Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

How to Wrap Up One Month on One Scrapbook Page

Scrapbooking One Month At A Time / Project Lifetime:

I do Project Life and I do regular scrapbooking.  In the last couple of years, I've also started doing a page to wrap up a month or season and I'm putting these pages in an album called "Project Lifetime".  I think I heard this term associated with the Becky Higgins Project Life, but I'm not for sure on that.  The concept is to have one album spanning many years, like the five year journal.  So here's one page that's going in that album, a quick, simple page that doesn't need to go through a bazillion details; the main thing is that it just needs to be done!

I did have fun making this border of triangles and my son even mentioned that he thought it was very pretty!

P.S. If you'd like to support this blog and stock up on Project Life supplies while they last at Amazon, click through to the following affiliate links:

 

Vacation Scrapbooking: How to Reconnect With the Stories, Adventures and Emotions of your Trip

How to Reconnect with Your Vacation Memories when you get home and scrapbook the trip weeks, months or years later:

1.  Scrapbook During Your Vacation - This is easy, really!

 

2. Get Home, Get Back to Your Routine, and Feel Confident That You Can Scrapbook Your Vacation Anytime - When You Have Time.  I went on an amazing vacation to Durango, Colorado and I did some scrapbooking on the road.  I'm back now, I've actually been back for about 3 weeks, and I haven't done much work on my vacation scrapbook, until last night.  This video shows how I am incorporating my vacation photos into Project Life, my homemade smash book, my "regular" 12x12 scrapbooks, and my vacation photo albums.

 

Please leave a comment with tips and tricks you use for vacation scrapbooking or a link to your vacation scrapbook!  I'd love to see what you do.

If you would like to support this blog, check out these affiliate links:

 

Project Life Week 8 + A Clean House in 2 Hours

Wow. I thought that I'd have my Project Life done in about 20 minutes this week but it took much longer than I expected.  Although, I didn't work straight through, there was cleaning kids rooms, laundry, breakfast, vacuuming, and a host of other weekend chores that seemed to keep interupting Project Life, but still I got all that done in two hours.  Clean house and Project Life completed in 2 hours?  Ok, yes, that is a VERY GOOD THING.  I'll take it.

If you wish to support this blog, check out these products that I love:

 

 

9 Clever Ideas for Project Life from Pinterest

Hey Scrapbookers! Here are 9 Clever Ideas for Project Life:

I'm getting ready to do Week 8 of my Project Life and thought I'd share some of the clever ideas I've seen on Pinterest for Project Life:

1. Ormolu jazzes up her journaling cards in advance. So clever (middle square)

2. Persnickety Prints has FREE Project Life Journaling Cards. (top middle)

3. Katrina Simeck adds in extra flap pockets for more photos. (top left)

4. Cherish Every Day uses collage printouts to get more photos in her Project Life. (bottom middle)

5. Rebecca Cooper's Everday Life Photo Checklist. (right middle)

6.  Marcy Penner created a Project Life "station". (left middle)

7. Alison Waken created a 4x6 version of Project Life. (bottom right)

8. Ali Edwards' 13 Everyday Life Journaling Prompts. (top right)

9. Life Love Paper has "Currents" Project Life Printables. (bottom middle)

Ok, I am sufficiently inspired, I'm going to go work on my own Project Life and should have a post up soon. 

Ok, I was going to stop there but I had to share this before I go:

I did call a "family meeting with homework" right here in my scrapbooking room and instructed each of my family members to pick a journaling card and write whatever they want about themselves, what they are doing right now, or their past week.  I told them they could write whatever they wanted and could even draw a picture if they wished.  They were all happy to oblige which was a bit surprising because I sometimes get eye rolls with some forced scrapbooking family involvement; but writing on the Project Life Journaling Cards was a short enough task and I gave them the choice of writing whatever they wanted and I think they all thought that was pretty cool.  Here's what they came up with:

The journaling cards are:

1. Everyday Life by Husband Charlie: "My wife is on a computer in one room.  My son in another and my daughter is on her laptop in yet another room. Meanwhile, I am reading an old fashioned paper newspaper."

