... just Laura

Ready For Consumption

Hey all! I had a third travelers notebook sized layout in the works using Kerri Bradford's April stamp release, but due to some printer issues, it took me longer than planned to get it finished. And by "printer issues", I mean that my printer decided to take a full 4 days before it would actually print it. It does this to me quite often, and it's highly annoying. 

Anyways. I had wanted to use Kerri's new Eat stamp set, and randomly picked a recent photo that had a story attached to it. I used one of the templates from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit to print both my photo and my journaling. 

The template that I used had a small phrase above the journaling, which I turned off before printing, knowing that I wanted to add my own stamped phrase. I love using Kerri's Label kit for my stamped words/phrases on all sorts of projects, and have sheets of them already printed out and ready to go. 

For my patterned papers, I pulled out several older patterned papers from Echo Park. I specifically had the paper with all of the kitchen tools in mind. It took me a while to remember what manufacturer made it, and by the time I found it, I just picked two other papers that were mixed in with it. My photo was pretty neutral, color wise, which gave me more freedom for my color choices.

I love slipping these tiny layout spreads in my Life Crafted album. They're quick and easy, and perfect for little stories. 

Project Life 2020: February Memories

Hey everyone! I'm finally getting around to sharing my February pages in my 2020 Project Life album. 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 February, I ended up with 5 spreads, one of which includes a 6x12 insert. 

I have a lot of the Stories By The Month digital kits from Ali Edwards, which is what I used to create the "February Memories" card. The actual "February Memories" card didn't quite match the colors I was working with, so I used the digital "February Memories" stamp to create my own card on a navy blue background.  

When I have extra room on a journaling card, I will often move my digital stamped "title" and journaling up towards the top of the card, leaving some extra space along the bottom - I then use that space to add a piece of washi tape. Such a simple way to finish it off. 

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. 

This second spread for the month of February, seen above, has a 6x12" insert on the right side. 

I'm utilizing my large collection of digital stamps for my journaling cards. I also have a large collection of physical stamps, but since I type up all of my journaling cards digitally, it's super easy to just use the digital stamps and size them as needed. 

I wanted something that showed who played in the Super Bowl and searched on Google for an image to use. I printed it as a 4x6" photo, and just trimmed that photo in half since I ended up having all 3x4" pockets to use on the page I wanted to include these photos. 

I was working the day of the Super Bowl, so I missed the party at my brother's house. I was scrolling thru Instagram that evening, and my aunt had shared these photos she took of my family. I was so happy to have a few photos from the day, even though I wasn't there, so I screenshot them to use. 

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

I'm not actually sure if Alyssa and her boyfriend went wine tasting on Saturday or Sunday, but I came across this filler card and thought it went nicely. So I'm hoping they went on Sunday. Although, I just realized I put "February 14th" on the journaling card, which was a Friday. Lol. 

I used very few embellishments for my February pages. I'm not setting out to use many embellishments, as I like to keep my pages fairly flat and simple. But I'm also not against using embellishments, if I feel the need to add a little something here and there. The puffy "cook" sticker was from an Ali Edwards kit. 

Here's the fourth spread for the month of February.

I mentioned before that I'm using a mix of filler cards, with the majority of them coming from the Project Life app (I have them printed along with my photo orders) - but I'm also adding in cards from digital kits that I have (printing them at home), like the two above. 

I'm adding a "currently" card each month for each of us. I ask Joe and the girls to give me their answers to the 5 categories - just whatever comes to mind first, or what stands out as a favorite during the month. For the January cards, I had used a digital card that I found in one of my kits, but there wasn't a good spot for me to add our names to clarify who each card went too. 

So I created my own digital "currently" card, using digital stamps from Studio Calico and Kerri Bradford Studio. I have these cards saved as templates for each of us, with our names on top. So it's super easy to pull up the cards for each of us every month, and fill in the boxes. I also replaced the cards from January with these newly designed cards.

This is the fifth, and last spread, for the month of February. With a 6x11" insert added in, to hold an online article that I printed out. 

This online article goes along with the photo behind it, so I knew that I wanted to include it. It was written about the women in the Stockton Kings office, and Alyssa is among that group of awesome ladies. 

I copied and pasted the article into a Word document and sized it to fit onto two 6x11" pages. I left some room at the top and bottom of each page, so that I could add strips of patterned paper on each side. 

If you have any questions on anything specific within these pages, feel free to message me. I'm working on my March pages right now, so I hope to have those ready to share soon :)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Loads Of Fun

Hey everyone. I'm popping in to share a quick look at another travelers notebook sized layout that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. 

I felt like this first page needed a little something added to it. There was a little too much empty white space for my liking. So I pulled out Kerri's Inked stamp set and stamped on a few ink blotches - both in the upper corner on the white cardstock, and down below on the green patterned paper. 

I stacked three different stamps from Kerri's new Blocks of Headlines stamp set, stamping them onto a white tag that was in my stash. 

I wanted to add a touch of blue to the first page, to tie in with the blue towels in my laundry basket, so I used one of Kerri's Borderlines stamps above my green patterned paper. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Love This Moment

 

Hey all! It's been a while since I've created any little travelers notebook sized layouts to add to my Life Crafted album (from Citrus Twist). I'm still new to creating these smaller sized spreads, but I really do love how easy they work for documenting little stories in a quick and easy way. 

 

When I sat down to create my next project for Kerri Bradford Studio, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to create a few of these little spreads. For my first layout, I printed out a photo I took while reading one morning. I printed it as a full page photo, which for TN's, is about 4.2" x 8.25". 

 

 

I picked out this gorgeous floral patterned paper from a Dear Lizzy collection for the right side of the spread, and added my journaling before moving on to the stamping.  

 

 

I picked out several stamps from Kerri's new Iconic stamp set - the books, coffee cup, and glasses - and stamped each one onto a colored metal rimmed tag. I've had these Making Memories tags in my stash forever, and they matched up perfectly with my patterned paper. I also added the "loving this moment" stamp from the new Block of Headlines stamp set and "today" from the All The Time stamp set. 

 

I'll be back tomorrow to share another TN sized spread with you ;)

 

2020 Reading Album: Books 1 - 3

Hey there. I started a new daily habit this year, and along with it, a new album project. When I was younger, I used to be a HUGE reader. Like "read a book a day" kind of reader. Somewhere along the way, most likely when I had the girls, I stopped reading. For the last several years, I've been telling myself that I wanted to get back into reading. But I just never seemed to make the time for it. 

Well, this year, I'm doing it. I started reading my first book of the year at the beginning of January, and just finished my forth book of the year last night. I set a goal to read 25 books in 2020. I'd like to say I can read more than that, but I also know life gets busy, so I want to be realistic and not aim too high. I feel like I'm right on track already, having read 4 books in two months. 

Book #1 | Talking As Fast As I Can, by Lauren Graham.

I knew I wanted to create an on-going album to document the books I read - an album that I can easily add to as I finish new books. I brainstormed quite a bit on what format and album size I wanted to do. I figured a 6x8" album would be the best fit.

I had two of these 6x8" black albums from Seven Paper (a short-lived spin off brand of Studio Calico) that I had found on a deals website years ago. They have bigger spines than the 6x8" albums I usually use, so I knew that I could fit a lot into these two albums. 

While I picture myself using the pocket page with four 3x4" openings the most, I also have lots of the full sized 6x8" pages, the pages with two 3x4" openings and a 4x6" openings, and the one filled with fun 2x2" openings - so I will work with those as well, here and there, to use them up. 

Since I want to do a title page of sorts at the start of the album, I used a full 6x8" page and printed my first book as a 6x8" photo to go on the backside. I'm taking simple photos of my books, using the same background to keep with the same look. And I've learned to take the photos of the books BEFORE I start reading them - since once I start reading, the cover doesn't lay flat anymore. Lol. 

I got hung up trying to get this simple album going, and I think it's because I was trying too hard to use the digital reading themed products that I have. I will most definitely be using lots of those products, as I have a lot of filler type cards, journaling cards, and tons of digital stamps. But I'll also be using other Project Life type cards that I have in my stash, as well as patterned paper when needed. 

I decided to do a card to go along with each book that has the book number for the year. So for this first book, I have the "book 01" on a PL filler card that I had on hand. I used a label from Kerri Bradford Studio's Label kit, opening it in Photoshop and sizing it to fit in the upper corner of the 3x4" card (knowing that I would be trimming a little off the edge). 

I added the "book" to the label, using a digital stamp from Studio Calico's On The Shelf stamp set. Once I had one label ready, size-wise, I copy and pasted it to fill an entire page, and then printed it out. I now have plenty of "book" labels on hand and ready to go. I'll be stamping the numbers using Kerri's Printers Block | Numbers stamp set. 

