A Challenge

I challenged myself, and my crafty group on Facebook, to choose at random one picture or several and make a layout of any size using any media and materials on hand.  My hope was to make a fast layout and maybe remember a photo or two.  When you go to the Pictures Library in Windows 8, it brings up photos from your stash, as I discovered the other day.  I thought this would encourage me to use more than just "right now" to scrapbook.  This challenge also reminded me that my memory stinks, and I really need to at least jot something down regarding the shots I take, or the occasion can get "lost."

These three pics of Max showed up.  I cropped them and used some Rad Lab magic, as they were taken with my old iPhone (pre-Phone 4).    I thought the series of pics would look cute side by side, so I created a strip in Photoshop.  I then used my Ali Edwards Edge Sentiments for the "remember," which I color matched to Max's shirt (I love PNG files!).  I was going to branch out with some patterned paper layering, but the closest I could come was using my Glitz stickers.  I framed the photos using some Becky Higgins Project Life Rain patterned paper.

I don't recall exactly what was going on the day we took these shots, but his tiny face just looked so cute, I had to use all three.  I am sure we were just lazing around on a summer afternoon.

Project Life and the Use of New Supplies -or- Who am I and what did I do with JoLynn?

The remainder of Week 11, finally finished by one Maximilian Plato:

I actually added some arrows to this page...just realized it now.  Ah well.  Anyway, very cute turnout overall.  Well worth the efforts!

And now, Week 12, featuring the use of new material.  Wow.  Unbelievable.  I usually put stuff away and forget I have it!

I got a great deal of stuff at the Sidewalk Sale at The Scrapbooking Studio this weekend.  Kim and I literally went kind of like little tornadoes through their stuff.  We had a limited amount of time.  I spent just under $25 and got TONS of great things, many of which are on this page.  How fun are the raindrops and clouds (that American Crafts!).  Really excited that I branched into writing on labels.  Seems to be trending at the moment.  Going outside of my little box!

Note: An entire sheet of 12 x 12 patterned paper was won over simply by that title card.  Say Yeah!  CRACKED me UP!

A "Monstrous" Birthday

Here is my seventh birthday card for Maddie, who is crazy for Monster High.  I used the Print and Cut option for my Silhouette Cameo as well as some SU! Craft ink and stampage and some Project Life Rain patterned paper.  Score!  And Maddie liked it a lot, too. :)

More crafty goodness will commence throughout this evening.

Week 11...one page at a time...

I'll say it: It's hard for me to give control to the Project Life pages my men do.  Ignatius' page was the easiest one, as he has his mama's writing gene.  But the other two reluctant writers make me twitch.  Sure, I could have done the journaling for them, but the point was for their handwriting to be a part of the book.  Or, well, at least that was MY target.  I don't know that they cared quite so much.

So this little page has lots of stories attached with it.

First, note this is the backside of the We R Memory Keepers page protector used in this layout.  I really do love the 6 x 8" photo option as a focal point, surrounded by landscape orientations.  The paper and embellishments were created using my first kit from Scrapbook Circle.  When I got this kit, by thought was, "Woe, that does not seem like a lot of stuff for the money."  This thought came when I was just looking at the items.  However, when I sat down and hammered out the cost of the items, and the fact that they coordinate nicely, it really seemed like money well-spent.  To a scrapbooker, that can only be tested in its use.  I was a member of Club SEI at one point, and that was a serious bargain, but I did not use the items, therefore, it was wasteful of my money.  I just was not that in to full kits at that time, but I got some beautiful papers from them.  Because of that, I could not believe I was joining another club.  For those who know me and my style, you know just by looking at it that it is my color scheme for sure.

I took the paper that I liked a lot and decided to incorporate: Basic Grey Hipster Neato.

I still wanted to use some of the cards I had, but I didn't want to have a strange force of coordination.  So, I added some of the Basic Grey Hipster stickers that came with the kit to help with the flow.

I used the stickers on the journal card and the "sigh" arrow on the list photo (on the page protector, not the photo itself).

That's as much as Max wrote (with a lot of grunting and grumbling) in one sitting.  He was ticked that I included a picture of the list that mentioned he would not throw fits.  Sorry, bud, as the editor of this book, I make that call. :)

I am most proud of how the title card came together.

