Last month, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jennifer Wilson of Simple Scrapper about a variety of semi-controversial scrapbooking topics - including turning layouts into digital books, and getting rid of/throwing away mini albums and other projects. We also chatted a little about how I haven’t been super creative lately, and how that’s ok.
The episode is now available HERE or in podcast apps if you’d care to listen to my random ramblings for 57 minutes ;)
One more project to share with you this week, and this one is a 6x8" pocket page spread. I recently shared a little story on Instagram about yanking old shelving out of my pantry, as I was in the process of giving it a new look. I shared that bottom photo (with the wood pieces in the box), and somehow ended up sharing this bigger story, and I knew that I wanted to get this into my album. These are the kind of stories that I want to do more of. Basically, the ones that have a little more depth to them.
I pulled out the TOUGH Story Kit from Ali Edwards to use for this project. I first used this kit way back in 2016, for THIS PROJECT, and I recently purchased the digital version, knowing that I wanted to have it handy for other projects. I still have plenty of pieces from the kit left to work with, but that was one of the few kits that I did NOT have the digital kit, so I made sure to add it to my collection.
The photos for this pocket page spread aren't really pretty by any means. Lol. But they are what inspired my little "story time" share, so I knew I wanted to use them. I printed a "before" photo (showing all of the old shelving I had to rip out), a "after" photo (showing the results of all of those shelves being ripped out - basically, messed up walls and a few holes in the wall as well), and a photo of some of the pieces of wood I managed to pry off the walls (I had been tossing them in a box by the front door).
One of the nice thing about having the digital kit is that you can print elements to whatever size you need. I had used the "tough and strong" chipboard piece on my other project back in 2016 - it was a small chipboard piece, which I adhered to the corner of a 4x6" photo. I wanted to use it on this project too, and ended up sizing it big enough to fit on the 3x4" filler card. I printed it, trimmed it, and adhered it with pop dots to add a little dimension.
For my "before" and "after" photos, I dug out a few die cut labels and added alpha stickers to them (labels and stickers both from Bella Blvd) before adhering them to each photo.
I created a full 6x8" journaling page, copying and pasting my journaling directly from my Instagram post. I added a digital stamp, from the TOUGH Story Kit, to the top of the page, and used the digital version of the polka dot filler card to add a strip of coordinating polka dot "paper" along the bottom of the page. The "yes I can" was also the digital version of a chipboard piece, which I sized a little larger to add to the bottom of the page.
It felt so good to get in there and create these three projects, and I'm really hoping to keep the momentum going and work on more projects in the upcoming weeks!
Hi again! I'm back to share a super quick travelers notebook sized project. I can't seem to get into actual travelers notebooks, but I am a fan of the Life Crafted albums from Citrus Twist, which basically hold TN sized pages. I like the flexibility to move pages around, as opposed to being locked into a notebook, where the pages are all bound together.
This came about very randomly. I was scrolling thru my Instagram, looking for photos/stories that I could use on little projects, and this shot of my two frappacinos caught my eye.
I printed my photo, along with the "caffeine fix" filler card (from In A Creative Bubble), and adhered them both to a coffee bean patterned paper that I had in my stash. Took me forever to find it, but I knew it was there, so I was persistent and took the time to find it ;)
For my journaling page, I went with a simple white background, and added a digital stamp to the top (from Kellie Stamps).
I copied my journaling straight from my Instagram post. Which is the same thing I do when I work on my Project Life album.
Truthfully, I could do a lot of little quick and easy projects like this with photos I share on Instagram. But I also work 95% of our photos into my PL album, and almost every photo in my PL album has journaling of some kind to go with it. Which is maybe why I'm not creating as many other projects, seeing as how all of the photos and stories are covered already. That's what I love about PL, and the way that I approach it - as long as I keep up with my PL album, I don't feel like I have to do any other documenting throughout the year if I don't want too, because everything is pretty much in there. If that makes sense.
But it's also fun to just play sometimes. And these little projects go into MY albums, so it can be nice to have some of my little stories all in one place.
