Tag Archives: creative practice

may june and now july???

Posted in Memory Keeping by

Yes, holy moly yes, it’s July4th!  Happy Birthday America!  My favorite holiday, and before we delve into BBQ preparations and finding the bug spray for the fireworks later tonight, I wanted to share a few of the layouts I’ve been working on during my  blog posting silence (which, you are all quite used to by now 😉 )

I’ve been working on layouts for Little Feet Digital Designs the last few days and wanted to share them with you all.  I love Janet’s vintage inspired designs, and there are always bits that make me say oooh!!!! love that! must do a layout!!!  I’m so thrilled for Janet that in addition to her Panstoria store for .page format kits, she will be part of Pickleberrypop very soon for all of us universal format scrappers!!! Yay Janet, so happy for her!!

Supplies for both of these layouts:  Kit:  Life’s Sweet Temptations / LFDD by Janet Carr  Design/ Template:  STR Designs

voodoo-WEB

Oh my gosh, if you ever go to Portland, OR you must go to Voodoo Donuts.  Best. Donuts. Ever.

2015-Cupcake-Girls-WEB

And the cupcake queens, Gwen and Marielle after their first “baking camp” at Cambridge Culinary Institute, can’t wait to see what they make this summer!

I’ve been working on the “Family Archives” project with my Dad since last October when we dragged slide trays, the projector and screen and boxes of stuff back to my house from Rochester.  I have plans to start a Family History Album and instead of continued dithering over what form that album should take, I decided to just make a couple of pages.  Fortunately, Grandpa Triggs had organized and annotated some family photos so we know who these people are…from over 100 years ago (!)

Kit for both layouts:  Rooted in the Past by Little Feet Digital Designs

LFDD-RITP-The-Good-Old-Days-WEB

Template:  Flight Plan #2 / One Little Bird Designs

LFDD-RITP-Florence-WEB

Design/Template:  STR Designs

Thanks for stopping by!  And on to celebrating the 4th!!

A page a day for Lent

Posted in Creative Practice, Documenting Life, In the Studio, Memory Keeping, Scrapbooking by

List-photo

It all started quite innocently enough.  I was chatting with our new pastor at church, we were talking about art and making things and what we do, and she mentioned that she had made a collage a day for lent last year.  hmmmm interesting.  You see a) I am not a terribly religious person b) I grew up presbyterian and we did not observe lent in any participatory way (my mother thought that was only for catholics) c) have I mentioned I’m not a terribly religious person?  Pastor Stacy talked about adding a practice during lent, rather than just always focusing on sacrifice.  That, I thought was very interesting, never had I heard about adding something, it was always about punishment.  So I go to thinking about what I could do that would be realistic and meaningful to me, and I came up with doing a scrapbook page a day every day during lent.

I have done layout a day challenges successfully several times in the past, so I knew I could get through 30 days with out too much craziness, but 47 is more challenging.  I decided to take it on.  I’m keeping track just so I don’t make myself crazy.  I include traditional “scrapbook layouts” as well as mini-books (December Daily) and Project Life pages under the umbrella of Scrapbook Layouts …I should really call it just Memory Keeping.  Anyway, I’m happy to report that I am on track.  I had a minor glitch a few saturdays ago when I had a layout 3/4 finished on my desk, then life happened, the day got super busy, friends came over to exclaim over the hole in the dining room wall (that’s another post) and have a little hangout and before you knew it, it was almost midnight.  So 3/4 of a layout that day…but, I did not just throw in the towel.  The next day, I got up early, finished the layout and got back on track with one layout every day.

Working on this project has helped me streamline my process(more fodder for another post) and honestly, kept the idea of lent more at the front of my feeble little brain rather than floating around the ether.  Now that it’s Holy Week, I’m coming to the end of my project, which will be Easter Sunday.  Do I keep going, or leave it at 47 consecutive layouts (plus an extra 7 I made at the crop on Saturday)???  Can’t decide but the feeling of getting projects done and memories recorded is pretty darned awesome!  I’ll keep you posted!  Are you working on any long-term memory keeping projects?

memorykeeping:: December Daily-my why…

Posted in Creative Practice, December Daily, December Daily 2014, Documenting Life, Make Stuff, Memory Keeping, Scrapbooking by

I do not think I have included a formal introduction page on any album I’ve done.  Honestly, it really never occurred to me since most of my albums are either from a vacation or a special event.  My general albums are arranged chronologically, at least until 2007 when I fell off the bandwagon and now I just stack layouts into albums haphazardly…but that is another blog post.  anyway  I thought it might be a nice introduction to talk about why I make these albums, so Inspired by Ali, I made up a “why” page.  I made this page digitally using Christmas themed digital paper for the background, then lowering the opacity by about 50% so its faint in the background.  I used Remington Noiseless as my font and made it bold to stand out.   It was looking a little plain so I added a bit of Christmas washi tape and a “joy” button. The finished page is on the right in this photo, it will be the back of the title page for the album.

DD2014-first two pages

The text reads:

We record the holidays:

To stop time even for just the instant it takes to record an image. That moment will never come again, but we can relive it over and over as an image.

To honor the past as we trim the tree, we talk about the ornaments we have, where we got them, who gave them to us, the family stories come alive. At gatherings, we share stories and old traditions and start new traditions.

To dream of the future this time of year gives us pause to reflect and dream about what we can make manifest in our lives for the coming year. Because time goes far far too quickly and we want to remember every little detail.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas 2014

I like it.

