Project Life - Week 2 2023

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that you are having a good week!  After having a very mild February and the first few days of March, winter has returned and I don't like it one bit! It should not have tempted us with all of those sunny - warm - days only to come back with a vengeance! Cloudy, dreary, cold days not getting out of the 30s when the average high is close to 60...not nice! Oh, well, I know the pretty days will return soon enough. At least the sun is finally shining today.

Today I am sharing Week 2 of my 2023 Project Life. Slowly but surely I am getting into a groove with it. For this week, I am using the January Freckled Fawn kits. I decided to try a subscription with them this year - at least for a while - to see how well I use their cards, papers, and embellishments. I have always loved their embellishments, so we are going to give them a try. 

Here's a look at the complete layout:

Here is the left side of the layout:

And a couple of close-ups:

For my title card, I cut down one of the 6x8 papers into a 4x6 card since the pocket card kit does not include the 4x6 size. cards. I cut the frame from one of the 3x4 cut-apart cards and added it to the 4x6. I fussy cut the flowers from one of the 6x8 papers for embellishments and a few of the adhesive-backed brads that I had included in my February bashket. The colors of those brads matched perfectly and I was able to get quite a few onto this layout.

I did pretty well using the chipboard that came in the kit. I think I only have three or four pieces left.  I am trying to use as many of the embellishments that come in the kit as I can so I am not adding much back into my stash at the end of the month. 

The photos and stories from the left page are - a photo of Shane when we actually went inside Wendy's to eat instead of taking it home. It had been so long since we ate inside and the food tasted so good! There's more to this story than what is told here, but that will be for a traveler's notebook layout!

I picked up a couple of sets of cute pens that I liked and that I thought Ada would like - they are some of her favorite things - llamas, unicorns, mermaids, narwhals, etc., and this picture just made me happy with them all laid out.

Abby sent me a photo of Ada with her first "coffee" and there's more to this story, as well. Another story for my traveler's notebook.

I shared two photos from our game cam - a squirrel with a nut in its mouth and a deer. I really thought we would see more action on it during the winter, but that has not been the case. 

We also got a little bit of snow. Heavy, wet snow that was perfect for making a snowman. Thankfully it hit after everyone was already at work and it didn't really stick to the roads.

Here is the right side of the layout:

The majority of the photos on this side was from Sunday when we had a family dinner. In fact, the only photo not from Sunday is the one of Shane playing his game. No special story there - just a typical day. 

The photo of Ada and Pops in the top pocket is them doing the Tortilla Slap Challenge. Ada had been after him to do it with her and he finally gave in. The photo of Ada below that one has another photo and some hidden journaling on it. Let's just say that the Tortilla challenge wasn't that fun for her! She started off strong winning the first few rounds and getting to "slap" Pops, but then her luck changed and it wasn't quite as fun for her! Her little cheek was red from all of the tortilla slaps that she took! I'm pretty sure she won't want to do the challenge anytime soon!

I had to dig into my Freckled Fawn chipboard stash to finish embellishing. I did get a few washi tape pieces on this layout, too. 

We were so excited when we found out that The Last Of Us was being made into a series. Scott and Matthew have both played it multiple times - and I always like watching them play it, so when it was made into a series, it was like a dream come true! This was the week of the first episode and it did not disappoint. We loved it!

This photo of Ada and Winnie is one of my favorites!

Another week in the books! My plan for this year's Project Life album is to show love to all of my pocket card subscriptions - so, one week I will use Elle's Studio goodies, one week will be Freckled Fawn, one week will be Ali Edwards, and the last week will be whatever - either finishing up one of the kits, digging into my stash, or finding a digital kit to try working with.

That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! Have a great day!

Project Life - Week 1 2023

 Hello, hello! Happy Wednesday to you! I hope that you are having a good week. 

Today I am finally sharing my first Project Life layout of the year! This layout has seriously been laying on my desk for weeks and I just got around to putting the finishing touches on it and getting it photographed. 

