December Daily 2015....Thanksgiving

This year my youngest daughter is not playing basketball.  This allowed us to not worry about practices over Thanksgiving break so we loaded up and headed to my sister's house 5 hours away.  It was such a wonderful time and I'm so happy we got to go.  There's a full size 6 x 8 photo of my girls on the left.  

 This is a trimmed down page protector with a 4 x 4 photo and two 2 x 2 photos.  The tab was stapled on.

 I adhered a gold rim tag to the photo and the JOY button is adhered to the outside of the page protector.

 Turning the page you see the back side of the small insert that features a day of hunting.  It was the first time the girls went pheasant hunting so it was well worth documenting.  On the right I have journaling cards with hand written and typed journaling.  I used some plaid paper since the plaid theme appears quite often this holiday season for us.  I also stitched on another of the Gossamer Blue sticky notes with typed words.

 Here's the two page spread without the insert.

Next I'll be moving on to our daily December activities.

December Daily 2015...dear Winter

Today I'm sharing a page about the ice storm we had while traveling to my sister's for Thanksgiving.  The left page is the back side of the clear insert.  

 I used a white shimmer envelope as a smaller insert with a photo of our wintry scene.

 This is the back side of the envelope which will hold a photo of the icy roads and a story about our road trip home during the storm.  The right page is an insert with a wood veneer embellishment and a trimmed down journaling card.

This is yet another insert I added before I actually start my days of December.  Stay tuned for more to come.

December Daily 2015....the 4 of us

It's become tradition in my December Daily albums that I start out with a photo of all 4 of us.  It seems my favorite always comes from our annual Colorado vacation.  So before I start with my numbered, daily December pages I included a page about the 4 of us together.  The pinecones were fitting and I added a #4 tag, a little plastic embellishment, washi tape and a gold glitter heart.  The photo size is 6 x 6 in black and white. 

 This shows the back of the 6 x 6 photo.  I'll hand write about spending time with my favorite people in Colorado and what this album means to me this year.

 I used gold letter stickers, my favorite sticky note flags from the Gossamer Blue December Memories Kit, and word stickers. In previous years I've used red stitching and I'm continuing with that in this year's album.

 This is a 12 square insert with 2 x 2 journaling cards, a wood veneer piece, sequins, black metal tag and wood veneer tree.  I like to use the Tiny Tim stapler a lot too.

You can see my next page peeking through.  I'll be back to share that soon.

Daily December 2015....album and cover page

Today I'm sharing the beginnings of my December Daily 2015 album.  I'm using an Ali Edwards album this year in red.  The page sizes are mainly 6 x 8.

 Here's my cover page which starts out with a clear overlay.

 Peek through to the main cover page.

 The cover age is wonderfully embossed and doesn't need much embellishing.

 I used a chipboard sticker, glitter star, memories sticker and the date is typed with my vintage typewriter.

Looking forward to filling up my album.  I'll be back soon for more updates.

December Daily 2015...the kits I'll be using

Hello there, today I'm kicking off my December Daily 2015 posts!  This year I decided to use both the Gossamer Blue 2015 December Memories Kit and the Ali Edwards December Daily Main 2015 Kit + an add on kit by Jasmine Jones.  I also decided to use an Ali Edwards album because the size matches the ones I've used in the last few previous years.

 Here's a peek at the Gossamer Blue kit contents, stored in a vintage cutlery tray.  I sort the smaller items with vintage Jello molds.

 Here's the Ali Edwards kit contents in green vintage cutlery tray with more tiny embellishments added to additional Jello molds.

 Here's both the kits, all unpackaged and ready to go.  I like to take all products out of their packages so I'm not fumbling with opening up plastic packages.  I'm more like to use something if it's out in the open and I can rummage through the little pieces.

I'll most likely be adding a few tags and items from some of my packaging kits from my shop too.

I'm all set up and ready to work.  This year I'll be sharing just my completed pages here on the blog.  I post little previews and works in progress + lots of other happenings on my Instagram account.  Feel free to visit me over there at Mish Wooderson.

At the first of the year I'll be sharing more on my art journey.  I've photographed and have been adding a lot to Instagram about my my year of starting over in my artful creations.  I'll be backtracking and sharing that progress in hopes of inspiring you to maybe pick up that paint brush.....and start again....or just start.  I hope you'll join me.

