i make things

Project Life 2014 - Week 6

In the last month I've dedicated a lot of my time to working on Project Life. I love this project. It makes me get my pictures off of my phone, off my camera, off my computer and into a book that I can page through. It makes me write down my stories, whether they be long or short. Every time I happen to peruse through and old Project Life album I am happy I spent the time to do it. Always. Even if the spreads aren't my favorite I focus on the pictures and the stories and I smile. That in-and-of-itself makes the entire project worth it.

Today I was working on Week 6 and was so excited about it that I decided to share it. I haven't shared anything in awhile because I've been concentrated on actually making layouts instead of posting the results but this layout made me super happy. I love how it turned out so I'm sharing it.

I've gotten a lot of inspiration from Ali Edwards' "Storytelling with Project Life" Class. I've been inspired by a lot of her layouts and some of the techniques she uses. I have even took a look at my own habits and tried to get a better understanding of what works for me. For instance, I take a lot of vertical pictures instead of horizontal so in a Design A pocket page protector I use up more of the smaller pockets than the larger....especially in this layout. I used up all of the middle pockets and did all of my journalling using the 4x6 pockets instead.

Here goes! Hope you like it and get some inspiration from it.

Here's both pages of the spread. I did a few things intentionally. For instance, I made almost every picture black and white just to keep the amount of color down. I used the same layout for the journalling cards but used different colors throughout on the borders. I also used the same font and kept the icon in the circle white and the circle gray. I liked that approach because I wanted to use repetition to have some kind of balance in the layout.

Week 6 3x4 card. I'm keeping these rather simple this year. If the 4x6 card on the top left is free I'll use it. If I have a 3x4 space left, I'll use it. Sometimes I'll make a card to use and sometimes I'll use a photo and put my week # and date on that. I'm trying to keep this open so I can not be quite as restrained when I design a layout.

Left-side:

Right Side:

I made these cards in photoshop. I basically cut and pasted a few embellishments from Ali Edwards' Story Kits to make these.

1. Thin gray border - Cheer 4x6 card
2. Gray circle - Click chipboard embellishment circle
3. Top Borders - Build and Tough washi strips (I recolored them to fit the theme)
4. White Icons - Little Things puffy stickers and free icons from freepik.com website.

I figured out my basic card then just adapted each slightly to fit the theme. Example, crossword puzzles received a gray border to simulate pencil lead and a pencil for the icon.

I really had fun with this. It was fairly quick to create these cards. I've never done quite this much journalling on a project life spread but I gotta say I like it. Even though I'm scrapbooking 2014 almost 2 years later I remembered certain things just from thinking about it, I looked on facebook for posts and talked to some family members.

I loved working on the Sochi Olympics card. I looked online for a picture of the Sochi logo and colors for the rings and used that as my basis for the colors. I used the polka dots in the border because that went with the circle theme from the rings. I didn't keep the ring icon colored but changed it to black and white because I wanted to keep with my card theme of white icons not colored.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my project!

 

 

Project Life 2015: Week 12

Week 12 of Project Life was a little bit difficult for me. I knew I wanted to document some of my trip to the Pacific Northwest but not all. I didn't want my PL layout to be more like a scrapbook page. I just wanted a summary from my trip. The basics. Cliff's notes. The top five. You get the idea.

I also wanted to make sure that I didn't forget to document the important life events from the week prior to leaving on my adventure.

It was tough. Don't do too much but don't leave anything important out. This is the baby bear spread. :) [momma bear chair, papa bear chair, and the just right chair...the baby bear.]

So here it is.

I used the pocket page protector's that have 1-4x6 and 10-3x4's to maximize the amount of pictures I could put.

I ended up deciding that I would have 2 pictures for each day (pic) on the top and bottom of the layout and 1 picture that I would use to journal my top five from the day (in the middle). That picture would have the day of the week on it in large text.

I like having a pattern, meaning, each day of the week is in the middle of the spread. I think it gives it some flow.

Here's an example of Tuesday's 3x4 card (p.s. this is from next week's layout.)

I chose a picture that had a lot of white space, not literal white space but an area that was blurred or was all one similar color that I could put journalling on.

This tulip picture was perfect for that. The background was blurred enough so that you can see the writing very well.

On each card I did the same pattern.