I will be adding a digital journaling card to go with each book, like the one above which is from In A Creative Bubble's Read Journaling Card kit. I wish I had it in me to do an actual review of each book - but I'm really not that deep. Lol. So this journaling will most likely be short and sweet, and somehow related to how I enjoyed the book (or didn't), why I picked it, etc. 

The pocket pages above, each with four 3x4" pockets, will be the ones I turn to the most. They make perfect sense for the photo/cards I want to include. And while I know that not all of my book pages will coordinate side-by-side, it does make me happy that books 2 & 3 did coordinate, color wise ;) 

Book #2 | Marriage Vacation by Pauline Turner Brooks.

I used a piece of pink and white striped patterned paper for my number card, and went with yellow for my stamped numbers to coordinate with the yellow ring on the book cover. 

I used another digital journaling card from In A Creative Bubble's Read Journaling Card kit. The floral filler card was printed from the Project Life app. 

Book #3 | Tempting Fate by Jane Green.

Once again, I used a digital journaling card from In A Creative Bubble's Read Journaling Card kit. I'll most likely be creating my own journaling cards for a lot of the books, using the wide variety of reading themed digital stamps that I have. 

Both of the filler cards on this page were printed from the Project Life app. I thought the yellow with the navy blue hearts was perfect, as the book cover is blue with yellow text. 

I'm really looking forward to filling up this album with books I'll be reading this year. I just finished book #4, so I need to get that added in next.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Bryce Canyon

 

Hey everyone. I have a new digital layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio using her new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set. When Kerri first shared this new stamp set with me, my first thought was that I didn't have a need for it.

 

 

But then I thought about all of the camping my family did when I was a kid, and I knew that I could put this set to use with some old photos. 

 

 

I had my mom dig up some photos specific to Utah's National Parks, as we visited National Parks across the states for years, and she sent me these photos from a stop at Bryce Canyon. These photos were from 1983, so they're not the best quality to begin with - and then she scanned them to send to me. I knew they wouldn't print the best, so I decided to go with a digital layout. In my experience, I find that old photos tend to look a smidge better printed when they're worked into collage templates. 

 

 

I settled on an 8.5x11" two page spread, starting with a template from Kerri's Storyboard #4 kit for the right page. For the left page, I used a template from the Half Pints: Wander kit. While the Half Pint templates are 6x8" in size, I was able to easily crop one into an 8.5x11" size. I added my photos into the two templates, tweaking one of the photo openings on the first page to make it longer as I didn't want to crop too much out of the photo. 

 

 

I used the new Utah's Mighty Five digital stamp set to add my title along the top of the first page, as well as the arches, which I changed the color on to make it match the arches in my photos.

 

 

I used the Block Party digital stamp set to add the year, 1983, to the bottom of the first page, and used the PNG file from the Summer Vibes kit to add "summer" next to the year. Lastly, I used the And So The Adventure Begins kit to add a filler card to the center opening of the collage on the second page. 

 

This Is Our Happy Place

Hey all. I created this two page spread in my 6x8" personal album a few weeks ago, and I honestly have no clue why it's taken me so long to share it. There's kind of a funny story on how it even came about. 

Long story short. The house that we originally wanted and fell in love with last year, when we first decided to downsize, ended up back on the market a few weeks ago. I very randomly came across it just 2 days after it was listed. It's only about a mile from the house we ended up buying, and I think about it quite often. It's the one house that I have some regret over not getting (it was the one we put our first offer on, but we didn't get it), out of the main houses we were considering. And for a very hot minute, I was ready to put this house on the market and go after that first house. Lol. I know. It was crazy thinking on my part. 

I don't always create layouts about things like that, especially in that moment. But it crossed my mind that I should get that crazy story down, and that's how this layout came to be. I included the story about that other house, but I also focused on documenting the things that we truly love about this house. 

I dug through my files to find photos that I've taken around the house over the last year or so. I printed them as 2x2" photos and slipped them into a 6x8" divided page protector. 

I left three empty pockets on each side of the page protector, with plans to add small embellishments. I cut scraps of white cardstock to 2x2" and adhered an embellishment to each - using chipboard pieces and plastic houses, both from the Ali Edwards "Home" Story Kit. 

After picking out a coordinating house and chipboard piece for each side of the page, I was left with two more white 2x2" squares (1 for each side of the page) that needed a little something. I used the "Home" Story Stamp set to quickly add a stamped phrase to those two squares.

I used a digital journaling card from the Recorded Journaling Cards No. 3 kit, from In A Creative Bubble, to hold my journaling. The black filler card next to it is from the Home Story Kit. 

I used this fun "Happy Home" card, from In A Creative Bubble's Indoorsy Journaling Card kit, as my title card. While I print most of my journaling cards on matte presentation paper, I go back and forth between printing filler cards like this on that same paper - or on soft gloss photo paper. It usually just depends what else I'm printing, as I'll just add cards to the same page. 

I see lots of my favorite designers adding vellum into their album projects, and thought it would be fun to try it on this project. I used Kerri Bradford's This Is Our Happy Place kit to print the phrase on a piece of vellum, trimming it to the same size as my page protectors. I ended up using two black and white Project Life filler cards to create tabs, which I adhered to the vellum where the album rings fall. 

I was actually short a few photos, as I was aiming to get 9 photos on each side of the page protector. And I had a few parts of the house that I wanted to be sure to include. So I snapped a few quick photos to add to the ones that I had already printed. 

I created a large journaling card of sorts, sized to 6x8", adding a digital stamp to the top using Ali Edward's What Today Looked Like kit. I typed up my crazy story, editing it quite a bit as I went, because I can get very long-winded in my story telling ;)

I originally printed this page with just the journaling and title, but I felt like it needed something else. I was scrolling Instagram, and I saw someone had added a faint digital image behind their journaling, and it gave me the idea to add a house behind mine. I used a digital house from the Digital Home Story Kit, changing the opacity to make it a little lighter and let the journaling stand out. 

And there it is. I can look back on this crazy story now and laugh about it. And years from now, I'll have proof of how crazy my mind works sometimes - just by looking back at this layout.

Kerri Bradford Studio: Sarah + Dom

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. Kerri's new Me & You stamp set is perfect for documenting love, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to create a layout about my youngest daughter, Sarah, and her boyfriend of almost 3 years, Dom. 

I started by gathering any photos that I had of the two of them together, and used a storyboard template from the Picture That kit to create a photo collage of 12 of my favorites. 

I created the base of my page by piecing together my printed collage, a few patterned papers (from Dear Lizzy), and part of a die cut circle background that I made using my Silhouette Cameo and Kerri's Background Basics kit.

I added a few die cuts that coordinated with my patterned papers, along with adding my journaling strips along the top right corner of the page. 

I love the new Thick + Thin alphabet stamp set and knew it would be perfect for creating my title. I cut small strips of white cardstock and stamped each letter onto one of these strips using a navy blue ink, after which I dragged the edges of each strip along a pink ink pad so that they would stand out against the white background. I adhered these vertically along the left side of the page, tucking the bottom of each letter strip under the blue scalloped edged border. 

I pulled out a few tags from my supplies, as well as the sheet of black labels that I printed using Kerri's Label kit (I keep these sheets printed, as I love to use them for "housing" my stamped phrases), and stamped several phrases from the Me & You stamp set onto each tag/label.

I adhered them along the left edge of the page, adding a few navy blue enamel hearts for my final embellishing. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Christmas Day Trip

Happy New Year's everyone! I'm back with my first post of the year, sharing a project that I made for Kerri Bradford Studio. I've had these photos laying around for a little over a year now, taken on a little day trip that my family took the day after Christmas, back in 2018. 

While this wasn't technically a Christmas day trip, we took it the day after the holiday, while my sister was still in town - and the Christmas vibe was still found in the places we went. So I kept that Christmas theme going in my title and the patterned papers I picked out. 

I used one of my go-to page designs, arranging my 3x4 and 4x6 photos around the outside edges of the spread, and adding a white die cut background using Kerri's Background Basics kit across the center part of the spread.

I printed out a filler card to add alongside my journaling block, using the And So The Adventure Begins kit.

I'm loving Kerri's new stamps! Letters, numbers, days of the week, months, years - all of those little stamps are so versatile and I just love how you can arrange them together in different block configurations. Such a fun concept and the possibilities are endless!

I used the Printers Block | Letters stamp set for part of my title, stamping the letters onto cardstock and trimming each letter into an individual block. I then paired them up with my die cut "Christmas" word, taken from Kerri's December Twenty Five kit (no longer available). 

I then used the Block of Time stamp set to add the date to a white shipping tag, adding a piece of bakers twine to the top. 

