Project Life: Christmas Pages

It was rainy here yesterday...I mean, rain pretty much ALL DAY!  So what does one do on rainy, icky days?  Why eat junk food, watch reruns of Gilligan's Island (seriously...but mostly because it came on after Roseanne.  I love Roseanne.  She was my role model as a mother.  ;)  Anyway, I was too lazy to change the channel once the Roseanne marathon was over and it went to Gilligan's Island!), take a nap and CRAFT!  I finished up my Project Life Christmas pages and also made several cards!  I was so productive! 

So here are the pages...not much too them.  I sent some notes to my daughter about what we need to make sure we do this next Christmas in terms of photos.  1.  We need to make sure that we get a group shot of all 3 kids.  2.  I need more photos of the fronts of people and not their back. 3. My daughter and I need to fix ourselves up a bit more for photos.  LOL!  4.  I need to make sure I hand the camera over to someone and get in one or two pictures.  Yep!  NOT 1 PHOTO OF ME OF Christmas, 2013!  Lol.  It's like I was non existent!  Oh well... 

For these pages I used the same Simple Stories paper pad that I had purchased at Michaels in that fabulous sale: 

*ooops....I see I did not journal on the photo of Taylor coming down the stairs .... I will take care of that, I promise!

I made this little 3D paper bow with a die from Simon Says Stamp.  It's so cute!

Now I can sort of officially say DONE.  I do need to add some paper to the backs of the last page in my album so it's not naked....but 2013 is DONE!!! 

Now onto PL 2014!  I still am on the hunt for ways to simplify the process!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 52

I don't know why it has taken me so long to finish out 2013 and my Project Life.  I seem to have loved the process from weeks 1-50.  The last 2 weeks have been killers!  LOL!  But week 52 is done.  With that you would think I would say "I AM DONE"! ...but no....I still have tons of pictures from Christmas Day and have decided to do separate pages as there are too many for an insert.

The Never Ending Project...

LOL!

But I guess we hope that LIFE is never ending, huh?  So profound.  ;)

Here is the left side:

I used papers from a paper pad I bought at Micheal's by Simple Stories and most importantly, bought it at a huge, huge discount! Pennies on the dollah...pennies on the dollah! 

I cut the "Week 52" letters and numbers out on my Silhouette Cameo.

Here is the right side:

I did these pages while I was away from home without all my supplies.  I could go back and add some buttons, twine, etc....but I think I will just leave them the way they are.  Simple and most importantly, DONE!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 38

Mish mash, hodge podge, eclectic?  I think you could use any of those words to describe my approach to my Project Life pages for Week 38.  But they are done.  "Eclectic" always has a nice sound to it but often means unmatched to me! LOL!  Oh well...Week 38 is done...on to Week 39!

Week 38 was a big week for us as it was David's 4th birthday on September 21.  His mom who was just a few weeks from giving birth to her 3rd kid wanted to do something low key for his birthday.  She wanted to just get a cake...have some kids to a local park and let them run around and play.  No big deal.  Well, all week long we had the most gorgeous weather....the day before his birthday was gorgeous....the day after was just as lovely but on the 21st we had TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS!  So at the last minute we were able to move it indoors to one of those indoor playground sorts of places.  It worked out well and the children all had a great time.  And the place cleaned up the mess.  Well worth the $$$!

Here is the left side:

I used a Doodlebug card for the week card and a card from Simple Stories which doesn't even much match!  Eclectic, remember?  LOL!!!  I also used a photo template from Lily Pad Designs.
On to the right side:

Again we have a mish mash...a Recollections Card and a Simple Stories card....I didn't do much with the pictures this week....just corner rounded.  No big complicated templates or anything like that.
You may not be able to see the bottom left picture well but these are the girls (minus 1) who will be in my son and future daughter in law's wedding next April.  Those are not the dresses they will wear but we did just get a group shot.  They are all such pretty girls!!!
Since it was David's birthday I also did an insert page for this week:
Here is the front side:

The Celebrate card was made on my Silhouette Cameo.

Here is the reverse side:

And that would be it for today....time for some grandmother time with the little ones!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 37

When you look at my pages for Week 37 you may wonder..."how on earth is she so far behind?  She doesn't do much other than slap pictures in her book.  How long can that take???"  Haha!  Well, it's the behind the scenes that takes so much time for me. That dreaded photo selection and editing!

But I did get Week 37 done...and have most of Week 38 done....and Week 39 was just last week...so I'm catching up!  Yadda, yadda, yadda...

