This happened | Muppet Babies Can Come True

Project Life | Yes, Indeed.

This Week| Avinash's last week of ballet for the season.  An outdoor ballet show at the park 'for Nandini'.  Unpacking, getting settled in to the new house. And, lots of snuggly baby time of course.

First Side| I used several full patterned cards here.  I think these were easier to mix together and work with because the colors are softer.  I have a harder time doing that with bolder colored cards because they take away from the photos too much.  There is definitely extra space to add some journaling about the baby.  SO need to get over my mental block and do that. 

Second Side| Keeping it pretty simple this week.  Photos and a bit of journaling.  Not sure I love how the postcard turned out, but it is done and that's it.  I snipped a bit of journaling card off to add extra words to a photo.

Window pocket| More die cut water color paper, this time hearts.  Also, you can see the die cut from the previous pages showing through.  Love how the see through elements layer up on each other making you want to turn the page and see more.

Card Idea| The watercolor was already done for me on this card so all I had to do was add a die cut word and letters. I mixed different textures too by adding cork and wood.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

A Different kind of blog hop

Hi! I was tagged by two wonderful scrappy ladies for a scrapbookers blog hop that has been making the rounds.  The lovely Betsy Sammarco, aka PharmGirl, who is also our fearless leader at the JBS digital team.  She is such a lovely person to work with and I consider her a friend and major source of my self-esteem.   She does that amazing thing where she combines talent and organization and sweetness and encouragement all in one.  The very  talented and sweet Tisha also tagged for this blog hop.  She has such great style and awesome ideas. Like, her recent post about placing albums around the house for people to see.  I love that, scrapbooks need to be shared!

 
  1. What am I working on right now?


So many things.  My oldest two kids (that feels so weird to type, since we always now tell the baby that Avinash and Nandini are his kids) have been with their grandparents for a week so I have time for everything and nothing.

I find myself painting a lot.  This little antique book holder we had got some circus-y triangles painted on it.  I also repainted the pink doll house a more stately grey. The chalkboard frame also got a fresh coat of grey paint.  Turns out chalk markers aren't always as washable as they claim.

Also put up shelves in the playroom.  I couldn't decide between staining the wood or painting but ended up doing white on white.  Love it.  Now I just need to keep the shelves organized and neat.  And pray they don't climb on them when they get back.

I recently had one of my digital designs licensed for resale by The Ink Road, a really cool Etsy shop.   So exciting and fun to do something different for me.  Hope to do more of this stuff in the future.


        2. How long does it take me to create a project?

Forever and no time at all.  Take this layout for example.  I spent a whole afternoon stamping and watercoloring along with the kids.  I loved it so much that I turned the scrap paper it into a layout.  That part took no time at all and I finished three other layouts that night.  The longest part is usually coming up with an idea.  I think I am guilty of trying way too hard to scrap each page differently. 



        3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?
Have I mentioned paint yet?  Yes, that.  Also, stamping and mini books.  I have too huge a stamp collection not to use them.  I started a few mini books with Avinash.  We actually finished one about the aquarium and I am still plugging away at my Disney book. 



        4. How does my writing/creating process work?
I used to have naptime.  Now it all happens after bedtime.  I love scrapping because it lets me unwind while we watch TV.  It also helps me pause life, just for a little bit.  I do all of my cutting and pasting at night and find little quiet times during they day when I'm alone to write.  I need to capture the things that are going on because otherwise I get overwhelmed with the feeling that life is just whooshing by me.   


        5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?
Um. Pinterest?  Yeah, defiintely that actually.  I just love to look at a bold image, grab an idea from that and put it on a page somewhere.  It is a lot tougher for me to scraplifta page, than to just take one idea or embellishment and make it my own. 


        6. What is my signature style?

  Still evolving.  Always evolving I hope.  I have a lot of different interests, knitting, nature and science, scrapbooking, painting, photography, etc.  I like my pages to reflect that when I can.  They definitely vary a lot, I think.  I have been finding more of a style with my PL pages lately though.  Lots of black and white elements, because it is so bold and clear cut.  I also love to add openness to my pages by adding see through elements. 


I am tagging three crafty ladies of my own:

Michelle Hernandez, aka my analog life.  This woman has style for days.  Is such a tough New Yorker, who is so tough she even dared to leave Brooklyn and start something new for her family.  I love following all of her adventures on instagram too.

Smitha Katti, from Smiling Colors.  She seriously does it all.  There is no crafty skill she can't teach you.  Did you see her statue making abilities?  Blown away so much, I can't even describe it.  

Anandi Raman Creath, of papercraft labratory.  Seriously? Could her shop and blog name be any cooler? I love that she shares so many great memory keeping tips all the time and shares her memory keeping talent with others who want scrapbooks but can't make them or don't have time.

Project Life | #DFTBA

This Week| Let it go (actually that's every week, but I had to document it sometime).  Also, shadow puppets, mini golf and un-birthday free ice cream. 

Full Spread| Lots more pink. This time paired with yellow and aqua. I mixed up a few different kits.

Letterpress card + die cut embellishment. Perfect for my little diva. 

 I scatterd the stars and then dotted them with glossy accents after they were on the photos.

First Side| Oh, let it go.  I had to use that letterpress card from Kelly Purkey to document Nandini's Frozen obsession.  I think that and the rock star with sunglasses photos say it all. This page was a little more of a checkerboard than I've been doing lately.  I just love adding black and white elements to pages. The rest of the cards are SC.

