Project Life 2012, Week 48 + Project December inserts...

Hello everyone.  Like you, my heart is heavy this morning as I think about the folks in Connecticut.  Please keep them in your prayers and use this as a reminder this holiday season that family is what matters most.....not stressing over shopping, baking, decorating and feeling overwhelmed.  Just stop what you're doing and be with your family.  

Long post today....lots to share.....be sure to check the bottom of the post for a fun guest spot I'm doing this month over at 2Peas.  

Today I'm sharing Week 48 of my Project + December....my combination of my Project Life + Daily December happenings.   It was pretty much just a regular week for us but I wanted to jump start my December pages with some festive looking inserts.  Below is my 2 page spread of what would be my regular Project Life pages for this week. I used lots of October Afternoon, Elle's Studio, Studio Calico, Gossamer Blue kit items, American Crafts chipboard letters, etc. 

The left page, with a fun December insert kicking off the holiday season.  I used the red chipboard letters to carry the festive color throughout my 2 page spread.  The Week in Review insert was one that was pre-made by me earlier.

This is the right page of the 2 page spread.

This week I have 5 inserts + my December monthly page divider.  Here's what all the inserts look like sandwiched in between the main 2 page, 12 x 12 layout.  

If you've followed my process then you know that I like to keep all of my inserts smaller than 12 x 12 if possible.  This way the 12 x 12 layout shows through and all of the inserts are like little bonus pages.  I'm so pleased that I've found an approach that works for me.  I'll be continuing this with my 2013 Project Life.  No extra albums, it all goes into my Project Life albums....which I've found is 2 per year, including all inserts.  I just have to be care to not bulk up the pages to much with lofty embellishments.

Here's another shot of my full spread with some of the insert pages, the pages are just turned.  Thumbing through my albums is somewhat an interactive process for the reader.  The different size pages are fun to turn and the short stories + the photos all make up a wonderful week of our lives.  

How do I decide what goes into the inserts vs. what goes into the weekly spread? I find that my day to day activities with a single photo go into the main 2 page spread inserts.  Any big event like a birthday, a fun road trip, a graduation, or just stellar photos that I want to highlight by enlarging them go into my inserts.  I'm loving selecting a few photos and enlarging them to 5 x7 or larger.  

On to the 4 x 6 inserts of the main, 2 page spread. This is the main weekly insert, marking that December is here.  You'll notice the dimensional badge here.  I've found that my inserts make the center of my album bulkier than the outside.  By using a badge like this every once in a while, it adds a little bulk to even out the pages when the album is closed. I like to place them on the outside of the page protector.  The tactile feel is fun for the viewer. 

Am loving adding some photos of meals into my albums.  It just rounds out our weekly events. 

Here I have a photo that is actually a flap that opens to reveal another photo + journaling.  

Josey crafted me this absolutely beautiful walnut cutting board.  It's one of those things that you will just treasure forever.  Handmade.  From the heart.  My favorite kind of gift.

Sports are always part of our weekly activities.  They sometimes don't fit into a holiday theme but I have to make them work.  It's just so much a part of our weekly lives. Here I used a 3 x 4 insert with star patterned paper + some Studio Calico wood veneer stars + a Studio Calico Mistables arrow that I stamped with stars. The stars are holiday-like but really allude to my little super star basketball players. 

The 3 x 4 inserts....here I have my Week in Review which uses a manila tag from my shop, a glittered snowflake that I made earlier + a photo of a favorite snack.  Don't get these, they're horrible, yucky, gross.

2 more inserts using a pre-made card from my stash with added sticker letters + an Elle's Studio journaling card with some gold striped Washi tape added.  

The weather always makes it into my pages.  I simply take a screen shot then print it.  Charlie is decked out in orange.  He got to go for a ride with the hunters so we dressed him in an orange t-shirt so he wouldn't be mistaken for a deer if he happened to jump out and go for a run. Hunters are required to wear this bright orange amongst their camo attire. 

