... just Laura

Sunny Studio Stamps: Hello Old Age

This week, I'm quickly sharing all of the projects that I created for Sunny Studio Stamps for National Scrapbook Day, all of which are focusing on their awesome standalone dies. 

For this travelors notebook sized spread (pages are 4"x8.25"), I started by using the Sunny Semi-Circle dies on several different patterned papers, as well as white cardstock. My original plan for these pieces didn't work like I had hoped, so I played around with a few other options and was happy with their final placement. 

I die cut the Hello Word die multiple times from green patterned paper and layered them together to create a thicker "hello" word, adding some pink alpha stickers to complete my title. I used the Lots of Dots embossing folder on white cardstock to add texture to the piece behind my title.

I'm a huge fan of using white cardstock in my projects and always love to add texture and interest using embossing folders, as well as light ink splatters.

I used the Notebook Tab dies on green patterned paper (coordinates with the paper I used for my title) to create a notebook page to hold my journaling block and added a die-cut tab along the top, which holds the date. I also used the Notebook Photo Corner dies to add photo corners to the full photo that makes up the second page of the spread.

(Sunny Semi-Circle Dies, Hello Word Die, Notebook Photo Corner Dies, Notebook Tabs Dies, Ribbon & Lace Border Dies, Dots & Stripes Jewel Tones Paper, Polka-dot Parade Paper, Heroic Halftones Paper, Lots Of Dots Embossing)

 

Sunny Studio Stamps: Where You'll Find Me

Hey everyone! I'm coming out of the woodworks to share some scrapbooking inspriation on National Scrapbook Day! I've been working behind the scenes for Sunny Studio Stamps for quite a few years now, so I was excited when Mendi asked me if I could some projects using her new dies (and I couldn't help but mix in a few older dies as well!). 

When I think of Sunny Studio's stamps, I automatically think of card making. But when I think of Sunny Studio's dies - specifically her standalone dies - I can see so many ways to work them into scrapbooking projects, whether it's traditional layouts, smaller sized travelers notebook pages, or pocket pages. I've switched over to the smaller sized "layouts" and pocket page style of scrapbooking over the last few years, so I was excited to create some projects focusing on these fun dies. 

For this travelers notebook sized spread (pages are 4"x8.25"), I started by die-cutting the white cardstock base of the second page using the Staggered Circle dies.

I backed it with some black and white polka dot patterned paper, and then added some borders along the top and bottom using the Ribbon & Lace Border dies. 

I used the Notebook Photo Corner dies to die-cut two banners and added alphabet stickers to each to hold my title. I also die-cut three notebook pages from white cardstock, using the same die set, adhered my photos to each of them, and then tore the cardstock directly under the photo.

I used the Notebook Tab dies to create a tab for each photo, writing my "chore" (aka, where you'll find me on my days off work) in the center piece of each tab.

Sunny Studio Supplies: (Ribbon & Lace Border Dies, Staggered Circle Dies, Notebook Photo Corner Dies, Notebook Tabs Dies, Classic Gingham Paper, Polka-dot Parade Paper, Amazing Argyle Paper, Heroic Halftones Paper)

I'll be sharing the rest of my projects next week, but you can see them all now over on the Sunny Studio blog.

This Girl Needs A Coffee: A Travelers Notebook Spread

Hi again! I'm back to share a super quick travelers notebook sized project. I can't seem to get into actual travelers notebooks, but I am a fan of the Life Crafted albums from Citrus Twist, which basically hold TN sized pages. I like the flexibility to move pages around, as opposed to being locked into a notebook, where the pages are all bound together.

This came about very randomly. I was scrolling thru my Instagram, looking for photos/stories that I could use on little projects, and this shot of my two frappacinos caught my eye.

I printed my photo, along with the "caffeine fix" filler card (from In A Creative Bubble), and adhered them both to a coffee bean patterned paper that I had in my stash. Took me forever to find it, but I knew it was there, so I was persistent and took the time to find it ;)

For my journaling page, I went with a simple white background, and added a digital stamp to the top (from Kellie Stamps).

I copied my journaling straight from my Instagram post. Which is the same thing I do when I work on my Project Life album. 