Second Side|Sort of randomly stamped make stuff, from the Jubilee stamp set, onto a gold label and used pop dots to stick it on.  These journaling cards from Penny Arcade are so gorgeous I don't need to do much to them. #DFTBA (dont' forget to be awesome). These two brothers together have such a bond already.

Window pocket|  I used a pre made die cut made out of watercolor paper.  Love the rich feel they have to them. 

Card Idea| I made two artsy cards this week. One had a stamped design colored in with watercolors.  The other had a die cut title, also watercolored to add depth.  Simple titles are also a great way to add interest.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

Project Life| You are my fave

This week| Met up with old friends from Houston. Did the usual rounds of dance class, yoga and checking in on the new house. Avinash and Nandini also had their class play for Chinmaya. Avinash got to be Ganesh and Nandini was his little mouse friend. Seeing them in a play together was everything I hoped it could be and more. The cuteness was over the top.

The full spread. Love all the pink and navy this week.

First page| I've been waiting to use the pink and blue scallop card for a long time.  It just fit perfectly here to combine the colors of the spread. They boys wear a lot of blue so it creeps into all my pages. The Ganesh play pictures were pretty busy so I printed the group photo with a wide white border to help. All of these cards are Studio Calico.

Second side| The cat party quote is one of my favorites from Nandini.  She talks about her cat party constantly. I added more pink here with the pink doily cut up and glued down in two places.  It makes a lovely open pocket place too.  The fun banner card is from Paislee Press and didn't need much embellishment.



You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!

Mini Scrapbooks | Walt Disney World Mini, part one

As promised here is a look at the inside of my Walt Disney World Mini Book.  I used a gold WRMK 4x4 album that is just amazing.  I used that as a starting place for a metallic color scheme.  I decided to mix in some silver and gold, as well as a lot of wood veneer.  If mixing gold and silver is wrong, I don't want to be right.  For more info on how I used google plus stories to start my album, go check out this post first.
Here is a list of the supplies I used most heavily.  I took a mini class with Marcy Penner this month for inspiration.  I didn't get the class kit but I managed to use my other kits and a few new alphas from Brighton Pier. 

Supply List:
gold WRMK 4x4 album
chipboard pieces
Studio Calico Smalls kit + castle stamp
Brighton Pier Thickers
LLP Tab Stamp set
Wood Veneer Marquee Words
Sandlot card kit paper pad
Shipping tags

Simple simple simple. Brown + black + silver. There is something marquee lettering that always says Disney to me.  That stamp is from the SC Smalls add-on.

I back the chipboard with patterned paper and made a flair mickey with enamel dots for ears.

I printed out the google story maps and stitched the flight path on in gold metallic thread.

See how google plus stories blurred a photo of the cover page of day 2?  I never would have done this on my own and I love it so much.  Plus,  I don't have to try and remember what day anything was on.

In busy albums I like the look of plain patterned paper here and there to give the eye a little white space.  I added a black Marcy Penner printables from her class since it seemed to fit (and I had a hole to cover up, eep!).  I printed for the next day divider on vellum to play up the blurred look.

I love adding tabs and flags to the edges of mini book pages.  It just makes the book feel that much more interactive.

Another connecting theme in this book is stars.  Something I use all the time anyway, but I like having similar elements throughout a mini to make it look cohesive.

These are the first few days of the album. I will continue posting pages here all week. Thanks for sharing this!
Mini Scrapbooks is a new blog series I am starting.  I have a ton of mini albums that I start.  But not many that I finish.  An attempt to blog about them regularly so I can follow through on these fun little projects.  You can see my other mini book projects here. 

Linked up with Paper Issues for the Admit One issue, because when it comes to amusement parks Disney is my favorite!

Mini Scrapbooks| Walt Disney World Book, getting started with Google Stories

Google plus has a new feature called Stories that automatically creates digital scrapbooks of events. I don't use google plus much but I do have the app on my phone. I took a look at the stories it created for me and kinda loved them.  They have nice clean lines and fun extras like maps. They even do a good job of editing my unweldy amount of photos down.

Of course digital scrapbooks are nice but I prefer something I can hold in my hand. Unfortunately google stories are not set of or printing. I tried printing directly from the webpage one frame at a time. This took a lot of time and did not have the best resolution.

I ended up taking screenshots from my desktop and phone then printing those out. Somehow the resolution was better and it saved time because printing from a webpage is a lot of steps on my computer.

For this project I choose a 4x4 mini album, so I could print 4 pages on a piece of letter paper or one page on a 5x7, in case I wanted it to sit outside the page protector.

Of all the little stories I had populated I was most enamored with the story of our Disney trip last year. I have scrapped a few pages here and there but never did anything with the vast majority of pictures.

This is a look at my photo sheets after printing. I really love how the stories use a blurred photo to hold the date. 

Despite the trial and error involved it took almost no time to get my printing done. I finished the whole album from start to finish, embellishing and stamping included, in the space of three evenings. This a record for me. I can usually only finish one and a half PL spreads in that time.

Because this is a mini I had to add a variety of textures for fun. I took a couple sheets of patterned vellum and used those.

I used one sheet for photos, patterned side down. This way the photos could keep their translucent quality while having some interest on the back.

 Here you can see how the vellum photos look in the album itself to give you an idea of what I mean.

I also used vellum on a sheet of printables, pattern side up. I used an eraser to smudge away the ink from the raised part of the pattern. This a really fun way to personalize printables.The edges weren't perfect and some turned out better than others.

I will show you my completed pages here over the next few days.

Mini Scrapbooks is a new blog series I am starting.  I have a ton of mini albums that I start.  But not many that I finish.  An attempt to blog about them regularly so I can follow through on these fun little projects.  You can see my other mini book projects here.