that this shows her playing both defense and offense.
And here's the fun application of the Diptic photos and some ruffled ribbon that came in a Studio Calico kit. This takes on a 6 x 12 page protector look but all of the photos were put into the regular Project Life inserts. The top square is one 4 x 4 Instagram photo slipped into a 4 x 6 slot. On the right of each 4 x 4 photo I used a 4" piece of a ruler accent from My Mind's Eye plus added a journaling label that was made with my vintage typewriter.

The middle 4 x 4 looking section is actually a Diptic photo that was cut vertically down the center of the photo. Each half was slipped into separate journaling slots. But if you butt them together in the middle it still looks like one 4 x 4 photo.

The bottom 4 x 4 section is another 4 x 4 Instagram photo that was slipped into a 4 x 6 photo slot. On the left side now, I had some blank space. I thought this yellow ribbon that I'd been hoarding would fit in perfect with the yellow theme of this week's layouts. I thought about cutting it up into 3 sections and adding to each photo but then it hit me.....just use Scor-Tape and adhere the ruffled ribbon to the outside of the page protector. A fun and dimensional look. It's kind of neat to be thumbing through the album and then come across this 3-D ruffly ribbon that you can touch from the outside.
Here's a close up view of that Diptic photo that was cut in half vertically. Love this idea and I've already used it several times since this layout.
Here's that 12" strip of ruffly ribbon. I might try this with other trims too, who knows?
And that's it for today. After the holiday I'll have some more informative Project Life posts going up on the blog. These will include a 2011 review of some of my favorite memories and techniques I used this year.....a view of my Project Life organization.....a listing of my favorite Project Life supplies.....a reminder of how I'll use my new calendar system....and some good tips on how to get started with Project Life in 2012 if this is your first year. I'll also give my thoughts on how it feels to have a full year of every week of my family's lives documented. Two full albums of memories. So awesome.

And with that, Merry Christmas everyone. :)

Paper Bag Gift Pouch..

2011-12-23T12:17:00.004-06:00

Sooo, how is the holiday going for you? About this time of year, I'm ready to just enjoy time with my family and let all of the preparations go. What's done is done. What didn't get done can wait. There always seems to be people that I forget to get gifts for. Just those little thank you type gifts to show your friendship and appreciation. Usually for me, these gifts are of the paper crafted variety which most of my friends and family love. So as always I end up making some gifts well after the holiday is over and they become lovely little New Year's gifts of sorts.

Last year those gifts were my paper bag pouches with notebooks and little cards tucked inside. Here's a creation I created while guesting at Cosmo Cricket. Some of my favorite projects ever. You can see the full post with all the little details here.
I stitched together little pouches from paper bags, made notebooks and little coordinating cards. Very cute and well received.
Here's another batch I made. I remember using these for teacher treats. So easy to tuck in packaged candies, cookies in glassine sacks, cards and more. You can see the full post for these pouches here.
This year I used a similar design but went with a more neutral color palette to match the little notebooks I made here. Inside I tucked an embellished notebook and 2 small thank you cards. I plan to write little note telling the recipient that if they choose they can keep the goodies for themselves or re-use the embellished pouch another gift. Just tuck more goodies inside.
For the pouch I used my Paper Bag Pockets. Very neutral so they can be embellished a million different ways. I used a Dainty Doily and stamps from My Mind's Eye along with their tiny circle garland. I tied the pouch up with Wrinkle Ribbon from the shop plus a stamped Large White Tag. An Elle's Studio tag is tucked under the Wrinkle Ribbon. Studio Calico Mister Huey mist was splattered over the finished pouch.
For the small thank you cards, I used a sentiment from a My Mind's Eye stamp set along with a paper doily, Washi tape and brown baker's twine. I stitched pockets for these from vellum. These will be great to tuck into a little thank you gift or along with a home baked treat.
The embellished notebook was made from my Plain Jane Notebook Kits which are on sale now in the shop. They include a fun variety of lined, grid and ledger papers plus a few embellishments to add on.
A great little gift set. I need to make up lots of these for little New Year's gifts + they will be nice to just have on hand. For mailing, simply wrap in tissue and place in a bubble mailer. Flat packaged candies like little chocolate squares, etc are always a fun treat to tuck in also. You could also leave out the notebooks and cards and replace with fat quarters of fabric for the sewer on your list. So many possibilities.
Hope you enjoy! Back to the holiday fun for me. I'll have some updated Project Life layouts for you the rest of this week + some fun packaging Jordan made using Papertrey goodies. See ya soon.

