Project Life 2013!

After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to do another Project Life album for 2013.  The drawback for this project is that sometimes I'd rather use my creative time doing something else. I'm just going to take it easy and not work on the album unless I feel like it.

To mix things up a bit, I decided to by these We R Memory Keepers Page Protectors rather than the branded Project Life page protectors to start off the album this year. I like the different configurations in these page protectors  I'm really loving the 9 square grid page - perfect for Instagram photos! Plus I still have a few of the branded page protectors leftover from next year that will probably work into the album too.

I did stock up on these Becky Higgins 6 x 12 Page Protectors because they are the perfect size for inserts. I used up a pack last year and filled them with concert programs, report cards and notes from the kids.

The first couple weeks of 2013 are now complete. I'm keeping it simple again this year. I like filling this spaces with lots of photos.

One of the reasons that I decided to keep Project Life going this year is because it is the perfect place to keep notes, movie tickets, etc. On this layout I added a song my son and his friend wrote about our fish. They had so much fun being silly and writing this song. Without this album, I probably would have thrown away the song (I don't like clutter), but now I happily have a place to keep it.

Farmers Market /// Legos + Sports /// Garage Clean Out /// Date Night /// Quitting Lifetime Fitness*

Bedtime Note from Audrey /// Fish Song /// Writing & Mailing Christmas Thank You Notes /// Christmas Tree Piñata with Friends

Okay! 2013 is off to a great start and I'm really excited to document it through Project Life (plus lots of traditional layouts too!) 

*Just a note on quitting the gym I love. I've been going to that gym for ten years. I used to go many times a week, but the past few months I have found it really hard to get there. It was a 20 minute drive and I just no longer have that time to spare. I'm now trying to run outside, do workouts at home or run on the treadmill at a cheap ($10 per month) gym that is right by my house. I figure if I want to continue eating a treat a day, I need to exercise so that I still fit in my clothes.

Fun for the Kids

Yesterday I received one of the daily emails from Groupdealz and I was excited to see that they were offering a set of six paper dolls, a bunch of paper doll Valentine outfits plus a year long outfit of the month subscription for more doll clothes. 

I'm not telling you about this deal because I get something out of it, I just thought I'd pass along that it is still going today.  For only $8.50, I feel like you get a lot for your money.

Here's a look at some of the pages I printed off this morning.

A year or so ago I purchase paper dolls from this same company, Lily and Thistle, and my daughter loves them. I showed her the Valentine dolls last night and she was really excited to get to add to her collection.

I'm thinking this would be a fun gift to give someone if you don't have a little girl at home who would love to play with these.

One other cool things I recently saw was little lunch notes from Compendium. They are called Lunch Mail and come in three different themes: Animals, Monsters and Food.

Each of the little cards has something cute and encouraging that would be great for a child to open up and read when they find it in their lunch box.

Guess I need to go now and get started on cutting out some paper dolls!  Hope you have a great Wednesday!

I Love Banners!

You would think that I would tire of making banners, but for some reason, I just love them. They are a perfect way to decorate a little space.  After making a few layouts, I still had a bunch of pieces left from the Scrapbook Circle Only You kit and decided that it would be perfect for a banner.

The base of most of the banners pieces came from a 1959 dictionary that used to be my grandmas. I love using the pages from that dictionary in projects. I figure that it makes the book more meaningful because I get to look at  the pages displayed in my house rather than just have the book collect dust on a shelf. 

I just set out all of the remaining pieces from the kit and started misting, cutting and layering things. 

All of the banner pieces are attached with Glitz Designs paper garland (in the kit.) I dabbed little dots of glue to line up with the banner pieces and glued the garland to the top of the banner.

For fun, I added different sized banner pieces including little tickets, an Elle's Studio tag and the"sweet" die cut tag from Fancy Pants. 

That's it!  I don't do a lot of decorating for Valentine's Day, but I do like to add a few love themed touches here and there.

Banner Supplies /// Only You Kit /// You and Me Add-on

Pinterest Group: Framed Heart Roses

Last week, I got together with a group of friends for our monthly Pinterest group. Actually it has been held much less than monthly lately, but I think we are getting back onto schedule now that the holiday season is behind us.