Truthfully, I could do a lot of little quick and easy projects like this with photos I share on Instagram. But I also work 95% of our photos into my PL album, and almost every photo in my PL album has journaling of some kind to go with it. Which is maybe why I'm not creating as many other projects, seeing as how all of the photos and stories are covered already. That's what I love about PL, and the way that I approach it - as long as I keep up with my PL album, I don't feel like I have to do any other documenting throughout the year if I don't want too, because everything is pretty much in there. If that makes sense.

But it's also fun to just play sometimes. And these little projects go into MY albums, so it can be nice to have some of my little stories all in one place.

Bathtime: A Travelers Notebook Spread

Happy New Year! I had no intention of having a new project to share only a few days into the new year, but here I am! One of my goals for 2022 is to find more time to be creative. With the exception of my PL album, reading album, and TV show album, the only projects I managed to create in 2021 was a single 6x8 spread, a single 12x12 layout, and 3 little TN sized spreads. Those were all done way back in February and March, so close to a year ago.

I’m off to a good start, throwing this quick TN sized spread together in about 15 min. I came across the super old “bath time” tag months and months ago and printed out this photo of Milo to go with it. And then it just went to live in a pile on one of my shelves.

I was doing something totally different in my room on New Year's Day, hanging out with Alyssa, and out of nowhere, I said “I should make a project”. And I did. I pulled out the photo and the tag, grabbed two different patterned papers (the first ones that caught my eye and matched the tag), typed up a little journaling, and tossed it all together.

It felt really good, and was a great reminder that there’s no need to overthink projects all the time. I’m all about quick and simple - have been for quite some time now - and it works for me.

I have a lot of projects that I want to work on this year, and the underlying theme is "quick and easy". Little TN sized spreads definitely fall under that theme :)

Kerri Bradford Studio: Even Better Here With You

 

Hey everyone! I'm back with another puppy themed project that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio. We have only had our new little puppy for a few months now, but the camera roll on my phone is filled with photos of him.

 

 

I wanted to pick out a few of my favorite photos to create a photo collage, to use as part of a travelers notebook sized spread. I picked out a template from Kerri's Travelers Templates: Wander kit, and got to work adding my photos. 

 

 

I then had the idea to add a few digital stamps to one or two of the openings on the template, using the new Blocks of Togetherness digital stamp kit. Digital stamps are great, since you can size the stamps to fit your exact needs.

 

 

I don't have many pet themed scrapbook products, but I remembered Kerri's older A Dog's Life cut file kit (no longer available), and I knew I could use the PNG files digitally to add "embellishments" to my page. 

 

 

I had full intentions of having a full page photo collage on one side of the spread, and a title/journaling combo on the opposite page. But once I got going, I decided to use the same collage template for both sides of the spread.

 

 

I rotated the template 180 degrees to create the second collage, kept filling up the template openings with a mix of photos, digital patterned papers, digital stamped phrases/words, PNG images for the embellishments, and my journaling. 

 

 

When I was happy with my collages, I printed them both out onto photo paper and trimmed them down. I added a single enamel heart to my otherwise all-digital spread. 

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: Milo & The Love

 

Hey everyone! I have a few new projects that I created for Kerri Bradford Studio that I've been meaning to share. We welcomed a new addition to our family several months ago - a cute little Maltipoo puppy named Milo - and I figured it was about time to start documenting his cute little self on paper. I decided to go with travelers notebook sized pages, which I will be adding to his own Life Crafted album (from Citrus Twist). 

 

 

For his first official layout, I kept it every simple. I used a full page photo on the left side of the spread, adding his name using Kerri's new Headline Lower XL stamps. I like stamping chunkier font alpha stamps individually, and fussy cutting them out. Not only does this give me more control over placement on my project (I'm not the straightest stamper!), but it also adds a little texture to my pages, since I like to keep them relatively flat. Since I stamped my letters using yellow ink, to match the yellow patterned paper on the opposite page, I used a fine tip pen to lightly outline each letter to help them stand out.

 

 

For the right side of the spread, I printed out my journaling (copied and pasted from an Instagram post), and added a few pieces of patterned paper. 

 

 

The second layout features a couple of cute photos that my youngest daughter, Sarah, took with Milo a few weeks after we got him. I printed the photos as 3x4's, adhering one on either page of the spread.