Project Life Week of November 6-November 12, 2011

2011-12-22T10:00:00.000-06:00

Today I have a more recent Project Life layout to show. The highlight of this week was getting our new puppy, Charlie. I'll be adding in some page protector inserts to highlight a few more photos of that special day.
If I recall right I think I used a lot of Studio Calico product from a monthly kit plus Project Life items from the Amber collection. Here's my left page.
And here's the right page. Some of our favorite photos are ones that feature the girls with all their friends. Jordan has a photo with all her girlfriends while at an 8th grade movie night. And we love the photo of Jordan with her friend face timing two other friends. Isn't technology a wonderful thing?
For my main, dated insert I used a Large Journaling Tag from Elle's Studio. The 4 x 6 size is perfect for Project life. I also added 2 styles of chipboard letters. I had to mix and match the letters on "Charlie" because I ran out of some of the woodgrain letters. The silhouette paper along the bottom is from Studio Calico and the fabric scallops came in a SC kit also.
To speed things along this week, I hand wrote all my journaling. Here I added Studio Calico sticky notes + some patterned paper + the little people Washi tape. I used my date stamp three times on one journaling card, listing three events on one card.
Here I used a page from a Smash Book journaling book. On the right, I added some typing to an Amber journaling card along with a small photo. I love adding in the small photos to the journaling cards.
Here I used an Amber journaling card that was stamped with an Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday stamp. A little more Washi tape with staples and the date stamp. On the right I used a Studio Calico chipboard butterfly and stitched on some more of the Studio Calico silhouette patterned paper.
More chipboard letters here with a play on the word party....to partay as the girls would say. I finished up with another Smash Book journaling page and a leftover snippet of the scallop fabric.
So, how are we wrapping up our 2011 Project Life albums? Are you caught up? Way behind? My goal is to have my 2011 main pages completed IN 2011. I have 2 layouts to catch up. Then I have lots of inserts pages to work on. My goal for 2012 is to work on my current pages plus catch up on the insert pages...maybe 2 weeks at a time. I was going to do some traditional scrapbook layouts but now I'm thinking I'll just add in more of the Project Life page protectors. The pages will get completed much faster that way. We'll see.

Today:

Lots of house cleaning. Josey is having friends over and we're gearing up for 2 big sleepover parties to break in the new Lounge. I've had some request for photos of the new room so I'll try to do that soon. :)

Project Life Week of September 18-September 24, 2011

2011-12-20T09:45:00.000-06:00

Back with another Project Life update. I've gotten a lot of weeks caught up so I'll probably start updating the blog with a recent week + an older week from the Summer/Fall months. I'm TWO weeks away from being totally caught up. Such a good feeling. I just need to go back and work on the extra insert pages that I either want to do traditional layouts for or add into divided page protectors.

This week was featured on Becky's blog here. Each month Becky will be featuring Project Life layouts + other projects from the Creative Team on her blog. It's such a pleasure to work with these amazingly talented gals.

This week featured a typical week for us. It captures the day to day events of the girls' school & sports activities plus a few other happenings. For supplies I used Project Life products from the Turquoise line plus some Kraft themed items from My Mind's Eye's Happy Days line. This is my left page.
And here's the right page.
For my main dated insert, I added punched patterned paper circles to a Project Life insert.
On these two Project Life journaling cards, I added journaling with my vintage typewriter, some small sticker letters, a stamp from My Mind's Eye and a small photo of a text message from Jordan. Text messages make great make great topics for your Project Life pages. Simply take a screen shot on your cell phone and print off a photo. This particular text message talks about a message Jordy sent me about getting a stain on her shirt. She has this quirk that every single thing will leave a stain and always asks, "Will this leave a stain?" This is sure to spark a fun memory years down the road.
Here I used patterned paper for my base journaling card inserts and added patterned paper from My Mind's Eye. I've started adding one card that is weekly recap of events. I make a bullet type list with my typewriter or hand write our list of events. On the left I used a Large White Tag which is perfect to run through your typewriter and stamp on. On the right I added some flag banners, twine and letter stickers.
The left insert coordinates with a photo of my calendar which can be seen above. I had ONE day where there was nothing on my calendar. A square to spare. A bare square. It was a rare occurrence indeed. A journaling card from the Turquoise kit with a calendar theme was perfect for this day. On the right I used a paper garland from My Mind's Eye along with my hand written journaling.
More accents added to Project Life Turquoise card + a stitched on ticket border from My Mind's Eye. If you purchase collections of a particular line, they work great on your Project Life pages. Each little journaling card becomes a mini scrapbook layout.
And that's it for this week. I've read that lots of you are getting your new Project Life products. I'm so excited to start a fresh new year. Feel free to link up your pages in the comments section any time. I love to see your work.

Other happenings:

The reds have their last day of school today before Winter Break. We're wrapping up the school week with basketball games and then it's time to relax. Or "chillax" as the girls say. We'll be finishing up the new Lounge room just in time for some movie nights, sleepovers, parties and more. Looking forward to the good times to come.

Etsy shop:

Lots of sale items in the shop. All orders are shipping within 24-48 hours, excluding weekends. Thank you so much for your support this year. I really appreciate your business. :) I'll be restocking the shop with new items in 2012. :)

Jelly Jar Toppers...

2011-12-19T08:20:00.000-06:00

I'm so happy to see more and more people taking up the hobby of canning. I always make a few extras of my jellies to give as Christmas gifts so I thought I would show you my simple wrapping for the jelly jars.

I start out by finding a circle the size I want to use. This time a canister lid worked well. I cut circles out of plain Kraft paper bags. The paper bags are pliable and the Kraft paper looks good even when it gets folded and crinkled.
When I started to wrap my thick cotton twine around the paper bag circle topper, I had a heck of a time keeping the paper in place long enough to tie the twine on. I finally used a rubber band to secure the Kraft circle in place. Then it was easy to wrap my twine around the jar twice and tie a bow with long tails.
Nothing fancy, just big loopy bows with long tails. Reminds me of something you'd find at the old supply stores...like on Little House on the Prairie when Mr. Olson would wrap items in paper and twine. :)
I like to label my jellies so I typed simple labels using my vintage typewriter. Then I just stuck them on top of the jar toppers.
Very simple and pretty. You definitely want the beautifully colored jellies to shine through. I'll be packaging these two up in a brown paper bag for a friend who loves my jellies. But if you wanted to have your jellies out for little visitor gifts, you could find a vintage tray, lay down paper doilies and place a jelly on top of each one. Sometimes I package one jar of jelly up with a package of cream cheese and a box of crackers. Those make great neighbor gifts. Instant appetizers. Enjoy!
If you're looking for jelly recipes, the instruction sheets inside the liquid pectin boxes have great recipes. That's what I used for my jalapeno and peach jellies this year.

