... just Laura

Kerri Bradford Studio: Happy & Simple Habits Mini Album

 

Hey everyone! I had a new little project go up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. I actually created this mini album way back at the end of October. It sort of slipped thru the cracks since then. I forgot about it, Kerri forgot about it, we both forgot about it again, etc. Lol. So this "write-up"/description was written about 4 months ago ;)

 

This has been a rough year for so many of us, am I right? I will fully admit that the last 7-8 months have been hard on me. And most of it isn't even related to the fact that we're all living thru a pandemic. Although that hasn't helped either. 

 

 

I realized that there are a handful of things that have been helping me thru the difficult times lately. Some are "habits" of sorts. Some are routines or things that I do on a daily basis without really thinking. When you get right down to it, they are all just simple little things that I've been doing to keep my mind off of the crappy parts of life, and allow myself to add a little sunshine into my days. 

 

 

I had the idea to create a quick and simple little mini album devoted to this hard time in life. I used an old 4x4" felt KI Memories mini album that I've had sitting around for years, and kept things super simple by not including photos at all. Just words and pretty papers. And a little stamping, of course ;)

 

 

 

I used Kerri's new Jordan Lower SM stamp set, along with some office tags, to create a tag for each "habit" that I wanted to document. To go along with my simple formula, I used the same color ink (navy blue) for all of my stamping.

 

 

I also used the new Jordan Numbers XL stamp set to help create my little title page, stamping "12" onto two tags, as I ended up with 12 "habits" that I included in the album. 

 

 

I simply adhered each tag onto a piece of patterned paper, adding a coordinating fiber (remember how they were all the rage years ago?) to each tag.

 

 

My patterned paper/tag combo went on the left side of each spread, and my journaling page went on the right side of each spread. For my journaling pages, I used a template from the Four By Four album set by CZ Design. 

 

 

I rarely make mini albums. But when I do, I usually follow the same design format throughout the entire album.

 

 

By sticking with this simple design, I was able to complete this entire little album in one sitting - which rarely happens with any of my projects ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love These 2

 

Hey all! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. When I saw Kerri's new love themed stamps, I knew it was about time that I created a layout about Alyssa and her boyfriend, Andy.

 

 

I rounded up some of my favorite photos of the two of them and created a photo collage using Kerri's Snapshots #1 template kit. I decided to print the collage in black and white, which can be helpful when you have an assortment of photos with different colors and looks.

 

 

This also gives you unlimited options when it comes to picking patterned papers and colors for the page. My patterned papers are all from Dear Lizzy collections, as well as the two little stitched heart embellishments.

 

 

I found this fun diagonal patterned paper that I thought would work great down the left side of the page, adding a few other patterned papers above and below my photo collage. I stamped the little row of tiny hearts along my green patterned paper, using the Love Is Everywhere stamp set, and adhered my photo collage above the stamped border.

 

 

I stamped the word "love" from Kerri's So Much Love stamp set and fussy cut each letter, adhering them along one of the diagonal rows. To complete my title, I used the new Better Together stamp set, stamping each letter/number onto a scrap piece of white cardstock and trimming each letter/number into an individual block, adhering them below the word "love". 

 

 

I also used the script "I love you" stamp from the So Much Love stamp set, and stamped it along another diagonal row on my patterned paper. I also stamped a few of the striped hearts from the same set, and fussy cut them out to help embellish the page, adding them alongside buttons and paper hearts. 

 

 

While I had everything out, I stamped an extra "love" using the So Much Love stamp set, and using a scrap of my patterned paper, created a quick card to coordinate with my layout!

 

2020 Reading Album: Books 25 - 29

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 :)

Book #25 | Out With The Ex In With The New, by Sophie Ranald

Book #26 | A Match Made At Christmas, by Courtney Walsh

Book #27 | The Twelve Dates of Christmas, by Jenny Bayliss

Book #28 | In A Holidaze, by Christina Lauren

Book #29 | Christmas Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella

You can read previous posts on this project and see all of my reading pages RIGHT HERE.

2020 Reading Album: Books 20 - 24

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 :)

Book #20 | I Invited Her In, by Adele Parks

Book #21 | Didn't See That Coming, by Rachel Hollis

Book #22 | Would Like To Meet, by Rachel Winters

Book #23 | No, We Can't Be Friends, by Sophie Ranald

Book #24 | My Favorite Half-Night Stand, by Christina Lauren

You can read previous posts on this project and see all of my reading pages RIGHT HERE.

