Back to the Blog!

It's time to get back to sharing some Project Life pages!  I meant to share at least a few times this summer but it just never happened...and now here we are, the first day of school!  Today has been a productive day so far!  I don't have to work until the weekend so I am hoping to get lots done this week!!!!  Here it goes...

I am about a month behind but that's ok...I will get caught up!  This year my PL album is split again into two...the first album being January through July.  I think there might be a few too many pages in there but I'm going to make it work! 

I am so excited for the new PL products to become available!  Can not wait to get my hands on the mini kit...my favorite is the Bridgeport Edition.  I have a son so I think this will be perfect for him!  I am planning to use the Olive Edition for our family book and the Seafoam Edition in addition to the childhood kit for my son's book.  And I think I will be putting some PL binders on my Christmas list this year!

So here are a few layouts I was working on this summer.  I like using tags here and there from Elle's Studio and I'm also addicted to 6x6 paper pads from various designers to add a little something different to my pages.  I also ventured to something new...some digital scrapbooking!  I'll point that out along the way.

 Design C comes in handy when I have a lot of a similar subject. I've also tried to come up with other ways to fill in spaces.

 In these next few pages are pictures from a brewery trip we took this summer.  I'm always looking for special little items to keep as mementos of trips we've taken.  We kept the wrist bands that allowed us to sample some of the beer at the brewery.  I also got a pamphlet and a postcard to add.  And receipts from where we ate. 

The next few layouts are from a camping trip we took this summer.  I had some fun making those pages!

I had some fun using the Pic Monkey website to add the text 'Fun with Sparkler.'  I suppose you can also add text with Photoshop Elements...which I purchased this summer but I haven't done much with it yet...trying to learn it yet!  I'm taking advantage of Cathy Zielske's website as she has tutorials on there to help me learn PSE!  The page on the right is the beginning of a 'week in review' I did.  This is where I have a 4x6 Week in Review card that I purchased from Designer Digitals.  It's a Cathy Zielske product.

 I love the Design J pages.  I'm using my phone more and more to take pictures...I love Instagram photos!!!!  And here's that Week in Review card I was talking about.

 I also purchased some Ali Edwards products from Two Peas.  I love the 3x4 journaling cards.

And here's my little man!  First day of 1st grade!!!!!  It was a very warm day today...a bit cool this morning though.  I'm wanting to get rid of my flower baskets but they still look good.  I got this gorgeous mum and wooden pumpkin over the weekend.  I love autumn...our favorite season around here!!!!  The leaves are falling way too fast though.

Can't wait to check out all of the Project Life inspiration tonight!!!!!!

Project Life Tuesday...or Wednesday?!?!?

I haven't posted in a while so my goal is to get this done quick!  I don't often have Tuesdays off so that's why I have been absent from my blog for a while now.  Oh, and I finished my research class...yeah!!!  Looking forward to getting lots of scrapbooking done this summer as well as soccer with my kiddo and maybe some camping!!!!

I have an extra insert in this layout.  I believe it's the design B, and I love how I've seen some people cut them.  What a great idea!!!!  I have a package or two of this design thinking I would use it but I just haven't as much as I thought.  But now that I have realized they can be cut I'm sure I will use them up!  I guess I also got in the habit of taking mostly horizontal pictures.

I just added a few stickers in this layout...turned out nice.  Sometimes I put the stickers right on the picture and sometimes I put them on the page protector.

This was the Friday before Mother's Day and my son made this for me at school.  So adorable!!!

This is one of my favorite pages...not only because I really like to take an 8x10 and cut it down to fit in a design A page but also because I got a new lens for my camera and I had a great time experimenting taking pictures of my favorite person! 

And a few more pictures with my new lens...the ones of my flower baskets.  And some memorable moments from Mother's Day.

I also mentioned in my last post that I was going with friends to scrapbook for a few days in April and was hoping to complete the album...well, I did!!!  I was hoping to share a few of those pages but they are taking forever to upload right now so maybe next time.

Ok...I think I am going to manage to make this a PL Tuesday!!!!  Nothing too exciting but I like how my pages turned out.  Can't wait to check out some other pages this week!!!!

I'm Still Here!!!