Homemade gifts are best...

2011-12-18T13:42:00.003-06:00

Hi there. How is everyone holding up this holiday season? This weekend I've really been working hard to finish up all the gift wrapping so that I can enjoy time off with the girls when their holiday break starts next week. I totally forgot about the guy/gal exchange that we always have for Eric's side of the family. I have to admit that the gifts have gotten quite dorky as of lately. Eric and I usually end up toting something home that is right out of the bargain bin and not very useful. I know "it's the thought that counts" but if not much thought is put into a gift at all then why bother, right? I'd rather just enjoy some one's company around the kitchen table or play games.

With those thoughts in mind, I wanted to bring a gal gift that was thoughtful and very useful. Of course, the ladies in our family all know of my handmade cards and notepads and just love them. So why shop any further than my craft room, ya know? Using leftover supplies from this (on sale) Butterfly Notebook Kit, I whipped up 4 coordinating cards in about 20 minutes flat.
I added in a few more pieces of patterned paper, a half of a paper doily, a punched sentiment from Take Note and chocolate striped baker's twine. The base cardstock is Rustic White.
After the cards were assembled, I splattered the tops with Mister Huey spray mist from Studio Calico.
I decided to add in one more little homemade gift item.....a jar of peach jelly that I made this summer. I usually hoard this jelly as I don't make but about a dozen jars or so. But the warm color of the jelly paired with the yellow on the cards and notepad were just too fun. I tied the jelly jar up with a paper bag circle, a typed label and some thick cotton twine. Stay tuned tomorrow for some more jelly gifts. :)
So here's my little gift ensemble. I added in my favorite lip gloss from Bath & Body. I always grab a few when they're on sale to add to gifts.
My usual gift wrap is a brown paper sack. Lisa Truesdell wrapped up the cutest paper sacks for teacher gifts. Why reinvent the wheel when something is this cute and simple? So I didn't. Thank you for the inspiration Lisa! I stapled the paper sack, adhered the paper doily, added 2 strips of Washi tape and then used a pop dot to adhere the butterfly embellishment that I already had in my leftover stash pile. Easy peasy and so cute.
Another gift in the wraps! I'm off now to pop popcorn for some white chocolate popcorn for the lady teachers. The men teachers all get hot Cajun peanuts that Eric orders to have at his store for customers every year. I love to get an extra box for us to divide up for gifts. I'll let your imagination run wild with the fun jokes we make about Eric's hot peanuts. :-0

Other stuff: Project Life and Daily December updates will be coming up this week. I've been working away but just haven't had the chance to get some blog posts in.

Etsy SALE: I've got quite a few items in my shop on sale. Don't miss out on my newest batch of Wrinkle Ribbon bundles. I'm making room for new items to come in 2012. Yes, the chevron bags and Kraft bags will be back in stock. :)

Papertrey December Release...

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

It's time for the December Papertrey Release this evening. The Design Team has all of their projects up on their blogs this morning so you can see what creations were made with this month's stamps and accessories.

First up for me is a birthday card made from Rosie Posie and the coordinating dies + the new Mega Mat Stack 4.
Ink colors that I used are Aqua Mist, Spring Moss and a non PTI yellow. Base card is Kraft with white splatters from Studio Calico Mister Huey. I die cut two of the flowers + a leaf and popped them up with pop dots. Card is finished with Dark Chocolate baker's twine, green rhinestones and a sentiment from the new Happy Day stamp set. This is a favorite new set for me and I know I will use it tons. The images are just beautiful. And the hexagon borders are so trendy right now.
Next up I have a card created with Pine's new Tag-its #11 stamp set + sentiments from Love & Marriage.
I also used a dotted circle from Borders & Corners: Circles in Spring Moss plus the new Filigree Border die. Card is finished with a black & white baker's twine plus a Vintage Button.
This next card is a holiday card created with Happy Day which includes the label stamp and the sentiment. I used a chipboard sticker, some Crate Paper holiday paper, a Vintage Button, Rustic Jute Twine + Wrinkle Ribbon from my shop.
Base cardstock is Kraft with white spray mist. Base label was stitched with my sewing machine.
Lastly, I have a set of Valentine gift sacks that I'll use to hold iTunes cards for the girls.
I used the new Tremendous Treats: Valentine stamp set featuring the cute puppy and 2 sentiments. I stamped the puppy image onto a Happy Day label die cut and colored it with Copic markers.
Gift card sack is made from Kraft sacks from my Etsy shop (more coming soon) which I folded and stitched with my sewing machine to create an envelope. A heart border die cut from the new Heart Border die is under the puppy label image. Envelopes are tied with baker's twine and Vintage Buttons.
Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to visit the other Design Team blogs + Nichole's for more inspiration from this month's release.

Christmas Tag Trio...

