Romance is alive and well

I think this proposal is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. I can only imagine all the work, creativity, and love he put into making this for his hoped-to-be fiancee. I have a feeling they'll be very happy together. xo

Project Life 2012: Week 17

I know it's been a while since I posted one of my Project Life updates. But I've been very busy with a writing class called 31 Things I'm taking with Ali Edwards. In this writing class, I need to write a story everyday and take a photo to go with the story so it's been taking up all my free time.

I'm also trying very hard to finish up my son's School album in the week and a half I have left before he graduates from high school. The album covers his entire school years from elementary to high school. I'm almost done with that project but it's been a huge undertaking. I've put so much love into this album as I want it to be a very special gift for him.

So needless to say, I've been a very busy girl and add regular life to the mix and I'm ready to be done with all these big projects so I can get back to a somewhat regular crazy life.

So here is Project Life Week 17 -- this happens to be the special "Week in the Life" when I took 100's of photos. I plan on doing a small album to capture all the details of this one week in our life when I get a chance. Until then, I thought I'd include a few of the photos in a regular Project Life spread.

Week at-a-glance:

Left-Hand Page:

I love the journaling card in the upper left corner titled This is our Life : Highlights of the Week. It is perfect for capturing our daily life. This journaling card is part of a free set from Emily Merritt designs.

Right-Hand Page:

 One little Week Digital brush from Ali Edwards

For the Birthday Balloon Tradition I used one of Cathy Zielske's Tiny Templates.



Capture Life is one of Ali Edwards hand-drawn digital brushes.

The Days of the Week journaling card that I cut up can be found here at A Vegas Girl at Heart.

The 4x6 journaling card with the label can be found here at Valorie Brown designs.

The Love This arrow is from Ali Edwards.



Thanks so much for stopping by.

I won!

I won a spot in Ali Edward's Big Picture Class "31 Things!" I'm still pinching myself. I never win things or at least I haven't won anything since I was fourteen. And that was quite a few years ago. At fourteen, I won two tickets to Aloha Roller Palace through our local radio station. You remember those days before redial when you had to keep dialing into the radio station over and over until you were the right caller. My big prize -- my best friend and I were thrilled to go roller skating and of course, check out cute boys.

Well, times and technology have changed as the contest was on Facebook -- no more dialing over and over on a rotary phone. Plus, the prize is a class about writing. Being a librarian, I've always been in love with the written word. Plus, as a scrapbooker, we are always using our words to tell our family's stories. This class will help me "document the details of everyday life through words and photos."

One very special thing is that the class encourages us to write a story every day for 31 days. This might sound daunting to some but to me this sounds exciting. As an aspiring writer, it's nice to have someone to push and stretch you so you can grow. And I know I won't grow if I don't sit at the table and write every day.

So thank you Xyron, Facebook, and Ali for this wonderful gift. It's not just a class to me. It's a piece of a dream for me.

Project Life 2012: Week 16

I'm closing in on being up to date with my Project Life album! Most importantly, I'm still having fun working on my album. Thanks so much for looking!

Here is Week 16 . . .

Here is the whole week at a glance:

Left-hand side:

Right-hand side:

I love these remember arrows that Ali Edwards created along with some other great sayings on arrows. She created them special for National Scrapbook Day and offered them through her Facebook page.

The cute Scroll journaling card under the remember arrow can be found at www.TheDigiChick.com.

I took a photo of my GPS in my car since I did a lot of driving this week -- I literally felt like I lived in my van this week! The Note This journaling card can be found here.

The everyday documented journaling card can be found here. It was perfect for telling the story of how I organized all our memorabilia (our everyday documented) -- a huge job! I added a colored paperclip for a pop of color and to add to the "officey" feel.

I love movies and Project Life is the perfect place to keep track of all the movies I watch.

All the adhesive labels I used are from the Avery Martha Stewart collection available at Staples.

If you have any questions about any of the products I used, go ahead and leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Project Life 2012: Week 3

If you find yourself at my blog, I'm in the middle of catching up my readers with all of my Project Life album entries until we're all caught up. You may notice I'm using a different album than almost everyone else. I hope you can appreciate my different twist to Project Life. Most important thing is that we're all capturing our memories one moment at a time. Thanks for looking!

Here is Project Life 2012: Week 3 . . .


Full-Page Spread

Left-Hand Side:

Right-Hand Side:

Love the style of this free journaling card that is perfect to capture what I've been reading. You can find it here at Plucky Momo Designs. I added the black outline around it.

I love this Tuesday card, which is part of a great "days of the week" set. I like the combination of the grid and the colorful banner flag. You can find them for free here at Valorie Brown Designs.

I love all the faux washi tape that is out there.  I used this ruler design washi tape -- seemed kind of doctorish which was what I was going for. You can find it and other faux washi tape designs here on Miss Tiina's Blog.

I used this library journaling card to talk about my son's community service experience at the library - perfect! Found a library card here at Miss Tiina's.

Finally, I rounded up photos of the movies and books that I enjoyed this past week. I even took a photo of my Redbox cases and then placed a Martha Stewart label on it telling the cost of Redbox DVDs today -- a little nugget of history.

