crafts Archives - the crafty tokyoite

Travel Journal: Set-Up (Pre-Trip)

July 3, 2016

On July 12 – July 21st, L and I are going to LA & SF! It’s a short trip, but one of my best friends is getting married in Laguna and it’s my pre-school’s summer break so we decided to go! We also decided to swing by SF to visit L’as family for a couple days while we are in California. I’ve been making these little travel journals for references & on the go scrapping on every trip we’ve been on and this is no exception. So, I’ve decided to share with you all how I set up these little mini books.

I use Midori’s notebooks to slip into my Traveler’s Notebook covers, along with my little on-the-go calendar planner to help me stay on top of things during our trip. I decorate the cover of the notebooks using patterned paper, stamps and ephemera. On this particular book, I used Paper from Studio Calico, ephemera from Dear Lizzy + Amy Tangerine, and stamps by Kelly Purkey – embossed with Zing embossing powder.Continue Reading

2016 Project Life | January Spreads

June 10, 2016

This is my first attempt at photographing my PL spreads with my DSLR – the lighting might be a little off since it was a really overcast but if anyone has any tips on how to better the photos, please let me know!

We rang in the new year this year in SF – visiting L’s family! I’m obsessed with these Kelly Purkey for Studio Calico foodie cards – TOO CUTE. I wish I had an unlimited supply of them. I include so many food photos in my album it’s a liiiiiittle ridiculous.

Our last day in SF, we had breakfast at this little restaurant close to L’s parents house. I ordered the “central American” breakfast filled with food I’ve never had before. It was all so tasty – L was surprised I was able to eat it all! Yay for new experiences! Saying goodbye to his family was rough but L was staying for a few days so that was nice for his parents. I was super excited to come home to my Alfie-boy! Unfortunately when I got wifi on my flight home, I had gotten a message from my cousin saying that my grandma on my dad’s side had passed away that morning. She was 94 years old and the most lovely grandma anyone could have asked for. I went to see her in the beginning of December, which I was so glad we did. My heart was hurting the whole flight home.

January 7th is Nanakusa no Sekku in Japan – people eat porridge with seven different kinds of herbs to bring longevity and good health. We never do this, but we were reminded of it when we saw it on the news so decided to celebrate this festival this year. Also included two photos of grandma’s funeral in the spread. Maybe a little morbid, but it was such a beautiful ceremony. I didn’t want to take away from the photos so I added some hidden journaling with a tab behind one of the photos.

The night before L’s return to Tokyo, we invited my (other) grandma over and had sukiyaki – a traditional Japanese dish! She’s in a nursing home right now and she complains ALL. THE. TIME. about how the food is not enough, and too healthy. Hahahaha. So she wanted MEAT. Oh, grandma. The photo that’s blurred out is three instax polaroids of some of my students. The other side of the spread isn’t complete – wasn’t sure where to add the journaling so for now, just photos it is. L, some of my best guy friends and I went to go see Jamie XX when he had a show in Tokyo. We had a great time – love my boys! I might just leave it as is – not much to say about it other than it was a blast and I’m pretty sure the photos are enough to depict that.

Crazy snow day this week – with L not being able to get to work for hours. Clearly, Tokyo is not used to snow….at all. I cancelled pre-school so I was cool with a snow day

Left side of the spread = girls’ dinner at the best damn yakiniku restaurant I have ever been to. The girls had a reservation for months at this place so I was super lucky to have snagged one of the last seats! Super pricey but so worth it. The right side? Wellll, L helped me build this new storage unit for my PL storage. How did I get so lucky? As for the journaling strips, I blatantly stole the idea from the ever talented Juli from Juli Makes Things. Love, love, love how it looks but I don’t think I’ll be doing this again for a while. Takes too much time for my lazy butt.

My final page of January is a photo of my cute-as-a-button pre-schoolers and burgers. Noms. I need to add more journaling to that bottom 4×6 card to write about how we had the most amazing time at the Nike Employee store! We got lucky to get tickets from one my students’ dads who knew L was the biggest Nike fan there ever was. I scored a pair of Air’s and L got a lot of goodies, too. Can’t believe how many spreads I have for January, but I wouldn’t change a single thing. Love this low-key freeflow of documenting. Next week, I’ll post my February spreads. Will work on my photography skills…

12×12 Thailand Scrapbook Pages

June 5, 2016

As an avid project lifer + mini album maker, I’m often not too good at journaling a lot on my scrapbook layouts. I’ve started doing that a little more after listening to Tracie Caliborne & Tiffany Lowder‘s podcast, The Scrap Gals Podcast (a must listen!) though. But these Thailand scrapbook pages were inspired by Marcy Penner’s minimalistic style. I am truly unashamed about scrap lifting as I’m not too confident about my scrapbook layout skills yet, and I feel like I’m still finding my style.

