2013 Project Life cover page....

TGIF everyone.  I forgot to share my 2013 Project Life cover page so here goes.  This page is the opposite side to the very first week of my Project Life 2013 spreads.  I chose four of my favorite patterned papers that represent what style I like.

The main information about the album is contained in this 4 x 6 insert. I used an XL Manila Parcel Tag and layered on a portion of a 3 x 4 journaling card, chipboard numbers and my favorite Washi tape.  The Washi tape has the information that this is Album #1 for this year.  On the bottom of the tag I stamped the beginning date then typed "through".....I'll go back and stamp the current date of when this album gets too full (probably May or June).  

 The middle 3 x 4 inserts are Project Life grid cards with each of our names in chipboard letters.  I typed our age and our status below the stitched letters.

 This year I want to incorporate the number 4 more often, denoting that there are four members in our family.  I'm on the lookout for a giant 4 industrial type signage letter to hang in our tv room.  Here I used a Small White Tag + a stapled on chipboard number + some stitched on ledger papers.

 For this 4 x 6 insert, I incorporated my One Little Word for this year.....find. I used the badge from Studio Calico and a tag from a recent kit.  I also just had another find....my vintage typewriter DOES have an apostrophe.  I've been handwriting one in or just leaving them out so I'm happy to find that out.  Now I just need to know why there's no number 1.

Alrighty, that's it for today.  Basketball games tonight + Queen of Courts.  Winter Ball is tomorrow so I'm dedicating the day to driving the girls to hair appointments, nail appointments, dinner out and photo taking.  It's gonna be a fun day!  Have a great weekend everyone~

Friday Finds...

This year my One Little Word is find.  Let's see what this Friday finds us.  

A few good crock pot recipes finds....Chicken and Dumplings from The Crockin' Girls was very good.  A few changes I would make though because it was a little too soupy: Either reduce the chicken broth to maybe 1 cup to begin with then add more if needed (or) thicken the soup with about an hour left of cooking and then add some egg noodles.  I also added more chicken breasts and just put them in frozen, that was easy!  We had plenty of leftovers, enough for another meal....so after supper I added another can of biscuits to the top & let it cook til the biscuits were done. Perfect for another meal.  I'll be making this Salisbury Steak from The Crockin' Girls this weekend so that Josey can have some soft food after having her wisdom teeth out.  I serve it over egg noodles.  

I find this post by Jenni Hufford called "the power of the written word" to be so inspiring....Jenni's 8th grade teacher sends out over 2500 birthday letters a year to each of his students.  Please watch the video also.  If you've slacked on on sending cards and letters, this might help you get back on track.  I also find that there are so many good people in this world.  I wish our media would focus on that a little more.  

I find from the comments and emails you send me that so many of you..... have been inspired by me to take up Project Life.  This makes me so happy that something I am passionate about and love to do has inspired others to do the same.  The community that I see building around Project Life is growing and being a part of it feels good.  The sharing of the everyday life is so powerful.  I hope that you keep up with this project as it's been one of the most rewarding things I've done for my family.  I also encourage you to stay focused on the stories and the photos.  You are creating these pages for your family, not to impress or one up anyone in the Project Life community.  The sharing of our pages and the awesome products are what make it fun for us during the creating process but in the end the stories are what you want to capture the most.  This year I'm making it a goal to include more photos of the 4 of us and write more stories, not just the who, what, where & why.  

Speaking of awesome products, I had a good find show up in my mailbox yesterday....although the stories and photos are always foremost in my mind, we gotta have some new goodies once in a while, right? I love finding that perfect mix of products to add to my pages.  These include kit items, Becky's Project Life products and a good helping of items that I get from my own stash.  Evalicious is a good find.  I love purchasing items from small companies and Eve has a great product lineup.  

These stamps are going to be so great because I'm trying to keep my pages more flat this year.  These high quality, deeply etched rubber stamps are perfect.  I love the graphics + the words and was happy to find that the stamps are a little larger and fill up more of the width of a journaling card.  

 Eve also has some printed page tabs, labels and journaling cards that I love.  The colors are fabulous with lots of neutrals, they're printed on good quality, thick white cardstock and they mix and match very well with other product lineups.  I'm very happy to announce that I'll be carrying some of Eve's products in my shop this year.

A special find in my shop today........ is the Mixed Greetings Card Kit.  With this clearance price of the kit, you'll be able to make 5 greeting cards for under $2.50 each, complete with envelope and a brown paper sack for some extra gift packaging.

Here's an example of how you can package one of the cards in a vellum envelope.  I love that vellum is making a come back in the crafting world.  The see through look of the vellum makes a card so special when you hand it to the recipient.  I think these be great to attach to the front of a gift bag or wedding present.  The card design peeking through just adds to the presentation.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope this weekends finds you great adventure.  I'm off to snuggle up with my Josey who has big, chubby red cheeks today.  She's been a trooper though.  I'm sure I'll find her and a big yellow dog in my bed.

