Project Life, 2015: February Layout 3

Without further ado...here are my Project Life layouts which will close out February.  I ended up doing 3 sets of layouts for this month and I think it worked perfectly...

Here is the two page layout side by side so you get the full effect of how it will look printed if I ever make it to the printing stage.

I used Just Jaimee's February 2014 Storyteller kit, and my usual assortment of templates (Tracy Larsen and the Lilypad). In this kit by Jaimee she also included some photo templates and I snuck in a couple of those as well.
Here is the left side:

And here is the right:

Lots of fun, food and time at the beach!

Happy Crafting to you!

Project Life, 2015 February 2

Well, hello...everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter...or for those celebrating Passover that you are enjoying those celebrations this week.

I did get back to a tad of Project Life, 2015 the other day.  As I've mentioned before I am not doing week by week layouts...I'm just filling pages with photos basically within a particular month.  This is working well for me...as some weeks I have a ton of photos and some not so many.  As I'm not one to generally scrapbook or journal about my favorite color of fingernail polish...well, I just didn't want to be taking pictures for the sake of having something to put in my albums so I went to a slightly different format than I have in previous years. 

I'll probably change it next year to something else...LOL!

But I am liking the format for now...I'm enjoying the squared corners vs. rounded corners...I've  made my own 13x13 (digital, of course) templates that I can pretty much pop in cards from the digital kits I've purchased without having to do that infernal re-sizing, which I detest...and then at the end I resize the whole kit and caboodle to 12x12.  This has saved me just a ton of time, I think.  (At least a few minutes here and there!).  It has given me more time to blog the boring details of my Project Life process....LOL!

So here are my layouts for February Part 2 which basically covers the second week and up until about February 17.

I used Just Jaimee's Quinn kit which can be purchased at The Lilypad HERE.  I love Just Jaimee's kits...and even though I use them over and over again...no two layouts look alike!

Here is the left side:

Notice my cutie pie dog, Isabella.  We all think our dogs are unique and wonderful. Well, Isabella is...except when she's annoying.  LOL!
And here is the right side:

I do seem to have a lot of photos of my grandkids with food.  I wonder what is up with that? Oh yeah...we are a family of eaters! We all love our food.  My granddaughter loves pickles and egg yolks and sub sandwiches.... my grandson says he's allergic to crackers.

Those kids!

I used my usual assortment of templates for my cards....some from Katie Pertiet, Tracy Larsen, The Lilypad...some I tweaked for my own use.

And that's it for today.  I think I will be able to do just one more layout to finish out February...I'd better get going...we are already well into April!  My goal of staying caught up blew out the first week of 2015!

Oh well....no complaints.  The fun is in the process!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life, 2015: February

Wow...life has really been happening! But Project Life has not! Card making and paper crafting have not! But busy I've been.  I promise.

I have tried to sit and work on some digital Project Life but just haven't seemed to get very far...but I'm glad to say that I finally finished the first layouts of February for my 2015 challenge and venture.

Here is the two page layout side by side:

I used Just Jaimee's Bryce Collection for the papers and elements...and templates from Ali Edwards, Katie Pertiet, Tracy Larsen, and Lily Pad.  Basically if there is a 4x6 inch template or a 3x4 out there in digi land it is probably slapped right here on my layouts! :)  I love using the templates...but I do find it can be a bit time consuming!
Here you have a closer look at the left side:

Get a load of Wade sneaking a sip of his big brother's drink! That kid is so funny!
Here is the right side:

Life at it's best with lots of photos of happy grandchildren! It makes an Omie happy, I tell you.

And that's it for today...a quick blog entry but many hours went into completing these layouts.  They are never quick for me! But I love the process...no complaints here!

Happy Crafting!

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 19

Moving right along...getting close to the halfway mark in the Project Life year!

Here is the two page spread of Week 19:

 I used my usual assortment of Tracy Larsen, Lori Whitlock, and Lily Pad templates as well as the big overall page templates by Becky Higgins. I used papers, cards, and elements from Just Jaimee's Storyteller for May.
Here is a closer look at the left side:

Wade turned 7 months and just keeps getting cuter and cuter.  On the 4th of May...his official 7 month birthday he had no teeth...but by the end of the week one had finally broken through the gum! Poor little guy...he's had a tough time getting that tooth through!