Here, Josey is sporting her camo shirt and hat.  I called her Jose Ebere and she had no clue who I was talking about.  The hair dresser.  

Okay, now on to the inserts.  This is a Becky Higgins Project Life monthly plastic divider.  I covered it with gold polka dot vellum, added an embossed Ali Edwards stamp + a December sticker from October Afternoon then stitched it with my red thread I'm using this holiday season.

Before stitching I added a white paper doily from my shop + I sprinkled in some confetti glitter/snow mix that I mixed up earlier. I love how it shows through on the back side of the divider.  I think I might go back and do this to all my monthly dividers.  And I'll definitely be doing this to all of my dividers for 2013.  You could easily add a thin strip of typed journaling or perhaps save this for the end of the month and stitch on some month in review photos.  Lots of possibilities, I'll have to take some notes. :)

Here I have a 5 x7 photo that I enlarged of our fireplace mantel.  I chose to mainly decorate the mantel and put up the tree this year, keeping the other decorations in the house minimal.  I added the journaling  using the Phonto app for my iPhone.  I plan to scour my Chalkboard Board on Pinterest and actually add a holiday greeting soon.  

Turning the page, I have (2) 5 x7 inserts, the left is a photo of a holiday decorated fireplace mantel from the antique shop we road tripped to recently.  It inspired my fireplace mantel makeover which is shown on the right.  The photo on the right is actually a 4 x 6 photo adhered to one of the 5 x 7 inserts I made previously. 

A few simple embellishments makes for nice, simple pages.  

Turning the pages once again, I have close ups of my fireplace mantel + a little story about being home for the holidays.  I'll show you my vintage finds from the antique shop road trip soon.  

Journaling about my thoughts on being home for the holidays.  I used one of my pre-made 5 x7 page inserts along with a circle journaling tag from Elle's studio, chipboard letters + one of the painted, glittered snowflakes I created earlier. Just scroll down for lots of posts on how I pre-made a lot of my inserts & embellishments my December pages. 

The 4 x6 pre-made insert on the right page.  I added a doily, glittered snowflake, journaling, chibboard letters + lots of red stitching.

Turn the page and here's the backside of the previous insert.  It's a Becky Higgins 10 x 12 divided page protector.  I used lots of photos from a recent visit to Target + my thoughts all the "stuff" out there these days.  The 4 x 6 insert is filled with (2) pre-made journaling cards.  

On the left I added lots of stickers from October Afternoon + red lines of machine stitching.  On the right I added an October Afternoon "today" sticker + some fun silver sticker letters. 

Below is a simple 8.5 x 11 insert that holds a ripped sheet from a Pottery Barn catalog.  I tore out some favorite pages from catalogs to keep in case I needed some fillers.  And whaddya know, I needed something here.  I added a pre-made stamped piece using Ali Edwards stamps + a glittered wood snowflake.  And of course some red stitching.  I added some confetti glitter to kind of cover up some words on the bottom of the catalog page. 

Okay, still with me.  Whew, my fingers are getting sore from typing.  ;)  This is the back side of the above page.  It holds some hand written notes from the girls and me to Eric.  He was unable to make it to the first basketball game of the season and we all just hated it.  It's rare that Eric or I miss a game of the girls.  

My pre-made embellished vellum envelope was adhered to the outside of the page protector.  I used 2 long strips of Washi tape to hold it down.  This way the envelope is easily accessible and the note that will be tucked inside can be taken out easily. 

Okay, that's it for the first week of my Project + December.  Wowzers, that was a lot!  I'm very happy to report that aside from just a few inserts I am officially caught up with my Project Life.  2 full albums almost done for 2012.  That. is. awesome. in. my. book.  All the hard work paid off because I love my albums.  A total labor of love.  

Hey one more thing....I'm guesting this month over at 2Peas for Lisa Truesdell's Captured Project Life class.  Please join Lisa as she shares some of her Project Life pages + mine + another awesome Project Life friend.  And check this link out to shop for a lot of the fun products I've used for this week's pages.  Thanks for joining me today.  Have a blessed day everyone.  I'm off to make a big crock pot full of chili & spend time with my sick, little Jordy + the rest of the family by our tree.  

