new year, new layout

The 2015 layout I did last year was one of my FAVORITES of all of 2015. I got inspiration from my one of my favorite pocket scrapbookers, Trisha Harrison. Most of my layouts try to jam pack so much information and pictures that this layout is fun because it's just a layout to separate one year from the next.

 This year I went for something very similar, but used the lovely Thrive kit from One Little Bird. Took headshots again with the white foam board behind us (and yes, Jeremy's headshot is a repeat- no sunlight when he got home from work- plus he looks the same. haha). I just noticed that Riley (the 3 year old) is wearing the same shirt that Sienna (5.5 year old) wore in her photo last year! Nice one, girls!

Happy new year! I'm carrying over last year's motto of "Hop on it!" (aka do things right away instead of waiting and being annoyed by things) Happy scrapping!

fall 2015 layouts

While I love some bright, summery layouts, there's something so visually pleasing about moody, fall colors. These layouts are from the last few months. Love me some fall!

Products used: Woodridge Journaling Cards, Agenda Journaling Cards, Woodridge 

Products used: Better Together 

Products used: Honeycrisp, Honeycrisp Journaling Cards

the latest and greatest - one little bird edition

Summer layouts are so fun to make! They're light, airy, bright and colorful! They're also time consuming because we're doing so many fun things and all those things have to be documented! I've done more inserts this summer than ever before- inserts are my new jam (but that's for another post). Here are some full size summer layouts using One Little Bird products:

I love the color scheme for this collection called "Cabana"

This layout only has a few elements from the "Frolic" collection, but that's how I roll- lots of pictures, a few pretty things and call it good.

I LOVE a patriotic color scheme. I used red white and blue with a hint of mint to document our summer vacation in Utah. This kit, "Nosh" was meant to be all about food, but I went a different direction. 

Doesn't this scream summer? Our day at the state fair was a big deal to my little kids, so we had to make a whole layout documenting the fun. The kit, "Ready, Set, Go" is full of oranges and yellows that just really get me in that summer vibe. The journaling cards are some of my favorite, too.

OLB Creative Team Work

Hello! I've been in a creative funk lately. It comes and goes and it's pretty natural, so I don't worry. But I just finished a layout for One Little Bird and thought I'd share the last few I've created.

My style gravitates towards lots of pictures and white space and little patterns/embellishments BUT without those embellishments it wouldn't be scrapbooking, it'd just a be a photo album, right? So I'm trying to embrace the pretty stuff and be ok with not having 8 pictures on each page. The struggle is real, people! ;-)

(my first layout has 8 pictures on it! Oops!!)

One Little Bird's At Week's End Journal Cards

Ali Edwards Messy Daily Circles

Fete Digital Kit

One Little Bird's The Love List Journal Cards

Ali Edward's Story of My Life

One Little Bird's Postscript Journaling Cards

One Little Bird's Postscript Papers

Project Life - One Pagers

I can't stop singing the praises of a ONE page weekly layout. A lot of people are moving more towards a looser- monthly format, but I love sitting down each Sunday night and working on the previous week. So I do love weekly, but it IS a bit much some weeks. A lot of weeks we just do the same routine- eat out once or twice, go to the gym, go on bike rides, etc. Of course all of that is worth documenting, but not at the tune of two 12x12 pages each week. That's why a single page can often sum up the week without feeling like it's a task. Done is better than perfect.

Here are some of my favorite, recent one-page layouts.

 Supplies used: One Little Bird Weekly Edition Journaling Brush 

Ali Edwards Everyday Labels

Ali Edwards Prompts Digital

Supplies used: One Little Bird Weekly Edition Journaling Brush 

Ali Edwards Everyday Labels

Supplies used: One Little Bird Weekly Edition Journaling Brush 

Ali Edwards Hello Life Boxes

Ali Edwards What Today Looked Like

Latest AE Creative Team Layouts

Being on the AE Digital Creative Team is great - it keeps me going with (loose) deadlines and trying new things. I especially love how Ali's brushes add a handwritten feel to my layouts. Her brushes and handwriting just looks so effortless, right? Love it. Here are some of my latest creations I've submitted:

This layout uses the Hello Goals brushes 

This layout uses the Hello Life Boxes 2015 brushes

This layout uses the Daily Digital brushes and was used in my Week in the Life album (which is not yet finished!)