Here is the layout:

For this first layout for the year, I have used Elle's Studio January kit and a few of their older cards and embellishments. I also managed to use most of the puffy stickers that I included in my bashket for Lisa & Lori's Great Stash Bash. 

Here is a closer look at the left side:

This week we got to spend the day with Ada on Monday - Abby had to go back to work for a teacher work day. Scott was still on Christmas day and she was happy as could be to spend the day with Pops! It was a dreary day but that didn't stop us from going on an adventure! I turned around to snap a photo of the two of them and I caught them doing a goofy walk. There is never a dull minute with these two!

The Damar Hamlin incident also happened on Monday. I was watching a movie and Scott came in and said, "I think someone may have just died on the football game." I thought he was kidding - thinking it was a really hard hit - but then when I went in and watched the replay. It was such a scary thing to watch and to not know (at the time) if he was going to be alright. 

On Tuesday Matthew surprised me with a visit. It was so unexpected and made my day! He'd come to Lebanon to get a haircut and stopped by on his way back to Springfield. He didn't stay long but we were able to visit over lunch. Anytime I can have lunch with any of my kiddos - it just makes me happy! 

I also got sticker shock when I bought a dozen of eggs at the store! $3.96 for eggs?! I knew prices were going up but that is just crazy!

This week I also got some scrappy goodies in the mail, Scott got an over-the-door organizer to help keep his Johnny West figures organized, I started stitching a new cross-stitch piece, our big flock of turkeys decided to come for a visit to the backyard, we watched The Black Phone - and really enjoyed it - and we made an unusual trip to Springfield on Sunday for some furniture shopping.

Here are a few close-ups:

I wanted to be sure to use that 2023 card this first week, otherwise, I don't know when I would use it. It became my title card for the week. I also pulled out my Stanley alphabet stamps from Elle's Studio to stamp on the card about Matt's visit. I really hope to do a lot of stamping on my layouts this year.

I scattered the puffy stickers that I had included in my bashket around my layout. I tried really hard to use all of them, but some of the colors just did not match or I just couldn't make them work. There are not many left so that is a good thing!

I am so happy to have this first week in the album! Week 2 is all ready to go and hopefully, I will get it completed a lot faster! I'd better get crackin' on getting more photos edited and ordered! I want to keep the momentum going!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

LM #633 - Title Page

Hello, everyone! Happy Sunday to you! I hope that you are having a good weekend. 

Today I am sharing my layout for this week's challenge at Lasting Memories. Our theme for January is "New Year Challenges" and this week is all about those title pages. I thought this would be the perfect time to get my title page done from my 2023 Project Life album. 

For my title page, I have used Simple Stories' So Happy Together collection. I have loved this collection since it came out and I have been holding onto the cut-apart papers just for this layout. I knew I would get around to it eventually!

Along with the cut-apart papers, I have used phrase stickers and die cuts from the same collection. For the date, I have used stickers from Bella Blvd and I used a stamp from Everyday Explorers, as well. The puffy hearts are from Sticko and have been in my stash for years! I am so glad that I was able to get a few on this page.

Here are a few close-ups:

I added each of our names and ages (as of January 1st) to labels on each of the photos.

I stamped a (half) circle label to the top of this card and added the 'just us being us' stamp to it. That stamp is from the Our World Prompts set from Everyday Explorers.

The title pages for my Project Life albums are some of my favorites to make and I am so glad to have this year's title page in the book! My photos for week one are all printed and ready to be added to the pages. I can't wait to get this album started!

