Happy World Cardmaking Day!

Hello to my dusty ol' blog.  Yes, school started again for this Teacher Mama.  Slowly and infrequently to the craft room I go.  So, here are a couple of cards I have made in the past few weeks.

First, a birthday card for a Lego-lovin' nine year old.

Inspired by these Pinterest cards

Papertrey Ink Stamp

Fiskars hole punch

Next a card for a buddy who had beautiful baby girl #3.  (Overcast day = not great photo)

Inspired by this Splitcoast stamper's shower idea

Silhouette file for the bow (love!)

Fancy Pants patterned paper

Spellbinders oval scallop

Love using the SU! chalk marker to decorate the envelope.

Envelope by Hero Arts

Happy World Cardmaking Day, my crafting friends!

Pretty Crafty for the Saturday Before School Starts

I did a great deal of crafty goodness for today.  It started with a bout of insomnia getting me up at 4 AM.  That prompted the creation for Ali Edwards Hello Story challenge for this week: Six Word Stories. She also presented the technique of using words over pictures.  So, for this week's Project Life, this will be used.

Then, came some fun thank you cards after breakfast.

And wrapping up my evening, my buddy Kim came over and made this card, with my guidance.

Not a bad way to spend the day!

Project Life Week 18 and Some Observations

Today, I got to craft.  And it's my birthday.  Woot!  Happy birthday to me!

OBSERVATIONS: From afar, Project Life seems fairly restrictive.  However, I have allowed myself some free reign in layouts that I did not think I would, such as using different sized page protectors in one layout.  Enter, this week.  Finally, after 18 weeks, I decided to let pictures drive the layouts instead of page protectors.  I felt that freedom that I would print what I wanted and figure out placement later.  And that actually worked.  No one is more surprised than I.  Here is this week's DPS using a 12 x 12 page protector with, well, one that isn't 12 inches wide.

Crazy cropping for a crazy nighttime shot.  One of these days, I will patiently await natural lighting when I take my photo.

I purchased some wood veneers from Studio Calico as well as stickers that match the sizes.  Hexagon joy!  Getting a lot of mileage with my Pebbles alpha stickers as well.

Yep, I am totally in love with the Project Life Kraft edition.  No joke.  And this blue?  Ah!  I am also in love with using my phone together with Photoshop and RadLab.  This trifecta of awesome has totally changed my picture capturing abilities.

Now, some honesty:

This is what my craft table looks like right now.  No doubt that it is well used, as opposed to my cobwebs of last summer.

This is my PL album after 18 of 52 weeks!  I am thinking another album will be needed before the year is up.

I am caught up!  Just in time for school to crash its way in.

Project Life Week 17: Disney

I think Project Life in a Picture of the Day format forced me to archive our Disney trip far sooner than I would "normally" have done.  I use a variety of page protectors and picture sizes for the several pages of this layout.  Throughout most of the trip, I shared pictures via Instagram and Facebook.  I just love that little app!

I purchased some Disney digital cards from Etsy, but tried not to overuse them.  I also used a great deal of washi tape for journaling, as I wanted photos to take precedence this week.  Whenever I could, I used "artifacts" from the actual trip.

Loved using the 4 x 12 page protectors for Instagram shots.

How the 4 x 12s fit in to the overall layout.

 Also used some 8.5 x 11 page protectors.

Used the Ali Edwards Hello Story journaling cards with the boys and me.  Max drew a picture of a storm that included some VERY close lightning!

It was quite hard not to add some additional embellishments, but I wanted to stay pure to the pictures as much as I possibly could and not allow the other stuff to get in the way of the story they tell.  Took all pics (except Space Mountain...we bought the digital download of that) with my iPhone.  i took my Nikon, but did not use it.  Just too cumbersome.

Project Life Week 16

Slowly enjoying putting vacation pages together.  Used my new Kraft core kit as well as some new Studio Calico wood veneers and Pebbles alphabet stickers.  I also used some Memory Flaps from CTMH to include multiple fill in the blank cards from the family members as well as a way to tie in the strip of 4 x 4 Instagram shots.

You can send your Instragram shots straight to Walgreens photo using your phone app.  They will print as 4 x 4.  Mine came as matte finish, but I am sure you can change that and I was not paying attention.  Regardless....so much easier that the way I was printing them, which required placing them on a 4 x 6 layer in Photoshop and saving them after cropping, filtering, etc.

These journaling fill in the blank cards are part of ALi Edwards' Hello Story class as a way of journaling that is quick and easy, yet meaningful.

On to Disney!

Hello Story - Week 3

This week, Ali Edwards presents the theme of navigation or direction in our storytelling.  She stressed the use of arrows in design and reflecting on journeys and going from one point to the next.  My layout, a 12 x 12 double-page spread that jumps the gutter (!!), uses one of her sketch suggestions for the week.  Please click on each image for a larger view.  Sorry about the lighting.  I always seem to snap these at night!

The main photo is an Instagram-ed shot of my car that I took for another class--The Phone Photography Project.  That day, we were to do a close-up of something, and we happened to be leaving in my new car to drive to Florida.  Then, when I read this week's assignment for Hello Story, and toyed with photos to use, this one jumped out at me.  It enlarged really well.  I cropped it to 12 x 12 at 300 dpi first.  

So, I'm sort of loving this page, especially the "navigation" title that I cut with my Silhouette (worth every penny, that machine!).  I also love being able to put my washi tape to good use, as well as some chevron patterned paper AND some older SU! patterned paper of which I bought a ton for Christmas cards one year.  

Project Life Week 15

The benefit to waking at 4:54 AM unable to get back to sleep due to sinuses?  I wrapped up Week 15!  It is four 12 x 12s, one of which I showed in a previous post.  (iPhone pic...fuzziness as I edit in the car!)

How cute are those arrows from the Honey edition?  Perfect embellishment for a busy week.

More on this layout can be read here.  I clearly took this pic with the Nikon. 

Back of the Bon Jovi timeline.

I took advice, yet again, from Ali Edwards, and drew my setlist lines with a Copic marker.  I used a Recollections clear alphabet set and SU! White craft ink  for the title.  I then used the ticket stub and a couple of tickets from Taste of Chicago on the page.  The set list is nice, as it covers up the brad backs and  stitching from the timeline.  The patterned paper is the flipside of what I used for the timeline.

I used a combination of cards for this page, some from Project Life (I think Honey edition), some from Simple Stories, and the Smile was from a gift packet of cards from a friend, so I am not sure who the manufacturer is.

And there you have it, from the 2G hotspot in my car.  Let's just say, I am having a dialup flashback. :)

Onward on our car quest!