Project Life Week 1–1/1-1/7

We are already a week into 2012, which means I have completed my first week of Project Life.  So far, I love it!  It truly simplifies scrapbooking and makes it easy to record the events of the week, which I am really happy about.

I am doing a weekly layout approach to PL, and I imagine that I will have at least 2 pages per week (most weeks, I am sure, I will go beyond 2 pages).  This week I had 4 pages..and we didn’t even do anything all that exciting!

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Page one- I included a palette that I made using my PL Clementine Core Kit colors to symbolize the start of this project, a Facebook status from New Year’s Day that details my resolutions/goals for the year, a photo of Adison’s favorite game from her iPod (a Christmas gift) and 2 photos of Adison.  I also have a little bit of journaling included, and some papers from my core kit to fill in the blanks.  I didn’t do much extra embellishing, other than rounding my corners and a brad to attach the bottom left photo.

Page 2 – this is actually a 12x10 page that I sandwiched in the middle of my weekly layout. I love that the page is smaller, it allows me to add extra pictures & journaling but still be able to see the full week at a glance.  Adison was painting on this particular day and just one picture wasn’t enough for me!

Page 3 – This is actually a continuation of the same day as page 2.  Adison was cracking me up, she took feather embellished pens and stuck them in one of my manger pieces and bestowed upon me a bouquet!  I had to include it in my PL!

Page 4- More every day life.  Adison lounging on the couch and Ferguson blocking my shot.  A couch full of toys.  Dinner.  Adison displaying a game we played that night.   I never would have thought to document these things before…sure I’ve always taken the pictures, but I don’t DO anything with them.  Did I mention that I love Project Life?

 

I’ll be posting my PL pages each week- I may not go into as much detail, but I do want to share my pages and will likely do at least a weekly wrap up!

So..week one wrap up! 

What I love:

It’s SO easy to use this system.  Everything is right there in a box, so there is no guess work. 

I love rounded corners too! 

Fine point sharpies <3

What I might change:

When time permits, I would love to get more into the design aspect.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that I don’t *have* to even think and it still looks pretty, but I do plan to use more embellishments and cut up my own papers as well, at least for some layouts!

I need a new corner rounding method – I am using a Fiskars punch, and it’s fine…but it gets all clogged with paper bits and I don’t love that! 

 

Thanks for reading- if you are doing PL yourself, please comment, I would love to check out some other layouts!

Adison’s birthday invitation

I love playing in Photoshop, so one thing I do each year is make Adison’s birthday invitation. I love that I can personalize each detail of the invite, from photos of her, to coordinating backgrounds, and even fonts that go with the theme.

In May 2011 we took a family vacation to Disney World and we fell in L-O-V-E with all things Disney, so naturally when Halloween rolled around, a Minnie Mouse costume had to be whipped up (I admit,I didn’t make the dress – thanks to Gymboree for that one! But I did construct the ears, bow & of course the bright yellow shoe covers!).  Now that her birthday is around the corner (*sniff* my baby is almost FOUR!), I took advantage of our Halloween pictures and put together this Minnie Mouse themed invitation! 

Then, I went ahead and made a little Mouse Palette as well…why not right? It only takes a few seconds to make these- I love a quick little project like that!

Project Life Clementine Palette

I made this for my own use, just thought it might be helpful to everyone else using the Project Life Core Kit - Clementine Edition!
I am going to print mine out and stick it in my wallet so I have it handy when I’m scouring Joann for cute papers!

Project life

I recently purchased a Project Life kit, which is an amazing product.  I am not going to really explain what it’s all about, as there are so many sites where you can find that information already out there (try Becky Higgins for starters!).  Just know that it is amazing and I am prepared for it to essentially revolutionize the way that I keep track of my photos and memories!

I am starting my official PL album in 2012, but I couldn’t resist playing with it a bit to scrap some of my Christmas photos!  This layout is all about the preparations that come before Christmas – baking, decorating, and generally being jolly!
I used a “G” page protector by Becky Higgins and I cut my own journaling cards and title card from papers I had in my stash.  Corners were all trimmed with a Fiskars corner rounding punch (love the look of the rounded corners!).  I created my little 4x6 collages in Photoshop.  I also managed to get my bear of a printer to print on my title card, and then attached a little ornament I picked up for half off at Target (50 cents!  Flat ornaments make great little cheapie embellishments and the holiday merch is on sale everywhere right now!).
Overall I am happy with my layout, however I might go and redo my journaling cards, or at least one of them – I feel like the layout is a little too bland in the middle and it needs an extra punch of color in there somewhere!
While I was playing, I also created this little journaling tag to include in another Christmas themed layout – a few of my favorite things! I cut out a 3x4 card and rounded the corners, then wrote the text out in PS and printed on my card.  After hunting around in our piles of gifts, I managed to find some logos from some of our favorite gifts and glued them right on!

