It's Sew Easy Class Scrapbook Layout

I'm still really enjoying the sewing class I'm taking from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. It's been chalk full of great information and each project builds nicely on the skills learned in the last lesson.

For this layout, I got to practice my free-motion stitching on the circle, leaves and flowers. It's stressful but so rewarding to finally learn how to use my sewing machine.

Instead of text or book paper, I copied some of my Nana's letters and handwritten recipes and cut the strips. It's wonderful to have some of her handwriting included in this page.

Project Life Pages 2/6-2/13

Here are my pages for Project Life 2/6-2/13. Did you see that I used one of my quilted ATCs as a page embellishment?

I didn't journal as there really wasn't much to say. Sure, I could have typed on a cute card that we all had the flu and stayed home all week but I don't want my PL to end up as a record of the unending string of illness we've been having. That's not fun.

It was my birthday so I made a full page birthday LO. It was fun to use pink - not a lot of pink in my life. I'm still keeping this very simple. As soon as I start thinking "artsy" or " this would be really awesome if I just..." I end up setting it aside and getting behind. I like using it as a 'pretty photo album' with notes and bits of our daily life. 

And that's not stressful at all.

Do any of you include full scrapbook pages in your PL projects?

I like it, I miss scrapbooking.

Rolled roses... will these things ever go away? LOL. 

They're just so cute and easy, I couldn't help myself.

This page LO is one of my favorites. I love the eight 3x3 pics and the big 6x12 space in the middle. It just seems so full of promise and possibility.

My goal for my PL is to include more things like the books we're reading, our menus, the TV shows we're into. Now that our birthday/anniversary/birthday/birthday season is over I think I'll be able to fit it in better.

January Image Quest Layout

Each month I'm making a LO featuring the photos I've taken for Image Quest, a photo challenge I'm doing. My intent is to keep it as simple as possible, keeping the focus on the photos, not on the cute crap I can scatter around a page :-)

(click to see)

My favorite part of this LO (not counting the pics themselves) is the silver letters. When we were sick over Christmas we bought a box of Kleenex with menthol and the inside of the box was lined with silver. When it was empty I broke the box down and saved it for crafting. To make the letters I ran it through my Cuttlebug using PTI's Block Alphabet (scroll way down the page) die.

They're cute and I love that I can recycle household paper for my titles.

Project Life Pages 1/9 -1/15

This was such a fun week to record. I realized that I branched out a bit with journalling cards and stitching  and I added a bunch of hand cut hearts from some painty tags I've been playing around with.

I also figured out that you don't need to put a 4x6 picture in a 4x6 space. You can put two 4x3 items in the pocket just the same. For some reason, this made the project a lot more fun.

Gotta run, I have an appointment at The Orthopedic Specialist Hospital (TOSH) today. How exciting! Maybe they can fix my eternally broken foot.

Project Life Pages for SPARK

SPARK was such a special time for me that I decided to make two pages of my album about on it. That's one of the things I like best about this project, you can really do it however you like.

I shamelessly downloaded photos people posted on Twitter and Instagram because I was having too much fun getting painty and hanging out with my dear, dear friend Mary to whip out my camera. Plus those gals with the big fancy DSLRs can do justice to the decor far better then me and my little point and shoot. That said, the right side (grid) is all me. 

We had the greatest name tags at SPARK, now it's a wonderful page embellishment.

Thanks so much for popping by :-)

Project Life Pages

Thanks for the feedback on Project Life. 

Please excuse the horrible pictures, it's really hard to photograph through page protectors and with my mangled body I'm not terribly bendy right now. 

December 26 - January 1st

click to see this full-sized

We didn't do anything but lay on the couch moaning and watching TV so I thought I'd include pics of the shows we watched. Brayden made a bunch of origami throwing stars so I slipped one in the pocket.

On the other side, is a very simple scrapbook page to show the pictures I took for a photo challenge I'm participating in. All the pictures had fun text and frames so I wanted to keep it very clean and focused on the photos.

To make a collage like this I use a tool called Comic Life. I just drop the photos onto an 8.5x11 space and move them around until they fit well. Then I print them and cut the pictures apart and rearrange them in a pleasing way.

And here's another one:

11/28 - 12/4

You can see another way I use Comic Life at the top left of this page. Here's a close up:

I wanted to include Trenton's NaNoWriMo finisher certificate and his volunteer log for November so I inserted a letter sized page protector between the two pages.

Here's a closer look at the advent collage:

Let It Snow: Sketchy Thursday Layout

Last week we got oodles of glorious snow. It was magical, marvelous and a teensy bit maddening as it had been near eighty degrees the day before. Utah weather can give a girl whiplash!

Here's the Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

I went more for texture on this LO then gobs of stuff. It came out nice and thin, my album thanks me :-)

And I included the Scrapfit Challenge: Workout #53 'The Journaling Goes Round & Round'  - my journalling went all around the page.

Photo Banner, Dina Wakley Style

(Click to see these upclose, there's lots of detail.)

I love Dina Wakley's style. She is very near the top of my Top Five Favorite artists list... often in position number one. She rocks the casbah!

When I saw her work on the cover of the newest Somerset Workshop, I decided to host "Dina Camp" for myself. My plan is to work through the four projects in the magazine and hopefully some of her magic will rub off on me. 

It has been ridiculously fun. Those expensive stepped-out magazines are such a great value if you treat them like a workshop instead of just flipping through enjoying all the eye candy.

This banner is the first thing I completed, it's wonderful seeing my beautiful family whenever I walk up the stairs.

Speaking of Somerset Publications, I was ever so overjoyed 

when I flipped through the latest Stamper's Sampler

and saw one of my cards featuring a favorite Stampotique character, Twinkie

I guess I get to update my "Where's Nicole" page. *grin*

Linked up with:

Tatertots and Jello