I love this photo of L lounging in the infinity pool at our Air BnB. I’m so sorry I don’t remember most of the products used but this was my first time using my sewing machine. Clearly, I’m not trying that again. It’s actually a hand-me-down from my grandma and she can’t find the pedal sooooo it’s kind of an acrobatic maneuver to use it. If you guys could see me, you’d probably be laughing.

I haven’t blogged about our time in Samui yet but it was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. We had SUCH an amazing time and it’s definitely on our would-go-back list. This Studio Calico alpha stamp is by far my favorite alpha stamp for layouts these days. Love how skinny, yet bold it is. And can we talk about this acrylic flamingo?! TOO CUTE. We didn’t see any flamingos, but whatever, it matched the layout. #deceptive

2016 Project Life Process + Title Page

June 3, 2016

I’m well into my 2016 Project Life album and I’m not too far behind (currently working on April spreads) which I’m super excited about but I realized I haven’t written about my process and/or logistics about how I’m doing it this year. Last year, I was working with a 12×12 album and you can read about that more at this post. After almost completing 2 12×12 albums (I have December left – but I’m letting it go since I made a December Daily album), I decided to give Studio Calico’s 9×12 albums a try.

I have to say I’m loving this size. They easily fit on the shelves in my room and the gold… drool. I’m using the gold album and I’m a sucker for all things golden. I’m sticking to a monthly spread, but it seems as though I’m a creature of habit and most spreads end up being weekly but whatever, I’m not going to stress about it. I’m still printing at home, and using Studio Calico’s pocket pages. I’ve been trying to print photos as I take them, not really worrying about the orientation or size as I’m trying my best not to let those things stop me or slow me down. I’ve found that this process has been working the best for me and has kept me on track for the most part.

Now for my title page. I received this overlay in A Beautiful Mess’ Messy Box I got a while ago when they were doing a free shipping promotion. When you’re an international crafter like me, you know those deals are ALWAYS worth it. At the time I received it, though, I wasn’t crafting 9×12 so I didn’t know what to do about the overlay. When I decided to work on my title page, a lightbulb went DING! and the angels sung.

The actual title page consists of the photos I loved the month from the past year of me + L, Alfie, and our little family. The journal cards are the New Years Goals by One Little Bird for Studio Calico and they are unfortunately sold out but I was obsessed with them. I added some simple wood veneer, embellishments and alphas to spell out my One Little Word this year, which is “enough.” Another post on that coming later. I have to say I’m pretty pleased with how it’s come together. Will be back to share January spreads next week

Fuji Trip Short-Trip Travel Album | Day 1

September 25, 2015

September 19 – 23 was what Japan calls, Silver Week. It was a 3-day stretch of holidays that fell right after the weekend. It’s a rare occurrence that Silver Week falls during this time – you can read more about that here. Anyway, we decided this year to take a short trip somewhere in Japan during the first few days of the holiday to commemorate this rare occurrence! I searched high and low on Air BnB for a place close to the ocean but of course, I was too late and literally everything was booked during the few days we were planning on doing something. Finally, mom suggested we check out the mountains. Sure enough, we found a house in Narisawa – a neighborhood close to Mt. Fuji, known to be close to the famous Five Fuji Lakes.

I decided to do a 4×4 album for this short trip because I just felt a project life spread wasn’t enough for the amount of photos we took and stories I wanted to record. I am almost regretting a 4×4…maybe a 6×8 album would have been better but oh well. What’s done is done and so far I’m enjoying the process. 4×4’s are so easy in that you feel zero pressure to really do any embellishing. I’m focusing on the photos and stories and if I get to embellishing, go me! Anyway, onwards with the album!

Week in the Life: Thursday Photos + Stories

August 21, 2015

Glorious day today! Alfie didn’t need to go to the vet because his stats are coming back to normal and they figured with his progress, maybe it was a good idea for his mental health to give him a break from the IV. Woohoo! Slept in a little, then panicked because I realized I didn’t take any photos of my early morning. But, whatever, not gonna let it stress me out.

Week in the Life: Wednesday Photos + Stories

August 20, 2015

Another very typical day in our household today. Another day of sleeping in until L got out of the shower go walk Alfie. Really need to get back to the gym. Le sigh. I love sleep so much.

Week in the Life: Tuesday Photos + Stories

August 19, 2015

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.

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.