1. Large 3-letter Day of the Week. (Ali Edwards Brushes)

2. The actual date underneath the Day. (Rockwell font)

3. A banner with Top 5 underneath the Date. (Rockwell font)

4. Numbers 1-5 using the same brush (Ali Edwards from Little Things story kit)

5. A description of my top 5 favorite things (Rockwell font).

I like the repetition of each day being the same. It helps give the layout a bit of flow being.

Here are all of the cards from the week:

Here is the left-side of the layout.

I made sure that I added my own card for the start of the trip. Just to separate the week between real life and vacation life.

The PNW is a bold Rockwell font.

The Road Trip is a bold Bebas font.

I designed the road using lines and spaced lines in Photoshop Elements.

The car is a .png download.

The Adventure circle is from the Galileo Studio Calico Kit.

I also did a story card that gave the summary of the why's of my trip.

I was digging through my stash of stamps and ended up using a bunch of Ali Edwards stamps from her Story Stamp Kits. The phrases fit absolutely perfectly. I love when that happens. It doesn't always happen so when it does I say a small thanks that I didn't have to pore over my stash for obscene amounts of time looking for just the right thing. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has done this?

Second half of the layout.

After I had chosen all the pictures and written down all of the Top 5's I decided that I needed to add some titles to each picture and a small amount of embellishment.

All I did was set up a blank file in Photoshop and add text boxes with my titles in them. I spaced them a part evenly so that I could cut them easily. I then printed this on a piece of cardstock, cut them out and glued them down on my pictures.

I used a gold heart to repeat the gold in the "Adventure" circle on the PNW Road Trip card.

p.s. these two pictures are a couple of my absolute favorite. I had over 3,000 pictures to choose from so trying to narrow it down to 3 for each day was tough. I went with my gut instinct though. I went through my pictures, wrote down my 5 favorite things. The 5 things that I was absolutely floored by and then made sure I had pictures of those top 3.

Doing it in that order really helped me to narrow down what I wanted to put in my PL layout. One step at a time instead of trying to think about all of it at once.

I hope you enjoyed this layout. If you'd like to see more of my Project Life posts please click here.
Have a great day!

 

Project Life 2015: Week 11

Project Life Week 11 is here! Woohooo! I know I'm behind but I'm still at it. I'm still getting something done weekly. At some point, likely when softball ends for the summer, I'll have a little bit more time to get some more pages done.

This week is all about running outside, the 4-H spaghetti dinner and eating lunch with my niece Grace, the first grader...and Jacob being a little stinker at the spaghetti dinner. (Week is from Paislee Press, 11 is Bebas font and the date is Rockwell font)

I'm so enjoying the process right now. I'm going with the flow and getting pages done. Getting some journalling down and not spending hours doing it. I love it.

So here's my spread for Week 11.

I used two different pocket pages this week. The left side is 3-4x4 and 3-3x4 pockets. The right side is 1-4x6 and 10-3x4.

The reason I used the larger quantitied page on the left is because I know that next week is going to be hugely picture heavy and I wanted to make sure I had a page protector that could handle it.

Sometimes I think ahead like that. :)

This is the left side. Some food on the left and the Spaghetti dinner on the right. I used a project life grid card for my basic journalling of the event. Those cards seem to be my "go-to" when I run out of time and just want to use my own handwriting instead of creating something on the computer.

Me and the butterball, who hasn't gotten used to selfies yet. LOL

I love the grids it helps me keep my journalling even. P.s. the Clover is from a recent Studio Calico kit and the stamps for 4.H and the W's is from Kelly Purkey.

The right side is broken out into two sections, one is about running that week and the other is about lunch with Grace at school called "Eat Lunch with a Loved One Day".

This is an Ali Edwards GO Story Kit card that I added journalling too. I have the digital package as well as the paper package which is great because I can update the cards a little easier. For instance, on this one I changed the color of Go to green instead of black. I also added Running outside in hot pink (to match my shoe laces ). I decided to angle the journalling to be inline with go and I thought it gave it some visual interest. I went outside the box a bit.

I knew I had to highlight the extreme weather in March. Only a couple days a part and my running gear was completely different. One day 50 degree under armour a couple days later shorts and a t-shirt.

This is Grace or Gracer or Pita as we like to call her.

This isn't the best picture of her from that day. It's a bit fuzzy but I don't really care. It's a picture I love so I put it in and added a couple fun embellishments to it. (All are from Ali Edwards Story Kits).