Decorative Jar DIY

Last week I made a mint sugar scrub & mentioned that a pretty jar would make it suitable for gift giving.

Materials:

scrapbook paper

paper punch

white glue or mod podge

clean glass jar

clear coat spray

hot glue

ribbon or other embellishments

So first thing is first, get a clean jar. You can buy a jar, or use one that you have.  I used an applesauce jar.  Make sure you clean the jar well if you are repurposing a food jar!  I also boiled my jar to help lift up the sticky residue from the jar label's glue.

Measure your jar's width and cut a sheet of scrap paper fit to wrap around the jar.  I chose to use a decorative punch to get this fun edge.  You could use a punch, hand cut with scissors or a razor blade, or use decorative scissors to create the edge you want.  I only did one edge, as I would later be covering the second edge with ribbon.

As you can tell, I had some slight major issues with getting my decorative edge the way I wanted it to look!

Word to the wise- do your punching over a trashcan or another sheet of paper, so you won't have to waste time scooping up all of this mess!

After you get your decorative edge the way you want, you are going to adhere the paper to the jar.  If you are reusing a food jar, look around and see if there are any markings that you might want to hide or disguise, this will help you with your paper placement.  My applesauce jar had small blue print on one side near the top, so I made that the "back" and that is where my paper seam is on the jar.  You can use a spray adhesive if you want, but I love simplicity so I went with good old fashioned white glue.  I used it full strength, it will work watered down to paint consistency just as well.  Spread  the glue in a thin, even coat, apply paper to jar, and smooth any bubbles out before the glue dries.

Apply a thin, even layer of glue.

Now we embellish!  I used a ribbon in a coordinating pattern to cover my one rough paper edge and line the rim of the jar.  Feel free to use your creativity and what you have on hand.  Buttons, silk flowers, and much more would work perfectly.  If you use ribbon, you will want to go ahead and give the cut edges a quick heat seal, then adhere to the jar with hot glue.  I also found a striped letter L chipboard that matched the colors from my paper and ribbon, so I added that to the front of the jar (L for Linda, my mom).

My tag with heart rub on transfer.

Finally I used a second punch to make a tag, and did a simple rub on transfer for the heart.  To add a bit of depth, I used Scotch mounting squares, which you can find in office supply or craft stores.  You could easily recreate the same effect using a bit of foam or corrugated cardboard and glue.

Scotch Mounting Squares

Finally give a nice even coat of clear coat spray over the entire jar.  Clear? not so much, it left a visible film on the glass, which I think actually works out fine, but if you want a completely clear glass you will want to protect the glass from being hit by the "clear" coat.

Front view of final product.

What can you use your jar to hold?  Add a lid and it's perfect for your sugar scrub, or go topless and use it to hold kitchen utensils, pens & pencils, or whatever else you have that needs a "spot."  I gave this to my mom & she now has a cute place to toss her spare change at the end of the day.

Sweet tag embellishment on the back.

I heart faces - Fix it Friday #64

Another week, another Fix it Friday at I heart faces! 

Here's my edit.  I used the dodge & burn tools to make her eyes pop a bit more and to make her smile a tad brighter, then fiddled around with curve layers, saturation, etc until I got the look I wanted.  

How pretty is this little girl?!  I just love her freckles.

Here's the original:

 And here is the same edit with a different crop:

I did all of my editing this week using Adobe Photo Shop cs4.

Check out what other contributors had to offer

A day in food

I know how easy it can sometimes be to fall in a rut with feeding a toddler...chicken nuggets, pasta, grilled cheese. Sure, they are eating, but are they gaining anything (besides weight) from the food?

I wanted to give some simple toddler friendly ideas for meals, so here is a day in food.

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not pack it full of tasty fruits?  Honeydew, cantaloupe,  blackberries, red grapes, green grapes, raspberries, kiwi, strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, peaches & blueberries make up this fruit salad, and yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

For lunch, I threw together a quick chicken salad. We already had the chicken cooked (this was marinated over night in teriyaki, then cooked on the grill, but of course works with any seasonings and cooking style).

Chop the chicken coarsely, add some chopped red onion & mayo, then toast your bread and you are in business!

I added some green grapes & multigrain tortilla chips on the side.