2011-12-13T11:25:00.005-06:00

Time to get busy making some gift tags for teacher and neighbor gifts. I like to have a stash on hand that can be added to simple brown bag type packaging. Lisa Truesdell's trio of misted tags were the perfect inspiration I needed. I gathered up a few of my holiday supplies and went to work.
Here's my creation of three colorful tags that will perfect for any gift. I used a Large Manila Tag, a Medium Manila Tag and a Small Manila Tag from my shop as the bases.
I splattered my tags with Studio Calico Mister Huey spray mist in green. Each tag also has a punched piece of cork as an accent piece with layers of October Afternoon Holiday Style Flour Sack embellishments on top.
I added buttons and vintage twine to the stars on the two larger tags.
Each tag base also has a few strips of October Afternoon Holiday Style patterned paper plus some Washi tape here and there.
I finished off each tag with a candy cane clothespin that I had in my shop earlier this holiday season.
For the back of the tags, I made simple to/from labels by typing on store bought striped labels that I found at Target. I just slipped the entire sheet of labels into my vintage typewriter and typed the words. A fun little trio of tags that took very little time to make. Into my stash basket of holiday tags they go. :)
If you'd like to try your hand at a few handmade tags of your own, I put together a handful of Tag & /Cork Sampler Kits in the shop. There's a sample of the 3 sizes of manila tags I carry plus some cork embellishments and a few clothespins. The tags and clothespins can also be purchased separately if you need bigger quantities. Have fun!
Tomorrow is my big shopping day in the city. We're definitely not going overboard this year so it should be easy to stick to the list....get in and get out of the stores.....then back home to my little place in the country. Just how I like it. So how's your holiday going? Are you frizzled, frazzled? Do you need a cup of margarita nog yet? ;)

Merry Christmas card featuring new Wrinkle Ribbon...

2011-12-12T10:52:00.003-06:00

Hi there. Have you guys the calendar lately? It's less than 2 weeks til Christmas. I've been busy quilting, going to basketball games and working on the girls' new room. No shopping, no cards sent...just enjoying my family and Charlie, the wonder dog. It's all good though because I just don't get caught up in the material part of Christmas anymore. It's not what it's about to me and my family. I'm planning on doing a little shopping one day this week in the big city and that's it. The rest of our holiday will be spent at home watching Hallmark movies, cozy-ing up by the fire and keeping Charlie from tearing apart the house. :) I do plan on sending out Christmas cards though still. I'll be working yet this week to get those wrapped up + I need to make some teacher treats. So you might be seeing some tags & wraps soon too.

Today I have a Christmas card that I created using some new October Afternoon goodies I got from Studio Calico. The line is called Holiday Style and I'm using papers from the 8 x8 pad and some embellishments from a package of Flour Sack goodies. Such a cute little collection. For my stamp that I stamped 3 times from one inking, I used Papertrey's Inside & Out: Holiday. I love that the inside sentiments are rather lengthy...makes it easy to write a short note and sign our names. :)

I also used a big of my new Wrinkle Ribbon that I have up in the shop today. I haven't made any in a while and wanted some to pretty up some cards. I have 5 new colors, all bundled up in the shop here.
Lately I've been leaving really long tails on all my ribbons and twine. I love that it makes everything seem like it's wrapped up like a present. The Wrinkle Ribbon has such a soft and pretty drape, it hangs really well on a card. I also used a Vintage Button in Pure Poppy plus some red baker's twine to tie up the loopy bow. For the scalloped, plaid border I used Papertrey's Simple Circles Border Die. It's one of my very favorite and most used dies from PTI.
At the bottom of my card I used 2 Flour Sack pieces with a hand cut, notched piece of patterned paper sandwiched in between. Base card of Rustic White was splattered with Mister Huey spray mist from Studio Calico. I also used some Fluffy Snow to create an instant frosty look on my card. I just used a little Elmer's glue smudged on the edges of the card and then sprinkled on the snow. I think I'll use this on cards well into the winter months for when it really gets cold.
In between the basketball games, I did manage to slip into a thrift shop on the way. I've been trying to stay out of them as I don't need a darn thing. But the little vintage bottle brush Christmas trees that you see in the first photo just had to come home with me. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Project Life Week of July 17- July 30

2011-12-10T13:17:00.000-06:00

I have another Project Life week in the books from the Summer. Notice that my week is actually TWO weeks...July 17-30. I had photos from both weeks but didn't have enough to fill up all the slots. These two weeks set blank for quite some time because I was at a loss. I was busy traveling the first week and the other week was pretty much consumed with dealing with Josey's first fender bender.

This is when an idea came to mind....both weeks involved travel in a round about way so why not combine all the photos into one spread? It worked out perfectly and saved me a lot of time right when I was trying to catch up.
Here's the left page that includes the photos from the first week. This includes photos of my Adirondack chairs and some margis in jars. I also have photos from a trip I took to Cincinnati for Papertrey.
The right page is all dedicated to little accident that Josey had in the Walmart parking lot. We first made a trip to the gas station so she could learn how to pump gas. Then we went to Walmart to get a few groceries. While backing out, Josey and another driver bumped fenders. Not a huge deal.....but to Josey it was devastating. She was never going to drive again. We made it through though and Josey's back behind the wheel. And a very careful driver too. Accidents happen, right?
By using travel themed stamps, papers and other little embellishments, I was able to tie the two pages together easily. Here are 2 mini Instax photos that put typed labels on and stapled to my journaling cards.
On these two cards I typed my journaling in the center of one and hand wrote the other. The travel stamp is from an Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday set. On the bottom two photo inserts, I added some circles embellished with arrows, a sticky note from a Smash Book and an airplane paper clip from Amy Tangerine's line.
On this insert I used a destination stamp of Ali's + chipboard letters for the word Walmart. I love this photo of the girls. Jordan is giving me the loser sign because Josey doesn't know how to pump gas yet. Nice.
These two inserts tell the story of Josey's little fender bender. I used my vintage typewriter so that I could fit in lots of words.
This middle insert is kind of the title page for this 12 x 12 layout of sorts. The right card uses more of Ali's stamps and is a summary of our thoughts for this day. On the bottom two photos I used a photo of our car and the other lady's car. Almost identical vehicles and the same dents. We all decided that it was a no fault accident. Notice the cute patterned papers I used too. Those are from My Mind's Eye.
Okay, I have to scoot along now. Ballgames tonight that I need to get ready for. I hope you've been working away on your Project Life...or are gearing up to start fresh in 2012. I'm excited for all of us! Remember, it's about improvising and making this work for us. I will definitely keep in mind that I can always omit or combine weeks if needed. Enjoy the process. Later, friends.