Our Pinterest group gets together to create a craft inspired by something found on Pinterest and we each bring something to eat (can be inspired by Pinterest too!)

This is where we found our project >>> Framed Heart

Here's a look at my finished project.

Love this project because it was practically free. The frame was collecting dust in a closet and burlap and felt are really inexpensive.

The project is came together pretty fast. The hardest part was figuring out the right arrangement of flowers so that they resembled a heart.

To make the flowers, we just cut freehand circles out of felt and then cut the circle into a spiral. Then starting at the middle of the circle, the felt is spiraled until it resembled a flower.

Flowers were hot glued to the burlap and that was it!

I'm adding this little frame to our buffet and hope to add a few other touches soon.

Thanks for stopping by today!

CHA Recap

Last weekend I had the fun opportunity to go to CHA in Anaheim. CHA is always a highlight of the fun things I get to do each year. What could be better than being surrounded by aisles and aisles of scrapbook supplies? Plus, I get to see it all with friends and meet other people who love preserving memories as much as I do.

Jennie, Diana and I decided to drive this year and at the last minute my sister Michelle decided to join us too. Michelle didn't go to CHA, but she did get to spend her birthday weekend at Disneyland.  We meet up with Tessa and Heather on Friday night for a night at California Adventure. Touring around the park without kids is a different experience and we had a great time!

It was so cold that night. I've never been so cold at Disney. But we layered up and endured! A highlight was riding on the sliding cars on the Ferris Wheel. I'm pretty sure a couple of the girls (who shall remain unnamed!) thought we were sliding off the ferris wheel to out death. I had a similar "near death" experience last time I rode the ferris wheel with Max. I'm thinking this is a must ride with all new friends who come with us to California Adventure. 

Saturday morning we were up and ready to hit the floor at CHA. (Rebecca joined us at our hotel late on Friday night.)

Our first stop was the Elle's Studio booth. Several of us in our group have been on Elle's design team in the past and it was really fun to meet her. So sweet and friendly! It was cool to see that she had added patterned paper to her mix of offering. We may have ordered a few sheets.

Meeting Ali Edwards was a highlight of the day. She was so personable and friendly. She always inspires me with the projects and ideas.

It was also cool to see three of my layouts up in the Glitz Designs booth. I've been on the Glitz team for almost three years and love that I have the opportunity to work with such talented people and fun products.

The majority of the time at CHA we are walking into manufacturer booths to check out the new product. I loved the Webster's Pages booth design for the new Alison Kreft lines. I think I need that heart in my house!

I am so thankful for the group we had scouting out all of the new goods for the upcoming Scrapbook Circle kits. Each one of them is so kind, generous and creative! How did I get so lucky to have such great friends who love creating as much as I do?

Another one of my favorite things about CHA is the samples. Yes, I now have a huge pile of samples waiting to be used. The samples definitely help us decide what to order, so hopefully our favorites will be the favorites of others in our kits!

Stop by the Scrapbook Circle blog for more photos from our CHA adventure!

Horse Riding Lesson

Santa was very generous and brought Hannah horse riding lessons for her Christmas present. Hannah had asked for a bike, so Santa was a little nervous that she might be disappointed, but thankfully she was thrilled with her gift! She was counting down the days from Christmas until January 8th when she got to go to her first lesson.

I snapped these photos on my phone, but I'm planning on taking my real camera out to a lesson where I can get some nicer shots. It always seems like such a bother to carry around our big camera, but the pictures are always so much better. Oh well, I am thankful that I'm able to capture so many everyday photos on my phone.

It was a lot of fun layering a bunch of stuff on this page. I just kept adding until it felt right. I also had some fun with Heidi Swapp's color shine in Bronzer (on the happy tag) and Tropicana Teal and Primrose (on the tags tucked into the striped bag.)

It was so fun watching Hannah during her first riding lesson. We was a little timid and really excited and happy. She said that she was really sore the next day. I think being sore was something new for her!

I used the sketch by Diana Fisher that is up on the Scrapbook Circle blog this month. It was a perfect starting point for my page! You can see what others did with the sketch here.

