Project Life: WITH LOVE

 

This spread is Valentine's week.  So much fun to put together.  

This week: We had a little Valentine's play date at our house, I took a few shots of Avi and Nandini in their pink and red outfits.  Even though Avi's school doesn't do cards, we still had quite a few, so I made an extra insert to hold them.  We also had a night out with friends, but I didn't get a photo to include.   Otherwise this week was pretty average, I tried to capture little things as well, like snuggling on the couch and throwing tantrums at dinner.

Page one: I have a ton of Valentine's stuff, so I can get a bit overwhelmed with stuff.  I knew I had to include the LOVE card from Elle's studio.  A wood veneer this arrow gave it some purpose in my spread.  

 

 I stapled the wood veneer to the page.  It was a bit tough cramming my stapler onto the middle of the page.  I added faux stitching with my white sharpie.

I trimmed an SC printable card to add a little title to the playdate photo.  Avi was so excited to have a 'friend's party' at our house.

I also included an Elle's studio week in review card.  This made it so easy to include lots of little details.  In the future, I think I will alternate pen colors so that the list items are easier to read.

 

 This heart card and hello darling stamp are both from the Holiday Pop Up shop.  I bought a bunch of stamps, but I am selling some of the unused ones here.  I included two more pictures from the woodland fairy party we attended at the beginning of the month.  Why not?

 I used many love you more journaling cards from Pebbles.  They are all double sided, which means I can get a lot of use out of them.  The colors are soft enough to coordinate with a lot of things.  I added a FF wood veneer heart and red enamel dot here.

 Insert: I was going to fill a pocket with these cards with the pink hambly woodgrain overlay behind it, but I ran out of space.  I am not a fan of inserts because I feel they complicate things, but I felt I could make an exception for Valentine's.  I still used the pink woodgrain, but folded a little envelope from kraft paper.  Hopefully the overlay will give it some strength.  I just wrapped a bit of silver AC ribbon around it and added a new Crate chipboard sticker.

The back is just a piece of plain Basic Grey patterned paper.  Call it white space?

 

 Page two: I got out my Target stationery stash for the yellow chevron card.  The spread needed a break from all the pink and red! The little red hearts card is also from the Pebbles pack, I added an old SC stamp, printable and FF wooden arrow.

 This card is from a Crate patterned paper.  I added a few SC and holiday pop up stamps along the bottom.  The photo is on another Pebbles card.

 I made another pop up card to reveal the true identity of Nandini's secret admirer.  I used a little wide neon pink washi to keep it in place.  The photo is on another Pebble's card, with a little rainbow stripe washi, KP stamp and enamel dots.

 I have a cameo, but I still picked up some SC polaroid die cuts on clearance.  I used pop dots on the MME sticker, and cut a Pebble's sticky note to make the second sticker.

Chalkboard paper speech bubbles and chalkboard thickers? Don't mind if I do. 

 Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using are the Seafoam kit and Clementine kit, with multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too!

cheek pinches & all

Hi, I am sharing a few pages I created this week.  Having fun with my stamps and my silhouette, using my February Studio Calico kit.

I really liked this basic grey paper and used it as the inspiration for this layout.  I love how the color seems to have been layered on in strips.  I added layers of washi tape here and there to echo that.  Then I stamped triangles and layered many sheets of kraft under the photo.   I wondered when I would use that $&#%! stamp, but this photo of Avinash trying to pinch Nandini's cheek was just perfect.  Where does he learn this stuff?

I also stamped the date in the corner.   Rainbow stripe washi tape is from glitz. 

I was playing around with fonts and created this title card.  I ended up using it a stencil instead.  So I ended up with stamping, embossing and stenciling on one layout.  Quite like the look.  

 And, one more recent page with my February kit. This is another Basic Grey paper, which really reminded me of a page by Michelle, love that girl.  I used that month stamp here again and a Mama Elephant "CELEBRATE" stamp as well for good measure.  Love those black glitter thickers.  They will look good on so many different projects I think.

Top Ten out of the way Disney photo spots

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I love family vacations at Disney World and taking lots of pictures.  It is nice to get some posed shots in front of the castle on Main Street but I really love to get fun, candid and unique shots.  That being said, it is not always easy with all the action and crowds at Disney.  Planning ahead a little can really help. Here are some of my favorite spots.  Keep scrolling and don't worry, I saved the best for last!

1. The fireworks behind the castle.  You have way less crowds and it is the closest to the fireworks you can get.

2. On the Dumbo Ride.  Especially if you get a day with big white fluffy clouds in the sky. 

 3. Inside Belle's cottage.  The props are so lifelike and the lighting is way better than inside the Enchanted Tale's with Belle experience.

4. Riding the carousel.  We used to skip this ride, but our kids love it and you can get some great shots with the castle in the background.

 5. Another great place to get a castle picture (blurry background!) is on the little lawn at the front of Main Street.  Get down very low and you can get pictures without all those crowds in the background.

 6. On the tea cups.  I just love getting to capture that moment of joy.  This ride is ideal for pictures.  Not only is it naturally lit, but the seats are round so you can sit directly across from your subject.

7. The Wheel of Peril.  This is in the line for Goofy's Barnstormer.  This is an old ride that got a fun face lift this summer.

 8. The Lampost on the way to Storybook Circus.  The ground is slightly raised here so you can get another great picture here without any distracting crowds in the background. Can you tell I don't like crowds in pictures?

 9. Sleeping in a princess dress or costume.  This is so the way Disney World is, isn't it?  All that fun and excitement just tires them out so quickly.  Is there anything sweeter?