I die cut a few stars from black cardstock (using the Christmas Calendar kit) to add some simple embellishing to the 3x4" pieces of patterned paper, adding a single button to the center of each star. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Merry + Bright

 

Happy December everyone! I hope you caught the 12 Days of Christmas celebration that was going on at Kerri Bradford Studio this month! I wanted to pop in and share the project that I created using a few of her daily freebies (that aren't free anymore, but you can purchase for just 99 cents in her store).

 

I have to admit, I don't do a ton of decorating when Christmas rolls around. I like to keep things fairly simple. I add a few decor pieces to my mantel, where I also hang the stockings up. I hang a wreath on the front door. I display a few simple decor pieces in the entrance, by the front door. And of course, I have a Christmas tree. I even added a second tree last year!

 

 

I guess my decorating style is sort of like my scrapbooking style these days - clean and fairly simple. I have really fallen in love with pocket pages, and not just for doing Project Life. I have several albums, in different sizes, where I create pocket pages on the regular. I love all of the fun new printable cards that Kerri's been designing, and decided to use her new Merrier cards to create a simple 6x12" pocket page spread to document some small glimpses into my holiday decorating. 

 

 

While I haven't actually finished putting my decorations up this year (why does it take me so long, when it's all SO simple?!?!), I pulled up a handful of photos that I had taken last year and printed them as 3x3's and a few 3x4's. I usually print my filler cards on presentation paper, but ended up adding the three Merrier cards in with my photos, so they're printed on photo paper.

 

 

I also printed a few cards, using The Nice List kit, printing those on presentation paper. Once I had played around with my photo/card placement, and settled on where they would all go, I ended up trimming a few of the filler cards to 3x3" squares to fit the smaller pockets on the right side of the spread. 

 

 

I pulled out Kerri's Looks Like Christmas stamp set to add a few stamped elements to my spread.

 

 

I used the larger "Merry + Bright" as my title, stamping it onto a white shipping tag. I used my finger to swipe a little bit of forest green paint around the edges of the tag, before adhering it to my 4x6" title card. I found this older, black corrugated paper in my stash and decided to use it for my 4x6 card, adding the red/white diagonal striped printable card, from The Nice List kit, along the left side. 

 

I love how easy this was to put together. And hopefully, when I get around to finishing my decorating, it will be just as easy to put together ;)

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: 5 Things

Hey everyone! I had a new Travelers Notebook sized layout go up at Kerri Bradford Studio yesterday. I just love that Kerri added the Outnumbered (Two) XL Outline stamps, to go along with the Outnumbered (Two) XL stamps that I am already a huge fan of. I have so many ideas in my creative mind that the large number stamps can be paired up with, that it took me forever to settle on one of those ideas for my next project. So many ideas, so little time, am I right ;)

I finally decided to document 5 things - just 5 simple things that I'm thankful for right now. I settled on a TN sized spread, which I will add into my Life Crafted TN sized album from Citrus Twist. I printed the one fall themed photo that I have (we don't get much of a "fall" season where I live) to use as the left side of my page, knowing that it had some empty space along the top where I could add a few design elements. 

I used Kerri's Labels kit to list my 5 things, pulling up the labels in Photoshop, and adding my short journaling tidbits to them. I also used a few digital stamps, from the new Wild digital stamp set and the new Happiness Captured digital stamp set, sizing them to fit within my labels. Once I printed the labels out, I trimmed them down and added them to both sides of the spread. 

I stamped my solid "5" in navy blue ink, and stamped the outline in black. I love the look of the outline being slightly offset, so it's not perfectly lined up on top of the solid number. I fussy cut my "5" out and adhered it along the top of my second page. I used the Chicago alpha stamps to stamp "things" using an olive green ink, and stamped the "thankful" above it using the Thankful stamp set. I finished the top part of the page by adding a few stamped ink blotches using the Inked stamp set. 

Kerri Bradford Studio + Color Cast: My Story TN Album

 

Hey everyone! I was so excited to hear that the Kerri Bradford Studio design team would be teaming up with the Color Cast design team, and I couldn't wait to play with some of their awesome products. Both teams are sharing projects all week long, and my completed project was up on Kerri's blog yesterday.

 

One of the items that I picked out was the gorgeous wood veneer "My Story" album cover. I tossed around a few ideas for what kind of album I wanted to create, while browsing thru Kerri's Travelers Templates kits.

 

 

I knew I wanted to include a collection of little stories in this album, so I looked for templates that had room for lots of journaling. When I came across a template in the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit that had room for a single photo, a good space for journaling, and had the option to add the months along the top, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

 

 

It's been almost a year since we sold our house and moved into a smaller home, along with closing up my home daycare business and starting a new job outside the home. There's been a lot of emotions along the way, as we all adjust to these changes and how they trickle into big and little parts of our lives.

 

 

I wanted to focus on a few of those changes/emotions that I personally have dealt with over the last 12 months. I went thru my photos for each month, picking out a single photo for each month that could tell a story. 

 

 

I started by creating all of my photo/journaling pages, using the Travelers Templates: Holiday Style kit. I added my photos, selected the correlating month, and typed up my journaling before printing all of them out on photo paper. 

 

 

Next, I picked out a few patterned papers to pair up with white cardstock to create the second half of my pages. I die cut several rose clusters from white cardstock, using Kerri's Roses kit, as I thought they would tie in nicely with the wood veneer album cover. I adhered these die cut roses to several of the pages, tucking them under the top of the patterned papers.

 

 

I laid out all of my pages in order, so that I could work on embellishing them all at the same time. I've always been a fan of the acrylic pieces from Color Cast, and had picked out the "view from here" piece and the "this feeling" piece, and luckily, they worked within the theme of this album perfectly.

 

 

I started with those 2 pieces, as they went to specific photos/stories. I love the wood veneer frames, as they're super thin (and I love that they have adhesive on them!), and picked out which pages I wanted those on next.

 

 

The ginormous acrylic stars are awesome, and I added those to several pages, adhering them to white shipping tags. 

 

 

My last step was to add some stamped phrases to several of the pages, using Kerri's stamps - Gather Together, Thankful, One Fine Day, Long Story Short, Oh Yeah (no longer available). 

 

 

I gathered several of her stamp sets, and searched for words/phrases that tied in with my stories, adding them to the centers of the wood veneer frames, as well as stamping them onto the black labels that I printed out using Kerri's Label kit. 

 

 

The last step was to assemble the album. I adhered my photo pages to the backsides of the patterned paper/cardstock pages, making sure they all fell in the right order. I punched holes along the left edge of each page, to line up with the holes on the wood veneer album cover. I used metal rings to hold it all together - they're a little bigger than I need, but the only other ones I had on hand were too small. 

 

 

I love how this album came together, and love that I took the time to document some of the feelings and changes that I've gone thru over the last year. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: One More Cuddle

 

Hey everyone! I've got a new 6x8" spread up at Kerri Bradford Studio. As soon as I saw Kerri's new Hey Kiddo stamp set, I knew that it would be perfect for so many photos and stories that I still have to document. Late last year, I closed up my home daycare business after 17 years. While my daycare kiddos have moved on and are spending their days with new daycare providers and new friends, I still have some stories that I want to get down from my time with them. 

 

But first up, I decided to get some current feelings down on a page, about how much I miss them. In all honesty, I don't miss the job itself. But I most definitely miss those cute little humans! I used the digital Hey Kiddo stamp set to create a 6x8" spread digitally in Photoshop and then printed it out to add into my album. 

 

 

I used an enlarged 6x8" photo for the left side of the spread, picking out one of my favorite photos that sums up the cuddles that I miss from all of those kiddos. I used the digital "cuddle" stamp for my title, along with the heart stamp, changing them both to white and adding a drop shadow to help them stand out a little more. I also lowered the opacity on the heart to make it a bit more subtle, as to not distract from the title. 

 

 

I created a large "journaling card" for the right side of my spread, starting with Kerri's Journaling Template, which I cropped to a 6x8" size. I added a black and white diagonal stripe border across the top, using the Simple Staples kit. Then I got to work on my journaling, keeping in mind some of the Hey Kiddos digital stamp words/phrases that I wanted to work into my journaling.

 

 

I love how easy it is to tweak digital elements to fit your needs - like how I added an extra "s" to the "cutest human ever" phrase to have it read "cutest humans ever" (because I watched a lot of little humans!). 

 

 

I changed the colors on my digital stamps so that the words would stand out more, pulling the green and burgundy from my photo.

 

 

Once I had everything done to my liking, I printed the left page (my enlarged photo) on photo paper, and the right page (my journaling) on textured cardstock. Once trimmed, I simply slipped them into my 6x8" album. So happy to have documented some current feelings that have been on my mind!

