Who is Ready for a Vacation? This Girl!

It's been a long tiring week full of blogging, planning and blogging some more. The work doesn't bother me but I know my mind needs a rest. When I saw the latest kit from Traci Reed Designs, traveling and rest were all I could think of. Sure, I have travel photos to document( and I will get to those) but really, I just needed to daydream a little. I don't have any travel plans on the horizon but that didn't stop me from making some new luggage tags!

DIY Hybrid Luggage Tags by Christy Strickler |Supplies Digital Kit: All year Round Destinations by Traci Reed Designs and Jady Day Studio; Tag: Deflecto Craft Solutions; Twine: True Hemp



















The tags were super easy to make. All you need is an empty pouch, patterned paper and some travel themed die cuts. Digital kits are perfect for the tags because you can print anything from them, including buttons. It's best keep your tag relatively flat. Hence the use of the die cuts. You don't want anything lumpy that might get snagged on one of luggage carousels at the airport. Speaking of which, I did add twine to make the tags look good in the photo. You don't want  twine tassels when you tie these tags onto your suitcase. Trim all the ends. Loose twine can easily get snagged in a  machine. In fact, you might just want to replace the twine with a carabiner hook, a key chain cable ring or a combo of both. These tags would also be perfect for your kid's school bags. In which case, break out all the lumpy embellishments and twine tassels that you want.

Really, it's probably a good thing to make the luggage tags ahead of time. You and I both know that if a vacation were in the works, spending time crafting would be put on the back burner in order to pack. So even if you don't have travel plans any time soon, I say you should break out those travel supplies and create something with them!

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

All Year Round Destinations from Traci Reed Designs and Jady Day Studio

Visit Deflecto to find a retailer near you or purchase supplies through Amazon.

The Deflecto Reversible Pouch can also be used to make a mini album.


Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Motif-Have Suitcase, Will Travel! on Pinterest.

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Project Life:June 2015- Starting my Summer Stories

This week, I got my hands on the next Pocket Life '15 Collection from Traci Reed Designs. I was very excited to see that it had a nice summer vibe. I have been anxious to get started on my Summer Stories Pocket page series. Working with this kit is helping me stay on target in regards to my summer project life goals.

June Project Life Intro Page by Christy Strickler |Supplies Digital Kit: Pocket Life '15 June Collection from Traci Reed Designs



















I began the page with a Summer Stories card. We don't have any big plans for this summer which means I am really not sure what to expect photo wise. I will still be including a card for each month, however, you might notice that the June 2015 card is 3x4 inches this month. I usually create a 4x6 inch card for the introduction to each month.

I kept things simple as I was a little strapped for time this week. I think it works well. Many of the patterns I chose to work with are bold. I also changed how I showed the weather this month. I took a photo of the ocean from the car and wrote about our heat wave on it.I have been playing around a little with my Lomo Instant camera. I think the little instant prints are going to be a great addition to my pocket pages.

I am trying something new this week. I created a "watch me scrap" style video showing how I decorated and placed the cards. When this style video first made its appearance in my You Tube feed, I questioned whether or not they were effective as a means of inspiration. After watching a few, I have to admit that there is something to be said about being able to just watch the creative process in motion. Sometimes the person talking can detract from the video. Let me know if you like it.

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

Pocket Life  '15 June Collection from Traci Reed Designs

You can see some of my past Project Life pages for 2015 here.

True Scrap Pocket Pages class replays- More Information Here

Project Life Step by Step
Click here to view more details

The DigiScrap Geek Podcast Episode 20









Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Project Life Inspiration on Pinterest.

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Project Life: May 2015

Here it is, time to start another month with a brand new Pocket Life Collection from Traci Reed Designs. This page heralds something new...the start of a new video series for My Scrapbook Evolution. In the Pockets of a Paper Scientist will share a behind the scenes look at my hybrid pocket pages.

 I am also pleased to say that the video quality is improving. There are a few things I would like to get a better handle on. I need to make a few lighting adjustments in my creative space. There is also the issue of my HD webcam focusing and unfocusing itself a few times. It's still a learning process. If there is something you would like to see in particular regarding Pocket Page scrapbooking, please feel free to drop a note in the comments or send me an email by clicking the "write to me" button above.

Now, let's get to the pocket life inspiration!

I especially loved the shaker pocket. It does take a little time to get used to the feel of the We R Memory Keeper's Fuse tool. I have a few other ideas for stuffing some of the page protector pockets for future pages. I guess that means I better get off the blog and start creating! Perhaps, you should do the same.

May Pocket Page by Christy Strickler |Supplies Digital Kit: May Pocket Life Collection by Traci Reed Designs; Other: Sequins, Glossy Accents

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

May 2015 Pocket Life Collection by Traci Reed Designs

365 Unscripted: 4x6 collage Cards by Traci Reed Designs

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Project Life Inspiration on Pinterest.

