Just Add Ink #149

Just Add Ink is having a "Big Shot Blog Hop" to kick off 2013, so the challenge this week is  to use the Big Shot or any diecut machine on your card, scrapbooking page or box/project etc. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut a Chrysanthemum in two layers from American Crafts patterned paper, and a punch to cut a butterfly.  A stamped sentiment from Stampin' Up's Sassy Salutations set finished off the card.

Here's a closer look at the diecut and butterfly.....

This next card was a free design from the Silhouette Online Store last week, and I just wanted to share this one to show you what this awesome machine can do.......

Thanks for stopping by!

Proud of You

Another scrapbook layout to share today.  This is a photo from February 2012 of my eldest son and me.  We've been butting heads lately but I want him to always know how much I love him and how proud I am of him.  

I used a 12 x 12 paper pad from Crate Paper, some stamping with distress inks, some Mister Hueys spray inks, Kaisercraft pearls and some random buttons.  I cut the title with my Silhouette Cameo.  Since I was in the photo, I had the perfect excuse to use some floral papers ;-)

Hello Summer

It's been hot here in Perth this week- not just hot, but stinking sticky yucky hot.  So that means staying indoors in the air-conditioning, which of course means more time to scrapbook.  I am nearly a year behind in my "normal" scrapping, but that's OK since Project Life is up-to-date.  Anyways on account of the stinking hot weather, I took these photos from last summer and made this........

I pulled out Studio Calico's Heyday collection, which at first glance looks rather girly, but selected some bits and pieces I thought would work for this Summery layout.  I used my Cameo to cut the sun and the title, added some machine stitching and called it done.  I almost always journal on my layouts, but I think the photos alone tell the story pretty well- Boys+Hot Day+Water= FUN, but of course I added where we were and the date.

Although I'm still a newbie with the Cameo, I am starting to get into the swing of using it on almost every project.  I've learnt a few little tricks to help with intricate cuts courtesy of a squillion pins to my Pinterest board (sorry to all my followers) and a lot of trial-and-error. Best machine ever.

Project Life Week Two

This week I cracked into to my digital supplies and used the Seafoam core kit.  It was so easy to crop the journalling cards to square the corners and then just type away.  I forgot that when I print at my lab, sometimes a little bit of cropping occurs so I will reprint the cards involved next week.  I love the aqua, orange and grey colour combination of Seafoam but I think I will tire of it if I use it every week.  I'm tossing up whether to purchase Clementine and mix that in to my album - you'll have to stay tuned to see if I do LOL!

I've also changed my approach a little for this week.  Rather than giving a day-by-day breakdown of the week, I've simply included some highlights and I think I will continue to do this, especially when school resumes and describing our weekly activities becomes a little repetitive.

Here's Week Two....

Project Life Week One

And so, Week One of Project Life, 2013 is underway! This year, I have far more confidence that I can keep up with this project. It's just part of my weekly routine now, but finishing Week One was still a bit of a buzz because I'm approaching it a little differently this year.

The first page of the album, naturally, is my title page.

I used some digital freebies from around the internet, but most notably from the delightfully generous Cathy Zielske.   I took some of her 3 x 4 cards and changed things just a little, keeping the grey, orange and white colour palette. I gave into temptation and bought the PL Seafoam Digital Kit and I think these colours will go well with Seafoam and the Amy Tangerine digi stuff I already have.

The Seafoam Edition was designed my one of my favourite designers Elise Blaha Cripe and that little quote by C.S.Lewis on my title page was downloaded from Elise's blog.  She scattered some great quotes throughout her 2012 album and then kindly offered them as a freebie.

Here's a look at Week One....

Here's where you'll notice what I've done differently- first of all, all square corners!  I know, what a PL rebel I am, however, when I start using my Seafoam cards, they will have rounded corners unless I can change that somehow in Photoshop......we'll see ;-)

Secondly, I have typed my journalling......you'll remember how bad my handwriting is from my 2012 album, so I'm going digital this year.  I opened my journalling cards, typed right on 'em then printed here at home.  We have a colour laser printer and it's really pretty ordinary for tasks like this.  I'm hoping I can be organised enough to get them done Sunday nights when I do my photos and print them all together at the lab each Monday morning......again, we'll see......

I have also added some Amy Tangerine digital papers and elements to the photos, typing a short message on those too.

So that's how I've started out the year- whether I change it up or not remains to be seen, but that's the great thing about this project. You can do what you like and then you can change your mind and do something else. Even using a core kit, like Seafoam, you can find ways to mix in all sorts of things like other core kits or spare scrapbooking supplies.

Pop back next week to see if those corners are still rounded.......

Project Life Week 52

Well I finally made it-  52 weeks of our daily lives documented- PHEW!  I loved this project and looking back I would say Project Life has well and truly taken over from my "regular" scrapbooking which is sadly nearly a year behind. And that's ok- what is important to me is that our stories are being told.  

We spent Christmas in Queensland with my family and although I didn't manage to get a photo with all four of us in it together, there are lots of photos of my boys with my Dad, and those photos are very precious to me.

As I type this, I have already completed my title page and Week 1 for 2013 and I have tried a different approach.  It was quite time-consuming so although I am sure I will get faster with practice, I am not sure how long I will stick with it.  What I did in 2012 worked for me, so I can always go back to that system.

For my readers who have enjoyed my PL posts and wondered about giving it a go- JUST DO IT!  Becky Higgins has released lots of new kits- both paper and digital, so check them out here, or if you already have plenty of supplies, pull them out and get started.  I am happy to answer any of your questions if I can.

Project Life Week 51

I'm baaaack!  We've been to sunny Queensland to spend Christmas with my side of the family, and it was truly wonderful.  Of course, when we got back I was sweating over getting "caught up" on PL and within a couple of hours of getting off the plane I was getting photos developed at the lab LOL!

Week 51 was the week before we left and I did something a little different as a bit of an experiment.  I purchased some Amy Tangerine digital papers and elements and added the elements to my pics and rescaled the papers in PS and had the lab print them.  I also used matte paper for the first time.  I'm really happy with the results and I think I might do this a lot in my PL for 2013.  I worked my way through a lot of my paper stash in 2012 and was thinking about how I could avoid restocking until I really need to for my traditional 12x12 scrapbooking layouts.  We will probably be moving house twice in the next year or so and therefore reducing "stuff" is high on the agenda for this year.