Project Life 2015.....Week 3 with inserts

Hi friends.  Hope your week is off to a good start.  The February Gossamer Blue Kits are now up for sale + there is a big sale on some previous kits.  I'll be sharing my February projects on my blog this month and you can see all of them in the Gossamer Blue now.  

This is Week 2 of my 2015 Project Life.  I have a two page spread with inserts and I'm so pleased with how easily they came together.  I used the Life Pages Kit for all of my journaling cards and embellishments.  This is the two page spread shown with a 10 x 12 insert. 

Turning the page you see the back of the 10 x 12 insert (page protector from Project Life) and the front of an 8.5 x 11 horizontal insert.

Here's the two page spread by itself.  I love how the colors coordinated so well with this week's photos.

The left page. Lots of crafty work this week.

The right page.  Just a mix of photos from the week.

I loved this colorful plaid 4 x 6 card from the Life Pages Kit.  I used my watercolors to create a subtle green wash in the speech bubble.  A paper file tab and chipboard file tab were used to note the week #.

I'm loving white journaling cards with a design on them.  They freshen up a page lickety split.

Here a lot of my 3 x4 cards with hand journaling.  I loved the wood veneer pieces in the Life Pages Kit.  They're becoming a favorite.  I also watercolored that camera with the same green paint on my week number card.

This is my 8 x 10 insert and I love how it turned out.  The floral cards from the Life Pages Kit were made for this page, I think. They match my vintage bowls just perfectly.  

I added in some journaling cards, embellishments and stamps from Ali Edwards' Story Kits and Stamps for this insert.  The theme was Gathering this month so I chose to create this page from a blog post I wrote recently about a thrifting trip.

This large plastic word is  also from Ali's Gathering Story Kit. Brad is from Gossamer Blue kits.

The back side of the insert is about our pancake mornings.  The February GB kits are full of October Afternoon goodies and pancakes were a popular theme.  Perfect for my photos in this insert. 

The striped journaling card was from my stash.  The gray journaling card is from Ali's Gathering Kit.  I love that egg flair button and the fork sticker from October Afternoon.

This is a funny little drawing that Jordan did when she was five.  She found it and pointed out that she drew a little something special for Dad.  We never noticed it til just now.

I used embellishments from the February kits for journaling.  Surprise!!  I cut out a square in my page protector so the little flip up swimming trunks could reveal Dad's *ahem* details. That's my girl.

So so happy with how my 2015 pages are coming along.  I've kept things simple and easy but am able to add in just the right amount of embellishments.  I'm also catching up on 2014.  Just 7 more weeks to go.  I'll be sharing those pages soon too.  Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2015....Week 2

Up on the blog today, I'm sharing my Week 2 of my Project Life 2015.  Lots of photos this week so the layout is kept simple.  

The left page.

The right page.

For my 4 x 6 dated insert, I chose a photo I took while at the gas station.  A great day to wear my Converse with no socks.  I purposely think about white space (meaning blank space) when I take photos.  Those little areas become perfect spots for titles or journaling.  Here I used a One Little Bird digital overlay and then typed in my journaling.  All using my iPhone 6+...in gold.  Because gold is so pretty.  :)

The hello 2015 is from Gossamer Blue as well as the journaling cards I used this week.  Camera puffy sticker is from Evalicious. I used a little bit of blue watercoloring under the this and that title.

For my bottom two 4 x 6 inserts I did some journaling about a family friend's funeral.  I know it sounds odd but in Ali's videos in her Gathering Story Kit she talked about the various reasons why we gather.  Jimmy's funeral was a celebration of his life.  I saw lots of people I hadn't seen in years that were getting elderly.  We were happy to see each other even in this circumstance.  As I sat and listened to the service, I reflected on some good memories.  Worthy enough to get the story down in the books.

For my photos, I used 3 separate overlays from Ali's Gathering product line.  I typed out the journaling using the Project Life app on my phone.  The wood veneer arrow is from Gossamer Blue.  On the journaling card at the top, I used more blue watercoloring to fill in the ampersand.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope you are getting the stories + photos in those albums.

Project Life 2015....Week 1

Edit: I had a question about the digital overlays.  I'll be adding a post soon about the apps I use to create the overlays.  However there won't be detailed tutorials for them.  If you read through this post, I did a little recap of how I am using Dropbox, Letterglow and One Little Bird digital elements.  Thanks for your patience. 