One Little Bird Guest Blogger

One of my favorite scrapbookers, Peppermint, also sells lovely digital products and has the most beautiful blog. Whenever I see her new products or her latest Project Life spread on Instagram, I think, does this girl have more hours in the day than me!? She is amazing!

As the December guest blogger at One Little Bird, my post is up today and I'm excited to share it with you! 

Head over to the One Little Bird blog to read about my process, the products I used and a few tips like how I finally figured out drop shadows thanks to an old One Little Bird blog post!

Christmas Layouts Part I

I'm guest blogging over at One Little Bird later this month and I can't wait to show you the fun spread I made with the There's Something About Merry papers, elements and journaling cards. I normally don't use many embellishments, but since I decided not to do a December Daily album this year, I went a little more festive. And I really like it! Here's a sneak peek I shared on Instagram:

The layouts with a lot of black and white tend to be some of my favorite so I was happy to see a lot of black and white in this Christmas set! 

I've also worked on another Christmas layout using some Ali Edwards supplies: 

Man, if I could use a wood card in every layout, I would. I just love the warmth the wood brings. The right side of this layout is still a work in progress. I'm trying out Design Q (!?) with three 4x4 squares and four 6x4 rectangles so we'll see how it goes.

Note to Self: Let it Go! (like Elsa!)

Thanksgiving 2014 was my chance to shine! I've secretly wanted to host Thanksgiving for years, but didn't want to seem too eager. So when it was going to be small scale celebration this year with just the four from my family, my parents and two brothers, I decided to step up and take my place as hostess! ;-) It amazes me every year how we put hours and $$ into preparing this dinner and then everyone scarfs down the food in 15 minutes and heads back to watch football! Yet we keep doing it and I guess we like it? What about sitting around and smiling warmly at each other like I see on holiday movies or at the end of sitcoms!?

At the end of the day on Thanksgiving, I sat down and scrolled through my IG feed and looking at everyone's Thanksgiving pictures and I started to get down on myself! I was so busy hosting and cooking and cleaning and decorating that I felt that I hadn't taken enough photos to record it all! Oh no! Especially when my sister, who is training to be a missionary in another state, asked for a play by play of Thanksgiving and lots of pictures! Honestly, I felt like I had failed in that category (and my stuffing, that was a big fail).

BUT then I sat down a few days later to see what I had, and you know what!? I had done just fine! I had plenty to work with. The day was accurately captured and I was happy. And it just made me realize that even if you don't take a picture when you wanted to, it'll be ok. You have other pictures. You can tell other stories. All is not lost. Let it go and move on. So I'm going to keep that in mind this December. I hope we can all pick something that's looming over our heads and just let it go this season.

So with all that being said, here's my layout from Thanksgiving week. Due to circumstances that are too boring to write out, I used an insert (a cut down Design B) for the non-Thanksgiving part of the week and used a Design A full page for Thanksgiving:

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! 

Recording Family Portrait Sessions in Your PL Album

So I got my photos back from my photographer (and good friend, Bianca!). The outfits I spent weeks picking out and the smiles I bribed my kids to smile are all there--the hard work and anxiety paid off! Pretty pictures taken by someone other than me! And I'm IN the pictures! Yay! But now what? Other than designing my Christmas cards and blowing up a photo for my wall, I wasn't sure what do to do with the rest. I thought of "sprinkling" them throughout my Project Life album but that seemed kind of weird. So I dedicated an insert to the pretty photos. Because, they're just one day of our family-just one moment in time. So I put them in the album in the week where they were photographed. I picked out some coordinating papers and brushes, but kept it simple overall.

FRONT of INSERT

BACK of INSERT

I'm having a hard time photographing my layouts, so bear with me! I'll figure this out!