Hey - to anyone that still checks this little blog of mine ;) I started this year so well, creating a little project on the first day of the year. It felt like I was kicking things off right, with the intention of creating more projects this year. Sadly, I haven't created a single thing this year. I haven't even worked on my Project Life album yet, other than slipping my photos into pockets.
I've had good intentions. I've had projects in mind that I wanted to create. I wrote down some ideas. I pulled out some products. But I just couldn't get a single project going past those initial ideas in my head. Until last week, when I finally got some creative juices going and mananged to whip up three projects.
The first one is this 6x12" pocket page spread, dedicated to work friends. I had pulled out the FRIENDS Story Kit from Ali Edwards earlier this year, and when I realized that I had quite a few funny quotes about work friends saved as screenshots on my phone, I thought they'd make for a fun little project.
I started with this 3x4" floral filler card from the kit, and turned to my Dear Lizzy collections to find patterned papers that coordinated. The colors matched up so well with the papers I picked out.
Instead of printing the screenshots, I ended up typing them up myself in Photoshop, so that they would all have the same font and plain white background. For the quotes that were shorter, and didn't take up the full 3x3" square, I added a little piece of patterned paper along the bottom to fill the empty space.
I also have the digital kits for almost all of my Story kits, which I LOVE! I'm a huge fan of working with digital elements, especially the journaling cards. I like to type out my journaling, so the digital versions of those cards are a must-have for me. I added the "friendship" digital stamp to the bottom of the card, and then added a few physical stickers and the little fabric heart patch.
I'll be back to share another quick and easy project tomorrow.
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of December.
Here's the second spread for the month of December.
Here's the third spread for the month of December, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
Here's the forth spread for the month of December, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
Here's the fifth spread for the month of December.
Here's the last page for December, and the last page of my 2021 album.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of November.
Here's the second spread for the month of November.
Here's the third spread for the month of November.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of November.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
Happy New Year! I had no intention of having a new project to share only a few days into the new year, but here I am! One of my goals for 2022 is to find more time to be creative. With the exception of my PL album, reading album, and TV show album, the only projects I managed to create in 2021 was a single 6x8 spread, a single 12x12 layout, and 3 little TN sized spreads. Those were all done way back in February and March, so close to a year ago.
I’m off to a good start, throwing this quick TN sized spread together in about 15 min. I came across the super old “bath time” tag months and months ago and printed out this photo of Milo to go with it. And then it just went to live in a pile on one of my shelves.
I was doing something totally different in my room on New Year's Day, hanging out with Alyssa, and out of nowhere, I said “I should make a project”. And I did. I pulled out the photo and the tag, grabbed two different patterned papers (the first ones that caught my eye and matched the tag), typed up a little journaling, and tossed it all together.
It felt really good, and was a great reminder that there’s no need to overthink projects all the time. I’m all about quick and simple - have been for quite some time now - and it works for me.
I have a lot of projects that I want to work on this year, and the underlying theme is "quick and easy". Little TN sized spreads definitely fall under that theme :)
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of October.
Here's the second spread for the month of October.
Here's the third spread for the month of October. And because sometimes crap happens in life, I added in a 6x8" insert, with an enlarged filler card on one side, and a full page of journaling on the back side. While I'm not one to include all of the hard stuff in our albums, I'm finding that some of it should be in there to keep things real.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of September.
Here's the second spread for the month of September.
Here's the third spread for the month of September.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
I shared a bit more about my plans for this project in THIS POST. Since I'm following the same basic format, and using a lot of the same basic supplies, I won't be sharing too many details in these posts - so please refer back to that first post to find the main info on this album project :)
So, I realize I have that little blurb at the top of this post, linking to a post with my original plan for this album. But I did actually change up the album a while ago.
I realized that I was only going to be able to fit a year and a half of books into one 6x8" album, and that got me thinking. I find myself thinking about the end result of a lot of projects (or on-going projects like this one). I've been scrapbooking/documents for well over 27 years, and the amount of albums that I have is a little insane. I knew I didn't want to end up with a ton of albums filled with books that I've read.
