Monday, June 30, 2014

Tide Pools

It's the last day of the month. Can you believe it? June sure swept by fast. It was a lot more productive for my creativity than prior months. I am beginning to feel at ease with my creative process again. When that happens for me, layouts come together quickly and I love what I have created. Tide Pools was a recent layout that I just adored.

Tide Pools by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill: Patterned Paper, Die Cuts: Kaisercraft; Letters: Basic Grey; Enamel Dot: My Mind's Eye;Cut File: Amanda Robinson Studio; Other: Glossy Accents

I started with the cut file as my inspiration, then I chose the photo to work with it. I wanted to imitate the groupings of tide pools on the beach. I used themed paper and die cuts to help set the scene.







Want to see the full process behind this layout? I shared a step by step tutorial on the Amanda Robinson Studio blog.

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Saturday, June 28, 2014

The Scrapbooking World Series






Would you like to play along with the Scrapbooking World Series and support a team of teens in their journey to the Little League World Series? If so, you could win a $100 Gift Certificate to Creative Passions classes.

Tami Taylor is a friend of mine and her son has the chance to play in the Little League World Series. The team is trying to raise funds to help them defray their costs. Tami is offering a unique, challenge based class at Creative Passions classes which will blend the fun of baseball with scrapbooking. The challenges are designed so that both paper and hybrid scrapbookers of all levels can play along. If this sounds like fun, head on over to Creative Passions classes to sign up. Signing up for the class helps to support the team, you get to have fun and could possibly win a gift certificate to Creative Passions classes.


Friday, June 27, 2014

The Awesome Ladies Project


I've been meaning to join in since I first saw this one posted. It happens on the last Friday night of every month. It just so happens that tonight is the night.It's the Awesome Ladies Project. SO what exactly is it? You pick a project that makes you feel awesome. You share photos of the project while you work on it with the hashtag #awesomeladiesproject on your favorite social media. You can even link up with the founder of the project, Kristin, on her website. It's just that easy.

So what's on the agenda for me tonight. Well, currently, I am pretty excited about the Fourth of July. I have pulled out some older photos of my son when he was little enjoying some backyard fireworks. I have got my JBS Mercantile July kits all ready to go. I haven't scrapped much recently and I feel like I deserve a night of memory keeping. What about you? Will you be joining us?


Project Life: March 2014

I seem to be moving through my Project Life spreads with ease. I am keeping things simple and using it as a creative warm up for my 12x12 scrapbooking endeavors. Recently, I was asked about how I choose which photos go into a Project Life Spread and which become 12x12 layouts. I have a criteria, but keep in mind it's not set in stone. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to scrapbooking, except that you should have fun telling your stories.

When it comes to Project Life, I consider it an introduction to my month. It's sort of a recap of the events and often includes photos that don't make the cut for the 12x12 layouts. These photos usually include nature photos I take on my walks, foodie shots, our currents( reading, watching, video games we are playing) and quick snaps of daily life that I want to capture. I often take a ton of photos of my cats. I tend to document the best ones in 12x12 layouts. I'm a bit cat crazy, so most of the extras make their way to Project Life.

In some cases, I make the 12x12 layouts in Project Life Page Protectors. March only had 3 Project Life Spreads. I put the first page of March on the back of a Pocket Page style Layout. This requires a little planning on my part. However, It's important that you don't force yourself to make extra PL spreads with tons of filler cards. Don't get me wrong...I love filler cards. I just don't personally want layouts filled with tons of them. Project Life is a way for me to include more stories in my albums while taking less space.






Page one documented playing Titanfall with my husband, the Get It Scrapped online crop,my son watchin tv with our cat in a box on his lap, and doing laundry with our cats' help. I used a journal card to write about how TV is different now then when I was a kid.

Page two documents our family staycation. I didn't feel it was a big event like it would be if we had traveled somewhere. However, I really wanted to document some of the little stories behind what we did as a family. A pocket page spread was the easiest way to go. I could work on the cards a little each day. I only ended up needing one page to cover our week at home.










Not a whole lot happened to us in March. I included my usual screenshot of our weather and pictures from a few random events. For example, there were fireworks one evening for some unknown reason. I snapped a few photos and wanted to document how much we enjoyed them. I also snapped a shot of a trip to starbucks with my son during errands.Project Life provides a way for me to document the little things in my life that mean a lot.


What does Project Life mean to you?





Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Project Life: February 2014

I would like to say I approach all of my projects with my best effort. Two things seemed against me when I made these pages. One was time. The other, a lack of creative mojo. I needed a project that helped me work out my creative block. Project life became just that. I approached my February pages with a need to get them done and to exercise my creativity. They may not be my best pages. However, they are done and I think it's important for everyone to visit the idea that not everything one produces is their absolute best. There is something we can learn, even from our mediocre work.

I approached page one without a plan. It's sort of evident in my choice in cards. I grabbed whichever cards inspired me at the moment. Probably not the best idea and something I want to try to avoid in the future.











I struggled with the second page. The photos I had did not fit the orientation of the page protector I had used for page one. It was a simple fix. I just rotated the page protector. Now my readers will have to rotate the album in order to see the page. I am ok with that and will keep this as an idea for future layouts.











Page three is actually a layout I did for Layout a Day. It's a quick and simple page which utilizes some of the 4x6 postcards that came in my son's megablocks kit. I like this one a lot.













I completed both page three and four separately at different times. I had to trim some of the cards down to accommodate the page protector. This became an issue later when I had to move the cards to the back side of the page three layout. Now my cards are out of order. I need to plan pages ahead of time a little better so it doesn't happen again.










Yes, I made a few mistakes with the month of February. However, I learned a little more about my process and what I can do to improve Project Life for me in the future.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Project Life: Fireworks

It's getting close to Independence day. I always adore the fire works. It occurred to me that I had yet to share the fireworks photos from New Year's Eve. I actually completed most of my January pages some time ago. I saved the fireworks photos for last. I have a hard time deciding which ones to use. I always love so many of my shots and I have gotten better at capturing them over the years. This year, I chose to print smaller photos and to fit them into a pocket style scrapbook page.

I printed all of the photos onto 4x6 pieces of photo paper. Some I cut down to fit the smaller 3x4 pockets. Some photos I left as 4x6. I then used a piece of very thin washi tape to divide them. I love how the washi tape delineates the photos while allowing me to work with a larger size pocket.

I used a vintage postcard along with some Project Life 3x4 cards to fill the extra pockets and house journaling.









I really like how the pocket pages accommodate so many of my photos. I plan to use them with this year's fireworks display as well.

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JBS Mercantile: Mid Month Check In

Technically it's past the middle of the month. However, it's never too late to pop in and share a little inspiration. June's kits are stunning!  As I shuffle through them, I find my creative mojo returning to me once again.

This month, JBS Mercantile is focusing on summer memories. I have been focusing on getting some of my past summer memories documented.When I saw the butterfly paper, I knew I wanted to recount the tale of taking my son to a butterfly garden. He would gently open his hands to let each butterfly lightly sit upon his fingers.












The flowers in this month's patterned paper selection were very detailed. Instead of fussy cutting the whole flower and the greenery at the same time, I chose to cut them in separate steps.This allowed me to layer the flowers and the leaves for a bit more dimension.After fussy cutting some flowers, I used glossy accents to make them more detailed.






Summer is just getting started. I am excited to already have to July kits in hand. Let's just say the kits are so fabulous that there is no shortage of inspiration. Meanwhile, stay tuned to see if I get a few more projects out of the June Kits.

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