Project Life | Week 22 plus my Project Life on the Go

We had a busy week so it was hard to fit in time for scrapbooking but I was able to get it done. Part of what helped me was that I took my supplies with me when my family went out of town for a night to celebrate a new nephew's baptism. I took my things with me and worked on it in the hotel room while my kids slept in the other bed and my hubby watched Harry Potter on TV.

This was my view at the hotel room desk. Yes, that is wine in a paper cup. Whatever works, right?! My hubby even used my scrapbooking supplies to get the wine open so in the end, he was glad I brought my stuff along.

And this is what I took with me. This case holds almost all of my PL supplies - except that I acquired 2 more kits (Midnight and Honey) that don't fit in there at the moment but I think I will be doing some rearranging soon. Normally I will stick my scissors, pen and adhesive in the tote wherever it might fit but for this trip, I just grabbed my whole tool tote because of lack of time (this was a last minute decision to bring this along). The left photo shows my core kits and the right photo is the backside of the Cropper Hopper Photo Case holding embellishments "of the moment" that I like.

 

I print my photos at home and usually slide them into my protectors right away, even getting several weeks in there at a time.Then it all goes in a large 12x12 envelope and is ready to go with me whether it is on an overnight trip in a hotel room or so I can work on it on my lunch break at work.

Now on to my completed pages. Since I'm still playing catch up, I kept the embellishing pretty simple. I used the Becky Higgins Jade core kit for this week.

I decided to change it up and make a 3x4 title card again. I'm not sure that I like having the title card so small but it allowed me to put the photos in at the size and slots that I wanted. I'll do that again if I have to but I think I prefer the 4x6 size.

 

This was also the week that I started this blog so I made sure to document that.

Do you travel with your PL (or other scrapbooking) supplies? How do you do it?

Let us know in the comments.

I'm linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life post in case you want to see other talented ladies' pages. 

 

Project Life | Week 21

I've been so busy with all sorts of other crafts lately that I have neglected my Project life album. I miss working on my album but I've enjoyed the other things I've been doing - a last minute 8x8 Shutterfly book for my brother's birthday, a super cute handmade onesie for my new nephew (I will blog about it but I have to tweak some things on it first), my daughter's birthday party, and helping my church with preparing for their awesome Vacation Bible School which my daughter had so much fun at.

I participated in a virtual crop on Monday and that is when I finally got back to work on my album. If you are on Facebook, go like the Two Chicks Designs page because they have some super cute shirts for sale plus they are one of the hosts of this Monday crop that is going to be a regular event. I even won a prize - yay!

These pages are pretty simple this week because not only am I trying to get caught up but I just didn't have any great ideas for this week. I don't love this page but I don't hate it either and I'm ok with that. That photo in the bottom right seems to need something but I haven't figured out what so I've just left it for now. Click the photos to see them larger.

Supplies used
BH Midnight collection
Sn@p letter stickers (Memorial Day title & baby shower card)
Silhouette cameo (dance phrase)
various washi tape, circle letter stamps and other stickers from my stash

Thanks for stopping by. I am linking up with The Mom Creative - stop by there to see more fantastic Project Life pages from many bloggers.

Gift Giving | baby shower and giving money as a gift

I went to a wedding for a co-worker the other weekend and had such a good time. There was lots of dancing and silliness and a beautiful outdoor (it was a little hot!) wedding for my friend. I knew I was going to give money for the gift but starting at Christmas, I decided that whenever I was giving money, I wanted to do it in a creative way, not just hand over a check or some cash. So this is what I did for my husband for Christmas. He wanted to buy a a new TV so he really just wanted cash. I got the idea HERE and it was really easy to do.

Then for my hubby's birthday in January, I made this. 

So what was I going to do for my friend's wedding? After a quick google search, I found the perfect idea. An origami heart made from a bill. I followed this fabulous tutorial on YouTube and made it pretty quickly. Then of course I pulled out my Cameo to make a box for it and card. This whole project took me about an hour.

I also attended a baby shower for my husband's cousin last month and this is what I made her. I love doing this stuff. This was another idea that I found by googling.