 10. The mirror in the Castle Couture store in Fantasyland. A Disney photo pass photographer grabbed my camera and had me pose here one year.  I was pregnant with Nandini at the time.  I was amazed at his ability to get me, my belly and the Cinderella dress all in the frame of the mirror. It is just a magical photo spot.  I had to recreate it with Nandini after she was born. I hope that we always come back and take a picture together at this spot. 

I hope this gives you some ideas.  The most important thing is to just relax and have fun.  Your pictures will be awesome and precious, because they are yours. 

Thank you for visiting my blog! Be sure to check out my Etsy shop, my scrapbook pages and my pinterest boards for more great stuff.  

There are a lot of great Disney ideas and planning tips out there, I love to keep track of them on pinterest as well.  I have a Disney Scrapbook pin board too.  So fun to look through! This post was even pinned by the official Walt Disney World page and I am so excited. You can find a lot of my Disney scrapbook pages here on my blog if you are looking for additional scrapbook ideas (after you get the great pictures of course!)

 You can follow my blog on bloglovin', check out my Etsy shop Rainbow Scrapbooks, find me on twitter or instagram as nirupama01.

 
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Project Life: Love you to the Moon and Back

Had a lot of fun with my spread this week.  Started to add in a little bit of red and pink for Valentine's Day.  I just love it.

This week: We seemed to have a lot of birthday parties to attend. I also documented some random things like Nandini's fashion sense, her obsession with Moon Dough (which has since gone in the trash after an unfortunate incident all over the carpet), Avinash playing games and my recent haircut. Ryan was out of town for a few days and somehow this translated to no photos of him. Ooops. I seem to have most of the correct photos for the weekdays but I still use photos from either weekend as needed.  

  First page: Still loving the woodgrain Paislee Press cards. The photo is so glarey but it really looks great in real life! I used some new black and white thickers and a wooden geotag from my new Studio Calico kit.

White chalk ink makes such a nice impression on 'dark space' on a photo.  I stamped it with an Elle's Studio stamp on Nandini's picture.  Plus it hides some of the clutter in the background.  I taped an instagram of my haircut on a Clementine card.  

I layered another Clementine card under this Ormolu tag.  The black letters are Basic Grey, definitely a favorite Project Life staple, and the stamp on the photo is Ali Edwards. 

I added a little text to the photo of Nandini at the party.  Gotta love a good photobooth.  I always need vertical photos so I added a (slightly) older photo of Avi and I at the museum photobooth.  It fits the theme, alright?

The tab is Elle's Studio and the flair is Ormolu. 

 Page two: I used my new kit February stamp on a card cut from this new Studio Calico journaling card paper.  I am still hoarding some of the other cards.  I glued an Elle's Studio card in between these two photos of Avinash and Nandini.  It is the trendy phrase in scrapbooking right now, and I must admit I love it.  I punched the corners with an old MS stars punch.

One day Avi was randomly emptying out his pockets and had the cutest random assortment.  I swore that I wrote it down somewhere but couldn't find it when I was filling in the page.  I wrote down what I could and decided to journal about how Ryan and I couldn't remember exactly, ha. 

 I added a little strip of a Crate border sticker and some MME word stickers.  I thought it was funny that they spell out this phrase, but she really is too much. I also used an old bokeh stamp from Studio Calico on top of their fairytale printable.

I stamped directly on the photo of Aivnash. We planted our seeds early this year so they have a chance to grow before the summer gets too hot. 

 Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using are the Seafoam kit and Clementine kit, with multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too!

CHALKBOARD OBSESSION: TARGET FURNITURE DIY PAINT UPCYCLE

source.

I love chalkboard paint.  I must have seen that pin on pinterest about how to make your own like a thousand times. 

Thing is, I never was going to really make my own. 

Then I saw all these cute little bottles of Martha Stewart Chalkboard paint lined up at Micheal's.  For only 5.99 (minus my trusy 40% off coupon), it was too good to pass up.  My love took on a level.  I am totally obsessed.  It took a lot of restraint to not buy every single color they had.  I kind of want to paint my patio with it even though it is already a good surface for chalk. I did paint the panels on the train table blue with pretty good results.

 

 I also feel like we have been drowning in toys lately.  I can no longer keep the majority of them in Avi's room.  The kids just don't play there much and their kitchen and doll house are in the living room now anyway.  So, when I saw this Target circo shelving on sale (similar to the Ikea Expedit), a lightbulb went on in my head.  Buy shelves, organize toys and get to paint one more thing with chalkboard paint.

Thing is, the shelves are laminate.  Internet tells me that to paint laminate requires sanding and priming etc.  Not gonna happen.  But, the shelves have these lovely (not so lovely) chipboard backing pieces that get nailed in to place on the back.  Perfect!

I used the unfinished side, wiped it down with windex, primed it with some gesso (I'm a crafter, it's all I had), and then painted on two coats of chalkboard paint.  I did this all in one night, including putting together the shelves.  I just had to wait 24 hours for them to fully dry.  Curing them with chalk afterwards was so much fun. 

 
 

After nailing them in place I added labels for the shelves.  I love how it looks, plus it reminds me of the room makeover in the Berenstein's Bears book Messy Room.  I have always wanted that room.  Maybe I should get a peg board too? 

The best part? Nandini and Avinash have actually be en using toys they hadn't looked at it months.  Can't tell you how much time she spends making calls on that little phone. 

Hmmm, is the Christmas tree still up back there?  Somebody should really take that down soon...

ETA: Target now sells chalkboard paint too.  Because why go anywhere else when you get everything you never knew you always wanted in one handy store?  And, they sell it in a lot of lovely colors.  I think these shelves would look awesome painted with teal blue chalkboard paint too, don't you?