So it has been a while since I have posted...last time was Leap Day...when we had a big snow storm come through!!!  This is where I am going to pick up from with my PL pages.  I often work on Tuesdays...12 hour shifts so I hadn't been doing a whole lot of scrapbooking.  I also have been busy with my research class...4 more weeks and that class will be completed...yeah!!!!! 
I am so EXCITED to be getting ready for a scrapbooking retreat later this week!!!!  Four days of scrapbooking coming my way at White's Wildwood Retreat.  This place is fabulous!!!  I hope to work a little bit on my PL albums but my goal is to complete one of my son's albums from a few years ago.  It was the album I was working on when I discovered this wonderful way of scrapbooking by Becky Higgins.  So I have a few months worth of traditional scrapbooking to complete.  I hope to share some of those pages with you as well.  I do like to incorporate some traditional pages into my PL once in a while.

Here it goes...these pages go from February 29-March 17, 2012.

This is a Design g page...Leap Day.  We we woke up to LOTS of snow.  No school for the kiddos!!!  Hubby was up early to clean the driveways.  I had some neat snowflake paper to use as the background on some of the inserts.

This is the back side of the Design G page...I really like that design.  My snowflake paper worked well with my 4x6 journaling card from Elle's Studio.

I like how this page turned out!  I saw on a blog (forgot which one) how a larger picture was cut  to fit in a few slots so I thought I would give it a try. 

I love the 4x6 pic of my son on the right page showing me his cute smiles!!!  I took two pics and made a collage in Picasa to turn it into one 4x6.  I thought I would give Picasa a try since it is something I could download for free.  I have been thinking about purchasing Photoshop Elements as well.  Can anybody give me some advice about PSE???  Is it worth purchasing or will Picasa do just as much for me???

So the snow didn't get to stick around for long!  Spring was wanting to arrive early this year!  This is our family PL album and I also do one for our son...sometimes I feel like this family album gets to be so much of our son...but then again he is our only child and I do more of the 'every day life' kind of pics in the family album.  In this layout I love the picture on the left page, bottom left corner, where I made sure to include the clock and the window to show how light it still was at 7pm on that particular day.  Love Daylight Savings time!!!!  And my hubby thought it was weird that I was taking a picture of myself cutting his hair!!!!  Every day life!

These next few pages are about our trip to Mall of America.  Our son's birthday is coming up so we thought we would take him to MOA to check out the Sea Life Aquarium and maybe some rides...and of course Archivers for me!!!!!  I included some receipts, brochure, wrist bands and so on from this trip.  I purchased some washi tape at Archivers...yeah!  I'm getting on the washi tape bandwagon...I hope to find more to add to my collection!!!!

So there it is!  A few weeks worth of PL pages.  I'm going to link up at The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama.  Can't wait to see what everyone else has been doing with their PL pages!!!!

No Project Life update...

I have been busy with work and my research class so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on scrapbooking.  We have some important stuff coming up in our home soon...a little boy's birthday is coming very soon!!!  I will have a lot to document and share in the next few weeks!  I am hoping to have some great pages to share in the coming weeks.

And the snow totals are in...

what...14 inches!!!!!!!  Really?!?!?!  Would have been nice a month or two ago but now!  Hubby picked me up at work tonight and the roads are still terrible.

I am ready for warm Spring weather!

Winter has arrived!

Well, I guess we aren't getting out of having plenty of snow this winter!  Not quite sure how much snow we actually got...I think they were saying 8" or more.  Hubby was having a hard time cleaning out the driveway this morning.  School was called off...but Momma still has to go to work!!!

Hope there's a Leap Day baby today!!!!

Here's a look outside our front door!

For those that where in the 'snow storm'...enjoy!!!!!

Using my *NEW* camera!!!

My Project Life pages are from last week and are actually only cover ing 4 days.  I worked last weekend so that would be one reason why there were not as many pictures.  Depending on what my husband and son are doing when I am away at work I will send the smaller Kodak camera with them.  I think my husband is a bit intimidated by my new camera!

I'm documenting the arrival of my new camera!!!  I'm loving it!!!  Since I am the one to take about 96% of the pictures for our Project Life album I thought I would take a few self portraits!  I'm sure my husband would have laughed at me if I asked him to take a few pictures of myself!  This is the day I got my new camera...I also got my hair trimmed on this day and thought it would be good to document that as well.  I don't know about you but I am quite particular about my hair!  I have found the greatest hair stylist!!!!!!  She's been doing my hair for about seven or eight years now and I can honestly say that I always walk out of her salon 110% happy with my hair!  I am trying to grow out my hair a bit and she is getting me through this process. Thanks Ashlie!!!! 

