Around Here

Welcome to this week's photo dump.....or my "around here" post, as I like to call it.  These posts are slowly becoming one of my favorite.  There is no fluff or words that I have to write.  It's just our life documented.  These posts make me take more photos of our day, and they make me get them off of my phone and camera, so that's a win-win to me!!  They also remind me of all that I have to be thankful for!  It's so easy to get wrapped up in the everyday....and it's so easy to always look to Instagram or social media to feel like you aren't "doing enough".  My life isn't picture perfect, but I do like to focus on the positive and all that makes me happy.  Being with my family makes me happy, and taking photos makes me so happy.  Combining them both is just plain awesome!  

So...happy Sunday to you and your family!  Go get those photos off of your computer and create a photo collage!  

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of gratitude and joy.  Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

xoxo

image source: designlovecompany.com

Maggie Holmes' Design Team: Thankful Thoughts

As a parent, I really strive to teach my children what it means to be "thankful".  I try to teach them how fortunate we are for all we have and how blessed we are as a family.  As my daughter has gotten older, I see that she's starting to "get" it more.  Being thankful and grateful doesn't just happen.  I honestly believe it's a learned attribute.  And just as my daughter and son are learning, I am always trying to learn to be grateful.  It's easy to get caught up in the everyday...and it's easy to forgot all that we have in our lives.  And that's why I love Thanksgiving.  I love that there is a day that makes us stop and remember to be thankful.  I love that Thanksgiving reminds us to TALK and WRITE and DOCUMENT all that we have in our lives.  

A family tradition of ours is to do some type of "thankful project" each year.  One year we created a thankful tree; one year we each listed what we were thankful for each day...  This year, I put together a very simple Thankful album using some white card stock and Maggie Holmes' Open Book collection, which I'm sharing over on Maggie's blog today.   Although this book is pretty simple, it is my favorite book to date because of the following tag:

Yep...I cried.  Like a baby.  Love her and our sweet little family.  

I hope you and your family will take time to think about or even write down all that you are thankful for!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Project Life: One Little Bird Birthday Spread

My sweet boy turns four in just a few short days, so I figured what better way to document his birthday than to compose a spread just for him!  

You can read more about how this spread came together over on the One Little Bird blog today!!  I used the awesome Fete journaling cards to include a bunch of thoughts/facts/info on my son at the age of 4.  And as you can see, I went big and bold with my photo!  I just love large photos in my album!

Project Life: "Hello December"

I recently had the pleasure of working with the new "Hello December" Project Life Card Collection and Project Life Accessory Pack from Stampin' Up.  I love that Stampin' Up has teamed up with Becky Higgins to develop and offer fun Project Life kits and supplies.  Stampin' Up is actually one of the very first companies I purchased supplies from.  I bought a ton of their ink pads about five years ago and they are still going strong today!  Talk about quality!!  So needless to say, I was super excited when I got the chance to play around with their new Christmas-themed kit.

With the card collection and accessory pack together, it pretty much contains everything you will need to pull your spreads together.....journaling cards, wood veneer, alpha, cork numbers, sequins, washi tape.  Basically everything except adhesive!!  

Since I don't have any December photos to document yet, I decided to go back and put a few Project Life spreads together of Christmas 2013.  I didn't really add too much Christmas related to my album last year since I put together a December Daily® album.  I kept meaning to go back and add in a few more photos (since it kind of looks like we skipped over Christmas when you flip through our books), but I never got around to it (or I just wasn't in the mood....).  But...since my brain is in complete Christmas mode right now, it was a no brainer to print out those old photos!!

Let's reminisce a little, shall we???

The photos in my spread are really in no particular order.  I wasn't really concerned with being chronological, or really even telling longer stories, since most of those memories are already documented in my December Daily® album.  

Instead, I just included my photos and any memories that came to mind when looking at the pictures. I basically did more a re-cap rather than a "real time" recount.  And I totally think either method works for Project Life.  I find that I do a mix of this in general since I'm not the best at writing everything down (I will be better next year.  I will be better next year.)

The journaling cards that are included in the kit are outstanding!  I love that they have square corners (yay!!) and that the kit offered a good variety of filler cards and unlined cards.  I'm a big fan of filler cards and find that often spend more time searching for them than anything else!!  

I also created a fun little shaker pocket from some of the sequins and wood veneer that were included in the accessory pack!  If you follow along with me, you know that I love "peek-a-boo" elements in my book, and well....you just can't beat a sequin shaker pocket!

These little pockets are so easy to make, but add such a fun visual effect to the pages.

I used my typewriter to add my journaling and then finished a few of the cards with some stitching.  Stitching seems to be the icing on the cake these days.  I just love the details and "homemade" look it adds to my pages.  

I continued with the back of the Design A page protector and put together a second spread of our Christmas.  As you can see, I continued the same theme throughout this spread...lots of photos, filler cards and journaling.  

I've found that sticking to eight 4x6 photos really is a time saver for me!  It keeps me from wasting time trying to figure out how to decorate a card, or find a filler card, or whatever....  I mean, those pockets were made for photos, right??  