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Wild and Leafy Trees

Hey there! It's been a while since I've shared a layout, hasn't it? I had a new layout go up at Kerri Bradford Studio late last week and am finally getting around to sharing it here with you all today.

While I love physical stamps, I find that I tend to use digital stamps way more often in my projects. At first glance, I wasn't sure how I would use Kerri's new Homegrown and Plant Life stamp sets, as we're not big gardening people and we don't have many flowers in our yard and not a single plant in our house. But what we do have is lots of leaves! 

I was reminded of several photos I had taken shortly after moving into our new house last fall, and I knew I could incorporate some of the new stamps into a layout documenting our wild and leafy tree (and leafy neighborhood!).

I started this project with the intention of doing a 6x12" pocket page spread, so I set out to create 3x4" and 4x6" cards to slip into the pockets along with my photos. I eventually decided to turn it into a layout instead, which was so easy to do using these same cards. 

I created a title card by pairing up "wild", from the Plant Life digital stamp set, with "leafy trees", taken from a phrase in the Hello Summer digital stamp set. I used several printable cards from Kerri's older Hello November kit, so I matched the colors for my digital stamps with the colors on those printable cards using the color sampler tool in Photoshop. I added the diagonal striped border along the bottom of the card, by copying it from one of the 3x4" printable cards, and added a few leaves along the left side of the card using the Gather Together digital stamp set. 

I thought the tree stamp in the Hello Summer digital stamp set would tie in nicely with the theme of my page, so I added it to one of the printable cards (after I removed the phrase that was on the center of that card), sizing it to fit between the middle three striped rows.

I also tweaked the polka dotted printable card, so that I could fit a digital stamped phrase along the top of the card. I used the "how does your garden grow?" digital stamp from the Plant Life set, but took out the word "garden", and replaced it with 'leaf pile". 

I realize that this layout is so, so, so much like the last layout that I created for Kerri (seen HERE). What can I say? If it works, it works. And this style works for me ;)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Annual Family BBQ

 

Hey everyone! There's been a whole lot going on at Kerri Bradford Studio this past week, as we celebrated (inter) National Scrapbook Day! I had a layout go up yesterday, which was the last day of the celebration. Hopefully, you caught the sale she had going on and her new stamp release.

 

When I saw Kerri's new Hello Summer stamp set, I was immediately reminded of the photos from an annual family BBQ we had last summer that I've been meaning to create a layout with. While I love physical stamps, I find that I tend to use digital stamps way more often in my projects. So I started with the digital version of her Hello Summer stamp set, and pulled in bits and pieces from a few other digital stamp sets, a printable kit, and even some PNG files from her cut files to create a two page hybrid layout. 

 

 

I'm a huge fan of pocket pages. I'm also a huge fan of photo collages. Since I didn't want to create this as a pocket page layout (as it will go in my family album, which is all traditional layouts), but I had all of my photos printed as 3x4's and 4x6's, I decided to work them into a "collage" of sorts, using a grid design. I started by arranging all of the photos that I wanted to use, leaving a spot for a title card and two journaling cards. Once that was set up, I knew that I needed to create five 3x4" filler cards to complete the spread.

 

 

For my title card, I used the "BBQ heat up the grill" from the Hello Summer digital stamp set, and added "family" above it (from the Giving Thanks kit). I added the striped piece along the left side of the title card by copying and pasting a piece from one of the printable cards.

 

I also like to match the colors for my digital stamps with the colors on the printable cards, by using the color sampler tool in Photoshop. I just click on the color that I want on a printable image, and then grab the color code to use on whatever digital piece that I want to make that color. If that makes any sense. Lol. 

 

 

While I could have pulled out some patterned papers to help fill those empty spots, I knew that I could find just what I needed in Kerri's vast collection of kits! Her Simply Summer kit is filled with 3x4" printable cards that were the perfect match for my photos and the theme of the page.

 

I picked out five cards, printing two of them as-is, and tweaking the other three to add in some additional elements - adding digital stamps and a few words taken from Kerri's cut file kits (the PNG files are great for using digitally). The card above originally had "loving life" in the center of the circle, but I replaced it with "sunny days" from the Hello Summer digital kit. 

 

 

I created two journaling cards, as I wanted to add one to the first page of the spread and one to the second page of the spread. I added "july" using the About Time digital stamp set.

 

 

The printable card above originally had polka dots covering the entire card. I knew that I wanted to add a little something to it, so I deleted a few rows of dots in Photoshop, and added a few digital stamps. The label is from the Label Maker digital stamp set, and the "sunshine on my mind" is from the Hello Summer digital stamp set.

 

 

Total side note. I will never, never understand why I can print a bunch of 3x4's and 4x6's - and they do NOT fit perfectly on a 12x12 page. I end up with gaps, and often have to trim parts off that hang over the edge of the page. I really feel like they should magically fit together perfectly. Lol.

 

 

I left this printable card as-is, since it was perfect for my page. 

 

 

Another printable card that fit my page perfectly - nothing extra needed on this one.

 

 

This card actually had stripes from top to bottom, but I wanted to add some text to it. So I deleted several rows of stripes in Photoshop, which left me room at the top to play with. Both of these words were done using the PNG files from Kerri's cut files - "pool" is from the Summer Lovin' kit and "splash" is from the Summer Vibes kit. 

 

 

On my second journaling card, I added the "sun and fun" using the Away digital stamp set, and the year was just typed with a fun font. I love creating hybrid layouts like this - where I get to play digitally, printing my journaling cards and filler cards, and adding them right in with my photos on a traditional layout.

 

Scrapbooking Travels Album: CHA 2010

Hey everyone! I have done my fair share of traveling for scrap related things. I've attended CHA, a tradeshow for the scrapbooking and crafting industry, many times over the last 9 years. I've taught at Creating Keepsakes Conventions (CKC's) and Creating Keepsakes University (CKU's) many times over the years as well. I wasn't always great about taking photos, and often "borrowed" photos I would see others share from the events, but I knew it would be fun to put together a mini album of some kind for these photos. 

I started a 6x8" album for these photos years and years ago. I simply added the photos for each trip into the pocket pages, with the intention of someday adding more to the album. I finally got inspired to work on this album about two months ago, and got to work adding filler cards to the empty pockets. I quickly realized that the 6x8" size wasn't going to work how I wanted it too, so I switched everything over to a 6x12" album. 

I've worked on a few of the individual trips here and there, sort of randomly. But I finally took a little time a few weeks ago, and focused on getting my first CHA trip completed.

Since I started this project using a 6x8" album, I had a few 3x8" pages that I had already created and I didn't want to leave them out. They fit the rings of my album just fine, so I decided to add them right in. This first 3x8" insert acts as a title page of sorts for my 2010 CHA trip. 

Here's a look at the first spread, with the little 3x8" page on the left. 

 

For my journaling, I turned to my blog. This won't work for every trip, since I may or may not have blogged about each trip, and if I did, I may or may not have blogged enough details. But it worked for this trip.

I had plans to add my badge somewhere on my "title page", but I realized it fit perfectly in the pocket page. I had a piece of patterned paper there originally, so it was an easy swap.

Here's a look at the second spread, with a second 3x8" page on the right, as well as a 4x12" insert page.

If memory serves me right, the first Dear Lizzy collection came out at CHA 2010. I've always been a fan of Liz's collections, so I thought it would be fun to use one of her collections to document this trip.

I didn't use her first collection, but I did use one of earlier collections, Neapolitan. 

As this was my first trip to CHA, I had blogged all about it, with lots of details and stories. I'm sure I missed sharing some stuff - there's a few things that I know for sure I left out. But I had a pretty good recap to work with. 

Once I had all of my photos and filler cards added in, I knew what spaces I had left for journaling. I pulled parts of my journaling that I knew would pair up well with certain photos. To keep it simple, I copied and pasted my journaling into digital "cards" for whatever size pocket I was working with - 3x4", 4x6", or 4x4". I left room either at the top or bottom of the journaling cards so that I could add a little strip of patterned paper. 

This was one of the other 3x8" pages that I had put together for the original 6x8" album, so I went ahead and used it as well. 

Here's a look at the second spread, with the little 3x8" insert on the left. Once I had most of my journaling pockets filled in, I still had some extra journaling that I wanted to add. So I decided to add in a 4x12" page to hold that longer journaling.

On the backside of the 3x8" page, I added a 3x4" piece of patterned paper and a 3x4" journaling card. 

The Neapolitan collection has this sheet filled with little polaroid type images. I trimmed a bunch of those from the sheet, and added them to a lot of my 3x4" pieces of patterned paper. I used a lot of smaller stickers from the collection's sticker book as well.

