Project Life, 2014: Week 21

I was so excited to be notified by Jaimee Kaiser of Just Jaimee that I won a one year subscription to her shop at Sweet Shoppe Designs!  Those digital kits can add up to a lot of $$$, too, so this was a wonderful win for me!

I quickly went to the store and downloaded the May, 2013 Storyteller kit.  I love the colors of this kit...so wonderfully "spring-like"!

So I did another 2 page layout for a week in May and here it is:

This was a typical week for us...nothing huge going on but is a great little snippet into my grandchildren's lives.

Here is the left:

See that cutie pie on the bottom left ... he is my friend's grandson, Logan.  Such a sweet little boy!

Here is the right side:

I love the silly selfie on the top left.  :) 

They have lots of fun just being kids but they learn a lot during their fun times, as well.  Look at the snakeskin we found at the park one day!

It is so cold here in Georgia...well, it is pretty cold nationwide, isn't it?  Just doesn't seem right to have below freezing temperatures and we are still officially in AUTUMN! I wonder what winter will actually be like!!!

So for today...keep warm and Happy Crafting!

Project Life, 2014: Week 43

I have been looking at ways to become more time efficient (READ: DO IT FASTER) approach to Project Life. I doubt many people other than Donna Gibson and myself spend 12 hours doing a layout! Donna says it takes almost that much time to just pick her photos out! Ok, I made that up but I bet I'm not far off!

Donna is an über talented digital scrapbooker...and so GOOD at her Project Life layouts.  She was on the 2013 Becky Higgins Project Life creative team and rocked her pages week after week.  You can check all of her stuff out HERE. She has a great writing style, too...so much fun to read her blog so if you haven't headed over there before I say you need to give it a whirl!

So...she has been tutoring me in ways to do PL to speed things up.  I misunderstood, of course...and went from spending about 6 hours doing a two page layout to basically doubling that.  But that was my fault... 1. I didn't fully get what she was saying...and then the lightbulb came on.  and 2. I insisted on cramming 26 photos into this week's layout which is nearly impossible.  But I did it! LOL!

Here is the two pager:

 I used Traci Reed's October kit and I love the colors of it...perfect for Fall!

Here is a closer look at the left side:

 

I got some cute photos of little Wade this week...was so happy about that.  Such a sweet little boy.  I love that kid!

And I used the same old template selections for my photos I have in previous weeks.  And some I tweaked the way I wanted.

Here is the right side:

 

There are 17 photos there...count 'em! 

I'm worn out doing this faster approach!  LOL! I know it will be easier the next time, though, as Donna gave me some great tips.

Happy Crafting! I'm taking a break!

Project Life, 2014: Week 15

Hello everyone and Happy Fall!
I live in metro Atlanta and the leaves are changing, there is a crispness in the air and the sky has been the most gorgeous shade of blue.
I love the Fall but I don't know that I always enjoy it enough as I am already dreading the winter.  I don't do well in the cold.  From having lived in the south for the past umpteen plus years...well, my blood is thin! LOL!  I had thought about making a trip to Massachusetts in November and then I did a reality check. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? Go south when it gets cold...not north! LOL!

Anyway, I did complete week 15 of my Project Life this past week and here is the 2 page spread using the Just Jaimee April Storyteller kit with some various templates from Tracy Larsen and the Lily Pad (several which were tweaked so I could get them EXACTLY the way I wanted:

And here is the left side:

And the right:

I got several cute photos of Wade this week which were fun to include.  And I love yet another photo of Taylor in her too small puppy costume.  :)

Project Life Week 32

So, yes, I am jumping around doing my Project Life for 2014.  That's tough for me...the chronological scrapper, but since I started mid year...well, past mid year...I'm going to try to keep current but work on the old stuff concurrently. 

Note to self:  Don't do it this way in 2015! 

I wish I could just put photos in the slots but no....I am using templates to put the photos in and adding SCHTUFF so it is a bit more time consuming.  Still...much less than the paper version...at least for me.  I'm missing my paper, though...need to make a few cards today, perhaps.

Or clean house.  Or not.

So here is Week 32:

 One great thing about Digital Project Life pages is that they just look so clean and neat!  Everything is perfectly aligned.  I do like that!  And look, ma...no GLARE!

Here is the left side...a bit closer up.  I used the Just Jamie Storyteller August kit for the papers and embellies.  This is a mega kit that came with digital stamps and all kinds of good stuff.  I really enjoyed working with it.

 That cute little boy with the big blue eyes in the middle of the page is my friend's grandson, Logan.  He's just so cute and such a happy little boy.

I love the photos of my grandkids sleeping.  It is so unusual to see no movement with them.  

In the middle to the right I added a QR code of a very short video of David practicing reading.  I love that he's already sounding out words and learning phonics and sight words...and he isn't even 5 yet!

If you have a QR reader please watch it and let me know it works! ;)

Here is the right side:

I love pages where there are a lot of different activities.  Yay for Dropbox...yay for smartphone cameras...yay for family and friends...yay for selfies and yay for life!

And now...back to February.....LOL!!!

Happy Crafting and Keep Creating!

Project Life 2014...The Beginning....

....or actually the middle....let me 'splain.

I had great plans at the beginning of the year to begin Project Life for 2014.  I had really enjoyed making the physical pages in 2013 but thought that if I did it digitally it might go a bit faster.  Oh. Yeah. Right.  It probably would have gone faster if I'd gotten started....uh...months ago!

But start I have.

Finally. 

Woohoo for me.....

I'm enjoying it and it does go much faster for me but it is still time consuming.  Of course, I spend a lot of time tweaking things here and there.  LOL!  If I could just let it be...  Anyway, I haven't done digital scrapbooking in quite a while so I had to relearn how to do some things. 

It does make it easier that there are tons of kits out there that have "presized" cards for the slotted look.  I say "presized" with herkin' (thanks, Donna!) quotation marks around that because nothing fits the slotted pages perfectly and all must be resized!  But it is sure faster than trimmer edges off of real paper! 

So I will being a Project Life 2014 tab at the top of my page if you ever want to go back and see my stuff.
But for now...here is the left side of week 30.

And here is the right side:

I mostly used Traci Reed's July page kit and also some templates from Tracy Larsen and Lily Pad.

I decided I'd start at the present and then work backwards.  Or maybe I'll start at the present and go to the beginning of the year....decisions, decisions.

And then I'll have to decide how I want to get this all printed out.  Donna at 365 Days of Donna has hers printed by Persnickety Prints in 8x8 size and says the quality is great.  She then puts the printed pages in page protectors and in a 3 ring album.  Looks very cool!

Well, off to work on another week...or two....

And whatever avenue you enjoy for your creativity...whether it be cards, scrapbooking, digital endeavors, flower arranging or whatever....I hope you find time for some creativity today!