March Scrapbook Projects | 4 Projects and a Layout Process Video

I am always ready for spring time and am totally in love with all the butterflies, flowers and purple in this kit! 

All projects created using the Cocoa Daisy March Silver Lining 12x12 Memory Keeping and Pocket Memory Keeping kits. 

I know that purple gets a bad name in crafting circles and I am not sure why.  The same goes for brown but people change their tune as long as you call it kraft or woodgrain. I find both colors to be lovely and am all for it.  

My daughter's most recent Faerie Tea Party pictures were just perfect for this kit of course.  

I really wanted to create flight trails behind the butterflies.  I used simple machine stitching for it.  I just worked slowly and slightly rotated my paper as I went to make the curves. 

The best part was after making this page she asked to keep it and hung it up in her room.  I guess not every page has to be tucked away in an album! 

This is the video to see how I put this layout together step by step. 

And, how fabulous is this washi tape in this month's confidential kit.  It is like getting a blind bag every month and I love it! I have been biding my time to share this, but I finally can! 

This is a hybrid layout I put together.  Just a lovely little time capsule of the days recently. 

 And finally a few Project Life spreads to share.

Shipping tags + die cuts. I try to add some typed journaling to at least a few photos before printing. 

I stitched all these cut apart flags to make another rainbow card for the spread.  Lakshman spelling words with play-doh is my favorite. 

Adding a little black and white with all this colors helps balance it out for sure.

Thanks again for checking out my projects this month! Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

Project Life | February 2017

This Month | February is a fun month for our family.  It starts out with Lakshman's birthday.  We also had Nandini's birthday party this same month.  My parent's had a groundbreaking ceremony at their new Austin house.  I went to the Valentine's Parties at the kids school and Lakshman crashed them with me too.  Time to bust out the pink and red and hearts! 

I used a strip of another PL card to add journaling to a photo, I am sure I got this trick from Ali Edwards. 

Adding typed up journaling from another Instagram post and left space for some embellishments.  I found a stamp that fit in perfectly and added a cork tag on top. 

I still struggle with the look of my handwriting on my pages.  I used another Ali Edwards and did some irregular wavy lines for the journaling.  

Lots of Whale and Squid party pictures coming up. I also did a few Valentine's pictures of Lakshman hanging out in my room which I had to include too of course. The pictures are so colorful the embellishments are minimal. My journaling is hand written here again and I tried to keep it very small so it would look neat.

A birthday stamp set to embellish a PL card.  I used a few sticky notes, slightly stamped with yellow stars for journaling on both pages.  I also wrote out a long story about Lakshman's squid balloon backpack! 

Nandini's Fearie Party! One of the early Faerie Trail events at the Austin Botanical Garden is the tea party.  I had to order tickets very early, but managed to get enough for her to have a few friends there with her.  

This page | A square divided page is a nice way to include lots of extra photos.  I picked a good mix of coordinating Studio Calico cards and cut them down to 3x3. 

The opposite page.  Sometimes I don't get to do as much journaling as I have space for but I think it is better to move on and not just stall and get hung up.  If I get back to it great, if not, oh well. I already have plenty documented. 

You can see all of my Project Life posts here. 

Project Life| January 2017

Project Life is one of my favorite memory keeping projects. It runs consecutively and doesn’t require fancy titles. It has a set structure of small pockets to fill. You can get as creative as you want from there.  

I am definitely loving this simple intro page. I kept it airy by leaving two pockets see through, with chipboard numbers inserted for the year and a fabric patch. 

The back starts to tell the story of New Years.  We were back in Austin and just having fun around town.  I largely used Studio Calico kit cards here.  Love the simple clink cheers sentiment. 

I continued to use the kraft die cuts on the facing page. I like how it matches with cork and hints of gold.

Taking a large caption from Instagram and pasting it under a photo is one of my fastest ways to journal. I kept the photo a hybrid by stamping the month and using a number sticker. 

Kraft embellishments continue, this time paired with yellow.  I try to jot down funny quotes the kids say and included a card with recent Lakshman sayings. 

Typical beginning of the year appointments and stuff.  Nandini had a dentist check up and Lakshman sat watching her, completely fascinated. 

Little school field trips and a tea party at a Hotel.  So much fun. More yellow and gold.

Documenting a little more about Avinash.  He is the oldest and often away at school, so his picture doesn't get taken and his stories don't get told.  Wanting to be more conscious about that.

Documenting two of the school art projects I did with each of their classes.  It was so much fun! The Sunday Morning card is foil pressed in gold. 

Avinash climbing up the legacy oaks at the Wildflower Center. January is so dreary in Austin, I had to document what little greenery and flowers I do see on my runs. 