How about you? Do you have any title pages that need to be made? Maybe a title page for a travel album, a school album, a baby album... Now is the time to get it done! Head on over to Lasting Memories to see the lovely layouts from the rest of the design team. I hope you have a chance to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

 

The ScrapRoom July Shots of Life Kit - Week 20/2021

 Hello, everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope that you are having a good week so far. I am behind on my blog posts this month and thought I'd better get posting before the calendar rolls over to August. You should see a new blog post from me the rest of the week! July has been super busy with vacation, sleepovers with Ada, and trying to keep up with the garden. I would like to say that August will be slower but I know I will have Ada quite a few days out of the month before school starts back up so it might not slow down for me until September! 

Today I am sharing the layout that I created using my Shots of Life Kit from The ScrapRoom. Here's a look at the kit:

I used the cut apart cards from Paige Evans and Pink Fresh and a piece of the "b" side of the Jen Hadfield paper on my layout documenting Week 20/2021. Here's a look at my spread:

Week 20 was the end of the school year for Abby and Ada, planting was starting in the garden, and Scott got a new vehicle. Here's a look at the left side of the layout:

For my title card, I cut a 4x6 piece out of the middle of the Jen Hadfield cut apart paper. I knew I wanted to use the rest of the paper for my "Mixing up the Kits" layout so I made sure to cut from the center. The journal bits from Pink Fresh that came in the kit are printed on one side and a solid color on the other, I used the "happy memories" piece and layered the purple banner piece on top. I fussy cut some flowers from the Pink Fresh paper for an embellishment. I pulled some puffy alphas from my stash and added one of the puffy hearts from the kit to finish it off. 

The top photo here is of Ada on her last day of 1st grade. The "smiles all around" card was perfect to go along with this photo. Ada had a check-up the very next day and Abby snapped a photo of them together, waiting to see the doctor. 

I used a piece of vellum over the top photo since it was a photo of Ada's 1st-grade class. Her teacher was chosen for teacher of the year and the school posted this photo of her with her class on Facebook announcing that she was the teacher of the year. Any time I see a photo of Ada and her class, I snag it!

The bottom photo is a picture of the tv with Monster's Inc. on. Scott and I were flipping through channels and got sucked into watching it. When the kids were little this was a movie we watched almost weekly. It had been ages since we had seen it and it was fun watching it again.  

I took this photo of Scott when he got home with his new van. With there being a used vehicle shortage we were lucky to find something that he was happy with so quickly. He was trying to decide what to name it and since the color of it is something like desert sand pearl, he tossed around Pearl and Sandy but didn't like either one of those. When I threw out Sahara - going with the sand/desert theme - or Jasmine (a nod to Aladdin) he immediately said, Jasmine. And it has stuck! Shawn has Jackie the Journey, Abby has Patty the Prius, and now Scott has Jasmine...looks like I need to name my car so it doesn't feel left out!

Now on to the right side of the spread:

We had to go back to Marshfield to pick up my car from the dealership. Before we picked it up, we headed over to Abby's to show them, Jasmine. It has been so long since Scott, Shane, and I all have been at their house together. I've been there several times, but it has been a couple of years since Scott and Shane visited them (#BecauseAutism). Ada was beyond thrilled! She took Pops on a tour of their whole house and was so happy to show off her playrooms. The visit went well - Shane was actually happy to visit a while - so hopefully this means we will be visiting more often!

We had such a cool and wet spring that we didn't get a chance to get started on planting the garden until May. Our green beans are already up and growing and Scott was working on the cucumbers in the above photo. I cut the "homegrown" piece out of one of the Pink Fresh cut part cards and added some tiny alphas from my stash to finish out the title.

We finally had a rain-free weekend to get the pool up and going for summertime. Gotta document that! It is a happy day in our house when the pool is all ready for the summer. 

For the last photo on this spread, I made a collage of three photos I snapped of Shane when we went for a drive in the new van. He was sitting in the front seat and I was in the seat behind him. I could see his face in the side mirror and he was smiling the whole time. For the journaling card, I added the half-circle puffy stickers that were included in the kit to make a little banner across the top. The journaling says - After Scott's old faithful van quit him last week - he spent this week looking for a new one. He found a couple online that he liked the looks of & headed out early on Friday to do some car shopping. He came home with this little gem - definitely an upgrade from his old faithful! It's nice to have a van with working air conditioning & one that all of the windows roll down again! And Shane is in love with it, too. When we took it for a drive he had a smile on his face the whole time. He loved to change the radio stations on the touch screen - a new little gadget for him to play with!