2020 Reading Album: Books 15 - 19

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 :)

Book #15 | Lies Lies Lies, by Adele Parks

Book #16 | She's Faking It, by Kristin Rockaway

Book #17 | You Deserve Each Other, by Sarah Hogle

Book #18 | Twice In A Blue Moon, by Christina Lauren

Book #19 | Tools Of Engagement, by Tessa Bailey

You can read previous posts on this project and see all of my reading pages RIGHT HERE.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Books I Read 2020

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project go up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. I love having a wide variety of alphabet stamps to work into my projects, and I am excited to add all of Kerri's new Max alphabet stamps into my mix. I used the Max alpha stamp set to create a title for my 6x8" spread. 

 

 

I've never been great at lining up stamps all even and perfect, so I usually avoid stamping directly on the page when it comes to titles. I l like to either stamp each letter onto a small block of cardstock to use individually, or I will stamp each letter and fussy cut each one out to arrange individually - which is what I did for my title here. 

 

 

All of the patterned papers on this spread are from Dear Lizzy. Her papers have been my go-to papers for many, many years, and I can almost always find what I'm looking for in her collections. 

 

 

I used Kerri's Outnumbered (One) stamp set, which coordinates perfectly with Max, to stamp the numbers for the year "2020".

 

 

I created a tag using the new Fill In The Blank stamp set, stamping "29" (using the Brooklyn Etc stamp set) to represent the number of books that I read in 2020. I "hung" my tag from the top of the page with string, and embellished the page with a few stars.

 

 

I'll be back tomorrow and the following day to share the rest of the pages in my 2020 reading album ;)

 

2020 Reading Album: Books 10 - 14

I set a goal to read 25 books in 2020. And seeing as how it's 2021, and 7 months since I last shared any updates on this project, I'm happy to report that I did in fact read 25 books in 2020 - and then read 4 additional books, for a grand total of 29 books! I started this 6x8" album project to document the books that I read, knowing that I can continue to add to it for several years (and I have a second matching album I can use as well). 

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 :) I will add that the one thing that I did decide to change while catching up on these pages was that I decided to use the same exact journaling card for every book. I even went back and re-did the journaling cards for the first 9 books that were already done, so that I'd have a consistent look throughout the album.

Book #10 | Love Her Or Lose Her, by Tessa Bailey

Book #11 | Fix Her Up, by Tessa Bailey

Book #12 | The Friends We Keep, by Jane Green

Book #13 | One To Watch, by Kate Stayman-London

Book #14 | Josh & Hazel's Guide To Not Dating, by Christina Lauren

Project Life 2020: June Memories

Hey everyone! I finished up my June and July pages in my 2020 Project Life album a week or two ago, and finally took the time to snap some quick photos and edit them. 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.

I mentioned that I wasn't going to limit myself to a certain number of spread each month. I'll use however many pages I need, as I love to include the majority of our photos each month. For June, I ended up with 7 spreads, one of which includes a 6x12 insert. Technically it's 6 spreads, and the 7th is dedicated to the pandemic.

I've been using the One Little Word 2019 Digital Monthly Stories stamp set, from Ali Edwards, to create a lot of my monthly title cards. I just add the digital stamp to a blank canvas, and pick a coordinating color for the background. 

I'm working at least one of the 3x3" configured pocket page protectors into my album each month (but will use a second if it works with my photos). 

So many of our photos work well as squares, and I can simply trim the 3x4" photos down to the 3x3" size without having to re-print them. 

** The spread after this page will be dedicated to Coronavirus related things - some factual, some funny, and some personal stories. I started this with my March monthly pages, and have continued to make a spread like that for all of the months following. I just don't happen to have those pages totally finished yet. So I will share those once I have them done. 

Here's the third spread for the month of June, with a 6x12" insert on the right.

I came across this cool Bachelorette drawing of one of my favorite couples, Jo Jo and Jordan, in a promotional post for one of the specials they were airing over the summer. I screenshot it to specifically use in my album. I need to be better about including more things like that.

Sarah participated in a Black Lives Matter march in the beginning of June, and I came across this photo on the neighborhood watch page on Facebook. I have no clue whether she's in this photo at all, but I downloaded it to document the march. 

Here's the forth spread for the month of June, with the 6x12" insert on the left. 

I often take lame Snapchat photos to send to one of the girls, without any intention of having them seen anywhere else. Lol. But I've been shorter on photos this year, for whatever reason, so I will use any and all photos I have at this point. 

Here's the fifth spread for the month of June.

Here's the sixth spread for the month of June.

And the seventh spread for the month of June.