The Jillibean Soup Alphabean letter stickers came with the kit.  At first, I thought, "OH!  Just what I needed!  Letter stickers!" (full sarcasm)  I could open my own scrapbook store just with Thickers.  I must say, I liked using these.  They do not have the bulk of Thickers, and they were fairly easy to place (and I have officially used all of my "e" stickers!).

The flag is made from the flipside of the patterned paper.  I did not want for all of the letters to be on the colored side, because some of the colors are the same brown.  I wanted part of it to pop.  I went in search of a straw for the banner (Max loves straws), and found a slightly used candle instead!  PERFECTO!  Max's week included his dad's birthday, our anniversary, and Father's Day.  A candle pulled in the celebration feel quite well.

I used this paper again on the second page (yet to be journaled by Max) when mounting an Instagram photo.

The photo is foam mounted with Stampin' Up! Dimensionals (they are not bulky) and I used strips of the back for some quick journaling.

Lots to tell for one page of week 11, but I was pretty excited how things started coming together.

A visual peek at Week 11

Project Life: Week 10 (?!)

Yeah, I can't believe it either.  I have been doing this Photo-of-the-Day gig for 10 weeks!  I was quite skeptical when I began, pretty much believing I had lost my sanity. But, here I am.

Interestingly enough, I was reading some information about one of my crafting idols, Stacy Julian, and how, a few years back, she was in the limelight defending her idea that scrapbooking did not have to be organized chronologically.  I plan to read more about this concept, but it's one that opened me up to a lot of freedom over the past several years.  That, and Cathy Zielske saying, "Hey, know what?  Who cares if you scrapbook with the same photo you already used?  If it's a great shot...use it!", have been somewhat earth-shattering embraces that have allowed me to get some serious amount of scrapbooking done.  More to come as I learn more about Stacy's organizational ideas.

Why that ramble?  Because last week (gasp), I skipped a day!  I had a whole lot about June 7, but nothing for June 8.  Nada.  Zip.  So, you know what?  I rolled with it.  June 8, 2013, I am sure you were awesome. But I put my head on my pillow without a shot.  And I allowed it.  And that is wicked awesome.

Full layout (AKA trying to take a picture at night with really cruddy lighting)

Left Close: Hellllo, Rain!  I so love you.  I used the Title Card and a little Plato Photoshop magic, and L.O.V.E. it.  I also put my expanding collection of cute-as-hell rotary stamps to good use.

Right close:  Oooh, yes, I di-id.  We R Memory Keepers photo sleeve.  I bought these BEFORE Project Life existed with this idea that I could, indeed, be Ali Edwards.  They sat on my shelves, mocking me.  Who's laughing now, suckas?  Anyway, can you even believe I let a picture of my legs in my swimsuit be a 6 x 8 shot on this page?  Oy!  More Rain edition digital prints, a sticker (so sorry to say I have no clue of the company), a few arrow stickers from PL, Part 1, doodled on by yours truly.  What a flipping easy page!  Love this page protector!

Now, off to order some white cardstock.  And probably a Project Life binder.  I need a 12-step program.

Saturday Craftiness

My friend Kim and I got together tonight to prep some Father's Day cards.  As I searched Splitcoast, I happened upon this design that struck my fancy.

Kim was at Michaels wanting to know what to get, so I simply threw out "map paper and an arrow clip" because I knew everything else I had here and there in my craft room.  So, we CASEd Michele's lovely creation.  

Here's Kim's:

Here's my very similar one:

Since Michele already had and did a beautiful job using the Six-Sided Sampler set that Kim and I are waiting to get our hands on, I decided to make use of my ever so awesome Silhouette Cameo (love this thing) and to use texture rather than a stamped image.  We used the Square Lattice Sizzix embossing folder from Stampin' Up!  Then, we put some green, blue, and kraft on the Silhouette and cut some hexagons (at level 5 for the Silhouette users...level 3 did not cut all the way through).  We inked the edges, and popped up the blue with some Dimensionals.  Kim found some cute Recollections adhesive buttons that we used (mine has some color, but it is subtle), and we used some washi tape on the map base.  We used a Verve stamp set (Happy Thoughts) for the sentiment.

Even though the cards were similar, we used a slightly different idea.  Kim's hubby is finally not traveling (after 18 years of it!), so her sentiment was a happy one that he is finally "home."  I used the idea of the watch, that time and time again I get to see my hubs be a great dad to our kids.  Same card, different ideas.  I really dig how they came out!