Eating lunch with Grace. I added this card with the basics. It works nicely for that. (First is a stamp from Ali's Story Stamp subscription)

This 4x6 is a collage of 3 things: 1. A picture of Grace's favorite things. It was hanging on the wall at school. I knew I wanted that in there and the her name sign from her desk. I loved that. Then I added some more in depth journalling about getting to eat lunch with her. (Digital Brushes from Ali, notice a pattern here? I use a lot of Ali edwards lately...probably because I like her stuff and it's sitting right in front of me.) LOL

Okay that's about it for this week. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you'd like to see more Project Life click here.

 

Project Life 2015: Week 10

Week 10 might have been low on pictures for me but it definitely wasn't low on content. I had a lot going on this week. I designed a couple 3x4 cards that I'm pretty excited about. I hope you like them too!

With that, here we go:

The full spread which I call one and a half. One full page and then I used a " wide page protector that has 3 - 3x4 pockets and 3 - 4x4 pockets.

I've never used this one before but I gotta say I really like it. Having the ability to use square with portrait is fun. You could do a 4x7 picture and cut up and fill both slots or you could do one huge picture that's 4x12. There are so many options.

Okay here's the left side:

the Left portion of the left page. I kept this section as a modge-podge and left the right to fishing.

I used Ali Edwards' digital pie chart (from one of her digital kits) to help me create this "Salad - This is how I like it" card. It was a lot of fun. I actually use the colors from my salad to color the pie sections.

I ended up running out of pie pieces so I had to group things together. For instance, I but bacon bits and tomatoes together mainly because they are similar in color. (I ran out of room because I put A LOT of stuff on my salad.)

I drew the fork and knife using my tablet.

I know a lot of people look at this picture and journalling and think, "Why the heck are you wasting time and space recording your diet?" Well, I think about that a lot and honestly it's because food is a big part of me. I love food. I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to eat. Just by the mere fact that I will put food in my Project Life says something about me.

I also think it's interesting to see what it is I eat. Eating changes throughout one's life and I think it will be cool to look back 30 years or more down the road and see what I liked, didn't like, what restaurants I ate at, what I cooked or even how I like a salad. It's those little things that I think people forget about or don't put stock in that should be recorded as well.

Okay on to the next card, which is quite a bit more in depth than my diet. It's about a challenging time. That again can be questioned as a topic for recording in Project Life.

Why put out there something difficult? What not just keep that out of it? I've thought about that too and I don't generally pepper my Project Life or even scrapbooking layouts with negative things. I'm just not much of a negative nancy. That being said I will record the challenges in my life. Why? Because it's a part of me right along with the good and easy things.

Both the good and the bad and more importantly, how one handles it, will show a person's character. I want that down in writing for posterity as well.

I just wanted to get that out there. Not everyone will agree with it but that's okay.

The card was made using a handful of different digital items from the Ali Edwards gathering story stamp kit.

Onto the fishing section and much less philosophy unless you think fishing is philosophical....I guess it can be. Many people fish to get some peace and do some thinking...anyways, that's a topic for another day.

I made these cards using some PL cards from Christine Herrin. I don't believe they are for sale anymore. The original cards were about travel (jet set) but I manipulated them to be all about fishing including the color scheme.

I gotta say that was kind of fun. :) I changed the wording from Jet set to Set. Fish and changed the graphics to a fish on some fishing line coming out of the hole.

Some of the pics from our ice fishing trip. These are just pan fish. Little guys.

In the final layout I added the descriptions of the fish with a black pen.

The half-page layout is all about my brother's birthday party and one little picture of a trail.

I didn't have a lot to say so most of it is pictures and the party details.

Nick's favorite color is orange so I find this loud and crazy patterned 3x4 card to use. I thought it was fun and gave the page a bit of life and a focal point. Sometimes I think the pages get a bit crazy and you can lose the desire to view them if there is no focal point.

I made this Party time 3x4 card using a brush from Ali Edwards (story stamp kit). I digitally stamped on the "party time" then added the "oh yeah" with some staz-on ink as well as the "who what where and when" (Kelly Purkey stamp) Then wrote on the details with a black slick writer.