Everything on this layout is from the July portion of the Shots of Life Kit. I did use some white cardstock, purple and yellow scraps for matting, puffy alphas, small tile alphas, labels, die cuts, and a 6x4 lined journaling card. 

 

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom blog for more inspiration using the July kits. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! Have a great day!

The Scrap Room April Shots of Life Kit - Week 20/2020

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please scroll down.

Today I am up on The ScrapRoom blog with the layout that I created using the April portion of the Shots of Life kit. Here is a look at the Shots of Life Kit - which I believe is still available at The ScrapRoom:

For my layout today, I have use the cut apart paper from the PinkFresh 'Keeping it Real' collection to document Week 20 of 2020. It is perfect to document any of the happenings of last year - or even just documenting about a bad day.

Here is the left side of the spread:

Week 20 was Abby and Ada's last week of school and it looked a lot different last year thanks to the pandemic. We were a few weeks in with Scott being off of work and at home with us. We were settling in to staying home all the time. Really this wasn't too big of a change for us,  we do not just go - go - go all the time anyway, but having Scott home during the week was different and it took Shane a little time to get used to the routine being changed.

Here are a few close-ups of the page:

I thought the card that said "one day at a time" was perfect for my title card this week. So much was unknown and we were staying home and staying safe. I die cut the sentiment into a circle and I added the day by day puffy sticker to it and added it to a piece of grey patterned paper that I had in my scrap bin.  

Abby took a photo of Ada on her last day of  kindergarten. It makes me a little sad that Ada missed out on so many of the fun things that kindergarteners do. Abby also needed to go to the school to make sure her classroom was in order before the summer break, so I met them at the school to pick up Ada and take her to our house while Abby worked. It was kind of eerie pulling into the school parking lot on the last day of school and there wasn't a soul around. No buses, no excited kiddos, just emptiness. 

I wanted to add a little color so I die cut another circle out of a scrap of pink paper and then layered a couple of stamped labels on top of it for my journaling and added another puffy sticker.

While we were waiting for Abby to come pick up Ada, we went for a walk down the road. I had just gotten a new phone and was wanting to see how the camera was on it so I snapped a photo of Ada on Pops' shoulders.

The bottom photo is of Shane with his new Signing Time video. He had been asking for a specific one - number 10, I think - and we finally found it! He was so happy and went right to watching it - on his tiny dvd player for some reason - and signing right along with it. He used to watch these videos at school and picked up a lot of the signs for different things and is happy to show us what the sign is for certain words - mainly food words!

The multi-colored heart paper was one of the 2 inch squares on the cut apart sheet. I die cut it into a heart and added it to a circle. I kind of wish I had off set the heart on the circle, but it is done now. 

Ada was happy to be able to spend some extra time playing with Pepe! I added another label and puffy sticker to this photo.

Here's a look at the right side of the spread:

I created a journaling card that touched on the "highlights" of the week. I divided each different topic with tiny hearts that I punched from the different papers I used on the spread and finished it off with another puffy sticker.  

The top journaling card talks about how with all of his extra time off - Scott has been looking for old Johnny West toys to collect. They were his favorites as a kid and he has a lot of fun looking for them and reminiscing about the ones he had. 

I stamped the word "currently" at the top of the journaling card and the added the cut apart that said - "look at the bright side." If we're going to be stuck at home we might as well be looking for things to brighten our day!

I had given Ada some money specifically for the ice cream truck. Something for her to look forward to on those long summer days. Abby said the first time she heard the ice cream truck coming down the street she went running out to wait for it to get to their house. It was right before lunch so she had to take it in and put it in the freezer until after she ate her lunch.