I had printed my longer journaling in two parts - one for the front of the 4x12" page and one for the back. 

I added a 4x6" card from one of the patterned papers to the bottom of the 4x12" page, and added my journaling at the top.

Here's a look at the third spread, with the 4x12" page on the left.

The second part of my journaling ended up being smaller than I thought, so I trimmed it down and added some patterned papers above and below it.

I also used a ton of mini staples in this album! I love my Tiny Attacher and use it all the time to "finish" things off. 

I added this fun little sticker from the sticker book along the bottom of my orange patterned paper. 

I loved working with one set collection for this trip, as I really didn't have to second guess anything. Everything coordinated, and I had enough product on hand to add simple embellishments. 

My style has changed a lot over the years, and I don't always use many embellishments or things like stickers. This was a great way to use up some product that I love, but just never got around to using.

Here's a look at the fourth spread, with another 4x12" pocket page insert on the right.

Random tidbit. As I was working on copying and pasting all of my journaling, I size the font to what I thought looked like a good size. And a size that allowed all of my journaling to fit nicely on the cards. 

Once I printed all of it out, I realized my font seemed a little on the small side. Oops. If I had actually saved all of my working files, I would have gone back and used a larger font. But I didn't save them, and there was NO way I was going to copy and paste all of it again. Lol. Just means I need my glasses in order to read them ;)

I had several 4x4" photos, so I added in a 4x12" pocket page insert. This gave me pockets for my photos, a few filler cards, and some journaling cards.

Here's a look at the fourth spread, with the 4x12" pocket page insert on the left.

I'm pretty sure I left that space in between my paragraphs so that I could add something in the center. Since I added patterned paper strips along the top and bottom, I didn't want to make it too busy by adding anything else in the center. 

Love this little 4x6" card that I put together. A 4x6" pieces of patterned paper, the backside of a UPC strip from another patterned paper along the bottom, a cut out "polaroid" print from another sheet of patterned paper, and several stickers.

And finally, here's a look at the last page from this trip, which is on the left. What you see on the right is for the next few trips, which I will be working on next.

And yes, I realized after the fact that I had used this "smile" card twice. Once as a 4x4", and here as a 3x4". I thought about changing one to something different, but I liked how they looked in both spots.

It felt so good to get this trip documented and finished up. I've already printed out all of my journaling for the 2012 trip, and have started adding in filler cards for a separate trip. I'll have to make time to work on this album again soon :)

Updated Look: 2016 / 2017 Shows

Hey all. I recently shared a new digital project with you, documenting my 2017 / 2018 TV shows (post HERE) in a 6x8" album. I had mentioned that I was already planning on adding my 2016 / 2017 collages to this album as well. I had documented my shows from that year in a travelers notebook (post HERE). 

I had already re-printed my 2016 / 2017 collages last year, as I was going to switch them into a new travelers notebook (the one that I originally used was a cheap one I got off Amazon). I realized that I could easily work them onto 6x8" pages, and fit them into the same album along with my 2017 / 2018 pages. I love the idea of keeping these pages all together and adding to it each year. 

All of my collages for this project were created using templates from both the Travelers Templates and Travelers Templates #2 kits from Kerri Bradford Studio.

I started by cutting sheets of white cardstock to build my pages on. I adhered the photo collages along the right side of each page, and then added a piece of patterned paper along the left side. I was able to dig up the same papers that I had used in the original project, which gave me one less thing to spend my time debating on. 

I also used the same 3x4" ruled Project Life cards to add the day of the week, using Kerri Bradford's A Big Day stamp set. I trimmed down each card and adhered them along the side of the page, tucking the bottom edge under the photo collages. 

This was such an easy project to finish up, and I love that these pages are all together in one album. I can't wait to work on my 2018 / 2019 shows!

Jillibean Soup: Wooden Spoon Survivor

Happy Monday! It's been so fun designing for Jillibean Soup this past year, and today I'm sharing my last official design team layout that I created for them. I do still have one more Jillibean card to share, and will share that later this week. 

When I first joined the Jillibean design team, I was browsing their Silhouette store and came across this fun cut file - "Wooden Spoon Survivor" - and I just knew that I had to use it on a layout. After all, I am totally a wooden spoon survivor, having grown up in the 70's, when that sort of thing was super common.

I even went so far as to plan out the page in the Silhouette software. That was almost a year ago, and I just never got around to actually making the layout. So I made sure to fit it into my last set of layouts for them. 

I actually didn't have a specific photo in mind for this story until I finally sat down to make it. I was originally going to do a photo-less layout in fact. But since the main part of the story that I wanted to tell had to do with something that happened at school, when I was in the first grade - I thought my first grade school photo would be a great choice. 

Shhhhhh. This is actually my second grade school photo. I didn't have an extra copy of my first grade photo, but I did have one of my second grade photo. Close enough, right ;)

I went thru my Jillibean patterned papers and picked out a handful that coordinated with the colors in my photo. I was wearing a Holly Hobby dress that my mom had made me, and I thought it would be fun to mimic the patchwork design on my dress in the design of the page. So I used small pieces of each patterned paper and arranged them around the border of the page. 

I adhered a piece of white cardstock in the center of the page, large enough to hold my photo and title, with room to add my journaling across the bottom. 

"My name is Laura and I’m a wooden spoon survivor. I’m also a wooden paddle survivor. Yep, you read that right. Here’s the thing. I grew up in the 70’s, and I’m pretty sure that having your parents take a wooden spoon to your behind every now and then was pretty normal. I’d like to think I was a fairly good kid, but I still had my fair share of “swats” with the wooden spoon from the kitchen. Once, the spoon even broke on my tush! Lol. But I’m not sure how normal it was to receive a swat at school. I went to a private, Christian school, for all thirteen years of my education. And it just so happens that this school allowed for “paddling”, when deemed necessary by the school. Now, I was an extremely shy child growing up. I didn’t talk to anyone, with the exception of my friends. I was quiet as a mouse, didn’t talk in class, and sometimes, I wouldn’t even talk when spoken to by my teachers.

When I was in the first grade, my class was going on a field trip, but I forgot my permission slip. So I was sent to the office, where they asked me for my parent’s phone number. Except I didn’t talk to people, so I wasn’t about to speak up and tell them my phone number. I’d like to think, that in my mind, they had to know my phone number, since it had to be in my file. Why did they need to hear it from me? Next thing I knew, I was being sent to the principal’s office, where I also refused to give out my phone number. That’s when he decided that I deserved a swat, with the wooden paddle that hung on his wall. I can still remember having to tell my parents about it that night, and having them sign the paper I brought home saying I had received a swat. I mean, look at my sweet, innocent little first grade face. I guess it was different times that I grew up in, that they thought they needed to punish a little child for simply not talking."

And with that, I finally have my first grade, swat with a paddle story in the books. Lol. It's one of the few school memories that has stuck with me all these years, so it was nice to get it down on paper.

Digital Project Share: 2017 / 2018 Shows

Hey everyone! I'm back to share a project that has been on my mental to-do list for well over a year. About two years ago, I created a travelers notebook projects, documenting my favorite TV shows from the 2016 / 2017 season (seen HERE). And about four years ago, I created a 6x8" pocket page spread documenting a handful of my favorite TV shows from the 2014 / 2015 season (seen HERE). 

Being a self-proclaimed TV junkie, I love the idea of documenting my favorite shows every year. While I loved the two previous projects that I've made, I really wanted to settle on a format that I could easily add to each year going forward. I tossed several ideas around. Did I want to keep going with the travelers notebook, knowing that I would be able to fit two years into each notebook? And just have a stack of notebooks that I could keep together in a basket or box? Or did I want to go with a 6x8" album, or maybe a 6x12" album? 

After much back and forth with myself (tell me I'm not the only one that talks things out with herself?), I finally settled on a 6x8" album. I knew that I wanted to create my pages digitally, so the first thing I had to decide on was what templates I would be using. I have a pretty big collection of digital templates, in a variety of sizes. I narrowed down my search to the 6x8" kits I had, and finally settled on a few template kits from Cathy Zielske - specifically her Six By Eight kits.

Her Six By Eights No. 06 kit was what really made up my mind, since the templates had the days of the week, which fit this project perfectly. I loved the format I used when I broke down my shows by what days they were on. So my plan was to use the template with the day of the week on the left side of the spread, and then to use a second template for the right side of the spread. Between all of the Six By Eight kits that I have, there were plenty of options, depending on how many photos I needed to include. 