I want to make sure that I don't always use digital fonts or stamps for everything. I like having a bit of my own handwriting in if I can. I think it gives it a nice touch, not to mention gets a bit of you in the layout.

Okay that's it for this week. Thanks for stopping in and reading my post. If you'd like to see more of my project life layouts click here:

Project Life 2015: Week 9

Week 9 of Project Life.

So glad I am back on this horse. It's a fun project and I'm getting some of my memories and activities told. I know 10 years, or 15 years or even next year I'll look back and be glad I did this.

Some weeks I'm not so happy with the layout, some weeks I am but all in all I never am unhappy that I'm doing this. :)

So here we go.

My shortened layout this week. One small insert and the main page.

This is Bruce fileting a nice crappie. I wanted to use it for my title header this week because I didn't really have a big story to go with it but wanted to include the picture. (Right now my sister is probably grossed out that I put a fileted fish on my blog. LOL Thinking about it makes me chuckle a little. For me, it's a part of life and isn't really that gross but then again I'm a farm kid. Not much grosses me out.)

I cut out the "week 9" using my Silhouette but wanted to do computer type for the date.

I knew I didn't want to cover up the fish so I made my cutout to fit in the blank are on the bottom right. I knew how tall my cut-out was so I just set up the grids in Photoshop so I knew how how the week 9 would be then I wrote in my date.

The insert on the left side.

This year I've been taking more of a different approach to this project. I choose the pictures I want to show and then I fill in the embellishments and journalling. I used to try and plan out the whole thing first but that got tedious. It's been easier and faster for me to make sure I concentrate on one thing then add the next layer and so forth.

Kind of like a Christmas tree. You start with the big ornaments first then work your way down in size filling in the holes. That's how I am doing this project now. I start with the pictures I want then do journalling then fill in the embellishments. I think it's been working well for me.

I made a little boo-boo on this insert though. I was going to put this blog card in a 4x6 pocket but then realized that I didn't like the pig being so small on a 3x4 card. So I just cut the blog card in half. I think it's okay. You know that it says blog and the journalling is not cut up.

Moving on.

I love this card! I should make more of them since I am such a bacon fiend. That's right, fiend!

Pig is cut out of hot pink nubby paper using the silhouette (Can I just say this is turning into one of my favorite tools. I held off so long buying this bad-boy.) I cut out the word BACON from some pink cardstock and wrote my journalling around the pig using a American Crafts slick writer pen.

Right side!

This was all about birthdays.

Between Feb and Mar I have 10 birthdays in my family. 10. T-E-N, ten. So project life gets a lot of birthday pictures and embellishments.

There are two different birthday parties here. Traci's on the left and Chris's on the right.

This cutie is my nephew Ashton. He loves cupcake frosting. Not so much the cupcake but the frosting. I think he likes goatees too since he has a frosting goatee on his piggy face. LOL

This cutie is my cousin Traci who I've affectionately called 'Raci for years. Ever since she was little my cousin Tara used to call her that. She couldn't say the T in Traci so it was shortened to Raci. So now I just call her that.

I nickname everyone. Sometimes they aren't even nicknames I made up but for whatever reason I like 'em so I claim them as my own.

This was one of those hilarious moments from the night. It's hard to tell what's going on from the picture so I journalled about it in my spread.

Traci was digging into her little cake and her boyfriend Marc had a cupcake he was eating. Traci is a smart and wiley girl so she had her eagle eye trained on him because she thought FOR SURE that he was going to smash his cupcake in her face.

I was watching this just laughing. The expressions on their faces were classic and priceless. I wish my photography skills were better so I could have gotten those looks but at least I got this one. :)

On to the next birthday party.

This is my little brother Chris whom I affectionately call "Christles" (nicknames again. Dad made this one up when he was like 1 and I just run with it.) and his girlfriend Angi.

Christles' birthday party was at Dave and Buster's in a suburb of the Twin Cities. I found out that I had a knack for one of the games. I played it like I owned it. Beat it 'til it broke. So naturally I decided that deserved it's own shout out in my layout this week.

p.s. Glad my mom got a picture of me and all my seriousness. I'm competitive so when I play it's all business. Well, I have fun I just like to win so I've always got a serious look on my face.

Next is some journalling.