I added another die cut circle with the ice cream puffy sticker added to it to finish off the card. 

The photo of Ada above is her painting my fingernails. She decided to turn my scrap room into her spa and she did my nails and gave me a massage. She's pretty darn good at taking care of her Nana!

The photo of  Shane shows just how happy his signing time video made him! He was happy to give me a genuine smile and he kept that smile on his face all day long!

I fussy cut the 'enjoy' banner piece out of the cut apart card sheet and added it to the top of the card. I also added another puffy sticker to his photo. 

I snapped this photo of the sunset one evening. Some days the weight of the unknown was almost unbearable. There was something about this sunset that brought me comfort. Pictures never do justice to sunrise/sunset photos, but I needed the reminder that the world was still turning and things will get better. I think I need to add that little bit of journaling to this photo!

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom blog for more inspiration. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!

Week 51/2019 - The ScrapRoom January Shots of Life Kit

Hello, everyone! Happy Friday to you all! I hope that you have had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend! I know I sure am! Hubby has been working lots of overtime and when you're used to a 3-day weekend and then they go down to a 2-day weekend, well, we just really miss that extra day off - or maybe I should say that extra day of sleeping in a bit!

I am playing catch-up here on the blog today. It's been a crazy start to the month - and new year - and I had so hoped to feel on top of things instead of behind, but it just hasn't worked out that way just yet. I had so many extra posts planned for January - like my scrappy plans for 2021 - and sadly they are still on my to-do list. But hey, I still have a little over a week to get to them before January is over...

Today I am sharing my layout using the January portion of the Shots Of Life kit from The ScrapRoom. First, here is a look at the kit - which I do believe is still available:

And this is my layout - Week 51 of 2019:

I was able to mix the winter-themed cards from Carta Bella and the love-themed cards from Photo Play to make this layout.

Here is a closer look at the left side of the layout:

This side is full of snow day fun and pre-holiday treats from my sister. Here are a couple of close-ups:

For my title card, I used one of the 4x6 cut apart cards from the Winter Market sheet. It had a design on it that I knew I wouldn't use, so I covered it with a piece of white cardstock and added a few stickers. Since the first day of winter fell in this week, the winter banner stickers were perfect.

Ada had a few days off from school because of the snow and ice - which made her - and Abby - really happy! Abby snapped a few photos of her playing out in the snow and sent them to me. I even ventured out to take a few photos of the white stuff, too.

Amy made up a bunch of cookies for Christmas treats and then she and Rick braved the icy roads to deliver them to us! The bottom photo is the day after we got the snow and ice. The sun came out and all of the iciness just sparkled. It was beautiful!

Here is a look at the right side of the layout:

This side of the layout is all about the last half of the week. The snow and ice were gone and we were back to a little warmer weather. 

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I had a little extra room so I made the "Highlights" card using a stamp from Elle's Studio to give a sort of overview of the week. Ada woke up with a fever on the last day of school before Christmas break and missed her school holiday party. I snapped the photo of me and her waiting for Abby to get done for the day. 

The top photo of Ada has a pull tab on it to reveal another photo of her with her advent calendar treat for the day - nail polish. She looked so cute with her robe on and her sleep mask pushed up on her head. I didn't want to create a flip pocket so I went with this instead. The other photos are of her - practicing headstands, which she was obsessed with trying to do, and playing with their cat Whisper. 

And lastly, these photos are of a tote full of cross stitch fabric that I thought I had gotten rid of long ago and a Taco Bell run for Shane! The cross stitch fabric find was pretty great for both me and Scott - I suddenly had a ton of new fabric to add to my stash and he made a little extra room in the shed!

I am so happy to get another week of 2019 in the albums!

Be sure to check out The ScrapRoom Blog every day throughout the week - there is a ton of inspiration for all of the kits all month long. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I will be back soon with another project to share!