Etsy Kit Creations....

2011-12-09T12:00:00.001-06:00

This week, I have two new kits in my Etsy shop. The first one is my Ledger & Lace Kit which is packed full of sample ledger, dictionary, sheet music, and school book papers, paper doilies, tags, punched items, clips, coin envelopes, index journaling cards and more. You can use it to create unique journaling cards, collages, tags, gift wraps, scrapbook pages, etc.

I also have my Butterfly Notebook Kit which is perfect for creating a gift for a friend, teacher, etc. Kit comes unassembled so some cutting, scoring and assembly is required.
I've got a few samples to show you some creations I made from the two kits. First I used some items from the Butterfly Notebook Kit & and the Ledger & Lace Kit to make a get well card for one of the girls' friends. She had a bad bout of the flu and then had to have emergency surgery to remove her appendix. She definitely needs a cheery card. As with any of my kits, you can use them in a mixy matchy sort of way. My card uses a mix of the butterfly embellishment, patterned papers and splattered cardstock from the notebook kit plus I pulled some elements from the Ledger & Lace Kit. I used one of my favorite sketches to speed up the creative process. You can see the assembled notebook on the left which uses all items from the notebook kit.
I love to personalize cards for teenagers. I think they love to see their names on items. Plus Brittney loves butterflies so I know she'll like her card from the girls.
The Feel Better Soon sentiment is from Papertrey's Think Big Favorites #10. Card base is Kraft cardstock. Butterfly was created with the Signature Series: Butterfly die.
I switched gears and did a grouping of journaling cards for a Project Life week with items from the Ledger & Lace Kit. I think it's a great idea to have some handmade journaling cards ready from time to time. This particular grouping will be used as a coordinating set for one week of Project Life. I'll mix in other journaling cards from my Project Life kits to fill in the blank spots.
This is a 4 x 6 main, dated card that I'll add the stamped date to and maybe a few chipboard letters for a weekly title. The base insert is from a Project Life kit. Manila tag, Kraft punched label and pewter star are from the Ledger & Lace kit.
Here, I embellished some grid journaling cards from Project Life. From the kit, I used book paper, a punched Kraft circle and a snippet of a paper doily.
All of the chipboard elements on the above cards are from My Mind's Eye line of Fun Day elements, shown below. I'll most likely mix in a few more of the papers & embellishments for this particular week. I got all my MME goodies from 2Peas.

Next, I created some single journaling cards using Ledger & Lace Kit items. I'll use these cards when I just want to pull one from my stash. On the left I used a grid sack with a large manila tag insert. The front of the sack was embellished with a piece of ledger paper from the kit + a scrap of patterned paper, Washi tape, misting with a Studio Calico mask and an Ali Edwards stamp. The right journaling card features a stitched journaling card and a small coin envelope with a book paper flap, Washi tape border and pull out tag.

Both of these cards will be interactive by being able to pull out the tags and adding small photos or journaling. For the right card, I stapled a stamped Large White Tag to the coin envelope, enabling the viewer to pull the entire piece out of the journaling slot. A small tag will be inside with a little story.
Here I used two journaling cards that I created using index cards with rounded corners. Lots of pieces and parts from the kit were used like the metal clip, 2 halves of some stamped circles, and green ledger paper. These will mix and match with any week and I'm going to love being able to have some journaling cards already made up. If you have a stack of the grid journaling cards from Project Life, you can easily use my Ledger & Lace kit to make up dozens of pre-made cards to have on hand.
And that's it for today. I've been busy quilting and we pretty much living at the basketball gyms in the evenings. With both girls full into the basketball season now, we spend 3-4 nights watching their games.

Daily December:

I've had requests for some December Daily updates. I've been taking photos and getting little stories ready but it's kind of a work in progress right now. With our schedule being so heavy with school functions right now, there aren't a lot of other holiday events going on for us. I'm debating for next year if I should just fit it all into my Project Life album by adding smaller insert pages.

Project Life Updates:

I have lots. And lots. I'll be scattering those in here and there soon. Stay tuned to hear how much I've been catching up....... :)

Butterfly Notebooks...

2011-12-07T10:56:00.002-06:00

Recently my sister gave me these big spools of thread that she used for her professional embroidery business that she's getting out of. I didn't know quite what I was going to do with them but as a crafter, who can resist good stuff?
Then I recalled seeing ideas on blog where crafters used thread to create fun embellishments. I had to give it a try on some butterflies that I die cut using Papertrey's Signature Series: Butterfly die. I just wadded up a very long length of thread until it resembled a small rat's nest of sorts with lots of loops. The entire time I was creating these I thought of Josey and her messy buns that she wears often. She throws up her beautiful, red hair into a darling little bun with little sprigs and loops of her curly locks spilling out everywhere. So I think I'll call my string creations "messy bundles" from now on. To finish the embellishment I layered a punched doily from a Martha Stewart punch, a Vintage Button and then tied a long bow through all the layers. Patterned paper for die cut butterflies is from October Afternoon.
I used one of the messy bundle butterfly embellishments to create a notebook. I thought some cheery notebooks might make for some good holiday gifts. The base of my notebook is Papertrey's Rustic White cardstock with a Vintage Cream Notebook. Cardstock was splattered with Mister Huey spray mist from Studio Calico.
I used my Take Note stamp set to embellish a piece of yellow gingham cardstock. A small metal clip and snippet of velvet trim adorn the sentiment piece.
The bottom of the notebook has two strips of patterned adhered to the notebook. A Dainty Doily was then adhered, trimmed and stitched on the edge. I used a Studio Calico Ampersand Mask and Mister Huey spray mist as a final touch on the front cover. This ties in with the little stamped ampersand on the *this & that* sentiment.
I think I'll set aside some time to make a basketful of notebooks to have handy for teachers and friends that drop by this holiday season. In the meantime I have some kits in my Etsy shop if you'd like to try your hand at a few. :) Assembly required.

