document life now

April Round Up

I know... I just did March's round up. I literally did scrap these two sets of layouts only a day apart. Something about getting March done gave me momentum to get April finished.

Well, that and a case of stomach flu which kept me home and in bed.

April was an everyday kind of month. No huge holidays celebrated, no birthdays. We did do family photos, which I used quite liberally, along with the photos I took post-portrait session. We managed a couple of other outings, which I also tried to include. 

There's nothing wrong with having an everyday sort of month. I kind of like them.

march round-up

I know. I'm a month late. 

Still... I did it. I had sort of given up hope that I'd get back to my monthly round-up layouts. On the last day of April, I finally sat down and made myself do March. I had forgotten some of the things we had done that I really needed to document -- Brady choosing a college, buying a new vehicle. Somehow I thought the layout would be all about Spring Break.

The two layouts are still a lot about Branson and Spring Break, but there's more to them than just that. It makes me happy to have them done, and know that at the end of the year, I'll have a completed album.

some recent layouts

I don't scrap layouts often anymore unless they're for one of my two teams -- The Daily Digi and Nettio Designs. I really love what I get to do for them, but I find myself rarely sharing my layouts with others. For The Daily Digi, I do the layouts quite a bit in advance and then reading their site is always a little surprise for me -- "Oh yes, I did that. And it's good!" For Nettio, I'm often working late on a deadline because that's how I seem to work lately. I feel accomplished just to get the layouts done and posted.

In short, I haven't been the best about sharing. So here's a few recent ones for you.

for Nettio Designs

for Nettio Designs

for The Daily Digi

Looking through these makes me remember why I scrapbook. Must do more.

year of weekends: complete

Last year, I started an album I called "year of weekends." I simply took the original Project Life kit and chose to use it to document our weekends. Weekdays have never been the meat of our family time... we're early to bed, early to rise and our day to day life is very routine. Weekends are about quality, memory making, family time.

Between my kids and myself, we kept up with it very well. I didn't always print photos in a timely manner, but we got journaling done every single Sunday.

Until my birthday.

I stopped then.

So I had this gorgeous documentation of the first half our 2011... and nothing for the second half. 

It's not like we stopped doing things the second half. I just couldn't make myself put it in an album. I couldn't find the enthusiasm I had to document.

As you probably know, I recently started gathering items for a new project I'm doing using the same Project Life system. It made me feel a little guilty to realize that I had completely and totally dropped the ball.

I started to think... there are no rules. Why can't I finish it with what I have? It might not be a documentation of every single weekend, but it will document the highlights of our year. At the very least, I'll feel like I documented our year.

So I ordered photos (thankfully I save an edited 4x6, full res version of all the photos I've shared here on this blog). I put it together on Sunday, and the girls filled in the journaling. It's done. 2011. In the can. 

I feel good.

2012 Scrapbook Projects: Spring Break Art Journal

Y'all know I'm crazy now, don't you? 

I don't do art journals. I don't do messy and mixed media and jumbled. 

I'm graphic and linear and clean. 

However, a couple of years ago, I picked up an art journal kit from the very cool Evalicious. I'm not completely sure it's this one (and I'm far too comfy to get up and actually check) but it's similiar to this:

It's out of stock, but you can see her art journals in her shop here.

Anyway, bought it and never used it. So I have decided that Mykiah and I will create use our Spring Break trip to create this art journal. Spring Break is going to be a lot about sitting in a condo, reading a lot of good books, relaxing, hopefully getting outdoors in some gorgeous Ozark weather, and maybe seeing a few shows. It will be about putting into words what we are doing and how we are feeling during this break from reality. 

No list of fonts to be used. No colors to guide us. Pen and paper and some randomly printed Instagram photos, I'm thinking. 

I'm hoping that doing this project together 1) awakens my creativity in a new way and 2) inspires Mykiah to art journal her future travels. She'll turn 16 during our break. Wouldn't it be fun to be 30+ and have an art journal from every trip you've taken over the past 20 years. Let's start a tradition, girl.

2012 Scrapbook Projects: Florida 2012/Project Life

I've talked a bit here about this. I am thinking ahead to our big trip this summer -- two weeks in Florida doing theme parks, in part to celebrate the high school graduation of our oldest child. Like any good scrapbooker, I am thinking about how I want to document the trip. It's going beyond, "What camera do I want to take?" to "What do I want the documentation process to be?"

I came to the conclusion that one thing that sets a Florida trip apart from any other trip or event is that I come home with a lot of memorabilia. I'm still carrying around a Fastpass for the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, for example. I have receipts (barely readable, but I have them) from our 2000 trip to the World. I want to be able to save those physical items without scanning and/or otherwise trying to incorporate them into a digital project.