2. The authentically distressed tag from my minivan being in the shop for repairs.

3. Here is the Story by my daughter Allison:  She opted to go for my "you can draw something" suggestion and the rose is a nod to the herb, vegetable, and flower garden we've been planting all weekend.

4. Memories by my son Mac: "I am playing digital Pokemon on the Pokemon website and I want to play now Mom."  He added a smiley face so as not to be too snarky and to better his chances of getting back to his game. 

I'll have my full Week 8 of Project Life up soon.  Meantime, if you wish to support this blog and stock up on Project Life supplies, here are some links:

P.S. If you are on the fence about any of the Project Life products, scoop them up while they last, they sell out fast at Amazon; it looks like the Cobalt Edition of the Project Life Core Kit is the only one still available right now. 

Project Life Page Protectors from Becky Higgins are IN Stock!

Becky Higgins' Project Life Page Protectors are IN STOCK at Amazon right now.  These often sell out, get them while they're hot.  Seriously.  I use Page Protector A but also have ordered the multi pack and love the variety and I like to mix in regular scrapbooking pages with my Project Life Album.  The albums are 12x12 three ringed binders which are my favorite.  The page protectors go quickly, so if you were ever considering Project Life, jump on them now.

Project Life Week 7

Project Life Week 7 2012:

Updating my Project Life Album - and finishing up Week 7 of Project Life 2012:

 

Personally, I have found Project Life to be more of a photo-heavy chronological photo album than a place to do a lot of journaling since I do a lot of jouranling and story telling in my scrapbook pages.  I think of Project Life as a place to visually wrap up the week and as a place to put the odds and ends from life, like lift tickets and movie stubs. 

Mac passed his purple to red belt test today!  Whoo Hoo!

I heard that Amazon has the coveted Becky Higgins Project Life page protectors in right now - to support this blog and to stock up while they last click on one of these links:

 

All Caught Up with Project Life!

Here are my Project Life pages for weeks 1 through 7.5 of this year 2012.

 

I've been sort of keeping up with Project Life but there were gaps in each week.  Tonight I ordered a bunch of prints and picked them up in an hour and filled in the gaps and did a bit of journaling and I'm done.

 

I will mention that I did not include a lot of journaling in this Project Life album since I was playing catch up.  I think it is better to do the journaling everyday, however, if you didn't I think that should not be a deal breaker and I think its ok to have sparse journaling and have it be photo heavy.  Going forward, I will try to do a bit of journaling everyday or at least every couple of days so that I will have more journaling included.  But I'm glad that its done and I am doing forward with this project.

I think it is important to remember that you can start Project Life at any time and even if you've missed a bunch of weeks, you don't have to have it be continuous - it would be totally ok to have a gap.  Really, it would.  I think the important part is to not give up just because you haven't been fully committed to doing it everyday because there are going to be days - even weeks - where you fall off the Project Life wagon - its, Ok, its easy to get back in to the groove of this awesome album. 

Are you doing Project Life?  Are you keeping up?  Do you have any tips for staying caught up?  I'd love to hear all about your Project Life process.

Project Life 2012: Week 1

This is a little early, but I filled up all the pockets and I'm calling it done.  This is WEEK ONE of my Project Life 2012:

3 Tips to Make Project Life Easy:

1. Don't worry about using the Project Life Product every week - this week I had lots of photos so I only used one journaling card from the Project Life Clementine Core Kit, I expect that other weeks I'll have less photos and there will be more journaling cards.

2. Make 4x6 photo collages - last year I slipped in insert pages to my Project Life spreads and I was fine with that, but I'd prefer to have each week only have one spread without the inserts.  I have a tendency to want to include lots of photos - so I created photo collages in Google's Picasa program so that I could use more photos - see the top row of photos - those are all photo collages done in Picasa.