You can learn more about Ali (an awesome person and inspiring memory keeper) and her December Daily project HERE on her blog.

 

memorykeeping:: December Daily-beginnings and endings

Posted in Creative Practice, December Daily, December Daily 2014, Documenting Life, Make Stuff, Memory Keeping, Scrapbooking by

This will be the 6th year I have kept a scrapbook album specifically about the holidays.  I have been inspired the last several years by Ali Edwards December Daily project.  You can learn more about Ali (an awesome person and inspiring memory keeper) and her December Daily project HERE on her blog.  I have included photos from my 2012 December Daily on my blog, that year was one of my favorites for ease and simplicity.  Hopefully if I get some time, I can get other years up to share.

This year I am once again participating in December memory keeping, I have decided to run my album from Thanksgiving to Christmas…and maybe to New Year’s, we’ll see.    I have been doing a lot of thinking about process lately and one place where I get hung up is on the beginning and ending of album projects.  I decided to solve the problem by doing the first and last page in one whack tonight and wanted to share them here with you…

DD2014-first two pages

The title page is on the left, the page behind it on the right.  Yes, the photo is crummy as it’s dark at 3:30 around here now and consequently, most projects are getting worked on in the dark!  I used some new paper that I picked up that I love…very vintage-ey…I colored it oh so slightly with colored pencil, tried some embossing on the tree in white and silver and used some new brads for the top, and number stickers for the bottom.  Simple. Easy. Done.

Back Page

The back page?  I saw a beautiful wood cutout at Absolutely Everything last weekend and knew it was going to be the focal point of the last page… I embossed it with silver embossing powder, picked out a piece of beautiful paper, attached one to the other and voila!  Last page.  Simple. Easy. Done.   (note…working with these die cuts is tough they are very fragile so handle them with great care so they don’t snap…like mine did!)

There now, that’s better!  Solved the beginning and ending bits quite nicely I think!  Looking forward to working on this project more in the coming week!  Hello the Holidays!

Do you have a Holiday project you’re working on?!  I’d love to hear about it!

 

 

 

Memorykeeping::December Daily 2013…and notes for this year

Posted in Craft, December Daily, Documenting Life, In the Studio, Memory Keeping by

December Daily 2013…

Yes, you read that right, 2013…. but, aren’t we getting ready for December Daily 2014?  Yes… OK full disclosure, I finished my 2013 December Daily… on October 5, 2014.  Yes, 9 months later I finally finished it.  And boy, does it feel good to get that project off my work table.  Honestly, it took a few uninterrupted hours that weekend to pull it all together, at the end of the day, it really did not take that long

hellooo procrastination!

So what worked and what didn’t as I get ready to document December 2014?

  • Not focusing on taking a photo a day, some days didn’t have a dedicated photo, some photos I just tucked in anywhere.
  • Printing photos at home/local photo printing…. I’d planned out the album/photo sizes with post-it notes in December/January so I knew what photos needed to be which size.
  • Using “themed” products… Last year I fell in love with the “Reflections Christmas” line by Lori Whitlock for EP Designs… because I also work digitally, I was able to purchase the digital package that matched the paper products.
  • Adding words and embellishments onto the photos before printing
  • The 6×8 format with multiple options for page protectors…. Love this size, it’s perfect for a project like this.
  • Transparent elements…If I hadn’t been so behind, I would have used my silhouette to cut things out.
  • Actual “Stuff” this format was perfect for everyone’s Christmas lists folded and tucked into a full 6×8 page protector.  Also lots of drawings and programs punched and put right in or pasted onto cards.

What I used most of:

*Paper….love love love paper, a lot from the line and some I had in my stash that coordinated.  I basically bought one or two sheets of every design plus a 6×6 paper pad.

*Brads…some that I bought that coordinated with the line and some I had

*6×6 paper pad… Loved working with this!  The scale is just right for the smaller pockets

*3×4 and 4×6 “cards” that coordinated w the line… I’d purchased 12×12 sheets of paper that had 3×4 and 4×6 cards to cut apart…used a lot of these for journaling.

*Digital Dates from Ali Edwards on the photos to identify those from specific dates.  I changed the colors to match the colors of the products.  Love doing this.

*Card stock and regular stickers from the line

What I didn’t use at all…

*Stamps, did not stamp one thing.  The girls had even bought me a cute santa stamp for my birthday to use but I never even thought to pick it up….can use it on a layout but honestly, I just don’t think I’m really a “stamping” kind of gal.

*Rub-ons, had some cute gold stars pulled but never used them.

*Wood veneer which I love the look of but totally forgot to include.

*Washi tape and ribbon…two of my faves but just couldn’t seem to work them in!

Notes for next time…

*Definitely pick a themed product line with a lot of stuff and buy strategically. I have tons of extra stuff…. will look for papers, journal cards, brads, stickers and other dimensional items.  I’m hoping that October Afternoon with have an awesome vintage Christmas line this year.

*Print at home/local worked great.

*Using the 6×8 album format…will be my go-to again this year.

*Taking lots of photos so I have lots to chose from…I will say I’ve been taking less photos as I’ve been involved in doing more things!

*Organize my silhouette cut files and files I can convert so I can easily find and use them!

Today is the Friday after Thanksgiving and I’m just getting started working on DD for 2014, tomorrow is a quick trip to my local scrapbooking store and then some strategizing and setting up the album in between tree trimming, house cleaning and Patriots game hosting!  I’ll keep you posted on the progress!