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 am also currently working on playing catch up on my August, September, and October pages - and working on ordering my November photos. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Starry Night

 

Hey everyone! I had a new project up at Kerri Bradford Studio a few days ago, and wanted to pop in and share it here as well. I decided to create a small album giving an updated look into some of the ways that we celebrate Christmas. I created a similar album way back in 2007, and it's so fun to look back and see what "traditions" have changed and which ones are the same. 

 

 

This little spread is decorating - when and how I start decorating for the Christmas holiday. And my journaling is so true. The part where I say it's not unusual for the trees to be up with just lights for a week or two before I put on the decorations. We have two Christmas trees, and while one has been decorated for two weeks - the other has sat without decorations up until today, and even as I type this, it only has about 10 decorations on it. Lol. I'll finish eventually ;)

 

 

I love using stars as embellishments, so I couldn't wait to use Kerri's new Starry Night kit.

 

 

I die cut two sets of the stars from white cardstock using my Cameo, and then arranged them on my 4" x 8.25" page. I'm a huge fan of white-on-white for backgrounds! I spritzed on a little silver misting spray and also added some fun silver star outline stickers that were in my Christmas stash from years and years ago. 

 

 

For my title, I used Kerri's Printers Block | Letters stamp set to stamp my title in black ink on white cardstock, trimming each letter individually and adhering vertically on the page, tucking the ends under the ribbon just a little bit. 

 

 

I printed the black and white "merry & bright" piece from Kerri's Christmas Cheer kit, and adhered it on the left page along with my journaling. I had a few die cut stars left over, so I adhered them on the red and white patterned paper on the bottom of the page. 

 

 

I'm hoping to create additional pages to add to my album over the next few weeks. The small page size, and the fact that I'm not worrying about including photos, should help make them doable. Quick little projects that I can fit in when I have a short amount of time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Very Merry Christmas

 

Hey everyone! I have a few new projects up at Kerri Bradford Studio today, as part of her 12 Days of Christmas event! Each of the 12 days, there is a new design that you can download for free - for that day only. If you happen to miss out on any of the free downloads, you can still purchase them for a very low price starting the following day ;)

 

 

Very Merry Christmas is the today's free design (Friday, December 4th only), and the first design that I picked to work with for our little event. I had full intentions of using the "Very Merry Christmas" phrase to create some holiday cards, but then came up with a new plan once I started die cutting the words.

 

 

I love to watch everyone document their Christmas holidays in projects like December Daily, but I have to admit that I am not one to create many holiday projects (other than a layout or two each Christmas).

 

 

One Christmas project that I did participate in, way back in 2007, was Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. The album that I created didn't contain a single photo - just pretty paper and little stories to document the ways that we celebrate the holiday.

 

 

I thought it was about time to create an updated look at some of the same topics I included in that album, all those years ago. I decided on doing Travelers Notebook sized pages, which I'll add into a Life Crafted album from Citrus Twist. I used Kerri's Very Merry Christmas kit to create two spreads for this album - an intro spread and a spread about our holiday photo tradition. 

 

 

I die cut both words included in the kit - "Very Merry Christmas" and "Holiday Photo" - from black cardstock using my Cameo. I also die cut a circle background from white cardstock, using the Background Basics kit, so that I could create white-on-white background on which to adhere my die cut titles. 

 

 

My pages are 4" x 8.25" in size, and I dug deep into my Christmas supplies for patterned papers to add to the pages, along with my title pieces and my journaling blocks.

 

 

I have jars and jars of ribbons that I haven't used in years, and added a piece of ribbon to each spread, adding metal brads to the ends of the ribbons. 

 

 

I came across a die cut rose (from Kerri's Roses kit) on one of my cutting mats that I didn't end up using on an old project, and figured I would toss that onto my "Holiday Photo" spread.

 

 

I also printed a few elements from Kerri's Fa La La Labels kit and her Merry Little Words kit to help embellish the spreads. 

 

 

These little pages were so fun to put together, and by not worrying about including photos (although photos would be a great addition if I had them), they came together in no time.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Little Wins

 

Hey everyone! Kerri Bradford Studio and Everyday Explorers Co teamed up last week to bring you inspiration and fun projects that pair up stamps and products from both companies. I had a new 6x8" pocket page spread go up last week, which can be seen HERE, and wanted to pop in and share it here with you all as well. 

 

 

I chose to work with Everyday Explorers Co.'s Little Wins stamp set and I paired it with Kerri's Jordan Lower SM alphabet stamp set to document a few "little wins" of my own over the last few months. 