I love the pictures of the kids sleeping. So stinkin' cute!

And here is the right side:

I love that my daughter remembered to take pictures of them at their dental visit!

And that is it for today...!

Hope you find some heat in this cold weather!

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 44

What a fun week last week was with all the Halloween festivities for the little ones! We love Halloween in our family...the children have such a good time playing dress up.

I went ahead and did my Project Life layouts for last week.  LOL...I've done weeks 1-16...a few in the 20-30 area and now week 44.  It's getting done...just not in consecutive order which drives the OCD in me just a bit crazy.  But I'm still living and haven't chewed my fingernails off so I guess I'll manage!

Here is the spread.  besides the usual assortment of templates from Becky Higgins, Tracy Larsen, Lori Whitlock and the Lily Pad I used the That Old Black Magic digital kit by Design by Dani.  It was perfect!

Here is a closer look at the left side and my little Halloween munchkins!

And here is the right side:

I used Becky Higgins Template F for the layout above but tweaked it to fit my needs a bit and made two 4x6 cards. 

And that is another benefit of doing it digitally...you can adjust just about anything...resize...move...and this digital kit cost me a whopping $1.00!  And I can use it again and again! :)

And that is it for week 44!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life, 2014: Week 16

Another beautiful fall day today.  I will be heading out shortly for a little hiking.  I seriously could live with this type of weather all year long!  I don't need it much warmer and I certainly don't want it much colder!!! 

I finished up Week 16 using Traci Reed's April kit.  I do like the colors of this kit a lot...such pretty spring colors.  I know...I really need to be doing FALL stuff! 

Completing Project Life this year has been a challenge since I didn't start working on layouts until half of the dadgummed year had past by!  And of course I didn't take good notes or get my photos well organized.  But it is getting done!  I am looking at ways to be better organized for 2015.  Traci Reed has a PL organizer that I'm looking at...might be worth it,  you know?  You can see her system HERE.

But for now I plod along in a totally disorganized manner! LOL!

Here is the 2 week layout for Week 16

I used Ali Edwards' Hand Drawn Numbers Brush for the "week" and "sixteen" on my week card in the upper left. 
Here is a better view of the left side:

The white frame over David's picture in the middle is from Katie Pertiet and is called Thicker Inked Photo Borders No 1.  I reduced the opacity a bit so that you get that slightly transparent look.
I used Tracy Larsen and Lily Pad templates for the photos.  The large template is a Becky Higgins original, of course.
Here is the right side:

And lookie...I did some journaling.  I am a true believer in the adage that "a picture is worth a thousand words" and believe in letting photos speak for themselves but sometimes you just gotta be a bit wordy!
The bottom left "LOVE this" was a Katie Pertiet .png file from the same set mentioned above and I just recolored it to match my layout a bit better.

And that's it for today....on to week 17.  Or maybe I'll jump ahead and work on Week 40! LOL!

Happy Crafting and enjoy the day!

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, 2014: Week 14

I really haven't done much paper crafting lately and I really need to get into my room and make some cards.  I did make a sympathy card yesterday but didn't even bother to take a picture of it as it is my "go to" card and you've probably already seen it before!

So I spent my evening with laptop in lap watching a bit of tv and working on my Project Life layout for week 14.  And I got it done! 

I used Traci Reed's April kit and I love the colors.  So up my alley!

Here is the 2 page spread:

I love all the snippets of color.

Here is a closer up of the left side:

I love the little photo of Wade in the top left.  Happy little boy!  The children had a busy week...baseball, horsebackriding, playing on the playground, and washing my dog! LOL!

Here is the right side:

The bottom middle photo is so funny.  Not a good picture but that's Taylor crammed into my dog's crate.  She likes to "play puppy" and what you can't see is that she has her puppy costume on! Funny girl!

And that's it for today.  After a full day of rain yesterday the sun is shining today and I am off to enjoy this wonderful Autumn weather!

Happy Crafting and Keep Creating!