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• Project Life: February 2015
• Yearbook Tips for the Pocket Scrapper: How to Jumpstart your Journaling using Figure, Fact & Feeling
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• Project Life 2015: Weekending

Scrapbooking with a Rain Motif

I am a pluviofile. That's a fancy way of saying that I love the rain. I find rainy days to be calming and quite beautiful. Some of my fondest memories include puddle jumping with my grandparents. Perhaps it's because of them that I always let my son play in the rain every chance he gets. A little rain is never anything to be afraid of and it's a wonderful opportunity to take some awesome candid photos.

Now of course, being both a memory keeper and a pluviofile means I love to hoard supplies with the rainy day motif.You can imagine my delight when I saw the latest kit from Traci Reed Designs and Jady Day Studio. Being part of Traci's design team meant that there was no way I was going to hoard these supplies. Nope. My first choice was to go out and splash in the rain with my teenage son. Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate. It's times like these that I am grateful I never got around to scrapbooking all of his early childhood photos.

Rain Rain Don't Go Away by Christy Strickler |Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill, Jewel: Pinkfresh Studio; Digital Kit- All Year Round Precipitations by Traci Reed Designs and Jady Day Studio; based on inspiration from the Simple Scrapper Premium membership













With my schedule packed full this week, I chose to lean on some inspiration from Simple Scrapper. This particular layout is based on an 8.5 x 11 template.  I am not used to working on a canvas smaller than 12x12 which makes this a great opportunity to stretch my design style. I did end up allowing myself to work a little outside the 8.5 x 11 boundaries and loved the results. I seem to be on a trend of  scattering small items such as sequins around my layouts. Here, I chose to use some small heart die cuts. I popped then up over the tops of hearts in the patterned paper.

Weather layouts like these are always a favorite of mine. They start off with pictures I love and product that I adore which combine to make a wonderful page.

Are you a pluviofile too? Do you collect and use the rain motif? What are you favorite rain themed products?

Supply Options
This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

All Year Round Precipitations by Traci Reed Designs and Jady Day Studio















Additional Resources

Follow My Scrapbook Evolution's board Motif- Rain Rain Don't Go Away on Pinterest.

Ideas for Recording the Weather on your Scrapbook Pages. an article from the Get It Scrapped Blog

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Project Life 2015: Starting on April

Here I am starting on my April pages when I haven't even finished March yet. I know that's not how a lot of people work, but it's the way I work. I create my pocket page spreads in the same manner that I approach my scrapbook pages. I am either A. excited about a certain set of photos or B. excited to work with a specific set of supplies. Today's page will fall in category B. Traci Reed's April 2015 Pocket Life collection is available now. So why not create with it now? I have enough photos to at least start my April pages. So yes, this is a very good idea.

All of my Project Life spreads feature a monthly format. This means that, should I need to shuffle a few cards around, it will be no big deal. Namely, I am considering moving the video game card on the upper left side. I have a few other game related cards I will be making later on along with cards about our favorite tv shows this month. Depending upon other photos and my currently list cards, I might find it a good idea to move it and keep all of my media related cards together. We'll see. 

Meanwhile, I love the title card. I love the photo featuring spam( a home cooked meal that my mom used to make-> don't judge) and the row of silly cat pictures along the bottom. Those cards will all stay put. Since I knew I was keeping them in place, I decided to play around with adding a visual triangle to my pocket page. It is one of my go to design principles for traditional layouts and I thought that I might like pocket pages better if I started trying to use it. My triangle consists of the same type of flower in 3 places: the title card, the filler card, and in the cat card on the left. Already, I like my page much more. I think I am going to try to work with one specific design principle in mind every time I create a pocket page from now on.

I know some people are very strict about finishing all of their Project Life pages each and every month or they feel behind. Not me. It stresses me out. I don't want to feel behind. I just want to get my pages done when they inspire me to work on them. Giving myself the freedom to jump around chronologically still means pages are getting finished and placed in my album. I will finish March. Most likely in the next week or so. When I do, rest assured that I will share them in a round up post so that they all sit together where they belong.

How about you? Does Project Life stress you out? Do you feel behind? Try my method and let me know how you feel after. Start with photos you love or choose a product you just simply have to use. I am willing to bet that pocket pages will become less of a chore.

Supply Options

This posts contains affiliate links when possible. Please shop your stash first, but should you find you need something, consider supporting MSE.