I started this project the same way I started it the last time. By making a list of my shows, and which day they usually air. Now, this is documenting my 2017 / 2018 shows. Luckily, I made my list last year, as I knew this was a project I would get to at some point. But I will say it is SO much easier to make this list during the year, while your shows are on - as opposed to waiting and trying to go back and figure out what shows you watched (as we all know shows have a way of disappearing).

I even went into my DVR at one point, to check out my massive list of shows I record, to make sure I didn't miss any. When I did this project the last time, using the travelers notebook, I was limited in how many images/shows I could include for each day. So I had actually left out quite a few of my regular shows. This time around, I managed to include every single show that was on my regular "must see tv" schedule. 

On a few of the collages, I actually combined a few spaces in the templates to fit my photo needs. Like on the right page of my Tuesday spread. It had 12 squares, but I only needed 10 spaces. So I combined two squares to make a longer photo and then repeated it on another row as well.  

Once I had my list in front of me, I went looking for my images. Just as I did two years ago, I found all of my images using Google photos. For the most part, I just searched the name of the show, along with "cast", "logo", or "poster". I actually still had all of the images that I had used two years ago, so I added those into my folders as well. But I made an effort to find updated images, and at some point, I realized that adding in the year (for this, I added 2017) would often give me options that actually fit the show's season better. 

I downloaded several images for every show on my list, knowing that some images might be too small to use or may not be the right orientation once I started creating my collages. While I knew that the majority of my images would be squares, I also had some horizontal and vertical spots within the templates. It was easier to just download a ton of options while I was doing my search, than to have to go back and do a second search if the choices I had didn't work. 

I created a folder on my computer for each day of the week. Excluding Saturday, because that's the one day of the week when I don't have any set shows on. Once I had images for every show on my list, I counted how many shows I had to work with for each day, and then picked the templates to fit the number of shows. Then I would open up my two templates for the day I wanted to work on, and start plugging images in, moving them around as needed until I liked the way they were laid out. 

8

Thursday is a BIG night for shows. I feel like it always has been. Lol. I have a TON of shows on Thursdays. Since I didn't want to leave any shows out, I decided to add two 3x8" collages as well, adding a 3x8" page protector in between the two sides of the spread.

To create these smaller collages, I used the 3x8 Everyday Layered Photo Templates kit by In A Creative Bubble. I was able to include 3 additional photos on each collage, which meant I included 6 additional shows by adding in the 3x8" insert. 

The final step was to add some digital patterned papers to the leftover spaces within the templates. The larger area on the left page, under the day of the week, was meant for journaling. I could have easily used that space for an additional photo/show, but I didn't even think about that until I was done adding in all of my images. But I loved the idea of adding in a touch of patterned paper. I also had a few days where I had an empty space on the right page of the spread (like on the Friday page above), so I added some digital patterned paper there as well. 

I printed all of my collages on my photo printer, trimmed them, and slipped them into a 6x8" album. And I love the end result! I'm actually going to be adding my 2016 / 2017 collages to this album as well. I had already re-printed my collages last year, as I was going to switch them into a new travelers notebook (the one that I originally used was a cheap one I got off Amazon). I realized that I could easily work them onto 6x8" pages, and fit them into this same album. Since I really want to keep these all together and add to it each year. 

And I already have my list of shows written out for the 2018 / 2019 season. I'm not quite ready to start that just yet, as there are still some of my regular shows that haven't even started yet this season (why do some start so late now?), and there are new ones just coming on that I know I'm going to love as well. But having the list handy, and being able to add to it as needed, gives me a great head start for when I am ready to complete my pages for this awesome TV season ;)

Jillibean Soup: Love Me Some Cookbooks

Hey everyone! I had a new layout go up at Jillibean Soup a week or so ago, and wanted to share it with you all here today. I had taken photos of two new cookbooks recently, thinking I would share them on Instagram at some point or something. When I was brainstorming ideas for my layouts last month, I realized I could do a layout about my latest favorite cookbooks. 

I had actually started designing a layout idea within my Silhouette software a while back, using a Jillibean Soup poloroid cut file (Typepad is telling me I'm spelling "poloriod" wrong, but that's how it's spelled on their cut file ;)). I had sized six poloriods, in two rows of three, so that I could frame six photos. I never did create the layout that the original idea was for, but knew that it would work great for this layout. 

I printed my photos so that they would fit behind the cut out window in the die cut poloriod. However, I had the photos laying on top of the die cut frames as I was figuring things out and moving things around, and at some point, I realized I like how the photos looked with the white borders showing. So I ended up adhering them on top of the opening. So it actually just looks like I adhered the photos to pieces of patterned paper, which wouldn't have involved my Silhouette at all. Lol.

For my title, I used one of Jillibean's alphabet cut files to die cut the word "cookbooks" from a navy blue patterned paper. I also die cut the fun "love" cut file from a reddish patterned paper, and used it, along with some tiny alpha stickers, to complete my title. 

I used a mix of patterned papers from several different collections, as I was coordinating my colors with the colors in the photos. 

Since I had five photos, I used the sixth frame to hold my journaling. Which is super short and sweet. Lol. I thought the book die cut went nicely with the theme of the layout, so I added that as well. 

I wanted to keep the majority of my background white, but didn't want it solid white cardstock. So I went with my favorite white-on-white technique, by die cutting a heart background from white cardstock and adhering it to my white cardstock background. 

To embellish my page, I added some coordinating flower die cuts, stickers, die cut words, and enamel dots to the individual frames. Definitely on the simpler side, but totally my kind of embellishing. 

Christmas Movies: A Pocket Page Spread

Hey everyone. I don't know about you all, but I'm a huge fan of Christmas movies. Specifically, Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. They're a tradition of mine, and I watch them non-stop during the holidays. 

This past holiday season, Hallmark Channel came out with 22 brand new Christmas movies. They even came out with an app to keep track of them, and check them off as you watched them. Since this made it much easier to remember what movies I was watching (since admittedly, they do all sort of run together after a while), I thought it would be fun to document the movies that I watched for the 2018 holiday season. 

This 6x8 spread is specifically about the Hallmark Channel movies. I also watched a ton of new Christmas movies on Lifetime Channel, and I am planning on doing a second spread about those ;)

I turned to Google to search for images for all of the movies that I watched. I printed them all as 2x2" photos, and I also found some fun little quotes to go along with them, since I knew I would have a few empty pockets to fill. 

I have images for 19 of the movies, but I watched 20 out of the 22 new movies. There was one movie that, no matter how much searching I did, I could not find an image for. It actually looked like it was an older movie, that was being promoted as a new movie. I finally just gave up on that one. And there was one movie I totally missed - and one that just didn't look interesting to me, so I skipped it.

I created a 6x8 page, to go alongside the pocket page. I used a few cut files from Kerri Bradford Studio for my title, as well as a circle background for the top of the page.

I added in some incredibly old patterned papers from Making Memories that I had in my "Christmas" box of supplies, and added my typed journaling as well. 

I had saved the Countdown to Christmas movie schedule that the Hallmark Channel had put out, and printed it as a 6x8 photo to include as well. I guess I should go back and actually check off the movies that I watched, shouldn't I? 

It only slightly bothers me that some of these photos aren't a true 2x2" square. I had put 6 2x2" onto a 4x6" to have printed with my photo order, and of course, the pics don't always come back a true 4x6". So on some of these, you can see where the photo behind it is slightly larger. 

This layout should come in handy next year, when all of the Christmas movies start up. I can't tell you how many times I will sit and watch a movie, thinking that I have probably seen it - but I'll watch it anyways, just to be sure. Now I can just pull this out and cross reference what I've seen ;)

Jillibean Soup: Hello Job Hunt

Hey all. I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog earlier this month, using the Garden Harvest collection. I was feeling the need to do a photo collage. I'm not sure if I've used many collages lately (I'd have to go back and check), but with as much as I love them, I should use them more often. So I started by coming up with something to create a collage about.

I wanted to document my recent job search in some way, so I pulled together some photos that I had taken during the process that I thought could help tell a little bit of the story. Job hunting was harder than I thought it would be - and yet at the same time, I knew it wouldn't be all that easy, having been self employed for 17 years. 

A few of the photos were simple Snapchat photos that I had sent to the girls. And while there are two Starbucks related photos on there, there are actually job hunting stories that go with them. So they are relevant ;) I used a Storyboard template from Kerri Bradford to create my collage, and started building my layout around it.

For my title, I used one of Jillibean Soup's alphabet cut files to die cut my "job hunt" from patterned paper, and then added a black foam sticker "hello" above it. I also used one of their background cut files on the top part of my layout, to create my favorite white-on-white look.

I really wanted to use the purple patterned paper in the Garden Harvest collection, and paired it with the navy blue based floral patterned paper along the sides of the page.