Happy Saturday!

The sun is shining and it's a cool and crisp day here in Central Illinois.  My eight year old still has his mind set on the pool, even though it has just hit 70 degrees.

Crafting has been occurring quite a bit as of late, so I thought I would drop in some ideas and Project Life updates.

I am happy to report that my buddy Kim is now well on her way to independence with her PL album for her granddaughter's first year.  It looks awesome, and she is caught up through May!  She's on a roll!

First spread of Harlow's album

Used some Making Memories alpha stamps to create this calendar

Kim was at first intimidated to journal, so she found the texts between she and her daughter when she awaited labor news and we printed those up.

Within my Project Life extravaganza, a baby shower card was required.  This used the colors that the mama-to-be was using in the nursery.

All stamps are SU!, plus the hexagon embosser.  I used Tempting Turquoise as well.

And now, to catch up with Project Life in my album, weeks 8 and 9...

I used the back of the Ali Edwards journal cards from Week 7 to journal on the first page this week.  Very handy!

I used a digital hybrid of the Rain edition from BH for this page.  Oh my do I adore the Rain edition.

First Fun Run of the year required several pics to archive the night.  I used a Flip Flap from CTMH for extra space.

This week was somewhat disappointing due to rainy weather the first week school was out.  The theme was, ironically, Carpe Diem.  Instead of focusing on what I could not do, I tried to shift focus to what I could.  

Lots of different product lines: Jillibean Soup, Simple Stories, Project Life, Jenni Bowlin...

Saw Ali Edwards write on a diagonal card, and I thought, "Well, duh!  That's a good idea!"  I also used one of the collection of roller date stamps I have been purchasing.  I have Amy Tangerine, Studio Calico, Dear Lizzy, and soon: Stampin' Up.  Fallen in love with them to my typical crazy level.

I think this week will be an entire spread of Rain edition, then I think Max will get full authority over the next week.  That should be fun!  Stay tuned!

I am currently prepping the NYC pics for print.  My son took outstanding (mostly portrait orientation) pics.  Time to get creative in a book that is mainly landscape.  All doable!

From my craft table

Yesterday, I had OH so much fun getting my friend, Kim, going on creating a Project Life album for her granddaughter, Harlow.  Kim is using the Blush edition (purchased through HSN's special) and the Baby edition.  I have a few items I had purchased through AC Digitals that she might find hanging out in her book, too.  And anything I have that's pink...

So, here's what my table currently looks like:

My sixteen year old just came back from an awesome band trip to New York City, and his scrapbooking mama has been patiently waiting.  Well, not so patiently.  So, you see my week for Project Life, currently under construction, and stuff for his PL mini album strewn about.  I got a lot of great ideas from this crafter's You Tube videos as to how she created Project Life pages for a trip to NYC.  At first, I thought, "How will I fill this album?  It has a lot of pages!"  Now, I am more at ease with the idea that it need not be filled just with pictures.

One thing that I will be using in the album are screen shots from the Tracker Lite app we used.  We got it mainly to make sure if he lost his phone we could try to track it down.  We also found it was great fun to live vicariously through him and see where he was visiting. My brother insists I am being neurotic.  Maybe.  But look what I can now put in the scrapbook!  I have these printed on cardstock and cut to 4 x (almost) 3" to use throughout the book.  Corners rounded, of course!

So there you have it---my works in progress!  Hopefully, I will get some major craftiness in over the next few days.

Crafty Saturday

This week, I have been mindful of what I am putting in my mouth.  That, and the end of a school year, equates to me having energy on a Saturday.  Typically, I nap all afternoon to catch up with the exhaustion the week has handed me.  Vegetables are amazing.

I wanted to take a little break to show one of my creations.  I have a graduation party to attend on Sunday, and I wanted a Clean and Simple card for some Clean and Simple cash.  When you are a new college graduate waiting to land a job, cash is THE gift, don't you think?

Just landed the Paper Studio embossing folder for 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby this week.  I love how versatile it is.  The tassel was not as easy of a task.  Yes, cutting a 2 x 2" square from black cardstock is simple.  Finding a black brad...piece of cake.  Making a tassel that did not look like a broke-a$$ broom?  Meh.

These are her school colors, and I think she will be more excited about what's inside.  It was relatively quick, and I think it's ca-yute.