Friday finds...

This year my One Little Word is Find.  Let's see what this Friday finds us: 

A few new crock pot recipes.....these were a few keepers that I found on Pinterest.  Cheesy Ravioli Casserole....from Betty Crocker.  A really easy recipe and this one could be a good freezer meal to prepare in advance too.  Nacho Grande Soup from Six Sisters' Stuff.....this one looks a little plain in the slow cooker but serve it over crushed chips and it's really yummy.  I doubled this recipe. Like enchiladas in soup form. Smothered Chili Colorado Burritos....um, we're talking restaurant quality here, folks.  We loved this one. This recipe involves cooking the meat in the sauce all day then you do a little prep work to prepare the burritos under the broiler.  Take the extra time because these are good!

Something fun for Project Life......as I'm continuing to work on my 2013 Project Life, it's always fun to add something new to the mix. I'm trying to keep my layouts fairly flat so that I don't end up with lots of bulky pages.  Stamps are always a good resource and I really like the Studio Calico/Hero Arts stamp set from the Block Party Project Life Kit.  Below you can see a few of the stamps in use on my Project Life pages.  I love the dates, the @ sign and graphic feel to this set and I'm hoping that the upcoming monthly kit stamps follow suit.  I'm pretty sure the stamps are going to be my favorite part of the SC kit if the look of this month's set continues.  We'll see what the upcoming kits bring.  I have a few other favorite stamp companies that I like to use on my Project Life as well.  I'll be sharing those with you soon.  

Found inspiration.....I came across the photo below on Pinterest from Leslie Shewring and just loved the mix of colors.  I thought it would make a great inspiration piece to spark some crafty ideas.  Something fresh and floral for the new year.  

Then it just so happened that I came across this pretty tablescape that I pinned from Leslie Shewring also. I must be channeling these colors right now.  

I found this pin from Ann-Marie Morris of this lovely row of jars with floral finds.  Same colors and feel. So pretty.

And then when Leslie tweeted this color inspiration photo I just knew that I must use all these little pretties as inspiration.  Perhaps you will be inspired also....

So if you're up for some inspiration and have some crafty time this weekend, how about trying out this combination:  peach, mint, teal, florals and woodgrain.  Feel free to link me up in the comments section if you give something a go.  :)

You'll find me.....at yet another basketball game today.  The high schoolers are getting dismissed early to go watch our boys play in the tournament this afternoon. I better scoot on out of here because the girls will be home soon and I'm the designated taxi driver.  :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Calendar makeover + organizing the desk with vintage finds....

It's a new year which means I need a new calendar.  I always keep a small calendar on my desk where I do all my blogging and shipping & I needed one like pronto.  I was kind of happy when I got the note about the Studio Calico calendar that was to be included in the Project Life kit.  Although I would have rather had all the journaling cards in the kit be perfect and not have to trim them, the little calendar set was a bonus.  But upon viewing it, it was a hot little mess of uneven corners and edges...free or not, it was not really usable in it's current condition.  

Instead of recycling the lot, I decided to make the best of it and re-purpose the calendars into something I could use for my desk. I went to work with my paper trimmer and cut all the calendar cards to 2.5" x 3.5" rectangles.  I'm thinking that leaving all the journaling cards as rectangles might be the best route for the Studio Calico PL kits...I kind of like them that way because then I'm free to round or not round.  Anyway, I reached for 12 Library Cards to use as a bigger base for the calendar cards.

I wanted to make this project go rather quickly so I picked out just a few embellishments to adorn the calendar months.  I have this enamel bread pan full of little stickers & such so I pulled out a bunch of My Mind's Eye labels.

I used the MME labels to hold down the calendar cards then used a neutral assortment of Washi tape strips to further embellish the calendar cards.

I stitched over each label to secure it even further.  Then I used my "one mini, one regular" stapling to really make sure the pieces stayed secured.  No other adhesive was used.

And I kinda like them.  When laying out the calendar cards, I discovered that you could use all white or all grey or a combination of whatever you like.  I just alternated every other color and called it good.

To store my calendar I used a Medium Glassine Sack and a simple mini index card with typing.

And now how about incorporating the calendar in with some vintage finds for my desk?

I spend a lot of time at my desk which is where I do all my blogging, shop packaging, printing and shipping.  It might as well have some fun new stuff for a new year, right? I decided that I'll stand each calendar month up in a vintage floral frog.  I've got lots of these sitting here and there so I might trade them out each month for variety.  Basically, they are very heavy bases with with lots of needle-like prongs sticking up.  Floral frogs were used to sit in vases and then flower stems were poked in to secure the arrangement.  You can find them in antique shops and online.  That's even a flower frog on the left side.  Of course now it's a pen holder for me.