Instagram & Diptic & Postal Pix Apps...How To

2011-12-06T16:45:00.000-06:00

Recently some Twitter friends helped me figure out how to transfer Instragram photos from my iPhone to my computer....and then print them with my new printer. I'm in heaven. With tips this good, I had to share. I'm not sure how this will work for cell phones other than iPhones. So just go ahead and get ya an iPhone, okay? ;)

My new printer is an Epson Artisan 730 and it's awesome! It prints crystal clear quality photos and is easy to use. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good photo printer. I got mine right from the Epson online store because at the time there was a $50 rebate. I also saw them on Amazon.

If you'd like to send your photos to a printer instead of printing at home, the Postal Pix app is awesome for that. You order from your phone and the photos are delivered right to your door. They print 4 x 4 photos which is great for the Instagram size.

Instagram is phone app that is used to turn photos into squares with an added variety of scenes which alter your photo slightly.

I'll also be using an app called Diptic which helps you combine multiple photos to create 4 x 4 photo collages. It works hand in hand with Instagram...love that.

All of these steps for Instagram and Diptic that I'll be sharing are done right on my iPhone. I selected the following 3 photos of Charlie to work with. He got in *twouble* and I couldn't resist snapping a few photos of that sad little face. These three photos were in my iPhone photo library.

Photo 1:

Photo 2:
Photo 3:
First I wanted to create a Diptic collage of the 3 photos. I opened the Diptic app and selected the layout I wanted to use. I believe the app is free but I paid an additional fee to get more layout designs. From the screen shot below you can see that the original layout is grey. By tapping on each grey block you are prompted to select your photos. I choose to select mine from my existing photos. Continue for each grey block using your fingertip to move the photos around and resize.
This is my finished Diptic 4 x 4 collage. Like above, it has the white border around it as all theDiptic photos do. When you're done creating the Diptic collage, tap the export button and you can save it right back to your iPhone photo library.
Next I wanted to add an Instagram scene to alter the look of my collage. I opened the Instagram app and selected the saved Diptic photo above to work with.
As seen above from the screen shot, there are scene applications that you can apply that will alter the look/color of your chosen photo. Each scene has a different border too that goes along with it. You can see the little row of trees above...click on each one of those to see what your photo will look like. I chose Earlybird for my photo. It's a favorite of mine because it mutes the photo, makes it look a little vintage and it adds a white frame with rounded corners. Once you're done using the app, save your photo back to your phone library again.

Below is the finished photo collage of Charlie that has been altered using Diptic and Instagram. Oh, that sad little face.
Now that the photo is in my iPhone library, I can either order a print from Postal Pix.....or now I can print at home. How do I do that? Again I'm using the Epson Artisan 730 printer so the instructions may differ for your printer...or you may have a better method. This is just my way of doing it that I found was pretty easy. I'm also using an iMac computer with Iphoto photo storage.

To print Instragrams at home:

First, email the photo you want to print to your home computer(or plug in your phone to download the photos...or I believe iCloud transfers the photo for you). Open that email with the photo. I right click on the photo and open with (it says "other") and Iphoto will be an option. This saves the photo to my iPhoto library on my computer. From here you can make even more edits to your photo if you'd like...like increasing the brightness, etc. Find the photo and click "File/Print". From there I choose the photo paper I'm using from the "Presets" pull down menu. Then I choose my "Paper Size" which is 4 x 6 with or without border. Since this Instagram has a border, I choose no border this time. Next I select the "Print Size" and click on the "Custom" pull down menu and type in 4" x 4". Do a preview to make sure the 4 x 4 photo is within the 4 x 6 photo size. There will be white space on the right and left that you'll have to trim off. Print your photo. Trim to a 4 x 4 square. Easy peasy! With other printers, you might have an option to unclick buttons like "fit picture to fit page", etc. Good luck!

Stay tuned for a Project Life that uses an Instagram/Diptic collage in a fun way!!

Project Life Week of August 14-August 20

2011-12-04T15:24:00.000-06:00

Another Project Life week that is wrapping up the Summer for us. I'm working backwards to blog my *catch up* weeks before I move on to a few newer weeks. Fishing with Dad, picking oodles of zucchini and wondering what to do with it all, jelly making, a funny story from Eric when he wore his shirt inside out to work and good times with friends.
The left page.
The right page.
Love this main title insert. I use up a lot of my sticker and chipboard letters for these. An Elle's Studio journaling card was used for the base and then I added a tiny yo yo and a Dainty Doily that has the stamped dates.
Here I used my vintage typewriter for journaling. Pinked circle is from Studio Calico, journaling tag is from Elle's Studio. Stamp is from Ali Edwards' Technique Tuesday collection. Button is torn from old button card.
Here I used a pink Chevron Bag from my shop (more coming in the future) to hold some additional journaling. Tag is from Elle's Studio, sticky note is from Studio Calico.
October Afternoon papers, Elle's Studio circle journaling spot and grid journaling card from a Project Life kit cut down to fit on patterned paper.
Here I used an Instax mini photo with journaling and epoxy brad + a photo of a whiteboard that was trimmed down.
I'm already loving these Summer pages. The weeks go by so quickly and I'm glad I captured some fun memories. I'll have lots more Project Life updates coming as I've been making some great progress. I'll also be showing some of my Daily December pages....perhaps a 3-4 days grouped together in one post.

