Originally published on December 22nd, 2013
Right before I left for vacation, I attended December stamp club. We made two adorable non-Christmas cards and a treat holder. I love love love the eiffel tower card using new Valentine's themed stamps. And the designer paper behind it is too cute. I might actually have to buy it. The shovel card is using the 2013-2015 colors. I really need to get that ink and cardstock... January club order!
Originally published on December 16th, 2013
I've only been at this for a few weeks, but I've already learned so much about what to do and what not to do. My main realization is that I need to make PL work for me and just me. I've looked at so many different examples of styles and usage and they all look amazing. But, I can't get too wrapped up in copying some other's design. I need to make PL work just for me. It comes down the fact that I like simplicity. I don't like a lot of clutter, a lot of layering, a lot of embellishment. While it can be very pretty, that's just not my style. My simplistic uncluttered style is evident in my pages so far. I like clean photos and relatively clean inserts. Although I am experimenting with adding some washi tape accents in the coming weeks.
Secondly, I really loving taking a bit of time each Sunday or Monday to do my layouts. I figure out what pictures I want, where to put them, and which inserts to use. Then, I journal and put the inserts in the pages. The photos will be printed later, but I've already got each spread 90% done by Monday night. As an extra bonus, working on my pages is a nice break from mommy duties. I can focus just on me for 30-60 minutes.
Thirdly, while I would love to have my pictures printed instantly, I have accepted the plan of printing monthly instead. I just don't know if home printing is worth the money and hassle at this point. I save up my pictures until Walgreens or Snapfish or Shutterfly have a good deal and then print them. So far, so good.
Fourth, I have added a ton of PL related products to my Amazon wishlist. While I love everything I see, I have limited my list to my favorites. I just need to remember to not get too stash buying happy that I over supply myself.
Fifth, taking pictures of my pages while in their plastic sleeves is tricky. To get better pictures, I've resorted to taking the pieces out, laying them on the desk, and then photographing them... Much better looking on the blog.
Finally, I joined a Studio Calico class starting in January for extra motivation and inspiration. I've heard about so many people losing momentum at some point in the year. I want to make it all the way. And having a bit of extra help will certainly be a great idea.
Nov. 4 - 10
Highlights: This week was all about hanging out near the house... As for the design, I stuck with my basic design of 4x6 prints and 3x4 inserts. I added the day of the week stickers to my weekly highlights for the family album. I'm trying to add more embellishments to my pages, but haven't quite figured that out yet.
Nov. 11 - 17
Highlights: Arthur turned one month old this week. I made sure to add the special 1 month inserts to his pages to highlight the occasion. For the family album, I stuck more toward the pictures speaking for themselves. A little bit of embellishment on these pages.
Nov. 18 - 24
Highlights: A couple of trips outdoors this week. Arthur and I went to two new parks. I love discovering new places around here... The holes you see were pictures that somehow didn't get printed by Walgreens. I have about 10 different photos that didn't print, but were clearly on my order. I had to call, complain, and get them to reprint my photos. I just haven't stuck them back into the albums yet. I added a few word stickers to the family album. I don't want to over embellish my pages. I like the cleaner look.
Nov. 25 - Dec. 1
Highlights: Arthur and I started our weekly walks at Shoreline with the mom's group. Shoreline is a gorgeous park with gorgeous views. We are really loving the walk, socializing with other moms and babies, and lunch at the cafe afterwards. I caught some great Arthur expressions in this week's photos. For the family album, I started including my photo-a-day challenge photos. When they don't easily fit into the spreads, I have collecting them into their own inset page for the end of the month.
Extra bonus: I added in a Thanksgiving insert for Arthur's photo shoot with the turkey hat. I didn't want to lose out on including other photos just to get these adorable ones in... An insert seemed like the perfect way to go. I plan on doing another insert for Christmas photos.
Dec. 2 - 8
Highlights: A pretty quiet week at home. For my photo-a-day pics, I added each day's theme on washi tape. I love the look and it utilizes more of my craft stash. The cut out heart was a random chip board piece that was lying around. I love how it stands out against the dark background in that picture. Plus, lots of regular day-by-day style journaling.
Dec. 9 - 15
Highlights: Arthur turned 2 months old this week! I had to include his 2 month photo shoot pictures. If you look closely, the monthly stats insert isn't filled out. I finished doing that yesterday. I wanted to get his stats from the doctor's appointment. Since we didn't do much this week, I condensed my day-by-day journaling inserts into one weekly highlights insert. This allowed me to include more Arthur and photo-a-day pictures.
Originally published on December 8th, 2013
I had a couple of classes these past two weeks, a meet and greet, and a crop night. At crop night, i finished my stamp club homework (pics #2, 3, 4) and some copycat cards (pics #1, 5). Lots of crafting fun! With the class today, I think I've finished my Christmas cards. Now to get them addressed and sent out before traveling.