3. Use Text on Your Photos:  I put text on my photos in Google's Picasa program - I put the dates on some of the photos and descriptions of the events - like our double anniversary (group photo bottom row) so this way when I got my photos back from the developer, I could remember what and when etc - this week that wasn't such an issue - but if you let a few weeks go by sometimes it is.

Leave a comment with your tips on keeping Project Life easy.

One Little Word + Twelve Muffin Pan Embellishment Goodness

ONE LITTLE WORD FOR 2012: HOPE

I am signed up for Ali Edwards' One Little Word Class at Big Picture.  I just finished my first page for the album.  It was fun to make the page and I would love to have more pages all set up like this in advance with the 9 rectangles because it was so easy to put together.

I scanned that page (above) and I really think that photographs are better for capturing scrapbook pages.

I also printed out some of the 8.5 x 11 pages I've made about HOPE and the other classes I'm taking at Big Picture and used them in wallet size on this page.

Definition:  To expect with confidence.  To wish for something.  A difficult but not impossible goal attained with God's help and positive forward motion.  The feeling that what is wanted can be had and that things will turn out awesome.  {Of course, my own embellishment was added to this definition.}

Thesaurus: Optimism.  Look forward to.  Aspire to.  Encouragement.  Confidence.  Trust.  Wish+Work+Luck.

I Chose This Word Because:  On Christmas Day, I took the boys to the island on the kayaks and while they had adventure I decided that the next word I saw would be my word of the year and I found HOPE carved into a tree.  I found great comfort and joy in it and felt like it was meant to be.

With This Word I Invite this word to:  Give me the Strength and Faith to work towards my goals for 2012.

Hope Quotes:  " Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow.  The important thing is not to stop questioning." - Albert Eisenstein (and I'll add that when I read the word "questioning" I read into that word: striving, assessing, reconfiguring / adjusting the sails, and continuing on towards the goal with hope - which I internalize as a positive attitude + work + faith + a bit of luck.  I also think its cool that Albert Eisenstein had a quote about hope - that you can be smart and work hard and be a thinker but that also hope is important, I wonder what he hoped.  The other quote is from Christopher Reeve:  "Once you choose HOPE, anything is possible."  And his spirit and attitude just make me happy - and the fact that he was Superman helps and the experience he had and his continuance of optimism and hope and work and that his life touched so many.

TWELVE:

I wasn't sure I wanted to do the class assignment of making a muffin tin full of scrapbooking embellishments.  But.  I did it.  And it is AWESOME! I highly recommend it.  If you were on the fence, give it a try - you CAN find some space for it.  Really.

I do have several embellishment organizers, but somehow I don't use them often.  I did use the embellishment tin while making the One Little Word Title Page.  Stacy Julian is right about scrapbooking stuff most of the time, so I'm going to just go with whatever she tell us to do in Twelve Class.

Here is where I found space for my tin - it is right above my work space but is somewhat easily accessible and somewhat out of reach of my daughter:

She does know her way around this cabinet and those colored marker drawers in the lower left are her favorite place to play - I find Sharpies and Copic Markers all over the house - but at least I know where to put them back.

Ok, wow, time flies - got lots to do today - here I go!

 

 

Always Moving Forward

Cart Before Horse.  If you'd like to join me in any of these Big Picture Classes, please use this link to sign up:  CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR BIG PICTURE CLASSES!  The membership is free and there are several free classes if you just want to dip your toe in to the online scrapbooking class world, this is an excellent place to start.

Story People Quote: "Feels like some kind of ride, but its turning out to be life going absolutely perfectly."  And I stamped my finger print in the stamp square on the "this is life" 4x6 card in the lower left corner.  I'm feeling fairly clever about that.

Yes.  I know I still have a major portion of December's Project Life to catch up on and a few days of December Daily, but its like Walt Disney said (it went something like): "We don't spend much time looking back around here, we are always moving forward."  I'm excited about the new year.  I love beginnings.  And I saw Cathy Zielske's post about her family self portrait and her new class and was inspired to get my family to sit and pose for the Project Life Albums - I'm sticking this one in the end of 2011 & in the beginning of 2012:  (two birds - and no Kelly I don't think killing birds is ok either - which doesn't explain your delicious chicken dip btw - just saying)

And NO! I am not wearing pajama jeans.  The rest of my family wore sweat pants and I went in to work and they kept teasing that my jeans were pajama jeans, they were not - they were dark wash boot leg regular old jeans thank you very much, and yes I did put back a few pounds on during the holidays but I had no trouble buttoning them, it was a controlled kind of feast; I am ready to get back on the hard core workout train.