 

 

I stamped the word "love" using the Headline Lower XL stamp set, fussy cutting out each letter individually to adhere on the top half of the left page. I then stamped "the", taken from the same stamp set, directly to the page above "love" to complete my title.

 

 

I also stamped a few phrases from the new Blocks of Togetherness stamp set around the edges of the first photo. After adding a few stamped ink blotches to the white cardstock background, using Kerri's Inked stamp set, I finished off the spread with a few puffy star stickers and enamel dots.

 

 

I don't scrap in the travelers notebook size regularly, so I often forget how quick these little pages can go together. I think this size will be perfect for creating simple pages about our newest family member, and documenting his little stories.

 

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: Covid-19 Themed Pages

 

Hey everyone. We celebrated (inter)National Scrapbook Day all last week over at Kerri Bradford Studio last week. I meant to get on here last week and share my projects, but Typepad wasn't letting me upload any images.

 

 

 

We're focusing on Kerri's Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit this week. The first sentence in the kit's description reads "These templates are designed to help you get your memories down even faster than before" - and that's exactly what they did for me. 

 

 

After die cutting several of the templates from white cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo, I simply laid the templates over white cardstock cut to TN size (I create individual pages that I slip into my Life Crafted album as opposed to using an actual travelers notebook) and drew in my lines with a fine tip black pen. 

 

 

Once those lines are drawn out, you end up with a great start to your page, as you know where the journaling will go and you have empty spaces for photos and any other embellishing and/or title work that you want to add in.

 

 

 

So much of the thinking and decision making is already done for you, which simplifies the process and really lets you focus on getting your stories and memories down.

 

 

 

I am not one to use my own handwriting on my layouts - never have been if I'm being honest. But. I decided to go for it on these pages.

 

 

 

I have been wanting to document this crazy Covid-19 time that we're all in right now, and this was the perfect way to get started on some of those stories. I didn't want to spend a ton of time on these little spreads, and using my own handwriting really simplified my process. 

 

 

 

I worked a few of Kerri's new stamp sets - Denali, Denali XL and Denali Etc XL - into my pages, along with stamps from five other recent sets.

 

 

 

I added in a little patterned paper and a few simple embellishments and in no time at all, I had four spreads completed.

 

 

I can't wait to use the Lay It All Out: Travelers Notebook kit to create more pages documenting this weird time that we're all going through. 

 

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. 

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 ;)

 

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: The Countdown Is On

 

Hey everyone! I have a new layout up at Kerri Bradford Studio this week. I know that Travelers Notebooks have been all the rage for quite a while now, but I have yet to figure out how to work them into the way that I document. So when I saw the Life Crafted albums from Citrus Twist, I knew it would be the perfect solution for me. I can create the smaller TN sized pages/spreads as individual pages - and have the freedom to put them in small albums and move them around as needed. 

 

 

For my first ever TN sized spread, I pulled together a few photos that I've taken before heading into work. I thought they would work for the small story that came to mind when I saw the "the countdown is on" stamp in Kerri's new A Numbered Account stamp set. I get myself very fixated on time, especially on days that I work. How much time I have to do this, how much time I have to do that, how much time before I have to leave for work, and how much I want to get done in the time I have before I leave, etc, etc. 

 

 

I arranged several photos in a collage using a template from the Travelers Templates: Wander kit, and typed in my journaling before printing the page out. The template had a little phrase above the journaling, which I took out before printing. In it's place, I stamped the "the countdown is on" onto a piece of cardstock, trimmed it down, and adhered it above my journaling. 

 

 

On the opposite page, I stamped the large number cluster (from the A Numbered Account stamp set) along the top of the page, and also stamped it on a scrap piece of cardstock. I trimmed around the stamped image on the scrap paper, and used it as a mask when it came time to stamp my ink splatters, using the awesome Inked stamp set. I love how easy the smaller sized spreads are to put together, and can't wait to create more of them.

 

Kerri Bradford Studio: 52 Favorites Travelers Notebook

I've seen so many people doing the 52 Favorites challenge this year (a journaling challenge started by Paper Issues), and I really wanted to give it a go. We're not too far into the new year, so I knew it would be simple enough to catch up.The basic idea is to document one favorite thing each week. Easy peasy, right?