Here is the left side:

I used Simple Stories journaling cards, stickers and papers and a few Studio Calico wood veneers.  I stamped the wood veneers with some Basic Grey stamps. 

Sometimes you just gotta journal where you can...

Isn't this action shot so cute.  My little guy is the one in the white shirt.  I love the look and concentration on his face:

Here is the right side:

The sentiment below is a brush from CZ design.  My daughter has a theory that it doesn't matter what shoes a child will put on...they will always be on the wrong feet!

The journaling card was made on my Silhouette Cameo with a design from Hero Arts and  Simple Stories paper as well as a Becky Higgins journaling card.  I used a little Basic Grey arrow stamp to point in the direction of the photo the journaling is about.

And that's it for today.  Easy peasy...only took me 6 hours.  LOL!!!

Baby watch continues...we are T-6 days from the due date....any day now....  Stay tuned...

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 30

Thirty down, Twenty-two weeks to go! With Project Life, that is.

I completed my layouts the other day.  This was another very simple week.  I had purchased a few journaling cards and embellishments from the Simple Stories I Heart Summer line which worked perfectly for this week.

My friend, Kim, had sent me a link on some tips on Project Life and one of the ideas was to put your bulky embellishments on top of the page protector.  So, I am trying that this week...for the most part.  I do think that little 2 and 3 year old hands may pluck them off, though, so will have to watch out for that!

I give myself a B for the layouts...minimal effort, I know...but they are done.  And I give a C- for photography.  I have 5 cameras.  A fancy schmancy DSLR with a few lenses....a point and shoot...a bridge camera....a waterproof camera and my iPhone.  Make that 6 cameras because I do have an iPad, too, which has a camera.  I have tried every single camera and still get sub par photos of my PL layouts.  I have removed the photos from the page protectors and laid them on top.  That's probably the best method but that is time consuming and when I have a bunch of things on my cards or photos I don't like taking them in and out because they can get bent easily.  I have taken photos by windows...away from windows...outdoors...in doors.  On a table....on the floor. 

Sheesh. 

So, it is what it is.  I'm not apologizing for my C-....but hopefully you will look past the quality of the photography and just look at the layouts.  Okey doke?

Here is the left side:

I used a Thickers Alpha set that looks like a little banner.  I thought they were cute!
The camera embellishment has a big brad on it which of course buckled the protector slightly and gives off that icky glare!  But you get the idea!

 Here is the right side.  We visited my kid's grandmother this week and as she is moving from her home of 50 plus years I wanted to make sure I got lots of pictures of it.  So many  memories here.
I remember the very first time I visited here....back in the beginning of 1983....thirty years ago!

I used templates by LilyPad Designs to make my collage prints.  Those are very handy little templates and I've used them nearly weekly, I'm sure!

The right side is pretty much all pictures with one large journaling card.  I just didn't want to mess up the photos by putting lots of other things on them.  

Project Life.  Week 30.  Done.  After I had my pictures printed these two pages took me less than an hour to complete.  The average scrapper could probably get them done in 30 minutes or less but I am a bit slooooow.  

And now that I look I see I still need to add the dates and the last name of Amanda's friend.  :)

Now onto Week 31!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 26

It's official! Half the year is over and I have a full Project Life Album to show for it! Usually at this time of the year I have 12 layouts done.  If I'm lucky and productive!  But with Project Life I have completed 152 pages!!! That includes all the insert pages I've done, as well.  I amaze myself.  LOL!  My friend, Cyndi, can do 152 pages in a weekend but for me that would be impossible.
And thank you to my friend, Donna, for keeping me on track.  She is doing the digital version over HERE and I just love looking at her pages....she keeps me going even though I'm doing the paper version.
I love the paper version.  Sometimes I wish I had done digital.  Much less expensive and less time consuming, I think...and everything is so neat and lined up...but I love my big fat book with twine, ribbon, bling, layers, etc.
I'm happy.

Last week I took a lot of time creating my own journaling cards with stamps.  This week I went the easy and fast way and used premade cards.  I had so many pictures from this week that I just let the pictures do the talking!  I used a lot of templates from the Lily Pad so that I could use many, many photos in my layouts.  I think the templates are fabulous for adding in photos!

Here is the left side:

I used a few overlays from an older pack of Memories brand stuff I had in my stash.

Here is my week card with some Snap! papers by Simple Stories and stitched Thickers.  I also used some stamps from Basic Grey Hello as well as some skinny Washi tape that came with the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit.

The card below was a piece of a Becky Higgins journaling card on a Simple Stories card which I adhered with staples.  I added the Washi tape and stamped "family" with some Hero Arts alpha stamps.