I decided that I needed a breakdown of the week since I had concentrated the most on pictures. So I made this card up using some digital Ali Edwards Story Kit .png files. (Little Things)

I used the numbers 1-10 brush and then in the background I used a brush file of the word Story and lessened the transparency from 100% to around 5%. That way my journalling would still be legible. I made sure I changed the bottom right story to a little bit darker just to make it show up.

Well that's about it for this week. Hope you enjoyed the post. If you'd like to see more project life click here.

If you'd like to check out my other posts click on the navigation bar above. There are drop-downs as well so you can pick which item you'd like to see.

Thanks again. Come back soon! If you have any comments or questions please post below.

Project Life 2015: Week 8

Week 8 is here! I'm behind but I keep on going because every week I do this I remember why.

Because it's fun!

Because I love seeing my pictures in an album.

Because I love writing things down.

Because I know in a year or two I won't remember that specific day or what I was feeling or doing.

I hope you enjoy this week's spread and maybe even find some inspiration.

The title card is a hybrid of traditional and digital. I used A Beautiful Messes "Frances" photoshop filter. It gives that lovely pink filter on the bottom. I wrote in the week using Rockwell font.

Then I did a little magic with my favorite Paislee Press (no.9) .png image in Photoshop and Silhouette.

• I erased the "of"
• used my black marker brush in Photoshop to darken the lightened areas of e and k
• then turned it into a brush in photoshop (yep a brush into a brush)
• opened up in silhouette and traced
• then cleaned up some of the crooked lines

and Waalaa! It's my own cut file.

This took me a bit of work because I've never done something like that before but I spent the time doing it because I know I'll use this cut file again. I might have thought twice about it if I wasn't going to use it again.

left side layout

left-most of the left side.

I've been using these quadrants for my stories. I like to keep my layouts organized somewhat instead of just having picture willy-nilly. It seems to satisfy my Type A-anal side a bit more.

Used a "currently" card that I made and used in a different layout. Loving that. It makes me think differently about what I'm journalling for the week. Instead of just cold hard facts I lighten it up and speak from my heart instead.

I think that gives a better and more complete picture of how the week went and what's going on with my life. I want to do more of that so I'm pretty sure you'll see this again.

This picture is one of my favorites. I turned my blank cookies into a canvas for my journalling using the conversation hearts technique. OMG loved this page. Loved loved loved loved it! Wish I would have thought of this before but glad I did it now.

It was fun, cute and kept my wordiness down to a minimum...cuz that can be a problem. It was creative and fun. If you decide to jump on the cute conversation heart train post a link to your project. I'd love to see!

Right side of the left layout. All about a visit from a couple of the kiddos.

This is my brother and my niece aka the clone. Looks and acts just like him. It's cute and funny. She loves him to pieces right now. He's her favorite.

Stickers are from Ali Edwards.

Korby is lots of fun but getting into that I want to do this and this and that phase. He bounces from one thing to the next. Transformers to crayons to markers to coloring pages to the ipad...and on it goes.

Journalling in the middle.

3x4 card from Ali as well as the circle (I cut the left side off the circle, flipped it around and put it on the right side. Added the foam heart circle in the middle of the two. Loved playing with that.) Just added a couple of things I wanted to mention about that particular moment.

Used a basic grid card and added some Ali "little memories" stamps and some journalling. Just wanted to keep it basic... that helps keep the time down on how long it takes me to do this project life layout.

I used a shortened Type A pocket protector page because I just didn't have a lot of pictures this week. Which is totally fine and I modified to fit that.

I used a Cathy Zielske photoshop .psd file for the following instagram images. I just love her clean lines and the template worked perfect for how I wanted to showcase these pictures.

Noticed that I could change the instagram logo and writing for each one? I love that. It's like personalizing each one.

The journalling cards:

I chose to keep going with the pink theme from the left-hand side. I think it brought the entire week together more.

Just used some pink letter stickers, and Adventure sticker and "this was awesome" stamp (studio calico kit), and a purse die cut from Silhouette, plus the lovely pink gem (used pink and sparkly mostly because that describes my friend Lynn)

Used a basic grid card from Becky Higgins and some stamps from Kelly Purkey for the Sat, St Paul and Stars. Again, just trying to keep it basic to finish. While I love the process of doing this I don't want to spend all night doing it. I need to live life...so that I can have adventures to make more pages with. LOL Okay not quite like that but I need to live too not just sit in my scrap room.