Thanks for stopping by! I read every comment so feel free to ask questions or leave some love. :-) 

Project Life | May 20-26

This week's Project Life page came together a little quicker, even though it was in bits and pieces of time that I managed to squeeze in throughout the week. Whatever helps you get it done, right?!

Now I have a lot of kits - Seafoam, Jade, Blush, Honey, Studio Calico monthly kits (I usually pool all these together) and other random cards from printables and MAMBI collections, etc. When I sit down to do a week, I like to pick one collection and go with it. So while I have a lot of product, limiting myself to one collection limits my choices so that makes things easier.

I've shown you how I decide what to print and the size so once I have my photos printed, I look to see if I have a common color throughout. I have two little girls so pink is usually a common color. <wink> But you never know, sometimes my photos are darker, sometimes there is a lot of green if we were at the park...you get the idea. Anyway, I like to have my 2 page spread coordinated so I pick 1-2 colors that are found in the photos and use that as my starting point for choosing the collection to use.  Now for the week of May 27 that I am working on right now, there is a hodge podge of colors so I went neutral and used the Midnight collection so I can add color in with embellishments. I'll post that next week.

At the beginning of this year, I had planned on using a different collection every month because I liked the idea of having a whole month coordinated. That didn't last because as you read in the paragraph above, I have a lot of kits and every time a new one would come out, I would want to use it right away. I still like the idea of using one collection each month so maybe I will do that next year.

Now on to the week of May 20. Enjoy and let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

I am linking up with The Mom Creative.

I am also participating in the Phone Photography Project, which is a great class to help people improve their smartphone (iphone or Android) photography. I know I use my phone more than ever now to take photos because I always have it with me.

In this month-long workshop, you'll learn to take better photos with the camera you always have with you as you document your summer adventures—with help from 32 incredible instructors. On top of daily smartphone photography challenges, you'll also enjoy:

• dozens of tips and tricks from the pros for taking better photos with your mobile-phone camera
  
• 60+ photography app reviews for iPhone and Android, so you know which are worth your time and money*
  
• dozens of project ideas for getting photos off your device and into your world
  
• interaction with 32 experienced iPhoneographers and Androidographers, and hundreds of fellow students in a private classroom and on Instagram
  
• giveaways, contests, discounts, bonus downloads, and fun fun fun!

You should definitely check this class out. 

Easy Fourth of July decorations

Last year, I started to get some cute Halloween decorations that I placed on my little desk in my entry way. I enjoyed the display so much that I decided to try to change it seasonally and use homemade decorations when I can. I always wanted to do something seasonal on my mantle but that is more daunting to me - I can handle this desk better.

This is my first time with an Independence Day display and I'm really happy with it. Here it is (click the image to see it bigger):

Yes, I know that light switch in the middle of the wall is awful but I just pretend it's not there. I've tried covering it with a decoration but that is the main switch we use in the kitchen/living room so covering it is more of a hassle. There are a few other places in the house where the builders did that and it drives me crazy!

The vase with the little flag and flowers were made last year as a last minute table decoration when we had hosted my husband's parents for a cookout. I cut those things with my Cricut Expression but I can't remember which cartridge (I've since sold the machine) - it's probably Graphically Speaking. The little silver sprigs in the vase were from my Christmas tree decorations and added for a bit of sparkle.

The Framed subway art is here from The Crafting Chicks. I looked all over for subway art and this was my favorite. I printed it at home on photo paper instead of cardstock so the colors would really pop.

The shadow box was sitting in my storage area so I took white 12x12 cardstock, added a few blue cardstock stripes and cut that large star out of pearly red paper using my Silhouette Cameo (I love that machine!). I realized as I was writing this that the star fell down - it was supposed to be in the middle of the shadow box but the glue dots must not have held. It doesn't bother me too much so I'm going to leave it alone.

I found the hanging sign while checking out Pinterest. I would link directly to the site where I printed it but the site seems to be down as I write this - just click the Pinterest link in the previous sentence and pin it for yourself for later. We didn't have any dowels but my brilliant husband came up with the idea of using a tube from a pants hanger. He's so smart! I covered it with washi tape and used red liner tape instead of a glue gun as the directions suggested to adhere it. I had it printed at OfficeMax for only $1.25. I love how it turned out!