And t

Here is the right side:

Lots and lots of photos on this page.  The collage on the bottom left is actually a Tracey Larsen template that I changed up a bit (this will be boring for you but it had two long vertical photos and I made the middle vertical into 2 square photos.  Yawn.).
I only used one journaling card.....again the photos speak for themselves, I think...

Halfway there....
Oh, and here is a photo of my fat book:

Now onto Volume 2!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Week 19

Well, my goodness....7 more weeks and we Project Lifers will be at the halfway mark of this year!   (I'm already growing out of my Project Life album....time to go to Volume II!

Here are my Week 19 layouts.  You know...last week I did a more involved layout with all that stamping with Hero Arts so decided to take the quick and easy approach this week.  I went to my stash and found some leftover stuff from a Simple Stories kit called Fabulous.

This all came together very quickly....I was done with the whole think in about an hour (OK, maybe an hour and a half!).

For my journaling card below I simply (love that word) layered a couple of things and added ribbon.  I am sorry but I just cannot have totally flat.  Just can't do it! LOL!  Not with paper, anyway!

My week card...shown below...was just a filler card I added some stickers to.  Fast and simple (using that word again!)

 I cut an arrow with my Silhouette and have it pointing to David.  This is a terrible picture but Project Life is about documenting snippets of your lives....this photo was taken through a one way mirror at his Mother's Morning Out program....here he is with his "fwends" sitting on a mat listening to story time.  I just love seeing him engaged in activities like this.  He and his "fwends" are just 3 years old.  :)

I couldn't NOT include that picture, you know?

Below is a collage photo done with a template from The Lily Pad.  There are some wonderful, wonderful collage templates for 4x6 and 3x4 photos.  They are a great way to get more photos on your layouts, I think, and are easily done in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements if you  have basic skills in those programs.

Here's another photo collage below of our little girl, Taylor, who doesn't mind getting down and dirty!
I just added a couple of stickers and some baker's twine to it.

These collages are also a great way to use "not-so-great" photos and ending up creating a better visual impact (I think).

Here is the right side:

The bottom right photo is another collage and I just added a few stickers to pep it up a bit.

I added another arrow cut with my Silhouette to the journaling card as well as a few cardstock stickers.

Simple Stories....that is the manufacturer of this kit and it does live by its name.  This was very SIMPLE to do.  Sometimes simple is all you need!

Project Life: Week 10

Bad photos ALERT!
LOL!  I got better at the picture taking of my Project Life pages but this week I reverted back to old habits and shot the pictures through the plastic.  I'm in a hurry right now but have had blogging withdrawal and needed a little fix before heading out.  Plus I used an insert page and wanted to show it.  I love the way it turned out and it could only be seen through plastic!

Here is the left side....and I used some leftover Simple Stories Fabulous things I had used in a previous couple of 12x12 layouts:

And the right side:

But if you look closely above you can see that the shells photo and the day beach scene is actually on a 6x12 insert page.  Love that!
Here is the insert page flipped and now you can see playground photos that almost look like their own 12x12 layout.  Follow me?

And here is the 6x12 insert page with my little hand holding it open for you:

 I dressed up this card a little bit with a sticker and some glossy accents:

And here is my "Week" insert card....I sewed!  I hate to sew but I don't mind so much on paper.  My mom used to laugh at me because I'd sooner throw something out than fix a hem or sew on a button but I will sew on paper!

I used some foam Thickers for the "10".

Well, it is cold here today but I am off to a tennis match!  Hoping for a win but we are playing a team that is generally waaaay better than us so expectations are not high! :)

Happy Crafting!

And sorry for the photos...maybe I'll fix them later....and maybe not!

Valentine Card ala' Archiver's Style

Time for a blog look change.  I'm tired of cold looking stuff!  But boy oh boy the northeast got hit by a humdinger!  Wow!  Hope you all up that way keep power!

Here is another card we made at Archiver's when I took the card class last week. This was done with a Lawn Fawn stamp set that is just so cute.  I love this card and of course it could work for any kind of wishes you might like to send!

Isn't that just so cute?
Here's a closeup:

Happy Crafting!

Simple Stories Make it a Sn@p!

Simple Stories, which make great paper kits, has a new line out called "Sn@p".  There are a couple of themes...one being "Life" which I recently picked up at Archiver's.  It's a cute and very happy line and works well for quick pages!  Of course, for me that means half the time I usually take which is still a long time!
Here are some layouts with the Sn@p papers and embellishments:

Hope you have a fun day today and find time for some Happy Crafting!