I'm sharing the first five weeks of my 52 Favorites album over at Kerri Bradford Studio. I knew that I wanted to work in a Travelers Notebook for this project, and I knew that I would keep the same overall design for each weekly spread. I've always approached mini albums in that way (and I like to think of Travelers Notebooks as "mini albums"), starting years and years ago when I used to create a ton of mini albums. 

I like the cohesive look to my pages, and it also makes them easier for me to complete. While I might love the idea of every page having it's own unique look, I also know that I'd be less likely to keep up with a project if I told myself I needed to be original on every page. Lol. So the same basic design throughout just works for me. 

I wanted to include patterned paper on one side of the spread, and keep the other side white. I worked on the first five weeks at once, and used Jillibean Soup patterned papers for all of my spreads. I'm not 100% sure if I'll stick to ALL Jillibean Soup papers throughout the entire year. But I just might, if I can make it work. 

Now, I'm not one for solid white background pages. I still like to have a little something-something to my pages, if you know what I mean. I turned to my all-time favorite circle background cut file from Kerri's Background Basics kit. If you know me, you know how much I love to use this cut file with white cardstock, to have that white-on-white effect.

I was able to get four backgrounds from each sheet of cardstock. and they fit perfectly on the right page of each weekly spread. I spritzed each piece with some black misting spray before adhering them. 

To number my pages, I went with Kerri's Brooklyn Etc stamp set. For whatever reason, I was thinking way back to when I would use the large number foam stamps from Making Memories, and I would stamp with paint onto small pieces of cardstock. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing here.  

I really should measure and trim little pieces of cardstock for future numbers, because I wasn't very straight in my cutting when I trimmed them with scissors. Note to self ;) I adhered the numbers, along with a stamped asterisk, to the left page of the spread, and added an enamel/puffy sticker to the top of each piece.

I printed my photos as 3x4's, leaving a white border around the edges when trimming. I adhered the photo to the right side of the spread, adding a torn piece of washi tape along the top of the photo. 

Below each photo, I also added a label that coordinated with my patterned paper for that week, and used some of Kerri's stamp sets to add little phrases to each label. I pulled from the One Fine Day, Gather Together, Thankful stamp sets for the phrases you see on these pages. 

I believe all of the labels that I used on these five spreads are from Elle's Studio, mainly because I had them all out and in one place to trim up. I think I've mentioned that I'm working on corralling a lot of my like-supplies together. For instance, I'd love to get all of my little label stickers/dies into one spot, so I don't spent so much time looking for them.

I'm fairly new to working with Traveler's Notebooks, and it shows. I need to remember to cut my patterned papers a little smaller, so they're not laying so close to the inside of the notebook. You can see the inside edges already curling up a bit, because it was too tight of a fit. 

I also added an enamel heart or star to the top of each label. I don't want to bulk up the notebook with embellishments, so enamels are a great fit since they're relatively flat (if you pick the right brand). 

If I keep doing a 2 page spread for each week, I will actually end up needing 3 Traveler's Notebooks to hold the entire year. Good thing I have 3 of the same style ;) While I am fully aware that I could make my own TN's, I like the ease of having them done for me. I'm using a black and white, polka dotted notebook from Felicity Jane. 

When I die cut my circle background pieces, I went ahead and die cut a few extra sheets of cardstock. So I have several backgrounds all ready to go, which should help me keep up with this project. 

It's such a simple design, and one that will be easy to add to each week throughout the year. I already have my photos printed from weeks six and seven, so I'll be adding those in later this week. 

Kerri Bradford Studio: My 2016-2017 Shows

This coming Saturday is [inter] National Scrapbook Day, and over at Kerri Bradford Studio, the design team has been sharing projects leading up to this fun day. I've got a project up today, which I'm excited to share with you all. 

I was brainstorming what to create for my [inter] National Scrapbook Day project, knowing that I wanted to use Kerri's A Big Day stamp set. At some point, I was reminded of what I had created for iNSD two years ago - a 6x8" pocket page spread documenting my favorite TV shows (seen HERE). The days of the week stamps gave me the idea to create an updated look at my favorite shows.