I hope you enjoyed this layout and if you'd like to see more please click here or check out the navigation bar above for more projects including scrapbooking, cards, adventures or just life in general.

 

Project Life 2015: Week 7

Week 7 is here! It's ALL ABOUT Valentine's Day. I couldn't help myself. I'm a big fan of hearts and a big fan of flowers...especially roses. So I went a little overboard. As in a package of hearts exploded on the layout.

Okay, maybe not quite that bad but I took some creative liberties. Hope you like.

p.s. the Title picture is a bunch of different candy hearts I piped out onto a silpat mat. I thought that was a fun way to title out the week. I should also point out I'm loving using the white space for my title instead of covering the picture.

I worked at this one for awhile. I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to do it but ended up just going with the flow.

I'm still doing a lot of digital lately. I'm really really liking the digital aspect. I need to get some more depth and texture though so I'm thinking as I go on I'll add more physical product and not create the cards digitally.

Left-side:

I resized my roses picture (from my ipod touch) to be 6x9 then broke it up into 2 3x4's and 1 4x6 but not before I added a small title and some journalling.

Here's the original. I believe this was a vscocam adjusted picture.

Nothing says love like going Fishing. Well, that's Bruce's love language, spending quality time together.

So that's why I put those two together. They don't match well physically but because it's V-day they do. P.s. I bought Bruce a Slush Bucket for the Fish house. Saying he LOVED it would be an understatement. Nothing says love to a ice fisherman like a slush bucket.

Here's what the journalling card looks like. It's from Ali's Story Stamp kit, Magic.  I changed the color to green, added the fish shape on the bottom as well as the journalling and the sentiment on the bottom.

I thought it would be interesting to kind of "explain" the Who, what, whys of fishing.

Page two is where it gets really crazy.

I had a lot to say. So I used two of the 4x6 slots just for journalling.

The background is from a free Valentine's download (I can't find where I got it, I'm sorry.)

I used a bunch of Ali Edwards brushes for the hearts, "I want to remember" and "this moment"

Normally I don't get quite this sappy but I've come to realize that I need to put some of this down. I don't really say these kind of things to people but I feel like I need to get it down on paper. When I'm 60 I want to know how I felt at that moment.

As I grow older I realize that many things change and it's so important to get these feelings down.

The bottom journalling is the basics about what I did that day. Nothing sappy like the first card. ;)

The other side of the right page was dedicated to food, food and more food.

I gave Petit Fours the old college try. They are quite tedious but oh so good. Not sure I'm going to try these bad boys again anytime soon but maybe for a special occasion.

Here is the journalling card about the Petit fours.

I probably went a little overboard on the number of pictures of these little cakes but man they were so much work.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and reading this post. If you'd like to see more Project Life pages click on the Crafts box on the Navigation bar then Project Life.

Project Life 2015: Week 6

Week 6!
Woohoo!

Still loving this and so incredibly glad that I'm getting these pictures off my computer, my phone, and my ipod and into a book with some journalling.

I'm also incredibly greatful I decided to be a subscriber to Ali Edwards story stamp and story kit each month. I've gotten some incredible inspiration, embellishments, digital brushes and .png files.

I've been going more digital this year just because I keep my options to a minimum that way. I'm not digging through patterned paper or stickers but I'm using what I have right in front of me and thus far I'd say it's working pretty well.

Full layout.

 

Left side.

My favorite fonts lately have been Manhattan Darling (winter) and rockwell (the journalling and remaining title)

I'm really loving the combination of whimsical and readability.

This card is from Ali's digital Magic Story Kit. All I had to do was open the png file and add my journalling. Easy peasy. It's not the most exciting embellished card but it gets the job done for journalling and that was the important thing.

I made a "currently" card for the week. I've been seeing this pop up on pinterest quite a bit and I really like the idea of doing some kind of "how am I feeling RIGHT NOW".

I like it because normally I just kind of give the "what am I doing right now" and that doesn't necessarily describe what I'm feeling or what's going on with me, whether it be my favorite drink or tv show.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to try this at least once a month maybe more. (Fonts: "currently" is Manhattan Darling, "-ing" words are CK Ali font, and "type" is rockwell

VSCO cam pictures. Really loving this app on my phone right now.

Page 2: Right side

All about me babysitting Jack and Grace, my nephew and niece while my sister and brother-in-law were out of town.