Project Life, 2014: Week 12

We now venture into the time period of Week 12 in Project Life, 2014 which for me was March
and included the first day of my favorite season of the year, SPRING!  I love SPRING!  I love when everything turns green again and all the flowers bloom.  I can even put up with the 3 inches of yellow pine pollen that covers everything!

So here is my week 12 of my Project Life...done digitally, of course.  You can tell digital from paper because digital is perfectly aligned...paper not so much!  We digital scrapbookers want it to look like paper...maybe we should put things slightly askew to make it look even more like paper! LOL!

Here is the 2 page layout:

I used the Echo Park Springtime kit for this week.  It's not your typical project life kit but it worked for my photos this week.  We went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens this week when all the lovely tulips and daffodils were in bloom. BEAUTIFUL!  My week card was done with an Ali Edwards week stamp as well as a Katie Pertiet vertical stamp for the dates.

Here is a closer view of the left side:

Here is the right side which includes other photos of our life.  I even got a photo of the kids with me...
Yay for that as I'm usually behind the camera or a lot of the photos I use are those my daughter takes for me!

The little 2 dollar kit worked well for me, I think.  I also used photo collage templates from some various sources like Lori Whitlock and Tracy Larsen.

And that's it for today....

Happy Crafting!!!

Project Life, 2014: Week 11

Here we are at week 11 of my Project Life/Digital Version which covers the period of March 9-15, 2014.

The two page layout side by side looks like this:

I didn't have a good landscape type card for this week so went back to creating a Week Card with some things from the Tracy Reed March kit.  The March stamp is from a stash but I can't remember right now to whom I need to give credit! LOL! 
Here is a closeup of the left:

And here is the right side:

I used Tracy Larsen, Lori Whitlock, and Lily Pad collage templates which help in the process of using multiple photos in a slot.

And that's it for today!

Happy Crafting and Keep Creating!

Project Life, 2014: Week 10

I did actually get a card or two made the other day when my friend, Cyndi, came over for an hour or two....but mostly we just chatted.  But that was very fun, too!

Although my favorite male tennis player of all time pulled out of the the huge tennis tournament, the US Open, due to injury I am still enjoying watching some very good tennis!  It will conclude this weekend.

So, I've been sitting in front of the tv doing virtual crafting and creating...and that's where digital Project Life is so good.  I do it with my laptop...no mess...and I can watch tv.  My only issue is that my Photoshop Elements crashed twice yesterday.  Lesson learned?  Save out STUFF very, very often!  :)

Here is Week 10.  This brings me into March and about the time I returned from the beach.  Sad to leave the beach, but happy to be home to see the children!

I used Just Jamie's March Storyteller for most papers and embellishments (or what in the digital world are called elements) in addition to a brush from Ali Edwards for my week card.

Here is the left side:

I used the vertical Becky Higgins template D for the right side:

 Another thing that makes digital Project Life much easier (for me, at least) than paper scrapping is that when you use one kind of template (or in real paper life a slotted page protector) you don't have to worry about what you will do on the flip side.   For example, if the above page were real life paper then when I were to begin Week 11 (which would be on the reverse side of this) I would have to make sure I had vertical photos.  Get it?  That can be a problem.  But with digital PL you can use whatever you want...what is on one side does not impact the other.  Simple!

In addition to the stuff I named I also used a few Tracy Larsen templates for some of the 4x6 photos.  And the little photo of our cute Taylor on the bottom is just a 3x4 card with a stroked outline around the photo. No template was harmed in the development of that card! ;)

Well, that's it for today.

Happy Crafting and Keep Creating!

Project Life, 2014: Week 9

Happy, happy Sunday!

Today I am going to craft.  I truly am.  My friend is coming for a few hours to play with me so I will actually leave my laptop up here and not be tempted to work on PL and will get my hands inky and dirty instead!

I promise....

But for now we will venture into Project Life Week 9.  The kids were back in Atlanta so my pictures are a mix of a few FL ones but mostly of the kids at home in Atlanta doing regular kinds of activites.
Taylor is not seen much this week.  Guess she was in hiding.  :)

Here is the full two page spread.