In January we also celebrated Indian Republic Day. More typed journaling and more yellow and cork on this page.  I don't usually try to make an entire month contiguous but this time it just worked out that way. 

I have caught up with the first few months of project life and will be sharing more ideas here soon. You can see all of my Project Life posts here. 

4 Scrapbook Layouts and 2 Pocket Pages | January Cocoa Daisy Kit Buttercup

I don't know if it is the fact that we had just gotten back from Disneyland when I got this kit, but this month's offerings from Cocoa Daisy were pure magic.  What else can you expect from a Princess Bride inspired kit I guess? The deep blues and varying hues of pink and magenta are so royal and luxurious feeling.  The perfect thing to perk any winter doldrums and ideal for Valentines.  But, more on that later. 

The idea for this Minnie Ears / Mickey Ears page swam around in my head for days.  I loved the idea so much but I was too obsessed to glue anything down and make it final.  So I printed my photo, fussed with the tag and the arrangement of the embellishments.  I selected just the right rub-ons and die cuts.  Added a strip of patterned paper.  Typed out my journaling.  Still, I worried about those ears!  Sometimes simple pages are the hardest.  I finally just used some liquid glue (clear glue from Martha Stewart) and placed the velvet ribbon how I wanted it.  It has held its shape remarkably well over the month. 

dreamy/beautiful | I actually made this page first. I chose this picture because it was one of the most favorite pictures of the whole trip.  I was pleasantly surprised after printing it out to see that the colors matched the kit perfectly.  Her dress is just the right colors and the umbrella adds a great pop of red for contrast. 

brilliant/dream big | I loved the patterned paper filled with project life cards so much.  Each one was lovelier than the last. I knew I had to use them together on a layout.  I created a partial grid and printed out many 2x2 photos.  Only two made it onto the layout, along with a 3x4 photo that had a full pattern feel from the mosaic in the background.  I trimmed each card down a little bit so there would be a border on the page. 

Imagination is the only cure for reality | I used a large Lewis Carroll quote for my title here.  I just love long titles on scrapbook pages (when I can think of them). Especially when the thickers are as lovely as these gold filigreed ones. 

 My plan is to make 9x12 pages of our trip this winter and keep them together in one album.  I made a divided pocket page to go with the Tea Cups page.  This page focuses on more Alice in Wonderland photos too for the most part.  The key motifs in this kit seemed very apt. 

DITL | I made one more divided pocket page of our Disney trip.  I cut out a lot of cards from the patterned paper.  I cut out the O in love and put a little Dumbo photo behind it.  So cute! 

Thank you for taking a look at my projects this month! I hope you enjoyed them.  I will be back with the rest of the projects I made this kit and a card making video. Go to the Cocoa Daisy page to shop for the full kit and see the rest of the designs.  

You can see all of my Cocoa Daisy Projects here. 

Cocoa Daisy Crafting Kits + Video | Sprinkles November 2016

The Cocoa Daisy crafting kits are awesome for making scrapbook pages, planners, mini books, Project Life spreads and more! 

This month's kit, Sprinkles, was so awesome.  It even came with this great subscriber freebie tote bag.  So cute.  The kit features a fun and colorful mix of Valorie Wibbens designs, Dear Lizzy and Shimelle Collections from American Crafts and plenty of exclusives - like those wood veneers! 

Hello Adventure | The main kit includes these awesome Dear Lizzy big chipboard title stickers.  I love the big impact they add to a project.  I combined two together to form my title here.  I was going to put this page on a plain white sheet of cardstock, but this patterned paper was just subtle enough to fill in even better than the plain white.  That's what I love about having a kit to work with.  It really helps me expand beyond what products I would normally pull for myself. I used a variety of hand trimmed circles with a mix of the other patterned papers. 

Best | This is my project life spread for the month.  I used these big chipboard number tags and the Dear Lizzy chipboard titles again.  I also used several journaling cards in different ways.  Two for journaling on, of course. One I cut up into word strips to make some word art to add to a picture. The last I used to cut out a banner embellishment.  

Donuts | I know it is probably pretty corny, but I had to do a page about donuts with my sprinkles kit.  I fussy cut several donuts from patterned paper and used the wooden one as well.  The journaling I typed out on my typewriter and cut into strips for the page. I feel like this is a good option when you are not sure how exactly your design is going to end up.  I sprinkled some stamps and chipboard hearts around the page as well.   I love this kit worked great for boy pages even though the colors are predominantly very soft and feminine. 

And, last but not least - Let them eat cake!!  

I had to make a page about my girls very sweet Marie Antionette costume.  

I put together a video showing how my page came together.  Take a look at let me know what you think! 

Thank you!

Darling| Cocoa Daisy Layout Process Video