one reason why i love project life

Have you ever heard of Project Life? It’s a fabulous way of memory keeping that Becky Higgins came up with. I love it. I started using it in 2009. Well, actually that first year it was called Project 365, and Creating Keepsakes put out the kit. It has grown a lot since then.

There are a lot of different ways to do PL. The way I typically do it is very simple. I take one photo every day, and then I sit down at some point and write a bit about that photo. That’s it. I love seeing the ways people embellish their PL albums, but if I were to do that in mine, I would never be caught up. I've always been terrible at keeping a journal and staying on top of traditional scrapbooks, but this picture-a-day approach to PL has stuck with me for years now, and I love it just as much now as I did at the beginning. And ok, I cheat sometimes with the actual date I take the photo, but I figure the exact date isn't as important as the memory, so it doesn't bother me.

Now I’m not always completely caught up with my album. When I’m on top of it, I’ll print photos and do the journaling cards once a week or so. But a lot of the time, I’m not that efficient. And that’s ok. I’m so grateful that Project Life makes it so easy to record your memories, and I’m even more grateful that it makes it so easy to catch up when you fall behind.

Take January 2013, for example. I didn’t work on my album for the first few weeks of the year. Then the morning of January 19 came with the news that my bro-in-law had passed away very unexpectedly from a heart attack. That was an incredibly hard time for my family, my sister and her boys in particular, of course. I just couldn't bring myself to work on my album for quite some time. I knew that when I started writing the journaling cards, I would eventually have to write about my bro-in-law’s death, and I just wasn't ready to do that. And I’m not one to skip around and work out of chronological order in my PL album. I’m weird that way. :) But, I knew I would regret it if I didn't include that particular story in my album. I never stopped taking photos though. I took them throughout the trip to Arizona for his funeral. And I continued to take pictures after that. I would write down which picture goes on which day on a little calendar so it would be easy for me to catch up when I was ready. Finally, three months later, I finally felt ready to tackle the task of writing about my bro-in-law’s death. I caught up on all the journaling in just a few days. I love how easy it is to put these albums together, and how great it is to get caught up for the year in just a few days.

And now, once again, my PL album has been sitting untouched for quite a while. I haven’t touched a journaling card since June. I’m not sure how long it will continue to sit there. You see, the morning of July 8, 2014, my father passed away, and I just haven’t wanted to work on that album since. I know I will get back to it, but I’m not sure when I will feel like I can write about him in there. But I will continue to take a lot of photos, just like I have been all this time, and I’ll make sure I have one photo for each day to go in my album, and I know when I’m ready, my Project Life album will be there waiting for me to record my thoughts and my life in it’s pages, and I will be caught up again in no time.

thank you card

This is the second card I made for my homework in Stretch Your Stamps 2 at www.onlinecardclasses.com:

I started out by using the Dictionary background stamp from Stampin' Up. Then I used various colors of Hero Arts Shadow Inks to stamp flowers from a WPlus9 floral builders stamp set. (I should add links, but I'm feeling lazy and my computer is being very slow tonight. Sorry!) This was the first time I had used this stamp set, and I love it. I used a frame die from Simon Says Stamp to cut and inlay a frame that I had embossed with Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I used the same embossing powder to emboss a greeting from Simon Says Stamp. I finished the card by adding clear Wink of Stella to the centers of the flowers. I like how this card turned out. :)

hello card

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. I had some things come up in my life, so crafting and blogging got put on the backburner. But I will try to make a better effort again.

I've been taking Stretch Your Stamps 2 from www.onlinecardclasses.com, and I finally had time after work tonight to use what I learned to create a couple cards. Here's the first one:

I was inspired by Jennifer McGuire to pull out my Perfect Pearls powder and use it with a Hero Arts background stamp. I used a frame die to cut out a window. I popped up the main panel with some foam tape, then adhered the center of the frame cutout directly to the card base. Then I cut out 4 of the Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello and glued them on top of each other. I then embossed it with several layers of Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder. And that's about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

finally another post

I know I said I would be blogging at least once on Sundays in my last blog post in April, but what can I say? I've had a lot of family things that have fallen on Sundays lately, so I just haven't had a chance. But I'm back, finally, with a card that I made several weeks ago. 

I wish I could have photographed this better. It looks so much cooler in person. The whole thing is covered with Glitter Ritz glitter except for the black outline. The red, silver, and black interior is totally glittered. It's so sparkly in person. I really like it, although now that I look at it, the background reminds me of a chain link fence. Ha ha! Oh well! :) 

I used the hexagon background die from Simon Says Stamp and the hello die is from Lawn Fawn. I was inspired by this card of Jennifer McGuire's. This was such a fun technique. I will have to try it again sometime.

Can you believe it's June already? Where does the time go?