P.S. I am using Becky Higgins' Clementine Core Kit plus Page Protector Style A for my 2012 Project Life Album:

I couldn't find the link for page protector style A so I linked B - word of advice - if you like this stuff - buy it quick because it tends to sell out.

P.S. On Beginnings:  We saw a movie called Beginners the other night - it was pretty good - here is the link, plus one for beginning yoga, and one for an old David Bowie movie called Absolute Beginners which was pretty awesome - I remember loving it but don't remember what it was about anymore; and on that note - there is a quote about children not remembering what you said or did but they remember how you made them  feel - does anyone know that one?

P.S. For more from the Story People:

Dec Daily 13

Still Going!  Here is my December Daily layout for the 13th - the focus was the school concert and I was going to put a title "concert" on the bottom of the left page but couldn't find letters the right size, so I just left it simple.

I also made another Picasa photo collage page using one photo from each month of last year - the sticker's are from the Becky Higgins Project Life - Amber Core Kit.

P.S. Ali Edwards did a page about taking her daughter to the Nutcracker and she included a picture of their shoes, I made this page after my post on December 13 and added it in to my December Dayout Album but hadn't posted it, so here is my December Daily Day 13 Layout about how my daughter picked out new shoes because she wanted them to be exactly like mine:

I left a bunch of blank space in the actual album and might later sew in some clothing tags from Christmas presents - when I do that I'll post an update.

Santa Came Early

Santa Came Early...

{which made me realize I need to brush up on my photography skills before Christmas Day!}

...And blessed me with an overly cooperative daughter who - on her own - dressed up in a Santa Dress and posed for photos:

And I was able to get dozens of adorable photos of my daughter in her Santa dress and even under the tree - she actually set up the shot of pretending to open a present!

BUT!!! I realized when I looked through the pictures that there are things that I would change about these pictures if I could.  So I am going to do a little pre-Christmas photo optimization preparation!  For example - in the two lower photos there is a lot of wires in the one of the left but I blurred them out in the photo on the right - easier would be to just remove those wires in the first place.  And I could probably do some reading about exposure - especially in low light / high action settings like we will experience on Christmas.

December Daily #11

This is December Daily for the 10th - Saturday Night & the 11th.  We had a party on Saturday Night and the December Daily Project served as a nice little peaceful place for me before and after the whole party hullabaloo.

Party Preparation & Invitation - Dec 10th:

Dec 10th - Saturday Night - Big Party:

Dec 11th - Sunday - Party Cleanup & Relax & Get Ready for the Week:

I still need to catch up my Project Life but I feel confident I can get that done later tonight - or even (gasp) tomorrow morning.

Loving Project Life

I have been doing Project Life with the Becky Higgins products for a few weeks and I love it.  Love it.

I just ordered another 60 pack of the Style A Page Protectors and the adorably cute Clementine Core Kit.  I am not sure how I will use this differently than my existing kit or whether I can just sign a breath of relief knowing that I'm covered for 2012 and 2013.  Since these products are very popular they often sell out so then you have to wait to order them, but they are in stock at Amazon right now:

 

December Daily: 12/6/11

December Daily - Day 6!

I am happy that even though my life is getting busier - as I know it does in December - I am keeping up with both December Daily and Project Life, here's a peek at both:

I did some party dress shopping - I do not love the shopping process - I wish cute clothes that fit me properly would magically appear in my closet.

I did find 3 dresses for myself and 3 for my daughter so we had a fashion show when I got home:

Here's a ustream video showing my December Daily project and my observation that I am doing more digital scrapbooking pages, especially for this project: