Scrapbooking Archives - Page 2 of 2

Week in the Life: Monday Photos + Stories

August 18, 2015

After an unannounced hiatus I’m back and blogging every day, sharing with you a peak into my week. Since I last blogged, a lot has happened but I’ll get to covering all that in later blog posts! As of right now, I am embarking on Ali Edwards’ project: Week in the Life. This is my first time with this project, and I am STOKED. I’m mainly using my Canon PowerShot SX700 HS and my iPhone 6 for screenshots and random in the moment shots. This week is pretty uneventful, but we’ll see how this goes!

I’ve noticed that this set of photos really sets the scene of my life – lots of photos of rooms. I work at home, so my week is mostly spent here. My dog is also unwell so I anticipate spending a lot of time here throughout the week.

Getting Over a Creative Slump

April 21, 2015

Slump. What a terrible word. It makes me feel uncomfortable…but that’s exactly what I’ve been in recently, as you can probably tell by my lack of posts. I’m so behind on my Project Life, and haven’t even touched my other projects in so long, it’s upsetting. Recently, I’ve been getting my mojo back by just getting my butt onto the computer (not literally, obviously), editing and printing out photos from 2014 (GASP — no, I haven’t finished my 2014 album). Albeit it’s not REALLY creative work, but it’s still something.

Today, during my early AM workout at the gym, I listened to one of my favorite scrappy podcasts – The Scrap Gals Podcast with Tiffany and Tracie. If you haven’t listened to it, you must. It’s absolutely delightful. Those ladies have the sweetest Southern drawl and they always have me giggling to myself like a creep. Anyway, the most recent episode was one called Inspiration Chain, and it was talking about how to find inspiration to scrap when you’ve hit a wall or… a slump. How appropriate and perfectly timed! I loved every minute of it and so I decided to combine what I took from that podcast, as well as some of my own tips:

Print out any and all photos you haven’t scrapped — my personal method of getting in the mood to scrap. As mentioned in the podcast, some people don’t get inspired just by looking at their photos. I do.
Print the last photo you took, no matter how crappy it is, and turn it into something beautiful.
Find your favorite materials and USE IT. Don’t hoard it – that’s not what you bought it for!
SPEAKING OF HOARDING, DO A PURGE. I am so guilty of NOT doing this. I LOVED when their guest, Amy Sorensen, said, “You can’t think of it as a collection, or a stash. You have to think of it as a source. You have a source of supplies, and then you’re gonna use your source.” #truth. Right now, I have a box of supplies of things I want to giveaway/have a flash sale with ~~once I figure out how to use paypal~~. So keep your eye out for that.
Scraplift. Honestly, this is probably my most go-to method for a 12×12 layout. Sometimes it’s intimidating to have all the cardstock and patterned paper in the world lying in front of you, but drawing a blank when it comes to ideas. Why not go through creative galleries/pinterest/facebook groups/etc. to look for some ideas? Obviously, give credit where it’s due. I personally don’t post most of the things I scraplift, but if you do, give credit – always.

Okay, that was a very text heavy post but I hope it inspires you as much as you it has inspired me. If you’re in a slump and haven’t listened to the podcast – go do it now! Even if you’re not in the slump, go marvel in the delightfulness of these ladies because they’re adorable and full of information and laughter! I’m about to go edit some more pictures from December 2014, and crawl myself out of this deep, deep hole I dug myself into. See ya on the flip side!

L’s 1 Year in Japan Mini-Album

March 27, 2015

WARNING: SUPER PICTURE HEAVY POST.

The month of March in this household is a pretty eventful month. March 20th marked one year since my fiancé moved to Japan. As seen in my last post, March 23rd was my birthday. March 30th is a year since he proposed. So, yes, it’s a crazy month. I wanted to do something to commemerate his year in Japan so decided upon a mini-album inspired by Stephanie Bryan (one of my favorite crafters of all time). A couple of weeks before I decided to make a mini-album, she posted a blog post about a mini she made for her and her husband’s 8 year anniversary. It was so beautiful and inspiring that I decided to take a shot at my first ever actual mini-album. I was SO happy with the result and L was so, so happy – he claims it made him cry. This statement cannot be confirmed as I was asleep when he saw it… ha. I went through my stash and pulled out a bunch of patterned papers I love, journal cards, some vellum, embellishments, a date stamp, printed my pictures and went to town. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Project Life Title Page

January 13, 2015

So here it is, I’ve finally created my title page for my 2015 album. I can’t say I’m 100% happy with it, but it is what it is, right? As I impatiently await my arrival for my January kit, I used a lot of products from Studio Calico‘s December Kit (Park Ave. Project Life Kit). The first card on my page (Twenty Fifteen) is a freebie from Caylee Gray (LOVE HER STUFF). I love the stickers I used – the camera & the little suitcase. They are from a Japanese company I absolutely adore, Midori. They are also the creators of the Traveler’s Notebooks. The stickers are from the Paper Craft Museum and oh my goodness, they are to die for. A little on the pricier side for the amount they come with but in my opinion, so worth it. You can see all their products here (Japanese only). How are you all doing on your title pages? I wanted to wait for my January Studio Calico kits to get here but I just couldn’t wait! I’m so excited to start the year off right and stay on track so I’m not spending the beginning half of NEXT year, catching up!