October Afternoon blog hop winner....

Heather Sweet from Illinois, you are the winner of my October Afternoon blog hop stamp prize.  Please email me at stamplady@satelephone.com for details on redeeming your prize.  Thanks to everyone who left comments, I really enjoyed reading about your crafty projects and crock pot cooking.  :)

Shop News.....

Hey everyone.  I've had some emails about my shop so I thought I better update here on the blog.  The shop will be closed for the holiday season.  We're very busy with basketball games, holiday preparations and my parents have been having some health issues.....so I decided it was a good time to spend more time with the family and take a little break.  

I'll be having a grand shop update in January so stay tuned.  I've thought long and hard about what route I want my shop to take....I've decided that I do my best when sticking with the handmade items.  I like the notion of "small shops" and am going to keep on doing what I do best.  

 I've taken some of this down time to research new products so be looking for lots of new items to the shop in 2013.  There are a lot of other small shops out there that put out some great products like stamps, printed items and other notions.  There's no need to reinvent the wheel and I love the idea of teaming up with other small shop owners.  So be looking for new kits with items from some other great small companies.

 One of the things I've discovered when working with these other small shop owners is that they are so willing to share and are very open to the idea of networking with others.  I think it's a great collaboration and I've very excited for what's to come.

I'm looking forward to carrying some unique products in my little shop.  I'll be catering to the card makers, those who love to create unique packaging and the scrapbookers out there.  I'll have the basics like I've always carried like tags and bags but be on the look out for some fun handmade items in limited quantities.

I hope you will join me in 2013 to make it the year of purchasing and creating handmade items.....shopping with small shops.....shopping local....shopping vintage and repurposed.... and finding unique items for your crafting needs.  I'm excited to take on this motto myself.  As a crafter of many years, I'm looking forward to revamping my crafty stash, zeroing in on products that are totally unique for my crafts and home..... and simplifying the process.

Thank you to all of you that have patronized my business this year.  I so appreciate each and every one of you.  Happy Holidays and here's to a very Happy New Year!

In blog news.....I'll be updating my blog with my first week of my Project + December pages very soon.  I'm finishing up some insert pages then I'll be good to go!

Project Life 2012, Week 36

Today I'm sharing my last installment for the Project Life Creative Team.  You can find more inspiration from other Creative Team members at Becky's blog here.  It's been a great ride and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Becky, Kari & Brandi on this great venture.  I'll be starting a brand new Project Life album for 2013 so stay tuned for lots of posts, tips & fun new ideas of how to mix things up in your albums.  

So here we go with Week 36.  I have lots of weeks to share with you as I'm actually caught up to week 47.  Just a few more to go to be totally caught up.  

This week had a lot of random photos with fairly monotone colors so I just went with grey for my color scheme.  

 I had some photos of Jordan that were a bit fuzzy and the colors were off with the night lighting so I turned those photos into black and whites.  I really like the look of that for a few photos here and there. It's a great way to blend in photos that may have wacky colors and it really hides the fuzzy and somewhat blurry photos.

 Just a typical week of the everyday events for us.  Volleyball games, football games, working in the shop.  Our new refrigerator was delivered so that was a very exciting day.

 A big highlight was the announcement of me joining the Design Team for October Afternoon.  I used some packaging from some brads + lots of stamping on this insert.  I like to keep my Project Life journaling cards handy to use on 4 x 6 inserts.  They're great for slipping into my vintage typewriter.

 Here's another use of the Project Life 3 x 4 grid journaling cards.  I turned this one horizontally and tucked it under a photo.  I added a simple strip of Washi tape + added some stamping to this typed card.

 Here I used one of Ali Edwards' journaling cards with a camera die cut and some stamping.  On the right I used a photo created with the Diptic phone app + a word stamp & typewriter journaling.