This layout also works into the Scrapbook Circle Challenge "Make Your Point" that was posted today. The challenge asks that you use arrows on your layout. Stop by the SC blog for more details. If you play along, you are entered to win a $10 credit to the shop!

Layout Supplies /// Only You Kit /// You and Me Add-on

Project Life: December 2012

I'm very excited to share my final 2012 Project Life pages with you today. Finishing out the album for the year was quite a process and I'm proud that it is finished.  Here's a look at the December pages.

December 2 - 8

We really packed in fun and events this week. We decorated gingerbread houses at my parents' house, took Max to a doctor to have him examined for really bad heel pain, baked lots of goodies for a boutique and made Christmas wish lists.

December 9 - 15

This week was full of Chandler Children's Choir rehearsals and performances  The concert was amazing and we were happy to wrap up the season and take a break over the holidays.

December 16 - 22

We sent out our family Christmas cards, had class parties and school plus my husband and I celebrated our 16th anniversary. It was a great week!

December 23 - 30

Lots of Christmas celebrations went on this week. We loved getting to spend so much time with family and friends. All of the food was really good too!

2012 Closing Page

Success!  A spread was completed for every week of the year! This one focuses on our New Years Eve celebrations.

Thanks for indulging me and letting me share all of these pages with you!

Project Life: November 2012

We had a lot going on last November and I'm happy that most of our family comings and goings were documented in our Project Life album. Every time I think that I may not do Project Life this year, then I look back at the 2012 pages and love how much I was able to document. Still not sure on the 2013 PL plan, but I'll need to figure it out soon!

Here's a look at the November pages.

November 4 - 10

The top image show the spread with inserts. I ended up doing inserts three out of four weeks this month. This album is the prefect place to collect all of the programs and tickets that I always want to save, but before this album, didn't really have a place to put them.

November 11 - 17

During this week in November, our family flew up to Salt Lake City in Utah to be with my sister for a talk she gave at church before leaving on an 18 month mission. I had extra trip photos, a cookie shop napkin and a church program that all went into the inset pages.

November 18 - 24

This was Thanksgiving week. Plus we celebrated my husband's birthday. We also went to the lake that week. Yes, the water was too cold, but that didn't stop most of us from getting in the water.

November 25 - December 1

This week my sister left on her church mission and we had one last phone call before she left. We also kicked off the holiday season with our girls singing with the Chandler Children's Choir in the Chandler City of Lights Parade. Good times, good memories. 

Now November 2012 is in the books!

New Glitz Design Products!

Are you as excited as I am about the new Glitz Design lines that are being released this week at CHA? I've been lucky to already get to create with the new lines I'm excited to share my layouts with you today.

I had fun incorporating some photo booth pictures my husband and I took last month on our anniversary. I loved the bold quote on one of the paper layers and instantly knew that it needed to be used on my page.

The paper banners were released last summer and I was so happy to see that they will be in the new lines too! I love that the banners are all pre-sewn and so easy to use. It's a perfect way to add some whimsy and color to the page.

Next up is a page with a favorite photo of my son. I LOVE the bright and happy colors of the new Color Me Happy line.

Did you see that Glitz Design is bringing back their roller stamps? I know that I have a bunch of their old roller stamps and was excited to see new stamp designs. On this page I used the big chevron stamp to add a bit of interest to the page.

I can't quite narrow down my favorite new Glitz item, but one of my favorites is their washi tape in some really fantastic designs. I used the woodgrain and the rainbow stripe tape on this page. I'm going to have to show restraint to not cover all of my projects in this beautiful tape!

What do you think? Are you ready to play with some new Glitz Design products? They will be shipping later this month, so you won't have to wait long!

Love You Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Patterned Paper: Herringbone, Floral, Stripe
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Paper Layers
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Peek a Boos
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Paper Garland
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Title Stickers
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Hearts Washi Tape
Glitz Designs Love You Madly Giant Rhinestones

Sunshine Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Patterned Paper: Stripe, Chalkboard, Polka, Hearts
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Paper Layers
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Peek a Boos
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Giant Rhinestones
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Paper Garland
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Chevron Giant Roller Doodle
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Rainbow Stripe Washi
Glitz Designs Color Me Happy Woodgrain Washi