I fussy cut a ton of flowers from one of the floral patterned papers (that I've also been sharing on a few cards), and arranged several flowers in the upper left corner and bottom right corner of the page. 

I have more than I'd love to document about my job search at some point. More of the details that didn't quite make it into this smaller amount of journaling. Lol. But it feels good to get a little bit of the story down and in my album. 

Movies: A Layout Share

Hey everyone! Last week I had a few days off work in a row, and got into some weird creative zone, where I was finishing up half done projects, while also working on new projects. When I get inspired like that, I tend to just go with it. Because it doesn't come all that easy at times. Or I get busy with work and life stuff, and don't have the same kind of interrupted time where I want to work on projects. 

Anyways. This is one of those half done projects that I worked on. I'm not even sure I could say it was half done. Let's just say it was partially started ;)

A few years ago, when Alyssa was about to start her second year of college, we switched the girls rooms at the old house. During the switching process, Alyssa had cleaned out a ton of stuff that she had collected over the years. She's good about giving me things that she thinks I would want to keep, as a scrapbooker and documenter. 

One of the things she gave me was a bag filled with movie ticket stubs that she had saved up over the years. My very first thought was that I wanted to make a layout with them. 

I started out by sorting the ticket stubs out by dates, making piles for each year that she had tickets for. There were a few duplicates in the mix, so I threw those away. I decided I would adhere them to a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock, layering them over each other here and there. I started on the left side of the page, and adhered a row from top to bottom. Then I started on the second row, then the third row, etc. 

I knew that I wanted to add my title along the right side of the page, and I ended up with plenty of room once all of the ticket stubs were adhered in place. 

I immediately thought of this fun "movies" cut file from Kerri Bradford Studio for my title. It is actually a part of Kerri's The History Project class, and is included in the massive amount of cut files that come with the class. I die cut it from black cardstock and adhered it along the right side of the page. 

The ticket stubs had touches of red and a little blue in them, so I added a strip of red patterned paper and a blue scalloped border sticker. I very randomly pulled out this plastic 12" border piece, which has circles going down the center. It was a part of a super, duper old monthly kit by Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Such an old, old, old product. But I love using older stuff. I've purged my supplies SO many times over the years, and if I'm still holding onto something that is THIS old, it's because I really did love it and can still see myself using it. So I'm glad I came across the bin of these plastic pieces (along with foam pieces!), because I may need to use them more often now ;)

I didn't really have a plan going into this for journaling, but I knew that I needed to include a little something somewhere on the page. I typed this up and printed it out, thinking I was going to adhere it on top of the ticket stubs. But then I decided to just adhere it sideways, on top of the plastic strip. I love when I stop overthinking things and just go with things. It took me no time at all to finish up this layout and that makes me happy!

Jillibean Soup: Smile & Be Awesome

Hey all. I've got a new layout to share that was up on the Jillibean Soup blog last week. I've been meaning to scrap these funny photos of Sarah for years. In fact, I even printed out this photo collage about 7 months ago, as I was going to use it for one of my Jillibean layouts at the time. But then I ended up going in a different direction. 

Which in a way, was a good thing. Since the patterned papers I used on this layout fit SO much better than the ones I had originally pulled out. 

Even when I started this layout, using the new set of patterned papers I picked out, I struggled to come up with a design that I loved. I finally realized that I was trying to use TOO much patterned paper. There are times when I can let my entire background be about patterned paper, but more often then not, I need a place for the eye to rest - I need that white space that I love so much. 

So I started over, and re-worked the patterned paper placements, so that I could have plenty of white cardstock showing. I'm not one to go with a plain white cardstock background, so I die cut one of my favorite background cut files from white cardstock and layered it over the top of the page. 

I searched thru my Jillibean Soup cut files, looking for something that I could use for my title. I love this tall and skinny "awesome", and knew that I could turn it into a title, by adding a few additional words. 

I pulled out the "smile" die cut from one of the Pea Pod Parts packages, and added a few small alpha stickers to complete my title. 

I wanted my journaling strips to stand out a bit more against the dotted patterned paper, and for whatever reason, vellum popped into my head. I remembered that I had these pieces of vellum (that I had run thru a dotted embossing folder) left over from doing the girl's high school graduation announcements. So I pulled out three of them, and arranged them across the page, adding a little machine stitching here and there. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Entertaining With Snapchat

Hey everyone. I've got a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio. So, I'm really not a fan of being in photos. And yet, I apparently seem to have no issues taking Snapchat selfies. Especially when I take them with adorable kiddos! Lol. I used to entertain the daycare kiddos with funny Snapchat filters at least once a day, so I've accumulated a lot of photos over the last few years. I decided to pull out some of my favorites and put together a two page spread. 

I printed 14 photos as 3x3" squares, and arranged them around the outside edges of my two page spread along with some 3x3" squares of patterned paper.

I printed my photos in black and white, since there were so many colors happening in them. I love that this allows me to use any paper colors that I want. 

I die cut a circle background from white cardstock, using Kerri's Background Basics kit, cut it in half lengthwise, and adhered the two pieces across the center of both pages. 

I didn't really have any patterned papers in mind when I started this. Not sure how it happened, but I turned towards my patterned papers, and immediately thought about the You Are Loved collection from Bella Blvd & Illustrated Faith, that my good friend Stephanie Buice designed. I never did take the time to use her gorgeous paper designs, and thought this was the perfect time to dig into them. 

I printed out Kerri's "Living Our Best Life" (from the Living Our Best Life kit) on white cardstock, as I wanted a 3x4" filler-type card to go side by side with my journaling card, which I also sized to 3x4". The metal rimmed tags are super old, both from American Crafts and Making Memories.

I had also printed the "Love This" (from the Click kit) circle on white cardstock, so I wanted to have a few additional circles to embellish the page. I arranged them on the left page of the spread, to fill in the empty space.  

This two page design is one that I use quite often. Arranging photos/papers around the outside edges, whether 3x3" in size or 3x4" in size, and then using the space in the center to add my title, journaling, etc. 

I love using the Weathered Door Alpha [All] kit for titles. It's a great choice for words that you may not be able to find specific cut files for, and I just love the chunky font with the option to die cut the outline of each letter as well. I pulled the "entertaining" from the Happy Stuff kit, and paired it with my die cut "snapchat" to complete my title. 

Well, I guess I also added some tiny alpha stickers for the "with" part of my title - so that completed my title ;)

I also added machine stitching around the outside edges of each 3x3" square of patterned paper. I did this before adhering them to my pages, and then machine stitched down the strips of striped patterned paper once the layout was assembled. 

These photos just make me smile. I realize the kiddos may not look all that thrilled in so many of the photos. But trust me, they loved doing them with me.

Seeing as how I actually started this layout last summer (all I had done was adhere my photos to white cardstock), I'm so glad I came across it and took the time to finish it.

Project Life 2018: Week Twenty Four

Hey all. Just popping in to quickly share another week in my 2018 Project Life album. Here's a look at week twenty four.

This week fell in the middle of June and it also happened to be my birthday week. Not that I celebrate my birthday for a full week, because I don't. Lol. We have too many June birthdays to claim a whole week as my own ;)

I've really been making the filler cards that I've had printed from the Project Life app work. I've printed quite a few of these cards, but at the same time, I don't have a huge assortment to choose from. Most weeks, I pick three of these cards to include, and I haven't had to turn to any other cards in my stash so far. 

Still including lots of Alyssa's Snapchat photos in my album too. I screenshot just about every Snapchat she sends me. There's a lot that I don't end up using, but I love having them when needed to fill in weeks with less photos, or if they're fun peeks into her life.

I like to add the info for my weekly title cards every now and then, since I get asked about them a lot. I used the Pocket Guide No.4 kit from Paislee Press. I created each week's card in Photoshop, using the template from the kit - switching out the week number and adding the dates for each week. 

I was on such a roll, typing up tons of journaling cards about two weeks ago, and then I had to stop to work on some assignments that were due. I need to get back to my album again for sure.

I also got all of my January photos last night, so I'll be coming up with a plan for this year's album. I have a few things that I know I want to simplify. Which might sound crazy, since my album is pretty simple when you get right down to it! 

Favorite Jeans: A Pocket Page Spread

Hey everyone. I was going to share another Project Life spread with you today, but then I very randomly finished up this pocket page spread yesterday and thought I'd share that first. 

So, way back when, I had started some 6x12" pocket page spreads for my personal album. I had a lot of different ideas started, with photos slipped in the pockets and ready to go. And then I put off finishing them. Last year, around March/April, I actually finished up several of those spreads and shared them. But this is one that I never did finish. 