Some high fiber billion grain bread for adison.

White bread & some cheese for Mike.

And what did I eat (I'm vegetarian)?  Cheese sandwich..typical, I did the meal prep and didn't eat the meal!

For dinner, we did big salads..YUM. 

Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, baby portobello mushrooms, green peppers, snap peas, croutons, and craisins.  Make that cherry flavored craisins.

Let me just stop you before you tell me how weird that is, and say that they are pretty good.  I still prefer my regular cranberry flavored craisins, but in a pinch these worked.  They are better as a snack than in my salad, but certainly a cherry flavored craisin is better in my salad than no craisin at all.

Here's Adison's salad (notice that chicken again, leftover chicken made it into 2 meals in one day).

My salad :mouth watering:

And for dessert? The season's best fruit, watermelon.

Freebie quick page - Fanette Designs

I can't keep myself out of photo shop lately, and I love to share..so I have another quick page for you! This time it's made with Jardin Secret by Fanette Designs.  

Here's my example.

The file actually contains 2 quick pages, the one above and another with the same elements placed differently.  I hope you enjoy it!

Download here.

Sugar Scrub DIY

So I was sitting here alternately brainstorming crafty projects and getting annoyed with dry skin on my hands, when it came to me...a project that would eliminate dry skin! :lightbulb:

So off to the kitchen I went in search of ingredients. I came up with a tiny bit of sugar, a bottle of olive oil and some peppermint oil. Planning ahead is obviously not my strong suit! I made do with what I had, which turned out to be less than 1/3 cup of sugar.  I now realize you can't even see the sugar in my supplies picture, but just trust that it's in the measuring cup!

The directions are quite complex, so pay close attention: dump the sugar & oil in a bowl and mix.

That's right, you just blend until moist. Now with my 2/3 full 1/3 cup of sugar I added about 3 tsp of olive oil (which by the way, you can substitute almond oil if you want). If you are making a larger batch, you will want to adjust the amount of oil accordingly. 

After I mixed in my oil, I added a couple drops of peppermint oil.  Again, you can substitute different essential oils depending on what scents you like.  I love the peppermint, it's invigorating and will be a great wake up in the morning. For a night time shower or bath, you might want to try lavender or vanilla.  The possibilities are pretty much endless. 

As for storage, with my little bit I made here, I just threw it in a baggie..it will be used up pretty quickly. If you are making a larger batch, make sure you store it in a sealed container (a glass jar will work nicely).  The scrub will last a couple months, after which point you will want to dispose of it (the oil will eventually spoil), but until that point, you can store your jar of scrub in the bathroom, no need to refrigerate.

Here's my finished product.  I think next I'll work on a decorative jar for storage to hold my next batch(adding sugar to the grocery list!).

I'd love to hear what essential oil combination anyone else decides to use!

Freebie quick page!

Who doesn't love to wake up on a Sunday morning to something free?

I made this quick page using the Easterly Spring kit made by Melissa at Dreamweaver Designs.

(Psst she has a freebie of her own to go with the kit, plus other kits & masks that start at a buck & a half).

Visit her blog for the full kit (and many more, really her kits are adorable)!

Here's an example of how the page will look once you add your own photograph.

It will print as a 12x12 page to fit in standard scrapbooks & is 300dpi for a nice clear print!

Here's the freebie!  

I'd love to see what people come up with, so if you snag it and use it, please share your final product!

Happy scrapping!

I heart faces - Fix it Friday #63

I edited a photo for this weeks Fix it Friday challenge.

Here's the original, provied by I Heart Faces.

And here is what I came up with.

First I brought the photo into Lightroom.  I used a few presets (auto tone, punch, sharpen portrait, tone curve flat) then manually lowered the clarity, saturation & vibrance.

I then took the photo into photoshop, where I added this texture and changed the blending mode to multiply. Next, I duplicated the original image and changed the blending mode to soft light.

Finally, I selected the 2 girls using the quick select tool in the original image, then feathered the edge of the selection, copied and pasted on top as a new layer.  I did this final step because I wasn't really loving the texture being on the girls' faces.  I'm not sure if that is the "right" way to achieve this, but it worked well enough either way.

This was my very first time using texture in a photo..I've wanted to try it for a while, but really just didn't know where to start. I followed this tutorial, which helped me get started.  

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Look Who's Cooking Now graphic package

Last time you'll hear from me tonight!  I mentioned the other day that I was making a blog header & buttons for Look Who's Cooking Now, and I just finished them up, so I have to share!

Over my head

This is my first time entering in a photo challenge on iheartfaces.