Off to finish decorating the tree and puppy proofing the house for the holidays. The men (+ 2 little reds occasionally) are out deer hunting today. Jordan took a break to finish a library book and to set up her beloved Christmas village. We decided to keep it out of the way of Charlie this year so we set up in their new Lounge in the basement. Jordan is very excited about it. We've also set out a big crock pot full of chili and all the fixin's so we could all eat at different times. It's pretty much how it goes during deer season. Josey has perfect Scotcharoo cookies. She just googled the recipe and off she went. I love that she's taking a little more interest in cooking.

Me? I'm like Forrest Gump today.......if someone needs fed, I feed them. If someone wants to decorate the house, I decorate. If I feel like scrapbooking, I scrapbook. If someone needs a ball uniform washed, I wash it. Just a puttering kind of day at home. :)

Daily December 2011.....album cover

2011-12-02T12:50:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone, I love all the blog buzz that is filled with December Daily postings. Such a fun time of year to be a crafty person. I couldn't let my December Daily get kicked off without having a cover for my album. I knew I wanted something chipboard-y but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then it came to me to try something with the chipboard calendars from the Studio Calico December Daily kit(looking for the link but can't seem to locate it at SC).

I trimmed two of the calendars down to 6.5" to fit my 6" x 6" album. I splattered, inked and stitched....then embellished.
Both of the alphabets and the date stickers are from the Studio Calico kit. *Notes from Christmas* circle piece is from Elle's Studio. Pom pom trim is from Crate Paper's Peppermint holiday collection. Bells, ornament red/white twine and sparkly sprig are from my stash of goodies.
I love the white splatters from Mister Huey White from Studio Calico. This chipboard piece is from Echo Park, I believe.
My little album is turning out to be quite thick already. I can't wait to fill it up with holiday memories.
I've got my Day 1 and Day 2 in the works + a special page about Charlie, our new dog. I'll be posting updates soon. Plus, I've got lots of Project Life updates in the works. Happy December everyone!

Daily December 2011....supply storage

2011-11-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

Hey there, it's December 1st and we all know what that means. We go into panic mode because the house isn't decorated, the tree's not up and we don't have gifts purchased, right? Um, well that too but it also means that it's time to start working on those December Daily albums! I've got my album ready to go except for the front cover. You can see my basic pages from Days 1-14 in this post and Days 15-31 in this post. You can also see the December Notebook that I created to keep little notes in here.

I'll be working on my December Daily album on a work table down in the Craft Department. I always try to keep this spare table cleaned off for special projects like mini albums, Etsy kit assembly, sewing projects, etc.
The photo below reminds me of my Holiday Inspiration Stations that I assembled for each and every little occasion. I love making assembling those and I've used that same method to assemble my supply basket that I'll be using for my DD. All of the extras from the Holiday Journal Kit from my Etsy shop, the DD kit from Studio Calico, stamps, journaling cards and more are all tucked into a wicker tray.
You know I love my little tins so I gathered up a bunch to keep things sorted. Here I've used a bread tin to hold Elle's Studio journaling cards and tags, Echo Park notions, Crate Paper embellishments from the Peppermint collection, tags from my shop and more. Can you tell I love the Small Clothespins? I use them all the time to clip together little goodies.
Here I've got a tin full of chipboard accents from Crate Paper + a jello tin filled with Washi tape. If you purchased one of my Holiday Journal kits, you got a sampling of Washi tape to use on your album. Behind I've got all my chipboard alphabets, sticker alphabets and stamps all lined up.
In these cute Christmas tree tins I've got all kinds of small goodies that I didn't want to get lost in the shuffle. There's brads, buttons, punched shapes, tags and more. I'll be using a few items from my regular stash too that I'll just grab when needed.
I'll be keeping my Daily December album in this vintage letter tray near my stash of supplies. Here, I'll drop in photos and little collected items that I want to add to the album.
I'm so excited to start the holiday season now. We'll be decorating the tree and house this weekend. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. :)

Project Life Calendar System...

2011-11-30T12:45:00.000-06:00

I'm very excited to hear all the buzz about you all taking the plunge with Project Life. When you first get your supplies, you might be wondering how to start and how to keep it all organized. One of the best tips I can give is to get yourself a calendar system going. Make this the very first thing you do before you dive into your Project Life supplies. I still like to use a paper calendar system but if you prefer to use your phone/computer calendar, feel free.

Why is a calendar so important? Let me be a prime example of why you need one. I got 17 weeks(over 4 months) behind this year, starting in May. This is the second year that I got behind around this month. There was a pattern developing. We got busy with the end of the school year, track, graduations, my birthday, Mother's Day, Spring plantings, etc. I don't want to continue this pattern in 2012.

My calendar was so critical to me getting caught up. I used it to track down the big events and to check if I'd written any little notes, quotes, etc. Sure enough, I was able to piece together bits and pieces....enough to fill all the gaps for those missing weeks with photos + stories. You can read all about getting behind + getting caught up in this post. Knowing that those dates and little chicken scratches helped me so much, I knew that I wanted to start off 2012 with an even better system of keeping track of my Project Life happenings.