This doesn't happen often so I wanted to get down what it was like. What our routines were for morning and night.

Blurred the background so you could actually see the title in this one.
I'm really loving using images as backgrounds for title or journalling lately. Mentally I'm trying to remember to get more of these pictures to use. It's like having my own patterned paper.

Used Ali's AM/PM kit for these cards. I added some things I wanted to remember from the morning and evenings with the kiddos.

 

The pink card was a stamped image using an old family stamp set I had and "love this" was from Ali's gathering kit.

These cards were also from Ali's AM/PM kit (linked above). I added some basic timings down.
 I thought this was appropriate because looking back it will be neat to see what the daily schedule was like for the kiddos. It's changed as they've gotten older and I'm sure it'll continue to change once they get out of Elementary school and into Junior High and High School.

After I finished this two page spread I ended up finding some more pictures that I hadn't seen when I was putting this layout together. So I grabbed an 8 1/2 x 11 page protector and sized my images down to 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I didn't want to leave them out.

Hope you enjoyed this layout. If you'd like to see more Project Life layouts click here, or up on the navigation bar under Crafts and Project Life.

 

 

 

Project Life 2015: Week 4 & Week 5

Week 4 was fairly small for me. I only had 3 pictures I wanted to showcase so I just grabbed a 4x12 page protector and went to town. I didn't want to do anything spectacular so I wrote my journalling on my picture and that was it.

The two chipboard pieces (No.1 and "So thankful for these times we get to spend together in our lives.") are both from the Ali Edwards Story Kits (First and Gathering)

For the golden gophers picture I blurred out the crowd of people in the stands so that you could actually see my title. (used Rockwell font)

I also decided to go with black and white pictures. Lately that's been my go-to. I like how it takes out all of the crazy different colors and you just see the pictures or your titles and embellishments take more of a stage or focal point.

WEEK 5:

The same thing happened with my week 5. I didn't have a lot of pictures this week. So I only grabbed 3 like Week 4.

Week 5 was all about food and fishing.

I had to work horrendous hours all week so Friday night I finally got some downtime and met Bruce out on the lake. I also took some time to make Chocolate Lasagna...oh so chocolatey and tasty.

The First of Many chipboard is from the Ali Edwards Story Kit: Firsts.

If you'd like to see more of my Project Life hoveron the crafts section of the navigation bar and then click on the Project Life section of the drop-down.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you come back soon.

Project Life 2015: Week 2-3

I've found my title style for the year. Woot woot!

It's "week" using a Paislee Press brush. (Paislee Press Pictures+Words No.8) plus a large number in Bebas font.  Underneath the week will be the days of that week in a smaller Rockwell font. The date will be in the format of a roller stamp.

I also think I'm going to try and use a picture from the week as the background instead of cardstock or patterned paper. I like using that upper left-hand space as something more than just the title for the week but using it for another picture.

This week is only a one page spread. I didn't have a lot of pictures to post so I thought I'd keep it nice and easy.

I used some Ali Edwards Story Kit embellishments this week. The Love this card and the First on the First class picture.

The airplane is from a Heidi Swapp stamp set.

The morning magic is from Ali's Story kits: AM/PM and Magic including the magic dust behind the header.

I made the blizzard card using a large transparent rockwell font for Blizzard. A smaller Bebas font for Minnesota and my own siwrls for the blowing wind.

I'm having more fun creating digital words and embellishments as I get comfortable using Photoshop.

I tried to keep the page together by doing a visual triangle on the layout as depicted above.

I used a 1 inch punch to punch out part of the picture and put in an appropriate stamp. So an airplane for the SFO to MSP picture and a camera for the blizzard.

I really loved this picture and how it turned out with the title in the upper corner. It's such a beautiful morning sunrise and I loved how the graphics just enhanced it. It was fun.

Next up. Week 3:

The bulk of this week was centered around my nephew Lucas's baptism. I didn't take a lot of pictures this week because I was working A LOT and didn't really think about pictures or anything else.

I used Ali's Story kit for Firsts a lot this week. I have the digital version so I used the 3x4 cards and added my own journalling to them.

I did a couple black and white pictures this week because there was just so much going on I felt like it made more sense to take out the color so I could focus on the pictures. By taking out the color I don't get as distracted plus with a newborn it just seemed appropriate.