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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I wanted to show you guys a before and after picture of the duck picture.

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This was taken with my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edage and edited with Adobe Lightroom.

I have more layouts that I’ll share next week so be on the lookout for those!

New Year

Year in Review: 2015

January 1, 2016February 10, 2017 Diana Sanchez1 Comment

The Lovely Pear is a year old! I remember I was sick when I created this blog and I sat in bed as I typed my first post on Shawn’s laptop. I posted my first blog post on January 3, 2015 explaining the meaning behind the name “The Lovely Pear”. I seriously had no idea what I was getting myself into but I’m glad I ended up doing it.

I wrote about my New Year Resolution for 2015 on my third post, and I actually fulfilled it (yay me)! My resolution was to keep up with The Lovely Pear and I have had an awesome year with this blog, joining in on challenges, trying new things, and meeting A LOT of new friends!

One of the new things I tried this year was Project Life. It was in June that I decided that I really wanted to focus on Project Life as a way to keep my pictures in a scrap book. Because of this, I also put more effort into not only taking more pictures, but trying to take better ones and learning to edit them better. With that being said, I’m exited to announce that I have made it into Becky Higgin’s Project Life Creative Team for 2016!!!

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I actually cursed out loud at work when I got the news that I had made it onto the team. I even waited awhile, regularly refreshing my e-mail, thinking Becky and her team had made a mistake and sent the e-mail to me on accident, but the news broke on December 30th and my picture is on the creative team page! Can I get a WOOT WOOT!?!

Like I mentioned earlier, I started off blogging mostly about cards. Even though I don’t make them as often as I was, I still enjoy making them. I was so excited to win a challenge and to be mentioned on blogs like Paper Smooches and Lawnscaping Challenges. It was also exciting to see my cards posted by Lawn Fawn, Hero Arts, and Ranger Ink on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram!

When I first started The Lovely Pear, I knew I wanted to do a “Top 5” but I’m actually surprised I kept up with it. The Top 5 is something I look forward to doing at the end of each month. I’ve had a lot of fun doing it and it’s also pretty cool to get likes/comments from the companies mentioned!

Something I do want to mention is the crafting community. I have been blown away by all the support/likes/comments/followers that I get on social media. I LOVE the crafting community, and that includes all the card makers, scrapbookers, all the stamping companies, the Project Life designers, the companies that sell all these supplies, EVERYBODY! Everybody is so welcoming, positive, and supportive of each other! I hope to meet a lot of these people face to face sometime soon!

So for my resolution this year, I am going to try my best to relax. I want to make sure I take my time to “stop and smell the roses”. I want to focus more on my family, especially my son who will become an official teenager this year (so scared…). I’m going to try to stop having my phone with me everywhere I go, especially at the dinner table (I really sucked at that this year), and I am going to try my hardest to keep it together during our big move! This includes getting everything ready for the new house and allowing myself to take the time I need to say goodbye to my childhood home (see, I’m already tearing up just typing this).

2016 is definitely going to be a big year for me and I’m ready for it! I hope you guys had a bad-ass year and I hope we all have a more peaceful one this year! I’m going to leave you guys with probably my most favorite picture I took this year, and because of this I will proclaim 2015 as the year of the duck!

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Project Life

Project Life: October ’15

November 27, 2015November 27, 2015 Diana Sanchez1 Comment

Hi guys! I know I’ve been MIA lately, I have been so busy and any little free time I have had was used to relax. November started off pretty bad for us. Shadow, our male duck, was injured pretty badly but fortunately it was not as bad as we thought and he is doing and looking great! It was a team effort taking care of him and bringing him back to good health, but we managed to do that for a week and a half. It took a lot of time but it was well worth it. Just FYI, it is hard to give a duck oral medicine…

After we passed that storm, we had a crazy idea to look at houses one Saturday and long story short, we’re building a house! This happened all within one month, we’ve been back and forth with the builder, lendor, and realtor. We’re super excited and super busy trying to spruce up our current home.

Even though I tried to relax whenever I got the chance, I worked on my October Project Life layout little by little. October wasn’t a very busy month but I had a lot of photos from when my family came down to visit. How could I not use my nephew’s picture as my monthly cover photo?!

Most of the background papers are from the October Messy Box kit. You might also remember a couple of inserts I did for my October Top 5 using Illustrated Faith’s stamp set, I used those as backgrounds for my Instax pictures.

