Project Life

Color Cast Designs January ’17 Release

Hi guys! I wanted to share a quick post about Color Cast Designs’ new release. There’s hearts, love, and stars galore! There’s a lot to choose from on this release and I loved using these wood veneers and acrylics on my layouts below.

So I’m actually sharing a sneak peak of my January Project Life layout. Here is my first page, I will share this again when I post about my January layout and I will discuss the various products I used. But for now, I want to show you the CCD embellishments.

20170116_130340

The Today acrylic is from the XOXO set. I love that I was able to use this acrylic to describe this certain foggy and rainy day. We’ve actually been having quite a few of those (my fave). I also used the I’m So lucky To Have You wood veneer from the same set. This set is very “romantic” but I decided to use this on a picture of my dog, Zoie. I mean she and I will be each other’s valentines this year any way so… You dog lovers understand, right?

20170116_130945

The Just Breathe acrylic was perfect for this selfie that was taken with my GoPro. The set this comes in is also called Just Breathe.

20170116_130950

Here’s a full 8×6 layout using more of the XOXO set and the Love You More acrylic.

20170118_132602

I love all the Xs and Os in this set, these fit perfectly on a Push Print Studio card.

20170118_131942

The You’re My Person wood veneer and Love You More acrylic were perfect for this layout filled with our engagement pictures! I wish I had started Project Life earlier and used this as a guest book with blank inserts for people to sign. Imagine how cute that would’ve been?!

20170118_131829

I was so excited to play with these new items and I can’t wait to see what everybody creates over on Instagram! If you have a chance, don’t forget to check out Color Cast Designs’ website and the #colorcastdesigns hashtag for more inspiration!

See you guys later!

December Daily · Mini Album

December Daily: Days 16-20

Hi there! Today I’m sharing Days 16 thru 20 of my December Daily mini album. Not going to lie, I’m pretty much over Christmas at this point… anybody else? Yes? No? Just me? I’m ready to wrap this up because I’m pretty eager to start on my 2017 Project Life album. I’m loving all the new stuff coming out and I can’t wait to start sharing my new projects!

Let’s get started with day 16. I used an Ali Edwards paper as the background for my left page from her December Daily Main Kit. I wrote down my favorite Christmas movies on a white tag and added a wooden ornament from the Color Cast Designs 2016 Christmas Ornaments set.

dd18

Here’s a close up of my bad handwriting favorite Christmas movies and a picture of the Elf ornament AJ picked out for us this year.

dd18a

December 17, the day we actually went out and did something festive and I got to wear something Beyonce inspired, all in one day!

dd19

Day 18 was back to normal, we didn’t have much going on that day so I took a quick picture of the gift wrap I used and I added this fun paper I found on Push Print Studios.

dd20

Double paged photos became my favorite for this album. I got a close up of some poinsettias on the 19th. I love the look of these flowers so I was happy I was able to incorporate them in my album (yet my husband doesn’t let me incorporate them in our home because he says I’m a plant killer…)

dd21

These last couple of years, I’ve asked my family and friends to gift us with ornaments from their travels. So for day 20, I took a picture of an ornament my sister bought us from Disney World this year.

dd22

The green and white snowflakes are from the Stampin Up December Wonder Stamps set. This digital set turned out to be perfect for my mini album!

dd22a

So now I only have one more blog post to go for the last pages of my album! I’m still planning on doing a flip through video of the whole album once I’m done but I need to so some research on how to do this. I love editing photos so let’s see if I can edit a video!

I hope you guys enjoyed these new pages, see you next time!

December Daily · Mini Album

December Daily: Days 11-15

Happy New Year’s Eve!!! I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and is enjoying the end of 2016! We actually had our Christmas on the 26th and we had a great time, even with a dead tree with no lights and even though my husband and I exchanged gifts days before.

Today I’m sharing days 11 thru 15 of my December Daily mini album today. For day 11, I took a close up picture of some flannel shirts I had just bought and I printed the “bring on the cheer.” card from Push Print Studios.

dd13

For day 12, I used a picture of our new Texas ornament to symbolize my day of jury duty… Yes, fun times were had that Monday… Well maybe it wasn’t the most fun day but it was interesting.

dd14

On the 13th, AJ had his first band concert. After he was done playing and the advanced band started performing, he sat down in front of me with my parents. I was able to take this quick shot of them with my phone.

dd15

So it turned out I didn’t take a picture for the 14th so I enlarged an other insert from Push Print Studio. I got the small pink tags from this month’s Messy Box.

dd16

Here is a close up of the “all the joy” insert. I just love all of Push Print Studio’s designs, it was really hard for me which ones to choose!

dd16a

For day 15, I had the opposite problem. I took a picture but I forgot to jot down notes for the day. Thankfully, I took a couple of pictures of my girls and I used two and cropped them down to look similar. I used the Merry digital stamp from the Kellie Stamps Merry Joy digital stamp set.

dd17

This really came in handy since I didn’t have any journaling but it also adds different elements to the album.

dd17a

I’m almost done with my whole mini and I am so proud of myself for keeping up with it the way I have. I can’t wait to share the rest!

Have a great and safe New Year’s and I will see you in 2017!!!

 

December Daily · Mini Album

December Daily: Days 1-5

Hey guys! Are you doing December Daily this month? Are you keeping up? Are you like me and decided last minute to join in? I mean, come on… have you seen what everybody is posting on Instagram and Facebook groups? Well, I totally got the FOMO around the end of November.