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2014 December Daily

January 4, 2015

Like everyone and their mom (literally), I embarked on the December Daily (DD) journey this past December. As I only began Project Life-ing in 2014, this was a new and exciting project for me. For those of you who don’t know what December Daily is, be sure to check out Ali Edward’s information on it. There is something so magical about the month of December — even on days when there’s nothing really holiday oriented happening. Just seeing the decorations in the house or around the city, gives me a tingling feeling that can’t really be explained. After my dad passed two years ago, I was afraid our family could never really love Christmas the way we used to. It’s still hard on my mom, but having L here has definitely made it a memorable holiday once again. Enough blabbing, let’s get on with the photos. I won’t go over each of them but if there’s anything you want to know, such as where I got my products, certain techniques, etc, just let me know! Most of my products came from Ali’s December Daily kit (yes, it was pricey. Yes, I was sweating when I clicked Order).

I won’t lie – keeping up with my DD was a little tricky. On regular weekdays, after showering and getting ready for bed, I was so done for the day. Some days nothing happened (like, I sat in my room crafting and/or cleaning and/or working. That’s it.). But that was okay, I still loved documenting my days and I can’t wait to look back at it in the future!

PROJECT LIFE PLANS FOR 2015

January 1, 2015

I’m figuring the most appropriate post to start on this blog is my plans for 2015. I was inspired by Marcy Penner‘s post about her plans for 2015, so I figure I would write out a list of things that were working for me, that weren’t working for me, and what I’d like to do more of. I was going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth (you get it) for the past month about what size I would go with. I love the idea of an 8.5×11 album, but cutting and sewing page protectors seems like a drag for me and I have so many 12×12 protectors, I don’t want them to go to waste. I won’t even deny how lazy I am when it comes to the tedious aspects of crafting like that. So, I decided to just stick to my 12×12, despite how large and space-taking it is. I’m going with WRMK’s Black Classic Leather Album.

WRMK Black 12x12 WHAT’S WORKING FOR ME ::

Design A Page Protectors, especially when I’m in a rush. It helps me plan out my photos to print without spending ages trying to see which photos fit which design.
Not being obsessed about weekly, monthly, whatever.
Using multiple platforms in terms of printing — sometimes I use my Selphy if they’re “whatever” photos (I know, that sounds terrible), but using my computer printer when they’re photos I really love. I know the American Selphys don’t print true 4×6’s, but the Japanese Selphys photos are SO TINY. I don’t know how to get around it. Ugh.
Using Studio Calico‘s mood board sneaks to choose a color scheme for the month.

WHAT’S NOT WORKING FOR ME ::

Like I said before, obsessing over monthly, weekly, whatever. I used to trip out about having enough photos each week, or if I had too many. Seriously? Who cares. You’re not going to look back 10 years later and be like, “So I wonder what I did during Week 48 of 2014?”. Seriously.
TRYING to scrap in my home office. I run a pre-school, so honestly, my home office is cluttered with papers, bills, folders, etc. I attempted this in the beginning but it just. Doesn’t. Work.
Falling behind and being too scared to catch up. I have most of the summer + November & December left to do in my album.
Scrap-envy. AKA going through the Member and Creative Team gallery at Studio Calico and getting frustrated my albums look nothing like theirs. Worst habit ever.

WHAT I’D LIKE TO DO MORE OF ::

Simple pages with more focus on the story. I look back and my journaling is so snooze worthy. Like, “today we made dinner and it was great” status. Uhhhhh ZZZZZZZ…… Seriously gotta work on that and telling MEANINGFUL stories about our lives.
Finding a way to incorporate memorabilia into my pages. I always keep so much crap, but I end up just tossing it because I forget about it, or feel weird about gluing them to cards or whatever.
Since I got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas, I’d like to practice using it to incorporate it into my pages.
MORE SPARKLE!

So, that about sums it up. Now that I put it out there, I expect you all to hold me to these “resolutions” and call me out on it if I’m slacking. I’m excited for 2015 – “the best year yet!” 😉

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