I had the idea to do a spread about my favorite jeans. When I realize that I have a variety of photos that can be used to tell a story, and that's what happened here. I came across photos that I thought could tell a fun story about my favorite jeans. I printed my photos, doing one main photo as a 6x6" photo and the rest as 3x3" photos. 

It wasn't until yesterday, when I decided to finally finish this spread, that I added the fun Doodlebug alpha stickers to spell out "jeans", and then added an acrylic heart embellishment (old Making Memories product) below. 

Earlier last year, when I finished up a bunch of other 6x12" pocket page spreads, I had taken the time to print out some journaling cards. I used a 3x4" card that had ruled lines on it, and just cropped it to 3x3". 

Random photo tidbit: I had shared this photo on Instagram at some point, and I believe I was pretty proud of myself for finally sewing a button onto my jeans to replace the one that fell off. I'm pretty sure I had been using a safety pin for quite a while. And it wasn't until I was done sewing the button on that I realized it was more purple than blue. Lol.

I had also printed out a few filler cards, at the same time that I did the journaling cards. There's a chance I may have just trimmed down a 3x4" physical PL card, but I want to say I printed these from digital cards.

Random photo tidbit: This photo shows some of the repairs that my mom frequently did to my favorite jeans. I was constantly getting tears in the same spots. The inside thigh part of the jeans, near the crotch. I always figured it was because I spent so much time on the floor with the daycare kids, and there was always so much getting up and getting down. I could always feel the jeans pulling there, so it would make sense that they liked to tear there. I also did a ton of climbing over the baby gates, to get to the bathroom (so much easier than constantly opening the latch on it to move it), and since I'm not exactly tall, my jeans rubbed on the gate as I climbed over. They may not have looked great all patched up, but like I said, I loved those jeans! 

Random photo tidbit: Also, because I'm not that tall, I usually had to cuff my jeans. Occasionally, I could find the "short" versions of my favorite jeans, but even then, I had to cuff them a little bit. And since the bottoms would often touch the ground ever so slightly (especially when I wore flip flops, which I do the majority of the year), I would start to get tears where they were cuffed. I'm also pretty sure that one leg is a tad bit shorter than the other, which would explain why my jeans often looked like this on one leg. 

I left a little room at the top of the journaling cards, knowing that I was going to add a piece of washi tape across the top. If the washi tape that I wanted to use was too wide, I simple folded the washi tape over the back of the card.

Random photo tidbit: I love a good boot cut jean, and since they were usually too long for me, I actually did wear them with boots. I had these two pairs of chunky boots, one in brown and one in black, that I've had for years. I liked them because I always felt that they went good with the boot cut jeans. They were so beat up, and had seen better days for sure. Didn't help they were cheap boots from Target that I had had for years. But I could never find another pair that I liked as much with the boot cut jeans, so I kept wearing them.  

Other than the alpha stickers and the acrylic heart piece that I added to my 6x6" photo, the only thing I actually had left to do on this spread was this top pocket. I had saved one of the tags from a pair of jeans years ago, knowing that I could use it on a project at some point. So I forced myself to finally finish things up yesterday, without over-thinking things. 

I cut a 6x6" piece of white cardstock, and pulled out a partial die cut background piece that I had laying around from another project. Luckily, the background piece was just a little over 6" wide, so I was able to trim off the sides and adhere it to my white cardstock. I pulled out some navy blue chipboard letters to spell out "favorite", and after peeling off a few layers of the chipboard (to keep things less bulky), I adhered them down the left side of the "filler card" (the 6x6" piece). I added my tag, along with a scalloped border. 

So nice to get this one finished, after what probably ended up being a two year long start-to-finish time. Lol.

Project Life 2018: Week Twenty Three

Hey everyone. I have a few more completed weeks in my 2018 Project Life album that I thought I would toss up here this week, starting with a quick look at week twenty three.

I'll have to show you soon what I came up with for my weekly title cards for 2019. I just wasn't finding any new weekly title card options out there. At least, not any that I loved. So I decided to create my own. I guess I could have easily printed them myself, but I added them to my last photo order, so they'll be here in a few days. 

Most of my weekly spreads are pretty straight forward. I have a good system going, in terms of where my photos go, where my journaling cards go, and where my filler cards go. And for the most part, I don't stray from that set up much. It works. And even though I fell super behind last year, it's been easy to play catch up, because my system is so simple. 

While I don't always have great 4x6" photos (or photos worthy of being cropped to 4x6", I can always count on Alyssa to have tons of awesome 4x6" photos. She really comes thru with photos for me every month!

Our Snapchat selfie that we took, right before she headed home after a short visit, had a sunny glow to it. And it ended up tying in nicely with the photo she sent me while out with friends (the pic on the right). 

So I went with the orange and brown colors for my filler cards, even working in this "you're a real peach" filler card because I thought it was so cute. And I'm sure that Sarah would say that Dom is a real peach. Lol. 

I'm hoping to have a new layout to share one day this week as well, but I will for sure be sharing some more of my PL spreads too ;)

Project Life 2018: Week Twenty

Hey all! I'm going to backtrack and share week twenty in my 2018 Project Life album today. I had skipped this week, as I still needed a little info from the girls for a few photos. I managed to finish things up yesterday, along with a few additional weeks. 

Here's a look at the first half of my weekly spread, with the 6x12" insert on the right. 

Still continuing with using filler cards printed from the Project Life app. I recently picked up a few more kits within the app, so I went thru and picked out another batch of cards that I can see myself using in my album. They'll be added to the photo order I should be getting in by tonight.

The journaling card here goes to the photo below it (see below). I normally add the journaling card next to that bottom photo, but since the insert on the right didn't have room for filler cards, and I didn't have anything to say about my Snapchat photo, I switched up my normal way of laying things out. 

I think I mentioned this the last time I had a photo of these crazies, but I really do miss them so much! 

I had to document the royal wedding! I either took a screenshot of this photo or downloaded it online. I loved this shot and knew that it was perfect for adding to my album. 

I also came across this watercolor image on Instagram, and thought it was gorgeous. For the life of me, I can't remember where I found it, or who I should give credit too. 

It might be weird to have a photo of an online's friend's son in my album, but I thought it was worth documenting. I've known Shauntee for years and years, and we've seen in each in real life numerous times. One of her son's is serving his mission super close to me (he was in the next city, but got moved a few times - still close by though), and she gave him my address so he could stop by and visit. I was able to send her some photos of her boy, which I know she appreciated.

Here's a look at the second half of my weekly spread, with the 6x12" insert on the left.

I included this screenshot that Alyssa had taken of their step and miles on a trip to San Francisco. That's an insane amount of walking that they did!

I usually wouldn't include as many photos as I did in a weekly spread for just one day/event/memory. But I had the space, so I just went with a good mix of pics from that day. There were a few that I didn't want to leave out, which then allowed me room for a few extras.

I kept looking at this photo and trying to figure out where it was taken. I'm actually just now remembering, as I type this up. I had taken Sarah's car out for a drive that day, while they were in SF, when I went to run a few errands. But then she texted me late at night, and asked me to go put gas in her car. 

Love my cute girls! 

I don't know about you, but that mac and cheese looks soooooo good! 

I loved getting this Snapchat photo from the girls while they were at the game. See Alyssa's dad's phone? I had posted that Snapchat selfie that day, and they pulled it up and took a photo of themselves with "me". 

Project Life 2018: Week Twenty Two

Hey everyone. I have one more completed week in my 2018 Project Life album to share with you today. Here's week twenty two, which was the end of May/beginning of June. 

That photo up there on the right reminds me that I need to pull out my Week In The Life album and see if it's something that I can spend some time working on. I believe WITL fell during week nineteen, which is why I skipped that week in my PL album for the time being. I need to pull out some photos from my WITL project to add into that week's spread in my PL album. 

I got pretty colorful this week with my filler cards, but the blue/green/yellow combo worked with my photos. 

I really enjoy using my In A Creative Bubble journaling cards, but if I'm being honest, I don't like that I have to add my text one line at a time - meaning lots of layers within Photoshop for each of these cards. This is why I love cards where you can just type away, and it formats it on it's own, keeping the text on the lines and spaced out perfectly.

I will be doing my January photo order at the end of this week, and I also need to decide on my weekly title cards for this year's album. Tossing around two ideas, so I'll let you know what I settle on. 

Guess there's not too much to point out on this week's spread. Pretty straight forward and simple.

How cute is the little couch digital stamp? Both the couch and the "invest in rest" are from digital stamp kits from In A Creative Bubble. I do love using this simple lined journaling card once a week in my spreads, which allow me to have fun adding a little something to the top of the card that fits with the photo/story. 

I had to take a little break from working on my PL album last week, in order to get some assignments done. But I'm back to working on journaling cards this week and hope to get some more weeks completed soon.