 These 3 slots tell a big story and bring back an exciting night at the football field.  It was the best game EVER, some would say a miraculous night.  Our boys, including my nephew Mitchell, came back from being 30 points behind in the 4th quarter for the WIN!  I love that I was able to get the story down and include a few photos.....and it all fits in perfectly with my other Project Life inserts.  I didn't need to create a separate layout at all.  That's what I love so much about Project Life....getting the stories down in a timely manner without all the pressure of creating full size layouts.  Loving this process still.

Onto my Project December pages.....I've got the first full week of December photographed so I'll be working on those pages here soon.  Look for an update probably the middle of this week. I'll slowly be adding in the previous weeks of my 2012 pages to the blog too.  Have a great week everyone!

Christmas cards in the making...

Hey everyone, it's been a very busy week here with lots of basketball games.  The girls are in a tournament an hour away and we've had games 3 days in a row.  Tonight we play for the championship!  

I had some time to sneak in some Christmas card making sessions and am happy to share with you today how I mass produced my cards this year. It's always nice to create special cards for friends and family....I know it means so much to me to receive a card in the mail with a handwritten note.  

I had a handful of cards already made for Design Team assignments but I needed a dozen or so more.  I reached for all of my October Afternoon Make it Merry goodies + a few items from my shop.  

I used an A2 base cardstock for my cards, my usual size. I've found that a very simply way to create cards is to create a collage of sorts on a piece of patterned paper then attach it to the card base.  I wanted some of my base card to show through so I cut my patterned papers to approximately 4" x 5.25".

Next I used some of the vintages images from the OA Make it Merry collection to just build my card collages.  Using these cut images made for some quick card making.....no tedious stamping or die cutting.  I also used some doilies from my shop, Washi tape and a little vintage sheet music.  I kept the collage layout pretty much the same....all the cut images were placed on the bottom right edge of my patterned paper with a doily peeking out on the left side.

Next I used my red stitching that I'm loving this holiday season to add some detail to the collages.  This gives a real homespun look to my cards. On each collage, I also the Christmas date stamp + a few images from the stamp set from the Very Merry December 2012 Mini-Book Kit.

Next it was time to adhere all the assembled collages to my card fronts.  By assembling the collages separately from the card fronts, the card bases are kept nice and clean and any mistakes you make can be covered up or fixed more easily.  To finish up my cards I tied on some red and white baker's twine and added some sparkly wood accents, Washi tape, brads and enamel dots.

And here's the first six of my completed cards.  Something about a grouping of cards together just makes me happy.  I completed all 12 of the cards I'm showing today in just a couple of hours.  I think I had two card making sessions. You'll notice that instead of centering my collage pieces on the card base, I placed them all in the bottom right corner.  Just a little something I've been doing with my cards lately.

Here's the next batch of 6 completed cards.

The snowmen are some of my faves, just so holly jolly.

And the cute vintage images of the children are so cute.

Some of my favorite features are the paper doilies peeking out.  I cut each doily in half for each card.

The Washi tape was another fun accent I pulled from my holiday product stash.  Just another fun way to add some color to my cards.

And all the glittery accents.  You can see how I altered my wood embellishments in this post.

And that's a wrap.  I'm so glad to have this big stash of cards completed.  I need to snap a family photo and get these sent out the door.  So, did you create your own cards this year?  I'd love to hear your process and how many cards you send out.  I know that some of you make astonishing amounts of holiday cards.

Well, I'm off to wash some basketball uniforms and put a cheeseburger meatloaf in the crock pot.  I'll be working on my Project December pages early next week so stay tuned for my first update near the middle of the week.  The temps are supposed to drop and I have to admit I'm looking forward to spending some time in my big green chair by the fire and staring at my pretty Christmas tree.  Have a great weekend everyone!

A little reminder.......let the stress of the holiday hubbub go this year.  I see people scurrying around and  sometimes it all just gets to me.  I still cherish the "everyday" of December....watching my girls play ball, sitting down to a family meal, playing with my naughty little puppy.  The holiday is magical time of year but I always need a reminder to keep it simple.....don't stress....just have fun.  :)