And there you have my Fourth of July display. I'm sure I will add to it or change something next year but since it was all inexpensive paper that I already had on hand, I won't feel guilty about it. I'll probably keep it up until the end of July and then change my display...but I have no idea what theme to go with next. Any suggestions?

Have you made any festive decorations? I would love to see it, leave a link in the comments.

Craft Happenings this Week

There has been lots of crafting in our house this week and that's a good thing. I'm so glad my girls like to get crafty with me, it makes me happy to think about what kinds of projects we will make together in the future. My oldest, who will be turning 5 soon, already likes to make cards - sometimes she will suggest that I go downstairs to scrapbook and then she can make cards alongside of me. What a cutie.

So what have we been doing this week, you ask?

The girls wanted to do some beading on Monday. Sophie is very much into defined patterns and groupings so her first bracelet was in a rainbow pattern. I don't know when she learned the order of a rainbow but she has known them for a long time and I love that. I have to think of ROYGBIV to get the colors in order. Her other bracelet is so her. She loves to have things organized by color or shape (not that she keeps her toys organized!) so I think it's so cute that she did this.

Delaney, who is 2.5yo, is old enough now that she wants to do whatever her big sister is doing. Normally, she just likes to pour the beads back and forth from cup to cup or pour them into a muffin tin (I let her do this with some bigger beads that are easier to find when they spill) but she wanted to make a bracelet that day too. I set her up with some thin twine but because it is like DMC floss where it has several strands, I wrapped clear tape around the end to make it easier for her to thread it on the beads. Of course she didn't want to use the big beads that would be easier for her but we found some that would work. She was SO proud of the bracelet that she made.

I was also busy this week cutting these vines for my church's Vacation Bible School program. They are doing a Kingdom Rocks theme so we will be covering the railing with stone and vine paper and adding these to the top to add some dimension. I was helping brainstorm ideas for how to make some of the decorations last week and I'm so glad to be able to help. This is right up my alley!

I have been off and on whenever I get a few minutes on my Project Life page too for the week of May 20. I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to it but it is coming together. It's nice that I have an area in our family room down in our basement to be able to leave it out. I would be so much further behind if I wasn't able to do this.

Finally, I have a whole list of other projects that I need to work on but haven't had time yet.

• Make birthday party decorations - Sophie's party is in a little over 3 weeks. Yikes!
• Finish my Mom's Shutterfly album of her Africa trip. I promise I will finish this soon, Mom!
• Get started on my All About Me album that I hope to be putting together as I take the Find Your Voice class. I want to do this to give my kids and future grandkids (and great grandkids?!) a glimpse into what life was like in the last year of my 30s and in 2013. I had plans to do this when I turned 30 but it never happened so I'm not going to let that happen this time. I just got my sweet and girly Dear Lizzy Mini Project Life kit from HSN so I will be using that.
• Make a bunch of birthday cards. My stockpile has run low.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about all the crazy stuff I'm trying to accomplish.

What's on your crafting plate?

Project Life | May 13 - 19

Last week was super busy but I went to a crop on Friday night and was finally able to get a few pages finished. This page took me longer than I would like and I'm not really sure why - I think I just wasn't feeling it even though I'm satisfied with how it turned out. It's not my favorite but I'm ok with that.

I used mostly the Becky Higgins Project Life Olive core kit with a few other things thrown in from my stash as well as from my Studio Calico Project Life monthly kits.

Full layout without the insert.

 Left page plus front side of an American Crafts 6x12 insert.

Right side plus back of insert. The color of the Grow card wasn't the right shade of green but I really wanted to use that card on my landscaping insert.

I decided to try something different with my title card this week because after 2 years, I'm getting a little bored with the same style of title card every week. I never label my pages with week numbers because sometimes I combine weeks if I don't have a lot of photos or stories to document.

The bicycle 4x6 journaling card was cut using the Silhouette Cameo.

I'm linking up with The Mom Creative today.

I still have 3 weeks to catch up on in my album but I'm hoping to get it done this week.

How are you doing on your album?