I looked at some art journals and other ideas before I was reading one of my favorite blogs and saw this:

Could I possibly stay with my clean, graphic look and use the Project Life elements to create a trip album that will capture all those little stories we'll have to tell? 

I started thinking about it. Looking at the many physical products available for Project Life. Thought about how I would want my journaling done via computer in order to keep that clean, graphic look... so what digital products would I need in order to accomplish that?

Created my resource page:

Even did a little image to be the folder image for my supplies:

 

I purchased/wish listed a few things that I think are going to be essential to bringing my album together.

   

   

I'm pinning tutorials to Pinterest that I think may help me when it comes to the actual creation of the album, but since that's a long ways off, I'm OK with worrying about that this summer. 

In addition to thinking about the supplies I want to use, I put some things together to make capturing the memories a bit easier. First, my Deluxe Passporter refill arrived last week. I love this guidebook not so much for the text of the book, but for those yellow pass pockets at the back. They are filled with journal prompts to help you capture memories. 

Those passpockets alone aren't going to be enough, though. I need more space to write, so I downloaded and printed a great .pdf file I'd seen Ali Edwards post during her Week in the Life series. I was able to print her .pdfs half size, and punch holes so that they would fit into my Passporter. So I've got a Day 1 passpocket to collect memorabilia, then two sheets of Week in the Life prompts to help me remember what we did. In addition, I downloaded the Evernote app for my iPhone so I could take notes while we're traveling or in the parks. So many times my kids say something funny and I want to remember it. Evernote (and Twitter and Facebook) will help me do that. 

So, yes, I know I'm probably the only person who has an entire album planned before the trip. I know I'm definitely the only person who has a logo for her Disney trip. First... it's cute, right? And second... it makes me happy. Maybe I have too much time on my hands. Maybe I'm an over organized, controlling person. But I'm sure a happy one.

I'll update just before the trip with more on what we're planning to do to document and then of course, lots of the album in progress throughout the summer.

2012 Scrapbook Projects: Round Up

This year I decided that having failed in Project Life... three times... I would not put that pressure on myself again. What I would do instead was a variation on Katie Nelson's Round Up. Every month, Katie "rounds up" what her family has done/read/watched and creates a layout. I want to take that base and build an album out of it.

To start, I took her list of roundup questions and printed them and stuck the sheet of paper on our message center in the kitchen. I keep a pen handy and the whole family is invited to add significant events, books they've read, gifts they've given or received, etc. 

In addition, I'm taking a photo a day on my iPhone. I'll have those photos to use in my Round Up. I've also made myself start planning for the round up during the month. For example, after we watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory four times in one week, I knew I should include a photo from that episode in our Round Up. So while I was thinking about it, I went ahead and grabbed a photo from the internet.

Finally, I've created a folder on my EHD just for Round Up related items. Inside this folder are the templates I plan to use, a resource sheet that tells me which fonts and colors I should be using to maintain continuitiy, and photos, screen shots of texts, etc that I want to use.

  

I'm excited to sit down in a few days and do my January layout, which I'll share here. It makes me happy to have this very specific way to capture my family each month. I can't wait until a year from now when I have that album in my hands. It's gonna be great.

a few layouts

This weekend while I was messing with Photoshop, I got to do a few layouts. I love how Lynette's templates always inspire me to think outside my comfort zone. So much fun for me...

You can pick up these templates -- plus one more -- at Nettio Designs. Special sale pricing for a few days, too. 

Happy National Scrapbook Weekend 2011!

I have a few layouts to share using products being released this weekend! I love playing with new stuff!

First, a layout using a new template set from Darcy Baldwin Fontography. 

My girl sure is pretty, isn't she?

Next up is a layout using a new template set from the awesome Nettio Designs. This is a collab project with Traci Reed so it features some of Traci's fun slip ins and stitching in addition to Lynette's always awesome templates. I did this Halloween flashback layout using the Halloween themed template:

Thanksgiving 2010:

and Christmas 2010:

I don't know sale specifics, but I'm sure both products will be on sale this weekend. Have fun shopping, and have a blessed weekend! 

a bit more about my love for fall

Love this layout I did using Kristin Cronin-Barrow's Splendor kit and Nettio Design's template from her Fave-O-Rite's 4 pack. It came together so easily...

Incidentally, the photo was chosen because I was wearing orange. However, in color it really looked strange on the layout and I ended up turning it black and white. I really try to work with color in my photos when I'm scrapbooking, but sometimes it just doesn't work. This... well, it works.