Since this is the backside of the previous spread, you can see the effect that the fun little shaker pocket has.  I love that the little pieces float around and move as the pages turn.  

I used the large wood veneer "JOY" piece on the right hand side to create a similar peek-a-book effect.  It slipped right into my pocket and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was meant to be!!  Plus, I think wood elements add such a nice, homey look to pages, scrapbook and Project Life alike!!

And that's a walk down memory lane!  Thanks so much stopping by today and thank you so much to Stampin' Up for letting me play around with their fun goodies!!  

Around Here

Around here it's chiiiiiilly and brrr cold, but that hasn't stopped us from going and playing outside!  Around here we are bundling up in hats and coats and scarves.  Around here we are drinking lots of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows.  Around here we are thinking everything Christmas (and the kids may have even convinced me to pull out our playroom Christmas tree!!).  Around here there are lots of art projects, watercolor and Christmas gift makings!

Happy Friday, friends!!

Crate Paper: Love This Moment Mini Album

I sure hope you're not tired of my mini albums yet because I have two more to share with you!  First up is the delicate little book that I put together using Crate Paper's new Open Book collection.  This collection is just dreamy, which is what I had in mind when I created this album! 

Here are few pictures, but be sure to hop on over to the Crate blog to see the rest of it!!  And stop on by tomorrow for another mini album (it's totally mini album madness up in here...can't you tell?!).

Inspired By...An Online Workshop

I often get asked what inspires me, and I have a hard time answering that question because it changes all the time.  Sometimes a certain piece of artwork will inspire me; sometimes I'm inspired as I walk the Christmas aisles at Target; sometimes a photo strikes something in me.  Inspiration really is all around.  

With inspiration in mind, I teamed up with some of my favorite scrapbookers to bring you an amazing online workshop, Inspired By.  This workshop focuses on inspiration pieces and how they help formulate, or inspire, a scrapbook page.  There are TEN process videos with corresponding PDFs included as a part of this workshop and I promise you that each video will be unique and awesome. 

Join Shimelle Laine, Nancy Damiano, Paige Evans, Marcy Penner, Jen Kinkade, Wilna Furstenberg, Laura Craigie, Jill Sprott and myself in this exciting INSPIRED BY... workshop! 

The cost of the class is $15 and you can register over at Shimelle's site.  By purchasing the class you'll have access to TEN videos, accompanying reference PDF, bonus printable and cut file downloads, and a private message board to discuss things with the contributors, chat with other participants, and share your own work.  There are also some gorgeous bonus downloads: printables and cut files designed by Wilna and Jen.

Here is a sneak of my layout:

I so hope you will join us!!  

From Shimelle about signing up:  After you sign up, you’ll be given access to the materials, generally within 24 hours. If you have made your payment and do not receive a welcome email within that time frame, please double check your message hasn’t gone to your spam folder, then email Shimelle to let her know. If you are paying from a different email address than you would like to use for the workshop access (including giving the class as a gift), leave a note in the comments of your purchase – or send me an email if you miss that step. Any questions, please do not hesitate to email Shimelle and I'm sure she will get you an answer as soon as possible.

San Diego Mini Album

I obviously am suffering from "mini album madness".  I seriously just can't stop making these cute little things!  I think pulling out my December Daily albums really got my creative juices flowing and then I started thinking about all of the other minis that have been on my to-do list.   This mini covers a trip to San Diego my husband and I took back in June.  I've had all of the memorabilia sitting in a box for months, but I had no idea how I wanted to tackle this project.  It was kind of that "too overwhelming to even open" box (both physically and metaphorically).  I was stuck forever on what size of album to use vs. build my own, but then I stumbled across an older Heidi Swapp album that I knew would be absolutely perfect.  Sometimes things all line up, right?  The album was about 6.5 inches tall and about 11 inches wide.....which was just too wide for what I was going for.  So....I pulled out my exact-o knife and cut off about 4.5 inches.  The new size is just PERFECT!  I wish I could find more albums in this size! (Hint hint Heidi!  I will take about 50 of these, please!)

The front had that awesome black & white striped spine (as you see pictured above) and the rest was chipboard.  I used gesso to paint the chipboard section white and then added a die cut of the state of California...which yep, I spray painted gold and then mod podged glitter onto it!  California + Glitter = Awesome.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to live in California one day......

My only goal for the inside of the album was to have lots of layers, lots of photos of different sizes and very minimal plastic page protectors!  To me, there is just something so awesome about actually touching and feeling your photos and memories.  Plastic just doesn't cut it for me sometimes.  I'm sure you all think I'm weird, right? 

This little book of San Diego love ending up being jam packed with goodness!  I've included quite a few of the photos here, but if you want to see a full walk through of the album, be sure to check out the video at the end.  It's nothing more than me turning the pages to music, but sometimes I just love to actually "see" a book in action vs. still photos!

Ok...on to the photos (and video)!

So are you itching to go to San Diego too??  I sure am!  Especially since I know it's 70 degrees and sunny there!  I hope you like my fun little book!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!