I used the Just Jamie March Storyteller kit. with a few templates thrown in from Tracy Larsen and Lori Whitlock.
One thing that is great about digital is how you can adjust the whole template to suit your needs.  For example, this week I had the two photos of David on his daddy's back.  Well, I didn't want to separate them with the 4 3/4 cards that are across the center so what I decided to do was remove two of the smaller cards and make one 4x6 cards.  Perfect!

And of course the sunset week card was done with an Ali Edwards brush/digital stamp.
I love, love, love the photos of David falling asleep on his daddy's back while his daddy was reading the story to him.  That is one tired kid! LOL!!!  And another funny part to me is the position that his night time story gets read to him! LOL.  His daddy is kneeling at the end of the bed and David gets on his back.  Too funny!!!

My son in law is a good daddy who loves his kids and totally participates in the night time routines!

<3 him.

Here is the right side:

The bottom right photos of the boys in their baseball uniforms is a template from Tracy Larsen that I tweaked.  I made the two right photos larger and then cut the individual photo of David out in an oval, did an outline stroke in black of about 5 pixels to set it off a bit and dropped a shadow behind it.  That's the good thing about digital is you can so easily change things and adust size...color...whatever!  Love that part a LOT!!!

I love the wood veneer look of the Today Was Awesome card.......I just dropped a solid paper behind it and then added a paint thingy and the camera to spiff it up a bit.  So easy and fast.

and that's it for today....

Happy Crafting and Happy Creating...however you choose to do it!

Project Life, 2014: Week 8

Well, I just keep cranking these pages out, don't I?  I keep dangling the possibility of dabbling with some real paper and ink but I just keep on putting these digital pages up, don't I?  Sorry...but when you're on a roll...you're on a roll! :) 

So I completed Week 8 last night which covers a week in February.  You will see another sunset shot.  I probably took 1000 sunset pictures at the beach. I am truly obsessed with trying to catch the perfect sunset.  They are all so gorgeous and awe inspiring.  Not my pictures...but the actual sunsets.

I decided to use something different for the week card this week instead of doing the landscape card that I am so fond of.  This made for a bit more work but I am happy with the result.  I used a template from Katie Pertiet and a photo of the kids on the beach.  Just a bit different but it worked.  I used the February Traci Reed kit and templates, too, from Tracy Larsen and the Lily Pad and Lori Whitlock. 
Really, I don't recall all I used.  I probably should keep a list. LOL!  Maybe on Week 9. 
LOL!

Here is the two page spread:

And here is a closer up version of the left:

Now that I look at it I realize it all looks so simple but this took me hours! LOL!

Here is the right:

Happy Children...happy Omie....pretty sunsets...happy Omie....

On to Week 9....and Week 33...and all in between!

Project Life: Week 6

Week 6...this Project Life layout for Week 6 covers the period of February 2-8.  Some Project Lifers do their pages from Monday-Sunday of a given week so that they have both weekend days together.  That makes sense to me.

I do things that don't always make sense but I prefer to do my pages Sunday-Saturday.  I'm retired.  Every day is a weekend day to me so I'm good with the calendar Sunday to Saturday thing.  I never did like calendars at work that started on a Monday.  Just another one of those OCD qualities....

LOL!

So here is a Sunday to Saturday week for me which I am calling Week 6.
I was in Florida at the beach and the little kiddies were here in Atlanta.  Thank heavens for iPhone photos, though... I prefer a "real" camera but my daughter who is the mother of the 3 little active ones is lucky to generally have her iPhone with her and can whip it out to snag that photo.  She just doesn't seem to use a "real" camera often any longer.  It works for her...and I get the photos so it works for me.

I used the February Tracy Reed kit with a template by Tracy Larsen .  I didn't have tons of photos for the week (well, I did but most were duplicates....I mean, I must have taken 574 photos of the sunset!) so not many collages here....but that's ok.  This still does show where we were and what we did during the week.  And that's what Project Life is all about.

I love brushes also called digital stamps  (I use Photoshop Elements) and the versatility of them. Easy to change the size...the ink color...the opacity.  Cool beans!

Digital is easier.  It still takes me a while to do it...but it is much easier for me to get things just right and the way I like them.

Here is the left side:

And here is the right:

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!