 

 

I used the Little Wins stamp phrases to guide me in picking out a handful of photos, and little stories, to highlight for this spread. The pocket pages that I decided to use have lots of 2x2" openings, so I printed 2x2" photos, along with 1.75x1.75" journaling squares that I matted on 2x2" squares of patterned paper.

 

 

I stamped each of my Little Wins phrases onto a square of patterned paper as well.

 

 

I used Kerri's Find The Beauty printable kit for the black and white quote filler card, since I thought the "find the beauty in the simplest of things" quote tied in nicely with the theme of the spread. I decided to go with "little wins" as the title of my spread, inspired by the Little Wins stamp set name, and used Kerri's Jordan Lower SM alpha stamps to create my title. 

 

 

I loved using a stamp set as the starting point for a project, letting the stamps inspire which little stories that I wanted to include on my spread. I could have easily found a photo/story/little win to go along with each of the stamps in the Little Wins set - I may need to add another page in to highlight a few additional wins!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Holiday Cards

Hey everyone! I have a few new cards up at Kerri Bradford Studio and wanted to quickly share them here as well. I've been really into card making these past few weeks, so when I saw Kerri's new Christmas stamps, I knew they would be great for whipping up some simple holiday cards. 

 

 

My style of card making is pretty clean and simple. I love a good white background for my cards, and will usually either run them thru an embossing folder or add a white die cut background on top of the card base for texture. I used a few stamps from the new Merry News and The Holidays stamp sets to create strips to go across the width of the card, adding in a small piece of diagonal striped patterned paper as well. 

 

 

I added a few of the fun wood veneer pieces that Kerri designed for Jessica at Color Cast Designs to each card, as well as a few black brads, to finish off these quick and easy cards.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Hey Beautiful Cards

 

Hey everyone! I had a few new cards go up at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. How gorgeous is the huge floral stamp in Kerri's new Big Blooms stamp set? As soon as I saw it, I knew what my first project would be with it. Cards.

 

 

I have never gotten into coloring when it comes to stamping, although this large floral stamp could be fun to color! Because it's such a large stamp, I knew simply stamping the outline in black ink onto patterned paper would work out great. 

 

 

I picked out several tone-on-tone polka dot patterned papers (all from Sunny Studio Stamps), stamped the floral image, and then fussy cut around the edges. I added a simple black and white patterned paper to my card bases, before adhering the floral pieces.

 

 

The black and white patterned paper did have a few ink splotches printed directly on the paper, but once I cut it down into smaller pieces, some of the cards didn't show any of the ink splotches. So I pulled out Kerri's Inked stamp set and quickly added a few stamped ink splotches of my own.

 

 

I used Kerri's new Jordan Lower alphabet stamps, along with a "beautiful" stamp from her Around The Block stamp set, to stamp my sentiment onto white tags and adhered them in the lower right corners. 

 

 

I am a huge fan of creating multiple cards at once, and it's something I do regularly, just to add to my card stash. I actually created these five cards for five special friends in my life that are always there for me, and I'm always there for them. I've relied on these amazing friends more than usual lately, so I wanted to send them a little something to let them know how much I appreciate their friendship. The Big Blooms stamp set made creating these cards a breeze and I love how they turned out!

 

Kellie Stamps: Current Everyday Routine

Hey everyone! I'm back to share the second project that I created for Kellie Stamps, once again using her new Routine digital stamp set. I loved the clock face stamp, and the idea of pairing it with the numbers to document my daily routine on work days. 

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I decided to go with a 6x12" pocket page spread. I brainstormed my day and how many "times" I wanted to represent to tell my story. I settled on eight photos, and knew it would work well on a 6x12" spread, using 3x4" photos. 

As I usually do on both 6x12" and 6x8" spreads, I decided to include a separate journaling page in between the two pages. When working with a 6x12" spread, I usually go with a 4x11" insert, as it's super easy to trim down a 8.5x11" page protector (I simply machine stitch all the way down, and then cut off the excess). 

Apparently, I had a lot to say in my journaling, once I started breaking down my day. I used the "morning", "afternoon", and "evening" digital stamps to split up my journaling a little. 

For my title card, I started with a few digital patterned papers. All of the digital papers that I used for this spread are from the High Street Stories kit from One Little Bird. I used the "routine" & "everyday" digital stamps from the Routine set, and added in the "current" digital stamp (was currently, but I shortened it) from her new Currently 2020 set. 

The "coffee coffee coffee" digital stamp is from Kellie's Coffee Loading set. 