Oh, and by the way - my self-imposed schedule has been going pretty well. There's days when I don't follow it, of course, especially last week, since it was my dad's birthday and we had some family things, and then I got sick. But I'm feeling so much better now, so I'm getting back to it. 

plans

The problem with having two blogs is that sometimes I don't know which one to post things on. :)

So I'm trying something new. I'm trying something similar to Ali Edwards. She and her assistant have implemented a block schedule so they always know what to work on when. I decided to try something similar, but mine can't be quite the same since I don't craft for my job. (But I sure wish I did sometimes!) I want to finish up some projects, so this is my tentative schedule:

Sunday: Project Life and at least one blog post
Monday: The History Project
Tuesday: clean
Wednesday: cards/scrapbook
Thursday: cards/scrapbook or read/review things from my photography or crafting classes
Friday: stitch/work on Halloween quilt
Saturday: whatever I'm in the mood for

Now, don't get me wrong - I will be flexible with this schedule. There will be times when I go shopping after work, or when I have a really good book that I want to finish instead of being crafty, or when I'm just really not in the mood to work on anything, but I am going to try to be more productive. At least I have finished some of the things that I have wanted to this year. I finished a rag quilt, and I made my sister-in-law a mini album. And I reorganized a bunch of stuff in my craft room (and I came to the conclusion that I do not need to buy any more paper for a very long time!). I'm planning on posting some of those things soon, so stay tuned, and wish me luck on my self-imposed schedule and getting some projects finished!

And now, as it's Sunday, I'm going to get working on Project Life. :)

paper smooches sparks challenge

I decided to enter the Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge for the first time. I always see the challenges on the blog, but I've never made anything for it. But today I felt like playing with some dies and stamps. 

I covered the Paper Smooches Tag Stitched Die with some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Then I die cut the Paper Smooches Rainbow out of some Stampin' Up double-sided adhesive on top of Neenah white cardstock. I adhered Doodlebug glitter to give the rainbow color. I then used double-sided Scor-tape on Neenah cardstock, and stamped the cloud from Paper Smooches Spectrum on top of the sticky tape using Hero Arts Soft Granite Shadow Ink. Then I covered the cloud with Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter, and then cut it out. I attached the rainbow and cloud to the tag with Glue Dots and 3M foam adhesive. Then I stamped the greeting from Paper Smooches Spectrum on a scrap of Neenah cardstock with the Soft Granite ink, and cut it into a banner shape. I used a little more Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on the edges. I glued that down, and then tied some Doodlebug twine at the top. I like how it turned out. It's very colorful and fun, which is what I needed today, as it snowed again. I'm so ready for spring!

Thanks for stopping by!

paper smooches

Happy Sunday all! I'm just popping in for a minute to say I haven't forgotten about this here little blog of mine. I just haven't been creating anything lately. I decided my ever-expanding paper stash is in dire need of reorganizing, so I have been working on that. Hopefully I will be back to crafting things soon.

And I just have to say Happy 3rd Anniversary Paper Smooches!

I have loved Paper Smooches stamps ever since I saw their Halloweenies stamp set a couple years ago. I ordered it shortly after I saw it on Ellen Hutson. I loved it even more when I got it, and since then I have purchased many other stamp sets and dies, and I love them all. They are one of my favorite stamp companies. They are having a lot of fun things on their blog this month, so I encourage you to check it out. You won't be sorry! :)

cards from the heart

Well, what do you know - two posts in one day. I don't expect this to happen again. :)

I thought I would share a few cards that I have made for the Cards from the Heart Card Drive. They are pretty simple, but I think they turned out kind of cute. I hope the kids like them.

I used white Neenah cardstock, Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, Copic Markers, and touches of the clear Wink of Stella marker on the hearts. I'm not sure of the brands of red cardstock, as I just grabbed some from my stash, and I've had a lot of it for quite some time. I used two stamp sets from Papertrey Ink: Tiny Treats Valentine and Tremendous Treats Valentine, and three Hero Arts stamp sets: Monster Fun, Many Hearts, and Valentine Sayings. Many Hearts and Valentine Sayings must not be available anymore, as I couldn't find them on Hero Arts' website to link them. Oh and I used my Tombow Stamp Runner to adhere the stamped pieces to the red cardstock. Anyway, here are the cards:

I think the airplane and the pail are my favorite. I don't know why, but I seem to be able to blend the blues better than a lot of the other colors. It's weird. I cut the Neenah cardstock to 3x4, and the red to 3.25x8.25. I rounded some of the corners with the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, and I added some Rocky Candy Distress Stickles to the frosting on the cupcake. I love how it looks like sugar. And I used a bit of black Enamel Accents on some of the eyes.

Thanks for stopping by!

a creative mess

Here we go again! I've tried blogging every now and again on my other blog here, but I'm not the best at keeping it updated. But now I finally have a decent internet connection, so we'll see how it goes. I thought I would leave that blog as more of a personal nature, and write about whatever is on my mind, and then I created this one to share my creative endeavors. I love to have projects. I love making cards, scrapbooks and other memory keeping things, such as Project Life, stitching, sewing, and I have even done a little knitting and jewelry making. And I'm usually willing to try my hand at anything crafty that comes along, sometimes with good results, sometimes, not so much. But I have fun doing it. I would love to be better at baking and decorating cookies and cupcakes, but they usually look better in my mind than they do when I actually decorate them. But no matter what I'm working on, I can't do it without making a mess. My craft table is constantly covered with paper, fabric, books, glitter, pens, and who knows what else. Even when I clean it off, it doesn't stay that way for long. And that is why the saying "a creative mess is preferable to idle neatness" fits me perfectly!

I hope to be back here with another post soon, but right now I'm off to make some cards for the 2014 Cards from the Heart Card Drive while I watch my favorite show - Gilmore Girls. Hopefully, I will have a chance to post some of the cards I made for it soon!