Included in the Studio Calico Project Life kit was this 2013 badge also.  I stuck some foam dots on the back of it and secured it to the front of my flower frog.  Just so I don't forget what year it is and all.

I placed my calendar along with my other floral frogs + an old receipt spike that I use to hold customer thank you tags + my old stapler on a pretty painted tray.  This will sit on my desk, right within reach of where I ship orders and do my blogging.

So there ya go, a re-purposed project that resulted in some new organization for the new year.  It's all good.

One Little Word 2013....

I decided to choose One Little Word for 2013. My word is find.  I was looking for something to add to my blog and I decided that choosing a word for the year might pose some interesting conversations.  I was looking up a few words and came across the word find for a synonym for another word I was looking at.  The brainstorming began and I found myself with lots of inspiration.

One Little Word is a concept by Ali Edwards.  You can more information at Ali's blog here.

A few of the intriguing points that caught my eye about my word are some of these definitions/phrases.....to come upon by chance, to discover, to feel or perceive, to become aware, bargain, gem, good buy, treasure, happen upon, light upon, locate, notice, run across, spot, stumble upon, uncover, acquire, believe, deduce, get the idea, suppose, think, propose, and uncover.

I also made a few starter phrases that I could be fun to tinker around with this year.....finding out, I find this to be true, find a way, find yourself, finding the perfect, finding your style, finding out this or that, finding time for, the perfect find, and you'll find me here.   I'm hoping to really get into the stories that go along with my Project Life and I think that my One Little Word might trigger a few ideas.  I hope you'll join me as we might just find out a few new things this year.

I thought perhaps some Friday finds might be fun so I'll be adding some fun links for you from time to time.  A good way to pass the time while waiting for the weekend.....

a slow cooker recipe...
I found this one from The Crockin' Girls called Mandy's Big Mess and it is a repeated favorite.  It also freezes very well, just dump all the ingredients into a freezer zip lock bag.  I use smoked turkey sausage, leave out the jalapeno sometimes and usually double the recipe so that I can send leftovers over to my folks.  Also the Slow Cookin' Companion cookbook by The Crockin' Girls is a great resource.  I gave a copy to my mother in law for Christmas and she loves it too.  I'd look on Amazon for a better deal perhaps.

an inspiring new friend....
I've recently had a few chats with Naomi Atkins.  She is delightful to share fun stuff with like paper crafting, photography and junkin' finds.  I think we could do a mean road trip together.  Have you seen her scrapbook layouts?  Naomi is a photographer and takes the most dreamy, vintage and well posed photos using lots of junkin' props.  Then she takes them, blows them up wayyy big and creates the most fantastical scrapbook layouts.  Her designs and color/paper choices are so wonderful.  Always a good time to take a break when I see a new layout from Naomi.  And a new friend to chat with....always welcome in my book.

a pretty little place....
I'm craving the fresh greens of Spring.  Let's go here.  I'll bring the stumpy chairs.

a little artsy love...
Really wanting to get out my paints & art supplies this year and just see what happens.  This is awesome.

a cool blog and magazine....
FOLK magazine and blog..a fresh approach to simple, authentic living.  Telling real stories of American life.  Great photographs, articles from lots of contributors and a nice little place to visit. Subscriptions are just $10 bucks right now.

a few new finds in my shop....
I just updated the shop this morning with some new Valentine themed products.  You can find them here.  You can see new sample projects along with the items listed.  I'll have those up on the blog this weekend for a better view.  Here's a little sampling for today...

Thanks for joining me today.  You'll find me working on my first week of Project Life 2013 for the rest of the morning and then I'll be at the basketball games tonight.  Tomorrow you'll find me at a rodeo.  Yup,  the hubby donated some equipment use to the rodeo people and he got free tickets in return.  I said I wanted more road trips this year....so here we go.  ;)

Finding your own style + creating your own product kits...

I've been wanting to share a post of this nature for a while now and a fresh, new year is the perfect time.  When I knew my one year term with Becky's Project Life Creative Team was ending, I was left thinking what now, who will I identify with in terms of my Project Life?  Then it dawned on me that this is the perfect time to just be me.  Although I'll be using some Project Life kit products from various companies this year, I'm really looking forward to having my own creative style shine through in my albums + my cards & packaging and other crafty ventures.

With those thoughts, I want to do two things to start off this new crafty year:

1.  First I want to find out what my style really is, or do I even have a style? It's sometimes so hard to look at our own creations and nail down a certain style or type of design or category that we think we should fit into.  