So I simplified my process and took out all of the filler cards and number cards for each book. I originally had a full page for each book - using a photo of the book, a journaling card, a filler card, and a card with the number (book __ for the year). Now, I simply have a photo of the book and the journaling card. This allows me to fit way more books into one album, and actually saves me a lot of time as well.
I removed all of those other cards, and rearranged all of the pages to fit this new design. I will also be adding a title page for each year, as a way to seperate the books that go with each year.
My reading has slowed WAY down the last few months (I totally blame my work schedule), so I only have 2 additional books to add to the album for this year. I'll share that last page here once I get it done, and will continue to share my pages for books read in 2022.
Hey everyone! I'm back to share a new project that I whipped up a few weeks ago. I actually started this several months ago. Right before the 2020/2021 TV season kicked off actually. I thought it would be a great time to document my favorite shows from last season, to add to the album that I set up last year. Quick recap of this fun little project.
This will be my fifth year documenting all of the shows I watch regularly. When I shared my 2019/2020 pages last year, I also shared links to my previous years pages as well. You can see that post HERE.
I also shared all of the details on how I approach this yearly project on THIS POST, where I shared my 2017/2018 pages.
I keep an on-going list (jotted down in a notebook I keep in the family room) for all of the shows I watch during any given season. Every now and then I would pull it out and add any additional shows that came out (or started back up) to that list. Keeping this on-going list throughout the year really helps for this type of project, so you're not wasting time, trying to remember what you've watched - or leaving any good shows off the list ;) A lot of these shows run at different times of the year, or only run for half of a season, which is why I double check my lists from time to time.
I approach this project the exact same way each year. Digital pages, using collage templates and a few digital patterned papers and digital stamps, which I print out on my photo printer. For this year's pages, I decided to use the Simply White 6x8 Life Pages templates by Tracy Larsen.
I used the 3x8" Everyday Layered Photo Template kit by In A Creative Bubble for the two 3x8" collages as well, tweaking them a little to create larger areas for my two photos.
The digital patterned papers that I used are from random kits that I've had forever. I actually ended up using several of the same patterned papers that I used for the past several year's pages, just because they matched so well. I'm totally fine with using the same papers, since while I do own a TON of digital kits, I'm not familiar enough with those kits to know where to find additional paper choices.
To add the days of the week to each spread, I used the Messy Days Of The Week Boxes digital stamp kit by Ali Edwards (I can't find the kit on her site, as it's an older one, and may not be available anymore).
I used the Stories Of Life 3x8" template kit by Ali Edwards (can't seem to find a link for that one right now either) for the 3x8" collage to hold all of my Chicago shows - I wanted to put them all together on a little insert, just like I did last year. I ended up backing this collage with a 3x8" piece of digital patterned paper that I printed out to coordinate with the spread.
I always download images for each show in a variety of sizes and orientations - square, vertical, horizontal, etc. I love having lots of options, since I never know what orientation I will need, depending on what template I pick out for each day.
Once I had all of my collages finished, I printed them out on photo paper, trimmed them, and slipped them into my album. This might seem like a silly little album to some (and proof that I watch way too much TV), but I just love it :)
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of August.
Here's the second spread for the month of August.
Here's the third spread for the month of August.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of August.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of July.
Here's the second spread for the month of July.
Here's the third spread for the month of July.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of July, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
Here's the fifth spread for the month of July, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
Here's the sixth spread for the month of July.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of June.
Here's the second spread for the month of June.
Here's the third spread for the month of June.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of June, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
Here's the fifth spread for the month of June, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
Here's the sixth spread for the month of June.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
I'm taking a monthly approach to my album this year, and I shared quite a few details about my plans in THIS POST, where I shared my January pages.
Here's the first spread for the month of May.
Here's the second spread for the month of May, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
Here's the third spread for the month of May, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
Here's the fourth spread for the month of May, with a 6x12" insert on the right.
Here's the fifth spread for the month of May, with a 6x12" insert on the left.
Here's the sixth spread for the month of May.
For more info on my Project Life process, please check out these posts I put together:
PL || Photos
PL || Filler Cards
PL || Journaling Cards
If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I know I'm not sharing too many details, but my approach to my PL pages has been pretty much the same for the last several years.
