Color Cast Designs: September ’17 Release

October 25, 2017 Diana SanchezLeave a comment

Hey there! Today I’d like to share a quick post with a couple of projects I made with Color Cast Designs’ September release. While everybody seems to be excited for pumpkin-spiced everything, and trading in flip-flops for boots, I did my best and tried to get in that Autum spirit, thankfully this release helped me welcome this Fall season. I pulled out my best flannels, dusted off the boots, and took pictures of as many pumpkins as I could!

I used the new Leaves, Confetti Leaves, and Currently Tags sets for this 6×8 layout.

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For this layout, I documented what I call a “fun” day, meaning “the hubby is in a good mood, take advantage and get whatever you can”! This is like seeing a unicorn, you don’t question it, you just enjoy it while you can and proceed with caution as to not scare it away!!!

I also used the Everyday Edition core kit from Becky Higgins. These inserts matched perfectly with my pictures and the CCD embellishments!

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The “story of today” card below actually has a heart on it, I placed one of the leaves from the Confetti Leaves set over it to give it more of a “Fall” vibe.

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For the next project, I went ahead and made the first page of my October spread. I used inserts from Kelly Purkey’s monthly kit and Push Print Studio.

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The Currently Tags set was also used for this page along with the Autumn Splendor and Lucky Me sets.

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Autumn splendor indeed!

So far I’m enjoying putting together these layouts, and playing with these Fall colors and embellishments. Hopefully the second page to this layout will come together just as easy! Oh, and hopefully there’s more of those “unicorns” here soon!

See you guys next time!

Project Life: April ’16

July 3, 2016 Diana Sanchez2 Comments

Happy Fourth of July! I have been MIA this past month but by now you guys know my situation. I’m trying to look at the bright side though, instead of always being on my computer in the other room surfing the net, now I’m spending more time with my family – on my phone surfing the net. It’s all on how we look at things!

I should be posting my June Top 5 but because my last post was my May Top 5, I figured I should post some Project Life first.

For my first layout, I used the Becky Higgin’s Project 52 2016 Calendars Digital Kit again for my monthly cover and I also used the Project 52 2016 Digital Kit. I used my fuse tool for both pages, on the left page I fused the bottom of a Design H page (made a 4×6 into two 3×4). I also took a 6×12, the right page, and fused it into thirds to fit three 4×6 photos. This isn’t a very happy layout because it covers the ducks leaving and my childhood home going up on the market. Sad stuff, but it’s something important to me and as hard as the beginning of April was, that’s something I will want to remember.

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On my second layout I decided to use the Wander Kit. I’ve used this kit before but I just love Christine Herrin’s style and I thought it went perfect with these pictures as well. The pictures on this layout are from the Stanton Old Sorehead Trade Days, something us West Texans look forward to three times a year. It’s a big craft/trade show with awesome food and the best freaking beef fajita burritos. Ever. Period. The end. In all the land.

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I can’t wait to blog about the rest of April because I will be documenting about moving and going to Vegas! I’m just hoping we will be bestowed the privilege of high-speed internet very, very soon. Fingers crossed… and at this point my legs, arms, and eyes are crossed as well.

My Favorites · Uncategorized

February ’16 Top 5

March 6, 2016March 13, 2016 Diana SanchezLeave a comment

Hello again! I’m a little late on posting my February Top 5 but I have been enjoying spending time outdoors. We have been having beautiful weather out here in west Texas, plus we’re getting a lot closer to moving into our new house. So fingers crossed that everything goes well!

For this Top 5, I am listing my 5 favorite Adobe Lightroom Presets. I use Lightroom to edit ALL my pictures that I use for Project Life. I found these presets on Pinterest and I know there is a lot more out there that I have yet to discover. Most of the presets I use are free but there are a couple I paid for.

If you don’t have Lightroom, they do offer you a free 30 day subscription. After my free subscription was over I had no problem paying for a monthly subscription. I am definitely not an expert with this software but I feel like I have learned enough to play around with my pictures and I’m satisfied with how they come out.

Feb Top 5

1. Catch A Fire Preset

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The Catch A Fire preset is free, and if you click on the link above, it’ll take you to an awesome website, LookFilter, that offers 27 free Lightroom presets.

This is my black & white go-to, I just love the vintage feel to it. Almost all my black and white photos have been edited with this preset.