LISA C. PARSONS said...

Where is the tuturiol to add digital overlays?

Starting fresh with my Project Life Week 1.  It's so so simplified from what I've been doing.  While I'm in catch up mode with 2014, my goal is to just get the stories told and finish the weeks on time.  I took some time yesterday to jot down some real, nitty gritty stories that I want to tell.  I can't wait for those to be added in between the pages soon.  

 My left page.  Back to 3 x 4 and 4 x 6 photos.  I didn't have to plan a thing.  I just started printing off the most important photos.  What a time saver that was.

 The right page.  I took three slots to dedicate to a first time experience.  It was the first time ever I went to the movies with my mom and dad.  My dad read the book Unbroken and really wanted to see the movie.  He loved it.  We got out tickets, two big buckets of popcorn + the pops I tucked in my big bag (yes we are those people).  It was quite touching to hear my dad sniffling at the end of the movie.  As a war veteran he is so patriotic.  On the way to and from the movie, we heard stories from the book and my dad's own accounts of serving in the military.  I used Ali Edwards' Story stamps to note this "first time".

The Week one 4 x 6 photo.  I used One Little Bird's digital set to add this to a 4 x 6 photo. I downloaded all of the digital overlays to Drop Box on my computer.  I then installed the same app on my iPhone.  I opened up the LetterGlow app on my iPhone, chose the Drop Box icon and imported the "week one" right on top of my photo.  I sized it and placed it where I wanted it on my photo.  Saved the photo and sent it to my computer to print for my album.  I could have also typed in the dates for this week but I had already added them to my week in review card you can see in this photo also. 

 Some 3 x 4 journaling cards.  Have you seen the new color for the 2015 limited edition Ball canning jars?  Purple, my friends!  We are K-State fans around here and this is gonna be awesome.  I'll be collecting a few boxes to use next year for Jordan's graduation party.  She's gonna be a Wildcat soon! The other card has my stamped "first time" and my handwritten journaling.  Still embracing that but it makes the pages come together so quickly.

Week 1.  Done.  Easy. Simple. In the album.  Happy day to you, my friends.  

2015 Project Life Intro Page + One Little Word +Changes..

Here I go with my 2015 Project Life.  It's always fun to start the new year off with a fresh start and to try new things. This year I'll be making some changes to my Project Life. I think a little bit is due to some boredom with the way I was creating my pages...maybe not really bored because I love my weekly pages but perhaps just needing to change things up.  I also want to be able to keep up with my pages in a timely manner and to stay on track.  I'm about 12 weeks behind in my 2014 Project Life and I really just don't like that feeling.  I'm hoping to simplify my pages to remedy that.  

So here we go, I'll just jump right in by showing you my introduction pages for 2015 and my One Little Word page.  One Little Word is a concept created by Ali Edwards where you select a word for the year that represents something special to you.  You can read more about it on her blog.  Below is a 6 x 8 page that is the first page of my 2015 Project Life album. All three inserts are printed from digital downloads from One Little Bird.  Peppermint Granberg Jones is the digital artist behind One Little Bird and she's a designer for Gossamer Blue and on the Design Team.  I love her simple designs so much that I'm branching out and will be using more of her digital products purchased from The Lilypad.  I'll be using both printable journaling cards and digital overlays.  I'll talk more about the digital side of my Project Life and some great iPhone apps in an upcoming post.  

 For my embellishments, I used this awesome acrylic 2015 piece and some glittery gold stars from Gossamer Blue kits. I'll be continuing my role on the Design Team + using the Gossamer Blue kits for my Project Life and other crafty projects.

 Turning the page, I have the back side of that 6 x 8 insert + a 12 x 12 divided page for my One Little Word.  There's also a 4 x 6 insert (trimmed from a page protector) with a free quote from Ali Edwards.

 Here's the two page spread without the quote insert. Gold floral vellum is from the On My Desk collection from Gossamer Blue.  I think I need more sheets of this.

 I always like to include a photo of my family for the intro pages to a new Project Life album.  This is a fave from our Colorado trip last Summer.  We are starting a tradition of taking a photo of the same pose at the same location every year.  Certainly worthy of the front page of our albums.

 Vellum is from Gossamer Blue, gold circle is from a GB kit and I typed the #always4.  I've adopted this hashtag to use on Instagram and pages and texts to my family.  Four family members=always 4.  The blue journaling card is printed from One Little Bird.