For each photo, I knew that I wanted to add a small piece of patterned paper along the bottom. Since I ended up using digital papers, each of these photos is exactly that - a single layer image that includes the photo, a patterned paper, and the digital clock face and time. Once I printed them out, I added a small staple on either side of the time. So the small staples are the only physical product on this spread. 

This is a look at the backside of the journaling page. 

With my current hours at work, I feel like I've been struggling to get much done on days that I work. I'm not new to retail hours, as I worked in grocery/warehouse stores for 15 years before I did daycare. And I'm totally fine working a non-traditional 8-5 job (not that I've ever had one of those). 

It can be hard though, as my "free time" is split into two different times of the day. I have a little bit of time in the morning, before leaving for work. And a chunk of time in the evening, after I get home from work. It's like there's not enough time in the morning to really accomplish anything, and I'm too tired in the evening to do anything after working hard all day. Let's just say the struggle is real most days.

The "work. work. work. work." digital stamp is from Kellie's Work Life set.

Don't forget to stop by Kellie Stamps and check out all of her fun designs. As the September guest designer, Kellie was sweet enough to provide me with a discount code for you all, to use on either physical and/or digital stamps. LAURAGUEST will get you 25% off, no minimum required, postage not included. 

Kellie Stamps: Yes To This Routine

I am a huge fan of Kellie Stamps, so I was thrilled to have the chance to guest design for her September release. While Kellie has physical stamps, I have always used her digital stamp sets. I own about 40 of her digital sets, and there's only a small handful that I haven't purchased. 

I used her new Routine digital stamp set to create this 6x8" pocket page spread about my Curly Girl hair journey the last few months. And yes, for anyone that doesn't know - there is an actual Curly Girl Method that you can do to help encourage and enhance the natural curl pattern in your hair. I used to have really curly hair, way back in the day, years ago. But I've pretty much been wearing it straight for the last 10+ years. I decided to embrace my curls again this year and have worn it curly every day for the last 6 months. 

Kellie has also offered up these "Friday Freebies" for quite some time now, and I will occasionally stop by her blog and download a ton of them. I've used a few in my Project Life pages and other other pocket page projects. I worked this "sure, my life isn't perfect but my hair is - let's face it, that's what really counts" freebie into my 3x8" journaling card. 

Since I used a large 6x8" photo for one side of the spread, and a pocket page protector for the other, I added a 3x8" page protector in between the pages to hold my journaling, which is something I do quite often on these smaller pages. 

I added my title digitally to my photo before printing, starting with the large "routine" digital stamp from the Routine set. The "yes to this" digital stamp is from the Fun Times set. I changed the digital stamps to purple and green, to tie in with the colors of the small photos on the second page. I felt like I needed something else in the corner, to go with the title, so I added the "learning to love myself more each day" digital circle stamp, which is from the Perfectly Imperfect set. 

This shows the 3x8" page protector, with the backside of the journaling card. Well, not the backside exactly, as I printed each of the 3x8" journaling cards individually. 

I used the Routine digital stamp set to break my hair routine into two parts - the evening routine and the morning routine. The Curly Girl Method can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. There's so much experimenting that you can do, to find out the products and techniques that work the best for your hair. 

I have certainly done some experimenting over the last six months, but there's SOOOOO much more that I should be doing. I've found a routine that seems to be working really well for my hair, so I've just sort of stuck with it for the last two months or so. Same products, same technique. But I'm fully aware that I could get even better results with other products and/or techniques. They also may NOT work out great, but I'll never know until I try. 

But like I said, this is my current routine that works pretty darn well. And these days, I'm fine with that. I will get around to experimenting more, but right now I just need something that consistently works ;) Oh, and yes - I wash my hair at night. I've been doing that for as long as I can remember, and can't even imagine doing it in the morning, along with the normal "getting ready" stuff I do each day. Lol. 

I tried a few different ways of taking photos of the products in my "line up", and ended up just laying them on the board that I take most of my project photos on. I don't have pretty bathroom countertops or a pretty bathroom in general, so that was out of the question. Lol. 

I used the numbers from the Routine digital stamp set to number each photo, which essentially break down the products I use and the order in which I use them. The numbers match up with the numbered steps I listed on my journaling card. 

And yes, just in case you're wondering, I do use one product twice - steps 4 and 6. That wasn't a mistake ;)

I'll be back on Thursday to share the second project that I created for Kellie Stamps. As the September guest designer, Kellie was sweet enough to provide me with a discount code for you all, to use on either physical and/or digital stamps. LAURAGUEST will get you 25% off, no minimum required, postage not included.