Enough about my hair... :)


Lovin' the design G pages...once again used in this layout.  I am running low so I think I will need to place and Amazon order soon!  I also used some of those great tags from Elle's Studio.  The journaling cards on this page are from a free printable I found on Pinterest from Miss Tiina.  I'm glad I can print more of those and that I can find white paper cheap!  I'm not always happy with my hand writing so I sometimes go through a few journaling cards before I am satisfied with the final card. 

Here's the backside of that page.  That's our kitty...her name is Emma.  I think that was the first picture I took with my new camera.  She was playing with the lens cap!  She's 10 years old and such a lovable cat!  I got her a few days before my husband and I got married!  I was coming home from work one morning and had to stop at someones house to pick up something.  They had kittens and of course I fell in love.  Even though we lived in an apartment at the time I thought I shouldn't be bringing one home but I did anyway!  Our landlord was fine with it...yeah!  She was our only 'kid' for five years until our son came along and I think it has taken nearly five years for her to warm up to Ben!  She will sometimes sleep by him when he goes to bed, but it doesn't last long.  There he is all snuggled up in his bed with all the extra blankets on him and his stuffed animals!  He likes the blankets up to his chin just like his father!

And the last page of my layout.  Another tag from Elle's Studio used here.  I love to see my son & husband looking at our scrapbooks...this one happens to be last years Project Life!  And I love that picture of the plant.  I took a picture of it with my little Kodak camera and compared it to the one taken with my new Canon dslr...wow, what a difference!  I love it!  I think later today I will get the extra lens out that came with my camera and play around with it taking some outdoor pictures.

So my pages are pretty simple, nothing too spectacular.  I love to see what other people's pages are looking like to get some new ideas.  One blog I love to follow to get some great inspiration is Mish Mash.  I love how she uses the instagram photos and the journaling pockets for pictures as well.  I'm not an iphone user but I have considered purchasing one for the instagram app alone!  I will stick with my Android X2.  I'm considering an Instax Mini camera.  I've seen many using this on some of the great blogs I've been following.
 
Last night after I completed these pages I was working on my son's PL album.  I am pretty much caught up on that as far as picture placement goes.  I just have to go back and do all of the journaling but that won't take long to do.  It will be fun to add all the little extras to it and I hope to start sharing those pages in the near future.  I want to get the design F pages to use for all the little Valentine's my son got at school...I think they would fit in those pockets perfectly.  I love the idea of putting lots of pictures in those pockets as well.  Becky Higgin's blog post was great yesterday.  I love the Feedback Friday (& Monday) posts!  One of the questions addressed how many albums the creative team is doing.  I am beginning to think doing two albums is a bit much!  Last year both our family album and my son's were divided into two albums each so imagine how many albums I will have over the years!  I am thinking about only doing one album next year.  Wondering what others do???

Going to a scrapbooking retreat in April with a group of ladies, (a biannual even!!) so I will be able to get lots done there.  I actually have to finish up a traditional 12x12 album that's from a few years back...the one I was working on for my son when I started using Project Life.


I'm looking forward to seeing all the great pages this week that are linking up over at The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama!

Have a great week :)

A Little Behind This Week...

I worked a 12-hour shift on Tuesday so I wasn't able to post like I wanted to.  So I got a little caught up and now I'm working on this while I watch Grey's Anatomy and my son sleeps in his 'tent' made out of the dining room chairs and blankets...Daddy is sleeping in there as well!!!!

So the pages I am showing this week start on February 9th and go to the 18th. 

I really am liking the design G pages.  I added some tags from Elle's Studio ...love them!

I'm not feeling obligated to have a picture for every 4x6 slot.  I'm also using paper from my own stock and not always the coordinating paper that goes with the kit I am using.  We're getting into Valentine's Day so there's lots of hearts and red & pink going on!    I've seen on some blogs how people are including pictures of their smartphone with the weather on them...I thought that was a great idea and took a picture of mine.  We had some cold weather last week.  I'm also documenting the start of my blog!