April 2015 Pocket Life Collection by Traci Reed Designs

365 Unscripted: 4x6 collage Cards by Traci Reed Designs

Additional Resources

The Traci Reed Designs Team Inspiration Board on Pinterest

The My Scrapbook Evolution Project Life Inspiration Board on Pinterest

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• Project Life: February 2015

Project Life 2015: Weekending

My family weekends are fairly typical. Island living is very quiet. There isn't a whole lot to do unless you want to go out to eat or  pay for a tourist excursion to snorkel or fish. After being here for 9 years, we tend to just hang around the house. Even though that may seem a bit boring, it is our life right now and I wanted to document a typical weekend. Using the day in the life concept, I documented a weekend in the life in my pocket pages spreads.

Our typical weekend is spent playing video games, sleeping in, watching tv and papercrafting( that's mostly me). We do try to get out of the house once a day to enjoy some sunshine. Typically, we eat lunch at a restaurant down on the harbor or if the weather permits, a swim in our pool.For this pocket page spread, I documented our lunch and the games we played during one particular weekend.

I also had to opportunity to document a not so fun weekend. Losing power here is fairly common. Generally we lose power for a few hours here or there during the week, especially during the hot summer months. What wasn't so typical was losing power for 32 straight hours over the weekend. I had planned a PI day celebration, but instead of documenting it, I ended up documenting how we coped without electricity. We spent part of the time in the car in search of restaurants with generators who could serve ice cold drinks and good food. It wasn't ideal but it was another island adventure documented.

This month, I am working on documenting my March project life pages using Traci Reed's March 2015 Pocket Life Collection. My plan is to add cards and supplies from my stash which have colors that compliment Traci's kit. The first weekend page is an example of that. I had a sheet of paper from a Cocoa Daisy Kit which had text about weekending. I used Traci's 365 unscripted templates to create most of the multi- photo cards and added in papers from the pocket life kit. Note how both pages have pink, turquoise, green and grey within them.

I still have a few photos to gather. I hope to get a few more photos during this final week in March before I finish the pocket pages. I am finding that creating a few pages here or there during the month is helping me to stay on track with Project Life.

How is Project Life going for you? Are you keeping up in 2015? Or do you feel like you are falling behind.

Supply Options

Pocket Life 2015: March Collection by Traci Reed

365 Unscripted 4x6 Collage Cards by Traci Reed

Free cut file from Paper Issues

View blog post for supplies

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Project Life: February 2015

February was a short month and so were the amount of pages that I made. I only needed two pages to cover the highlights. I could have stretched it to maybe 3-4 spreads if I had used more filler cards. However, I am discovering that, while I do like filler cards, I prefer to keep them to a minimum.

I have decided that I do always need one card to show the month and the year. The page with this card is essentially the introduction to all of my pages (traditional layouts included) for the month of February. This month, I included my usual nature photos and a visit with our Vet's office cat. I also documented our rising cost of groceries It will be interesting to look back at this shot of my son with our cart and compare the cost of the cart and the amount held within it to future grocery store photos.

Throughout the month, I participated in the Currently List Challenge.  Each Tuesday, you jot down current things in your life including TV shows, books, music, and plans. Participating in the challenge meant that I had four ready made cards to fit into my spread and there was no fumbling around trying to remember small details such as current tv shows. It was a definite bonus for me.






My only issue was that, for whatever reason, I grabbed a green card from my stash for week 4. I needed to find a way to fit it into the navy and red color scheme I had chosen for the month. I added a few small green accents. Note to self: only grab cards from the stash if they fit your color scheme.

I think I am finally finding my pocket page style. It's something I have struggled with for awhile. What's different for me now? I am using Traci Reed's monthly Pocket Life collections to make hybrid pages. Pocket Life provides me with a color palette  and a variety of cards. The color palette helps guide my choices( or should, please excuse the green card above) as I dig into my stash for extra cards and embellishments.I am also making use of Traci's 3x4 and 4x6 templates to build my own cards. I like the collage placement of the photos with space for me to add journaling. The collage placement is also making it easier for me to group photos together so that each pocket page spread has the stories grouped together. Grouping the stories together is what makes sense to me and allows me to design the page more effectively.

I still have a little bit of work to do within my personal pocket page style. It is after all, a learning process. I am just happy that I am starting to feel comfortable with what I am doing. Are you comfortable with your pocket page style? Or are you still finding your way?

Supply Options

Pocket Life: February 2015 collection by Traci Reed Designs

365 Unscripted: 4x6 collage Cards












Currently List Cards and Stamps are available at RuKristin.com. ( I am not an affiliate. I just love the stamps and cards) I used the Currently List stamp set and Post It Notes on the page above.




Additional Resources

This pocket page recently appeared in an article on the Traci Reed Designs blog featuring My Top 5 Must Haves for Hybrid Project Life.










See my January Project Life Pages Here.

The MSE Project Life Inspiration Board on Pinterest

Creating Collages for Project Life

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