For this month, my “faves” were:

Amazon Prime Commercial (You know, the one where the guy is carrying his dog in a baby sling. Well it’s a fave because of the song that plays in it, I can’t get enough of it!)
The Amazing Race (So fun to see the couples arguing!)
The Voice (I heart Gwen Stefani!)
Fugees (I listened to The Score all freaking month, still am actually)
Cheesecake (When is this not a fave?)
Micheladas (Same, when is this not a fave?)

I used stamp sets from Studio Calico, Kellie Stamps, and Kelly Purkey and ink pads from Ranger and Tsukineko.

That’s it for my layout, I did have one more thing I wanted to share. Because we have decided to buy a new house and it came unexpected, my husband and I are putting ourselves on a tight budget until everything is done (meaning we’re moved in, and our current house is sold). My “allowance” has been put on hold and I will not be able to buy as much crafting supplies like I’m used to. So instead of doing a Top 5 of my favorite products that I bought, I have decided to switch things up for these next couple of months and maybe do a Top 5 of my favorite blogs or Instagram accounts, something along those lines. I think it will be fun plus, it’ll make me use supplies that I already have and haven’t used, I actually have plenty.

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with me and my blog while I try to get things situated. I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving!

Project Life

Project Life: July ’15

August 15, 2015August 15, 2015 Diana SanchezLeave a comment

Hi everyone! I’m back with my Project Life layout for July. I really tried taking more photos this past month. I always had a camera on me (or two) and I made sure to take pictures of what caught my eye. My family and I also bought a selfie stick and put it to good use. We didn’t care that people were probably looking at us funny because we couldn’t stop yelling and laughing because we had no idea what we were doing.

I used Studio Calico, Kellie Stamps, Kelly Purkey, and Simon Says Stamp stamps for my layout. For the journaling cards, I used Studio Calico and Amy Tangerine paper and a card from Big City Quiet Designs.

I made the firework journal card with Photoshop, because come on, you know that song pops into your head when you see fireworks (Right? Or am I the only one?).
Some of the pictures I took during July were for another Project Life album I’m working on and I didn’t want to use the pictures twice, so I ended up having more empty spaces on this layout than I thought I would. To help cover more space, I took a 4×3 picture of AJ and made it into a 8×6. I really like how the layout turned out because of it.This week I will be heading to Dallas for a small family trip and I am charging my cameras and selfie stick as I type! I’m hoping I will have tons of pictures for my August layout, and then September should be filled with pictures of Austin!

Thanks for stopping by!

Memory Keeping · Paper Crafts · Project Life

Florida Trip ’12

April 26, 2015May 6, 2015 Diana SanchezLeave a comment

Hi guys! I’m so excited about today’s post because I FINALLY made a Project Life layout! I have been wanting to do this for the longest time. I’ve had a lot of Project Life supplies just collecting dust in my craft room and I always used the excuse of not having any pictures ready. I was determined to make something this weekend and I went ahead and used pictures from our trip to Universal Studios back in 2012. I am so into gold right now, and I knew this was the album for me. It’s this beautiful solid gold and I purchased this at my local Hobby Lobby a couple of months ago. I used my card-making supplies for this layout. As you can see below, I used a little Lawn Fawn, a little Mama Elephant, and more. The “This Way!” was stamped using Avery Elle’s Elle’s Alphas Set (no, I didn’t accidentally type “Elle’s” twice). I stamped this with Tsukineko’s Brilliance Moonlight White, which is my first time using this ink. I need to practice with it a little more, I’ve never been good at using white ink but I do have to say this dried real fast which is great. I have a love/hate relationship with my handwriting… I’m left handed and my handwriting has a funny little slant to it. But it’s unique, what can I say! I found this sweet quote on Pinterest, this really applies to the trip for me personally. The “2012” and Florida state shape were cut out with my Cricut. The “Best Trip Ever” was written as well with the Cricut and colored in with some Copics. The gold star came with my Simon Says Stamp Kit for April ’15. Not only was this trip the best trip ever, but also the best time of my life! My husband, son, and I had the greatest time and I hope we can take more trips like this in the future! I loved making this layout, I like playing with pictures, quotes, and of course paper and I will definitely be making more soon! Thanks for checking out The Lovely Pear!