AE Digital Creative Team - Just Thankful

My first layouts as a part of the AE Digital Creative Team are up in her shop here. And you can see all of  the team members' pretty faces up here with social media links. Go check out their blogs--they're full of inspiration!

So when I was creating layouts using the Just Thankful brush set, I had just returned from visiting my sister and her new baby and was so thankful that both of them were healthy and everything went smoothly as it was a bit dicey for a little while as she was in labor. That experience, coupled with great hospital photos (I thank the excellent lighting), inspired this 6''x8'' layout using the Just Thankful brushes:

Then of course, I used them again in my weekly Project Life spread:

Cousins! Melts my heart seeing my first baby hold my sister's first baby!

Other brushes from the Just Thankful set. I use them all the time! Turns out I have a lot to be thankful for.

Halloween 2014

I know Halloween is long over and out of our minds (unless you've still got candy up in the cupboard like me), but it still needs to be recorded and shared, especially if homemade costumes were involved and the maker still needs recognition for the many hours she spent making them?! Honestly, Halloween is not a holiday I enjoy, so when it came to recording it, I made it a simple, little insert with a little black and orange and BOOM, done. Design J is the perfect insert for holidays, birthdays, day trips, etc. Having a little insert is such a fun little surprise when flipping through my Project Life album.

FRONT

BACK

I used papers I already owned and an Ali Edwards stamp from this collection (Words of Fall) and another one from this collection (Story Bubbles).

Project Life - Week 43

October 19 - 25 is recorded and in the book!

Fall colors are so fun to design with. Golds and greens and yellows- love!!

Once again, I used my favorite Ali Edwards brushes- five in total!

I've been loving using digital washi tape lately! I found some great free digital polka dot washi tape here and she also has striped washi tape for a free download here.                                 

Project Life - Week 41

A few weeks ago, I found out that I was selected to join Ali Edwards' first digital creative team. I'm thrilled to say the least! It's only been a few weeks, but I already love working with the other ladies on the team, sharing ideas and finding inspiration in each other's work. Once you find other people who love memory keeping as much as you do, there's an instant bond. And so many of them are international! (Hello, Canada!!)

One of the perks of being on the creative team is access to Ali's digital supplies. I tried not to go overboard with my new access to so many great brushes, but I counted SEVEN of Ali's brushes on my layout this week. Ha! I guess I did go a bit overboard. I just love them all too much. 

Here's week 41 (Oct. 5- 11). Products listed at the end. :-)

• Most of the digital brushes can be found HERE, except for the heart one, which I bought forever ago and use ALL THE TIME which you can find HERE.
• That gold leafy paper is a FREE kit you can get from Pixels and Company if you like their page on Facebook! It's part of a mini kit called Me Time: Part 3 find HERE
• That plus card I made by downloading a free desktop background from HERE then putting it into a 3x4 card in photoshop
• Free autumn print from Studio Calico found HERE (get it! and frame it!)
• That gold plaid paper is from a kit I just bought (on sale for $3.50) from Pixels and Company called My Tribe. Cute paper and elements. Found HERE

Project Life - Week 39

In the Project Life world, people tend to document on a weekly basis. The first year I did PL, I decided that weekly was too much to handle and I went monthly instead. And I'm so glad I did. I eased into it. Because as a beginner, it can seem SO overwhelming to document each week. And it is. But now, two years after I began, I can't WAIT until Sunday night to document the week before. So it's ok to not do a weekly layout. I just feel like sometimes people need to tell other people that it's ok to do something a little differently and NOT feel like you have to apologize for it, you know?

The whole point of that yapping intro was to explain that each of my layouts is numbered 1-52 depending on the week of the year. I know this is weird since in real life we don't say, "oh that happened in week 13." It's weird, yet it also makes sense somehow. Ha....

So, without more rambling, here's week 39 aka September 21-27.

One of my favorite ways to add a little texture is to use digital paper behind one of my digital stamps and use a clipping mask (as seen in that scalloped circle). I'm sure I'll do a post on this in the future.

Design D is a little tricky to get to look right, so it's lucky that all my pictures happened to coordinate with bits of red in nearly every pic.

Ok, I lied. Ink post is next. ;-)