Originally published on December 11th, 2013
Title: Inside the Creative Studio
Author: Cate Coulacos Prato
Publisher: Interweave 2012
Genre: Home; Crafts
Pages: 160
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Fall into Reading; Nerdy Nonfiction -- Home; 52 Books -- W50
The professional artists and crafters of Studios Magazine give you the tools to create your own one-of-a-kind artistic environment in this best-of compilation. Learn how to find space in your home, whittle down your stash, maximize your storage and organization possibilities, and manage your stash of supplies and equipment to keep your work space functional and fun to work in. Experts will also show you how to repurpose furniture, integrate recyclables, and showcase vintage items to establish a space with purpose and personality. You will spend less time struggling with your studio, or lack thereof, and more time actually creating in your unique space.
Lots of great ideas for organizing your creative space. My space isn't completely out of control, but I would love to reorganize it this coming year (on my big to do list!). This book helped me start thinking about what I want... I see a trip to Ikea in my future for early next year.
Title: B is for Baby: 26 Projects from A to Z
Author: Suzonne Stirling
Publisher: Taunton Press 2006
Genre: Crafts
Pages: 176
Rating: 3/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Fall into Reading; Nerdy Nonfiction -- Crafts
B is for Baby honors the age-old tradition of crafting with a mix of vintage and modern-style projects for all women who buy baby gifts who want to give something meaningful and handmade. In a unique A to Z presentation, the projects are aimed at a variety of skill levels and budgets. Every letter is represented with a main project and many variations, and all have concise step-by-step directions, photos and templates.
Why do I always pick these craft books up? Oh right, I love looking at the pictures. To be fair, there are some very cute projects in this book. Most of them just aren't my style (lots of pastels and cutesy things) and there was only two projects I even contemplated doing. Cute book for super crafters, just not really my style.
Originally published on November 10th, 2013
Besides doing my weekly Project Life Pages (check out October's pages), I managed to squeeze about 20 minutes in on Saturday morning for Christmas cards. I've signed up for two Christmas card classes, so I decided to finish up my own random cards. I knocked out three cards using lots of scraps (hurray for supply reduction!) and managed to organize my Christmas supply drawer. I have about 45 Christmas cards done. I think I will stop there and wait for the class cards. I may have to finish a few more before the holidays, but I don't want to overdo it this year. Here's two of my random scrap cards. I took these images from some cut up scrapbook pages. I added the sentiment and the washi tape and striped scrap. I love the washi tape on the Santa card. Overall, I really love how these two came out and I used two large scraps that have been in the box for two years!
Originally published on November 7th, 2013
With my new method of scrapping, I journal and lay out the spreads every Sunday, but don't print pictures every week. Instead, I will be printing them monthly for convenience and hopefully to use some of the printing deals at Snapfish and Walgreens.
I started the weekly spreads with Arthur's birth. Overall, his and the family album are very similar. I usually only have a few minor differences (I don't think he will care what I was blogging about in any given week or what I was reading). I think I'm going to stay pretty constant week to week with the family album. I love the idea of having inserts for each day that I can use to jot down what we did. I can always change the format, but this seems really appealing right now.
Oct. 14 - 20
The big highlight of the week was that Arthur arrived, of course! The first two photos are the weekly spread from Arthur's album. I added the week's dates stamped onto an insert card (I will continue to do this for every week, I love the look!). I also added some informational cards about his birth our journey home. The second two photos are the weekly spread from the family album. I used many of the same pictures, but instead of random inserts, I did a card for each day. I wrote a quick list of what we did each day to remember the week better. I love the colors on the Sunshine kit inserts and went with a fun collection of colors for this week. Plus, I added some baby related stickers to one of the inserts to give it some more character.
Oct. 21 - 27
The highlight of the week was lots of visitors! Arthur met his first people outside of mom, dad, and hospital staff. He looks like he's crying in the picture with Auntie Cecilia, but he's actually yawning. They caught us right before nap time.
Again, I did a bulleted list of weekly happenings. I also added Arthur's inked footprint. The ones they did in the hospital were horrible and the ink bled throughout the entire paper. I did mine using the standard Stampin' Up ink and paper. They're not super dark, but I still got them.
Oct. 28 - Nov. 3
It's Halloween! Not that we actually did anything with a two week old baby, but still I had to add some Halloween themed inserts. I bought the PL Holidays Mini-kit. I love the insert designs and the fact that you get two large inserts and eight small inserts for each of the holidays. I added the three dimensional Halloween themed stickers and the Happy Baby sticker from my scrapbooking stash. For the 3x4 pictures, I just printed a regular 4x6 and cut it down to the right size. Thankfully I had a few pictures that could be cropped to fill the slots.
Until next month...
Originally published on October 27th, 213
I started my Christmas cards before Arthur arrived, but didn't have the chance to upload the pictures. My plan is to create ~five different cards using some old templates and some class designs. So I focused on taking the design and using scraps and stamps to recreate it. Not all are exactly alike, but I'm loving the results. 35 cards down, about 20 to go!
Pictures I ordered came in the mail the other day. Inserting those finishes my introduction spreads in the PL albums. I highlighted the results in my PL Transition post from Thursday. Now I can start on my weekly spreads. I've got the first week done and am working on week 2 today. I need to remind myself to take more pictures throughout the week so I can have a few to choose from when it comes time to make the spread. As an extra helper to record our daily lives, I signed up for Oh Life. Every day they send you an email asking how your day was. You just reply to the email. The site collects your responses in an easy to read format. This helps me remember to jot down a few key things about the day and I don't need to remember where I put the notebook, etc. I'm going with a bulleted list of things for each day. Then I can elaborate in my actual journaling cards if I want to or leave it as a bulleted list of activities.