So here we go. This is my plan for 2012. First I bought me a new calendar from Target. Shopping for a new calendar is pure heaven. I can't tell you how happy I am to get a new one each year. I had a smaller version for 2011 (you can see in the getting behind post linked above) but it just wasn't big enough. For 2012 I'm going with this full 8.5" x 11" version.
This calendar has a monthly/weekly system of pages. I plan to use the 2 page per month pages as my family/work calendar. Pretty typical...appointments, sporting events, birthdays, parties, etc. These main events will be a great reference for each Project Life week. From here I can highlight what the main event is for any given week.
The 2 page weekly pages will be the guts of my Project Life. There are lined blocks for each day of the week....starting with Monday which is one change that I will be making for 2012, instead of a Sunday start date. I like the idea that my Project Life albums flows with my calendar.
If you zoom in on the above photo, you'll notice a dashed line that divides each daily block. I added this in myself by using a stamp from the Button Boutique stamp set and Enchanted Evening ink. I found it was the best color match for my calendar.

I added this divider line because I noticed that I was having a bit of a dilemma with my current calendar. There was no separation between my daily to do lists and my Project Life information. Everything was a jumbled mess. Now I have 2 separate sections for each. My to do lists will be jotted down on the left side of each daily block....and my Project Life information can be written on the right side of the daily block.

The type of information that will go on the Project Life side includes the photos I took on that particular day + what camera the photos are stored in, any quotes or funny story lines that I want to remember, special events, memory joggers, etc. The more you write down the better off you'll be. Remember, don't get too busy with the Project Life process that you forget to actually get out there and make the memories.
So now when I start a Project Life weekly spread, I'll gather up my calendar, photos & collected items and head to my Project Life table where I keep all my supplies. I tuck my calendar in behind my supply items so I can reference it when needed. It really is an essential tool...just as important as my paper trimmer, adhesive, etc.
I'm very much looking forward to my 2012 Project Life albums.....a new calendar, new Project Life products to work with, an organized work area that I'll be sharing soon.....and maybe a local friend that might be joining me with Project Life. Stay tuned because I'll be sharing how I plan to store collected items (like school papers, tickets, packaging, etc) + a peek on how I store all my supplies + my favorites items to work with while getting scrappy with my pages. I've recently learned how to use the InLinkz thumbnails (by request) so I'll have lots of fun links to share.

Note: All of my Project Life topics will be listed in the Page at the top left corner of my blog....called Project Life Topics. This page will list blog posts that contain specific topics that I've covered. All of my Project Life weekly updates can be found by looking for the Project Life 2011 label under the LABELS section of my blog on the left hand side...just scroll down. You can also find the updates under my Archive listing below the LABELS section.

Plain Jane Notebooks...

2011-11-28T08:59:00.004-06:00

Hi there, hope your week is off to a good start. We woke up to a very chilly 19 degrees today, brrrr. Now that Thanksgiving is over, our thoughts usually turn to the winter season. For me, I can never have too many little notebooks to jot down my holiday happenings.

Today I have some Plain Jane Notebooks that I'll be offering up in the shop. They measure 4.25" x 5.5" and are stitched down the middle. Covers are Kraft cardstock that can be embellished any way you wish.
Inside there are 10 lined pages with scalloped edges, 4 grid pages and 2 green ledger pages. The kit comes with the embellishments shown below.
Here's a little sampling of how easily you can decorate a notebook using the kit contents and a few supplies of your own.
I first splattered my notebook with Mister Huey White spray mist then added a few strips of LilyBee patterned paper. I created a notched flag from an Elle's Studio journaling piece. Tied snowflake accent and clip were assembled from the kit.
These would be great for little teacher/neighbor gifts, keep one for yourself or perhaps you have some little ones at home that could use a winter project.....try using a notebook as a mini scrapbook or perhaps their own version of a December Daily with some leftover photos. Hope you enjoy. Kits will be up in the shop today in limited quantities.

Coming up soon:

Daily December postings, including my album cover + supply basket

Project Life updates, including my progress report on catching up

The beginnings of 2 quilts

Printer reviews

Plain Jane Notebook Kits

Small Clothespins

Kraft Cardstock

Christmas Note Tags

InLinkz.com

Project Life Week of June 26-July 2, 2011

2011-11-26T15:40:00.000-06:00

Hi there. I'm back today with another Project Life update. I'm almost caught up with my 2011 pages. I've been working primarily on catching up in my spare time so I have lots of weeks to share with you. I'll be changing things up a bit in December with some holiday tags, cards and my December Daily journal. Plus I'll be quilting like a woman on a mission. Stay tuned!

Here's my two page spread. By the color scheme, you can tell I was near July right? I had some very fun papers from My Mind's Eye that I wanted to dig into.
Here we are right in the middle of those hot summer days. Lots of softball, swimming and hanging out with friends.
Plus some regular appointments that we add into the mix.
My main dated title block uses patterned paper, an Elle's Studio journaling piece and letter stickers. The star is chipboard that I misted with Mister Huey white + a little shine.
Some journaling cards. The left uses MME paper + a journaling sheet from a Smash journaling tablet.
Here, the left side has a simple journaling piece from Elle's Studio + a chipboard piece from Studio Calico.
Another journaling sheet from a Smash tablet with sticker letters to spell *nerds* + a simple journaling card that has been cut down to fit onto a patterned paper piece.
One more week down in the books. Feels so good to get caught up a bit. We're off to a chili supper tonight with some good friends. The kids will all be playing the Wii while the adults have a good time of their own. Nothing like getting together with friends that make you laugh! Hope you all have a great weekend!