Getting treats ready for my son's Valentine's party at school.  I made Oreo lollipops...another idea from Pinterest...so easy and so cute!  He did a great job writing out the cards to attach to each one.  More candy for the cupboard!  I actually just threw out the Halloween candy a week or two ago...my son doesn't eat too much of it.  There are certain things he likes but most of it goes to waste...which is just fine!  I put the cards in a 6x12 page protector...great size for stuff like that.  Ben made us a cute Valentine card at school and I saved the cards he and my husband gave me as well as the one I gave my husband.

I try to be sure to include pictures of all of us since this is our family album.  Sometimes I have to remind myself of that because I include so many pictures of our son...nothing wrong with that...he's our only child.  I have a Project Life album for his as well and I hope to start sharing that soon!  I try to remember to get the 'everyday' kind of shots so when I look back in ten or fifteen years I can see what our life was like then.  The Free To: Be Yourself journaling card is from a free printable I found on Pinterest...I've found so many links to free printables there!  You can find it at www.misstiina.com. 

Everyday pictures like the groceries at the checkout, and what my husband likes to watch on TV or cold brewing coffee for iced coffee...check out The Pioneer Woman's website for the recipe and how to do this at home.  More tags from Elle's Studio and a 4x6 on this page and I also included the reciepts from the two stores we get groceries at so I can look back to see how much groceries cost us in years to come.

And the other reasons I've been a bit busy this week...an educational meeting at work, haircut, and quiz taking for my online class...research...not really liking this class :( 

Oh...and the most exciting reason why I didn't get to posting earlier this week...

I purchased a Canon DSLR camera!!!!  I am so very excited!  I am loving it so far!  Just starting to play around with it.  I have a lot to learn about it though.  Should be fun!!!!

I'm still gonna link up over at The Mom Creative, I love all the inspiration over there!  I guess this week it's Project Life Thursday for me!

I'm excited to share!

I wish I was sharing my most recent Project Life pages but I am a little behind.  My photos are in place...I just need to get my journaling done and add some little extras. 

I'm going to share a few pages from the beginning of January.  I'm not doing the picture-a-day approach this year and I guess not even a weekly approach.  I could say I'm taking the monthly approach!!!  Some days I don't take any pictures then the next day I might have two, five or even 10 pictures!  I feel a bit more relaxed doing it this way.

Here's the double page layout.  I do have one insert in the layout...a design G page.  Here's the left page.

I added a few extras from Elle's Studio.  I love their products!  The Tuesday card in one of the 3x4 slots was a free printable from Cathy Zielsk'es blog.  There was a link for these day of the week cards in Becky Higgins's blog a few weeks back.  They're great!  I made a whole bunch of them right away to use randomly throughout my family album and my son's.

On to the right side.  First, the insert page.  The front...

I am liking this new design.  I got use to taking mainly horizontal pictures last year and now I am getting back to taking both horizontal and vertical pics.  My son likes to line up cars!  He was playing one evening while I was getting supper ready!  And here's the backside of the insert page...

This is the right page...

I didn't add much to this page.  We went to a movie during this week so I added the tickets.  I used some of the cardstock from the Amber edition and cut it to 4x6 then stapled the tickets on.  I am also using the Bic Mark-it pens this year...liking those to add a little color to my journaling.

And here's how I store my core kit contents.

 It's just one of those little skinny baskets you can get at most stores.  It's easy for me to put away in one of my desk drawers when I need to clean up, however most of the time my scrapbooking stuff stays out.  I try to work on my pages a little here and a little there when I can.  I do have a small area in our house I am able to use for scrapbooking.  It's nothing spectacular but it works.  My computer is in this room, too.  When we bought our house the gentleman asked me if I wanted the desk since he didn't have a need for it.  I was so glad I kept it because it has worked great for me.  I have a little bit of storage in the drawers then I purchased some plastic drawers, not sure what they're really called!  They work great for extra storage.  I recently just started using this fold up table as well.  It's great for extra space!  I sure can make a mess when I'm scrapbooking!!!!  Tools and paper everywhere!!!

And here's one last layout.  I still like to add some traditional scrapbooking pages to my Project Life layouts.  This one happens to be a kit I purchased at one of my favorite scrapbook stores called Down Memory Lane.  They have so many great kits. 

So, I'm off to work on some Project Life pages.  Enjoy your Valentine's Day!  I made these Oreo Lollipops for my son to take to school today.  They turned out great...thanks Pinterest!  I packaged them individually and added my son's Valentine he wrote out for each classmate with ribbon.

Have a great week!