And by now, you realize that I love to use a lot of FREE journaling cards for my Project Life. Hey, everybody loves a good deal and free is the best deal. We are so lucky there are so many generous designers out there offering their talent to us. I try and point out in my post where I found things and if you're interested in more freebies, check out my Pinterest where I've tracked down even more. I want you to benefit from what I've found and will continue to find.

I also use and have pins of designs that I love that aren't free because I admire many designers and want to support their work too. For example, I buy a lot of Ali Edward's and Katie Pertiet's digital brushes and many other designer's templates.I get giddy when I think of all the awesome talent that surrounds us.

Thanks again for looking!

Project Life 2012: Week 15

I still get such a kick out of doing my Project Life album. Actually, I'm thankful to get back to it after a very intense but satisfying Week in the Life project. It's nice to get back to my crazy normal.

Here's my Week 15 . . .


Two Page Spread:

Left-Hand Page:

Right-Hand Page:

I love these little quote bubble cards that I found for free here at Creativity Prompt. I added the paper heart.

 

I used one of the cool free templates found at Paislee Press to create this photo collage with text. 

I found this easy tutorial here on Elise Blaha Cripe's Blog on how to use the opacity feature in Photoshop Elements. I love the effect and how the text seems to float on the photo.

 

I love to include memorabilia in as many ways as I can. I'm happy that I saved a Netflix envelope so I could include it with a photo of the movie I watched. I also used one of the Martha Sterwart Avery labels.

 

That's it for Week 15. Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2012: Week 2

If you find yourself at my blog, I'm in the middle of catching up my readers with all of my Project Life entries until we're all caught up. Thanks for looking!

Project Life 2012:  Week 2

Here is a snapshot of the full-page spread:

 

Left-Hand Page:

Right-Hand Page:

I used some faux washi tape at the top of the oval journaling card.. Online I found some washi tape you could print out, cut out, tear so it looks natural, and voila, you've got washi tape. There are designs all over the web for free.

I love the library card journaling cards that I got free from here at The Creative Place.

In the album I'm using, there is a slot at the bottom for labels. I'm putting the dates covered for each week on the left-hand side. I'm using a date stamp to label the dates on a strip of cream-colored cardstock. This is something that I'm doing throughout the album for continuity.

I found the the cute "These are the Moments" pennants online for free. She had a lot of different sayings also. I can't remember where I found them. If you know, remind me so I can give credit.

We watch a lot of movies in our family. It's easy to go online and find a digital image of the movie you watched. Plus, I like to include the ticket stubs since it adds some interest and shows the cost of the movie - another little piece of history.

That's it for Week 2.

Project Life 2012: - Week 1

Since I jumped in late sharing my Project Life album, I thought I would go back and share from the beginning of my album. I hope you enjoy the different way I'm doing Project Life. Sometimes, I feel a little left out of the party because everyone's albums look alike and mine is so different. But I've got to march to my own drummer right? I appreciate you looking.

Oh, and I haven't finished my Title page yet. With most my albums, I like to do my Title Page last so I can see where the album goes and then I have a better feel for how I want the Title Page to look. Does that make sense?


Here is my Two-page spread:

Left-Hand Page:

Right-Hand Page:

I think it's neat to include receipts of things like the Walmart receipt so my kids and grandkids will see the types of things we bought at the grocery store and how much we paid for it.


Here is a close-up of a great free journaling card I got from A Vegas Girl at Heart.

Here is another close-up of a quote sticker I had in my stash. Love to use quotes in my album.

Here is a close-up of a gift card one of my kids redeemed. Definitely shows a little pop culture. I like using colored paper clips to attach things - adds a nice pop of color. The decorative card underneath the Itunes card is a freebie from MissTina's Blog.

Thanks again for looking!

Project Life 2012: Week 14

Last week you saw my Week in the Life project. Before Week in the Life, there was Project Life. Project Life is a system created by Becky Higgins which is best explained here. Like most Project Lifers, I started my album at the beginning of the year, January 1, 2012 with the intent to capture my family's daily life all year long. You're probably wondering how is this different from Week in the Life (WITL). Well WITL is much more intense and detailed and you only look at one week out of the whole year. In any case, I've seriously got our LIFE covered in case you were concerned. Ha! And for those just jumping into my blog recently, my blog is not just about "Life" scrapbooking projects -- although they ROCK! You just came at the busy scrapbooking season. Just wait until National Scrapbook Day! :)

Anywho, because of WITL and life (there's that word again), I'm a little behind and will be sharing Week 14. But hey that's life! Sorry, I just can't stop myself now.

And you will notice that I have gone rogue and am using my own scrapbooking products for my Project Life not the official kit. To save money, I wanted to use what I had on hand plus I love all the variety of great journaling cards available. Becky's stuff is amazing, but I wanted to do it my way. Hope you can appreciate my take on it.

Project Life Life 2012: Week 14

View of Full Layout

Close-up of Left Page

Close-up of Right Page

I used one of Ali Edward's brushes on the photo of my cat. I also used this great freebie "All We Need is Love & Coffee" from Tina of LiveLovePaper.

 

I used a free template from Paislee Press (found here) to put all four photos together in one 4x6.

 

Every weekend, we watch at least one movie, I like to include photos of the movies.

 

We had a ton of doctor appointments this week so I included a column of all the doctors business cards.

 

When my photos have a large open space, I like to put my journaling right there. It allows me to include more photos.

 

Thanks for looking!