I was really hesitant to start my own DD album and I’ll tell you why. First, because I wanted to focus on my Project Life album and finish it on time so I could have a clean slate for 2017. Second, I also wanted to focus on finishing my 2016 mini album. Third, and this is kinda personal, I’ve only been celebrating Christmas for the last 8-9 years. I was raised not celebrating Christmas or any holiday so I have no childhood holiday memories other than I was unable to participate in holiday activities at school. Sounds a little sad, right? But, I never missed it because it was something I never experienced. Fast forward to 2008 when my husband and I started dating (and AJ had just turned 5), and we both decided to celebrate Christmas. My husband wasn’t too big on the holidays either, so the first couple of years I would say Christmas was a little awkward? We had no decorations and I knew absolutely nothing about Christmas traditions, let alone how to pick and decorate a Christmas tree, and I didn’t know any of the words to any Christmas songs. So because of this I had just decided that December Daily was out of the picture, just like I decided last year also.

But here I am, with my first five days of my December Daily album. I do have to say I’m kinda proud of myself for keeping up with this like I have been. Now keep in mind, I have not taken any of Ali Edward’s classes, which I think is a huge mistake. I wish I had taken it because I know I have been a little overwhelmed at times and I catch myself overthinking everything. The good thing though, is that I decided early enough to do a mini album. Because of this, I don’t feel the pressure of taking many photos. So far every day this month, before I go to bed, I’ll come into my craft room and journal about my day. Usually the next day I’ll decide what picture to use, edit it, and combine it with the journaling.

I ordered this awesome acrylic album cover from Color Cast Designs. I ordered it in all white but you can customize this with a phrase and by color. My cover page is very simple. I used a digital stamp from the Stampin Up December Wonder Stamps digital set.

dd1

For this layout, I went ahead and typed out my December “Hopes”. Let’s face it people, at this point my hope is to stay on track with my album for the rest of the month!

dd2

For day one, I took a cute picture of my dog, Zoie, chilling in her bed. Unfortunately, I did not realize the hole punch would go right on her face. Sorry Zoie!

I did some journaling on the picture itself and I added some of my favorite things for December on a Push Print Studio card.

dd3

For day two, I decided to take a picture of one of our new ornaments because pizza is all I ate this day. I used Photoshop to add words behind my hand.

dd4

For day three, I used one of Ali Edwards digital papers from the December Daily Main Kit. This was my second year participating in a Christmas card exchange from a  Flickr group that I am a part of. You can see the three cards I received on the left page.

dd5

Day four is when I blogged about the Christmas cards I made this year. Again, I added words behind my hand with Photoshop0

dd6

And finally, day five, the day I journaled about receiving my new logo stamp and about our Christmas tree already dying…

I stamped the WTF using Kellie Stamps Stand Tall Alpha Stamp Set.

dd7

So there are my first five days! It turns out our December is off to a pretty boring slow start. Thank goodness my husband and I decided to start watching House of Cards. Episode 1 of season 2 though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Geez, TV to the rescue (I almost journaled about the show more than what we were up to).

Thanks for stopping by, see you guys next time!

Mini Album

Mini Album: Living the Dream

Hey guys! It seems lately that my craft mojo kicks in on Friday nights. I whipped up a couple of new pages for my mini album last night and I’m thinking that when I’m done with this, I’m going to have to make a flip-through video of it. I’ve decided to fill this mini with photos that didn’t make it into my PL album (I might have a couple of pics that make it into both) and fill it up with quotes/lyrics that I love.

I love playing in Photoshop, I wish I could take an Adobe class because I know there is so much to learn on that software. You can see here I typed out a quote (gotta love Pinterest) and I tried to make it look like the words are behind my silhouette, if that makes any sense. It’s one of my favorite things to do with pictures.

20161105_112802

Something I’ve always wanted to use is acetate pages but I’ve never known how or where to use them. Luckily I have a couple of really neat acetates that I’ve collected from my Messy Box kits.

Here is a perfect example of why I’m using pictures that didn’t make it into my PL album. This picture of Shawn and me, I didn’t really pay any attention to it, I had completely forgotten about it. It’s a picture we took in the beginning of the year and we both don’t care much for taking selfies, but we did this day because we were excited about the framing going up on the new house. I didn’t bother with the pic because of Shawn’s face and I thought I looked goofy. Now, it’s one of my favorite pictures of us. It’s totally us. Even though Shawn is squinting because of the sunlight, he makes this face pretty often when I tell him I have an idea. And as for me, it’s nice to see a picture of myself every once in a while where I’m smiling. Mega heart eyes!!! Just like the digital stamp I used from Kellie Stamps.

20161105_112822

I used a couple of PL inserts from Push Print Studios for my acetate page. “Living the dream” can pretty much sum up how Shawn, AJ, and I felt this year so this was perfect for my mini.

20161105_123127

Here is one of my favorite pictures that I love to use on my social media, my messy desk. I love this picture so much, I took it for a quick Instagram post and I ended up using it as a cover photo for my blog, Facebook, Big Picture Classes, and Flickr. And also, who doesn’t love a Brene Brown quote?!

20161105_112747

I seriously can’t wait to fill this up some more and finish it! Thanks for checking out my post today, I hope you enjoyed it!