Originally published on October 24th, 2013
With the birth of my third child, I realized that my previous method of scrapbooking was not going to work. Mainly it took too much time and thought. I would also let it go for months and then have to do a marathon session to catch up. I'm sure events and commentary were lost in the process. To be fair, I started scrapping in 2007. I went back to scrapbook the twins' lives from their birth in 2003. I also went back and scrapbooked my entire life in an attempt to decrease the boxes of random memorabilia and photographs. It worked well, but I won't be able to keep up with four different albums at one time.
I started seeing more and more bloggers using the Project Life method. I did a bit of research. I thought about it. And I finally decided that this method would work better for our new life. Although I do have a few modifications to fit our life. The twins' individual albums will stay the same. As I don't see them everyday, it makes sense to focus on events rather than a weekly time table. The family album and baby Arthur's album are transitioning to Project Life. My goal is to create a spread a week or at the very least biweekly. I want to focus on meaningful moments and journaling our lives. I love the idea of small events. I love the idea of flexibility with PL.
In preparation, I bought a few kits to get me started. I picked up the Baby Edition for Arthur's album (gender neutral edition full of grays and yellows), the Seafoam Edition for the family album, a mini Holiday Kit for both, and the Sunshine Edition (designed by A Beautiful Mess) for the family album. I wasn't planning on buying that many kits, but the Holiday mini kit seemed like a good investment, plus I snapped it up for 40% at Michaels. The Sunshine kit was just released and I love their designs too much to pass it up. This means that I am stocked with paper inserts for probably a few years (at least a year for each album). I also bought a Seafoam and a Baby designer paper pack to cut at my discretion. This seems like a lot of supplies, but I keep reminding myself that this is almost all I need to create interesting scrapbooks. I won't be randomly picking up stickers, paper, and embellishments. I plan on using scraps and already bought supplies to doctor some of the inserts. Some will go in as is. It's all about customization, but I do love a clean look without lots of embellishments or layering.
So, I am officially embarking on the Project Life adventure this month. I plan on starting the weekly spreads now that the baby has arrived. To prep, I have created a few transition/introduction pages to start the albums. I made a nice introduction page for the family album with journaling about the transitions and my theme for the album: Change and Growth. I journaled a bit about why we are changing scrapbooks and our family. I added pictures of our current (before baby) family and some facts about them. For Arthur's album, I used the same idea with different papers and inserts.
I then added in a page highlighting all my ultrasound pictures to document that part of the journey. I duplicated that page in Arthur's album just with different designer paper.
The next pages highlight the nursery and baby shower thrown by my crafting friends. I also inserted a few of the handmade cards I received from friends.
Overall, I am really happy with the flexibiloty of the PL system. I can make spreads that fit our events or weeks. But I also have a limited supply of inserts and page dividers. It forces me to make decisions instead of getting lost in the possibilities. Slowly, it is coming together. I can't wait to start highlighting our weekly adventures. I plan on sharing them on the blog on a monthly basis. Look for them soon...
Supplies used:
Originally published on September 10th, 2013
Title: A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book
Author: Elsie Larson, Emma Chapman
Publisher: Potter Style 2013
Genre: Photography How-to
Pages: 240
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Nerdy -- How to; Bingo -- 4 2013 releases
How I Got It: Library Loan
Whether it’s of your sister’s smile, your morning coffee, or your new puppy, photos are a way to connect on Facebook and Instagram, keep a visual diary of our lives, and create momentos for future generations. Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman, creators of the mega-popular DIY style blog A Beautiful Mess, are in love with photographing everyday life. Here, they share that love with 95 all-new tips and photo challenges that will inspire you to style and snap better photos and then transform them into simple yet stunning projects and gifts.
I've followed the blog A Beautiful Mess for awhile now. I read about their book publication, but didn't seek out the finished project. And then while perusing the new books section at the library, I spied it. Flipping through, I was treated to gorgeous photographs. When I started actually reading the tips, I found some great and easy ways to create beautiful photographs. I may not follow every one of their tips, but I got some great ideas about how to classy up my pictures. Plus they include some great little DIY projects using your photographs. Very fresh. Very fun. Very useful.
Originally published on August 11th, 2013
I finally made it to one of our Meetup group's crop nights. I've been trying for almost two months. And it was so much fun! We got together to work on our own projects with some great ladies. We even got to create a make and take Halloween card. Very adorable! The card used SU's Pumpkin Pie ink that I've been contemplating buying for Arthur's thank you and arrival cards. After using it, I am convinced that it's the perfect color. Now I have to revise my stamp club order.
These are the other cards I created on Wednesday night. The first two are my stamp club homework. I flipped the sketch for the second card. I really love how it turned out.
The other three cards are just some fun cards I whipped up using scraps from my giant scrap box. I think the polka dots one is my favorite. It's clean and simple, but oh so pretty!