 This 12 x 12 page is all about my One Little Word for 2015.  I chose FREE as my word for the year.  I'll perhaps do a post all about my One Little Word in a future post.

 Journaling cards are from One Little Bird along with some photos I printed from a Pinterest board.

I love the look of all of these first pages.  They definitely set the tone for how I want my upcoming pages to look.  Simple, clean and able to be completed quickly.

That brings me to some changes that I'll be making to my 2015 Project Life albums.  I'm not sure I'll implement all of these changes as I'm giving myself the freedom to just go with the flow.  Here's my list  of thoughts/changes/what I'm keeping the same, in no particular order:

Use 12 x 12 format, mostly Design A page protectors from Project Life.  I'll be mixing in traditional scrapbook pages and inserts in smaller sizes too.

No more white borders around photos. This was a huge decision that I've teetered on for months.  I've done a lot of looking around at other Project Lifers' pages and I've decided I really like the clean and simple look.  Plus it means less time when printing.

Use mostly 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 photos, eliminating most of the smaller, square Instagrams. It's just simpler for planning purposes, printing and it looks clean in my pages.

Journal most on 3 x 4 journaling cards leaving the photos without journaling or embellishing. I will write directly on some photos here and there.

More handwritten journaling.  This is huge because my handwriting is big and loopy and I don't really like to see it on my pages.  But it's simpler and I think it will be important to see my handwriting in the years to come.

Weekly, dated information on first 4 x 6 photo using digital overlays from One Little Bird.

Week in review on 3 x 4 journaling card.  Instead of using a journaling card for each photo/event, some weeks may have all journaling in bullet form on a 3 x 4 card.  Simple.

Organize sports photos and newspaper articles better.  Maybe Project Life pockets, special inserts for photos.

More selective on photo choices so I can condense the number of photos.

Use digital products to print journaling cards and to use overlays on photos.  I'll be doing a lot of behind the scenes work on my iPhone.  More to come on this in a future post.

Use the Project Life iPhone app to create photo collages.  Some of my weekly spreads or inserts may be created fully with the page designs too.  It's just too simple not to take advantage of at times.

Stay caught up in 2015.  My plan is to use a Monday-Sunday format.  Plan a week on Sunday, print and work on pages on Monday and then blog that week.

More in depth stories between the weekly pages.  I subscribe to both Ali Edwards' Story Stamps and Story Kits which are wonderful products for jump starting your stories.  Ali's educational videos and blog posts that go along with these products is are so well executed.  It's an entire bundle of information and I highly recommend.

More event/us/real life photos versus just still life photos of house stuff, etc.  I want to see the people and read their stories more.

Simple, clean pages with fewer embellishments.  It all goes back to keeping the focus on stories + photos. I don't want color and embellishments to overpower my photos.  I can always get more crazy on my other crafty projects like wrappings and cards.

Stay true to my style in terms of embellishments, colors, etc.  I want my album to represent what I like so I'll be selective in my choices.

Stick with two 12 x 12 albums per year.  I've been able to do this and should easily keep with this method, especially if I'm adding fewer embellishments.

Most photos will continue to be taken on my iPhone 6+ and some from my big camera.

Print photos at home using my Epson Artisan printer and Epson Premium Glossy photo paper.

Eliminate planning pages and just print the photos that fit.  I spent a lot of time planning pages in 2014 and it was draining.  By using just 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 photos, I'm hoping to just be able to eyeball it and print what fits.  Sticky notes are my friend when it comes to Project Life.

Use my planner/calendar to keep track of photos taken and to make notes about stories I want to write.

Possibly create blog posts that tell stories I will want to document later on.  I love how Ali Edwards does this and then copies the journaling directly into her layouts.  Not sure on this one though.

Finish inserts at the time I finish a weekly spread.  Last year I skipped doing a lot of inserts and these are some of the most important moments.....like birthdays, graduations, etc.  I want to keep on top of it all.

Put more of me into the photos.  This will be a challenge.  I'm fat.  I don't like to be in photos.  But I need to get over it.  My family loves me and it is what it is.  (I know....just lose weight, right)

Okay, that was a lot of sharing for today so if you stayed with me, thank you!  I've already finished the first two weeks of 2015 and they are very simple in nature.  I got them done so quickly.  We'll see how my weeks end up looking as the weeks progress.  I hope you'll join me all year long.