2.  Secondly I want to make sure that my Project Life pages and other creations reflect my style.  I want my creations to represent the things I like, the colors & patterns & products I love, my artistic/design style.....the way I roll.  I want to make sure that my creations aren't dictated too much by kit items or a certain type of product.  

So first off I set out to find my style.  Hang with me because this is where lots of photos come into play.  I went through my photo galleries and Pinterest boards and picked out my favorite photos.  

Mish Mash

 It was amazing how you can get your style to shine through if you do this little exercise.

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 I started off with inserts from my Project Life pages.

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 The same colors kept popping up...aquas/robin's egg blue, peaches, pinks, greens, chartreuse, yellows, oranges.  Every color of the rainbow showed up.  But I noticed they were all in muted, toned down colors.

Mish Mash

 I noticed that I like to use nature as inspiration like flowers, butterflies, birds and natural fabrics and linens.  I found that I like to add handmade touches that give a homespun or maybe a country feel.

Mish Mash

 I found that I like to use lots of layers and machine stitching. And that I love pattern.

Mish Mash

 I found that my style really is a mish mash of this and that.

Mish Mash

 I then picked out some favorite greeting cards that I created last year.  The same was true as above.  I love to mix and match colors and patterns.

Mish Mash

 There were lots of layers.

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There is lots of little details scattered here and there.

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Nature and floral prints were a favorite.  

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A mixture of rainbow-y colors are all splashed together onto paper.

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And lots of vintage items and papers like phone book paper, ledger paper, and old grid papers find their way onto my projects.

Mish Mash

I found the same rang true when I looked at photos of items I gathered together for kit items for my shop.  Lots of softer colors + neutrals were used.  

Mish Mash

I used the same style on gift and packaging type items like tags and bookmarks.  Lots of colors that maybe wouldn't be normally grouped together but I threw them all into the mix.

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Keeping with the layers and little details.

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Soft whites and neutral Krafts were used to keep the patterns and colors from becoming too busy.

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More florals and some bolder patterns + layers.

Mish Mash

Some favorite photos were selected for this mini album I need to finish.  Lots of vintage items and small details.  

Mish Mash

Then I moved on to my Pinterest boards.  Checking out what you pin is a great way to discover what you like and what your style may be.  The same colors and floral designs kept popping up.  

Vintage items, lots of color and muted tones. 

 Bits of handmade items showing through.

A mixy matchy style of combining patterns and colors.  

Pinterest Link

Mixing a rainbow of patterns and colors together just to see what I come up with.

Pinterest Link

Loving the handmade touches and the attention to the little details on so many projects I pinned.

Pinterest Link

Loving the handmade embellishments versus using all packaged items.  

Pinterest Link

Putting it all together in a fun way.

Pinterest Link

The neutrals always pop up, especially natural linen colors, tans, browns, greys and all colors of whites and creams.

Lately fine linens have become inspiration for color schemes and textures.

Pinterest Link

Household items that are more neutral in nature are also very inspiring to me lately.  These beautiful ironstone pieces have such a variety of whites and creams.

Pinterest Link

Taking the time to sort through lots of photos was so helpful in pinpointing my style.....I'm not sure my style has a name and it certainly isn't for everyone....but now I have an actual view in front of me of what I like and what appeals to me.  

So now this brings me to part two of my post today....making sure that my style shines through on my projects.  To do this I'm creating my own product kits and am building a stash of items that really represent my style.  I'm planning to mix and match these handpicked items in with other kit items.  I'll use these products on not only my Project Life but for greeting cards and packaging too.  I want to be surrounded by products that I really love.  This means I'll be doing a lot of purging this year of products that are great but maybe don't fit my style anymore.  

I'm not sure if I'll do a monthly kit or perhaps keep a small crate full of items nearby my work table that I just keep adding to.  I'm  thinking I will allow myself a monthly budget to purchase a few new items here and there.  I thought it would be fun to share some of those product picks here on the blog so that perhaps you can be inspired to create your own kits too.  

To keep ideas flowing of products I want to add to my own kits, I created a private Pinterest board.  There, I pin products that I like as I see them in online stores or on blogs.  When it's time for me to place a fun order, I'll just open up that Pinterest board and add a few of those items to my online shopping carts.  My goal is to use my stash then add just a few items here and there and keep my kit full of a rainbow of colors, patterns and accents. I'm not looking to purchase full lines of any products but rather collect a mixture of this and that.  This way my products all mix and match.  Any scraps that I collect are going into a tray where I'm planning to create fun thank you tags for my shop customers.  

I'm very excited to have taken the time to check out my style and I'm really looking forward to creating my own creative kits this year.  I hope I've sparked a few ideas for you as well.  Stay tuned as I'm working on some product organization posts + I'll be sharing my new ideas for my Project Life process this year too.  :)