2. La Tuna Preset

This preset is also available in the LookFilter website. Again, I love the vintage feel to this, I love using this preset on portraits. This is also free!

3. Warm Retro Preset

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If La Tuna is a little too dark for my picture, I end up using Warm Retro. This preset is from a different site that also includes free presets, Preset Love. You guys might remember this picture from one of my Project Life layouts from last year.

4. Blood Brothers

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As much as I love a good vintage feel on my photos, I also love when pictures pop. I love all the detail and color you get with this preset, which you can also find for free on LookFilter.

5. Dragan Inspired Presets

And last but not least, the Dragan Inspired presets. Yes, I meant presets and not preset. I paid about $20 for this bundle which includes 58 presets, and I do not regret it at all. I use these presets on the majority of my pictures. I used two of the presets in this bundle for the photos above, I usually use about 2-4. It might sound a little daunting but it’s very easy to use.

I have made a couple of my own presets but definitely nothing like the ones I mentioned here. Please let me know what you guys think, I would love to hear what you do with your PL pictures, do you edit? If so, what do you use? What are some of your favorite presets?

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life · Uncategorized

Project Life: January ’16 (Part Two)

February 14, 2016 Diana Sanchez2 Comments

Hey guys! Today I’m sharing the rest of my January Project Life layouts.

I have always wanted to use the Design P pocket page for one of my layouts so I decided to use one with these pictures I took of our new house. The center is a 4×4 card from the Stampin’ Up Moments Like These digital set and I typed on it using the Becky Higgins Jonathan Font. (I am LOVING digital sets right now!)

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For this next page, I used the Becky Higgins Everyday Edition and Cottage Living paper packs and some Kellie Stamps. These are just random photos I took during January. 20160214_110222-2

And last but not least, I used a Design H pocket page to end the month and a 4×6 card from the Cottage Living Core Kit and one of Kelly Purkey’s label stamps. 20160214_110040-2

As you can tell, we’re pretty excited about the new house, fingers crossed that everything goes as planned!

So as you can see, I am loving mixing and matching pocket pages. There are still more techniques I want to try and play around with and I hope I get to try those soon.

Thank you for stopping by!

Project Life · Uncategorized

Project Life: January ’16 (Part One)

February 6, 2016February 14, 2016 Diana Sanchez2 Comments

I know, I know, I skipped two months! I was too excited to start my 2016 album but I WILL finish my November and December layouts soon!

So this is my “Plans for 2016 Project Life” post. I actually did come up with a plan and it is totally different than what I did with Project Life last year. Last year, I made monthly layouts, mostly because I didn’t want to overwhelm myself with weekly layouts, and because I really didn’t know if I was going to keep up with it at all. I do tend to get overwhelmed and move on to the next thing.

But I have loved doing Project Life, first, because I have to do something creative, second, I love taking pictures and editing them, and third, who doesn’t want to keep up with a photo album/journal? I’m so happy with how my 2015 album came out (well half of it, I only started in June), and I also enjoyed working on my Summer Manifesto ’15 which allowed me to try “hybrid” layouts. For this year, I have decided to make “event” layouts. Sounds a little weird but you’ll get it once you see a couple of pics. This helps me have a fatter album than just the twelve spreads I would’ve had with doing only monthly layouts. Also, I have decided to do 12×12 AND 6×12 AND 9×12, pretty much any pocket page that I can get my hands on. If you’re OCD you’re probably thinking I’m crazy but, I like seeing albums that have different size pocket pages, I just really like how it looks. So basically my 2016 plan is “go with the flow”.

I used a 6×12 pocket page for my cover and blew up a picture I took of AJ’s hands, added the “2016” and I ordered the print through Persnickety Prints. I typed out my goals for the year on velum paper and stapled it on to the picture with my Tim Holtz stapler.

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I did the same thing for the back of the page, I had a picture of Zoie printed by Persnickety Prints. I have decided to use the Becky Higgins Project 52 2016 Calendars for each month, I just really like how simple and clean they are.

Another thing I’m doing this year is mixing and matching straight corners with rounded corners. I was so anti-round corner last year and was a little scared to use them but I love how the picture of my husband came out with the rounded corners. 20160206_083445

I just LOVE the Everyday Edition, I had to get the kit and paper pack. I used this edition for the layout below. This layout is about a certain moment we had with the ducks and this moment deserved the whole layout!

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