This time, I decided to try out the travelers notebooks that are all the rage lately, and that I have yet to try. The smaller size appeals to me, as I haven't been creating as many layouts these days. Also, these little notebooks seem to be a good fit for my "less is more" approach when it comes to keeping my projects simple - putting the focus more on the photos and/or stories, and making it less about the embellishments and "stuff". 

Since I had the days of the week stamps that I wanted to use, I decided to break down my favorite shows by what I watch each day. I love a good photo collage, so I created a photo collage to go along with each day's spread, using templates from both the Travelers Templates and Travelers Templates #2 kits.

I started out by making a list of my shows, and which day they usually air. 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. I actually left quite a few of my regular shows off these lists in the end, as there just wasn't room for a few of them. 

Next up, I went looking for my images. Just as I did two years ago, I found all of my images on Google photos. For the most part, I just searched the name of the show, along with "cast" or "logo". I downloaded several for each show, knowing that some images might be too small to use. 

When I did my 6x8" album two years ago, I used all square photos, since I was using the little 2x2" pocket pages. This time around, I knew I needed lots of square photos, but I also knew I'd have spaces for a few different size photos as well. This came in handy for those shows I could only find a longer image for, that wouldn't have cropped well into a square. 

I wanted to have the show name on the image, but there were a few shows that I just couldn't find the right image for. So for a few, I ended up saving an image that I liked, and just typing the show name on in Photoshop, picking a font that was similar to what I saw on other images. 

Once I knew how many shows I had for each day, I settled on which template I would use, and added the photos in. I printed out my collages and adhered them to the right side of each day's spread. 

I then picked a patterned paper to coordinate with each day's photo collage, and adhered them on the left side of each day's spread. I pulled some papers from Crate Paper, Amy Tangerine, and Shimelle. 

I have a bunch of ruled Project Life 3x4" journaling card, so I decided to use those to label each day. I used Kerri's A Big Day and Brooklyn stamps, to stamp the day and "shows" onto the cards. I drew some rough lines around the outside of each card with a black pen, and adhered the card to the left side of the spread. 

I originally thought I would need to add more to each of these pages, even wondering what I would do about journaling. I quickly realized that keeping it simple, and fairly flat, in these notebooks was the way to go. 

A simple piece of washi tape at the top of the journaling card was all I needed. No need to complicate things, right?

Looks like Friday is a slow night, with only two real shows. But that's ok, because I do love my Lifetime movies on the weekend. You may notice that I don't have a Saturday list. That's because I don't have any shows on Saturday's. That's my night to catch up on all the shows I didn't fit in during the week. 

Once I had all of my days completed, I knew I wanted to do some sort of "title page". My thought is that this travelers notebook would be dedicated to documenting my favorite shows, and something I can add to each year. After all, it was fun to look back at my list from two years ago, seeing how many shows I'm still keeping up with, and how many aren't even around anymore. 

I added some patterned paper to my title page, along with a 5x7" Project Life ruled card that I stamped the year on using Kerri's Brooklyn Etc stamps. After wracking my brain to see if I had any patterned paper with televisions on it, I remembered a cut file Kerri created as a part of The History Project class.

I opened up the TV png file in Photoshop, and used it to create my own "patterned paper". I just lined up a bunch of TV's across the 4.25" x 8.25" canvas, and then copied that entire row over and over, down the page. I printed two of these on a sheet of cardstock, so I have one ready to go for next year.

I also printed out the weekdays cover from the Travelers Pack: Splendid kit, and cut it down to add to the very first page in my notebook. I thought about adding it to the cover of the notebook, but I wasn't quite ready to tackle the cover. I'll worry about that later.

And yes, I fully admit I have a slight TV addiction ;) I love my shows, and I somehow manage to keep up with them, even though I only watch TV in the evenings. If I'm being totally honest, there's always at least 1-2 shows a season that we let pile up. Right now, it's Quantico, and I have 12 of them on the DVR. That's an easier show to keep up with when you binge watch it, so we'll catch up on that once all our other shows come to an end. 

Make sure and stop by Kerri Bradford Studio this week to check out what the rest of the design team has created, as well as get in on the awesome sale Kerri is having all week!