Decorated boxes....for the girlies

Back today with a fun gift wrap project that Jordan made for some of her besties for Christmas. We found these fun necklaces with each of the girl's initial. Now we just needed some fun packaging.
I knew Jordan would love the Loopsy-Daisy Die Collection as soon as I showed her the concept. Yep, she took over and made 4 sweet bows out of patterned paper. She added tiny store bought Christmas bows to the top. Very cute!
Next she made cute tags using Alpha-Blocks from Papertrey and Pure Poppy ink.
She splattered some Small Kraft Gift Boxes with white spray mist first then tucked her little necklaces inside with tissue paper. Using pinking shears, I helped her cut Pure Poppy Felt into some cute pinked strips that she secured around the boxes with tape.
She added a rhinestone to each tag than packaged all the boxes up. I thought Jordan did a great job and all of her little friends loved the necklaces....and the cute boxes.
I know that Christmas is behind us now but this idea could easily be used for Valentine treats, birthdays, etc. Be sure to let your kids help with the gift wrap. They really love to create pretty things for their friends. Jordan was so happy with her finished gifts and kept them save and sound under a little tree she had in her room. :)

Project Life Week of August 21-August 27, 2011

Back with another Project Life week from the Summer. This week's big even was heading back to school. It's always such an exciting time, especially this year because Josey started high school and Jordan moved up to 8th grade. It's the first time the girls have been separated by different schools, different sports teams....we knew we were in for some challenges as far as getting to both the girls' sporting events, practice pick ups, etc.

Here's my 2 page spread. The main, dated insert dictated my color scheme for this week's layout. It's always fun digging through my stash to find just the perfect accents.
Here's the left page. "Back to School" was definitely the theme of the week. We were gathering up school supplies, taking inventory of clothes and we had just started cleaning out the old play room to make a new Lounge for the girls.
And then like a flash, the reds were back in school. Always a little sad for mama as I like the girls home during the summer. I miss them when they go back to school.
Here's the main, dated insert using a Project Life insert. Chipboard letters and an apple sticker from my stash were used for the school theme.
Here I used accents from a My Mind's Eye stamp plus a little sticky note from Studio Calico.These are bare bones photos of the old play room.
More embossed stamps from My Mind's Eye on the bullet list of this week's happenings.
On the left I used a piece of a name badge from a business trip Eric took to Michigan. On the right I used a journaling sheet and typed some journaling about Josey growing up.
Here I used a mini Instax photo of Josey with a Studio Calico chipboard butterfly. On the right I embossed some My Mind's Eye numbers and used 2 numbers from my Project Life supplies with a tiny little paper clip. On the bottom 4 x 6 insert I used a 4 x 4 Instagram photo of the girls' day at the lake with friends. A last summer hurrah. The "fun" was cut from a stamped My Mind's Eye image. The flag piece is from Elle's Studio with a chipboard number on top.
I'm so, so glad I went back and finished up these pages that I got behind on. Already, these weeks seem to have gone by so quickly. I love how each day and week leads into months.....and eventually a full year of my family's lives documented in one place. Such a treasure this album will be for my family.

Today's happenings: We're having a lazy rest of the day, relaxing after having 5 teenagers here last night for movies, Wii, pizza and lots of laughs. We broke in the Lounge and it was a hit. So happy that the girls have a hang out of their own. I'm taking a photo shoot of my Project Life work area so stay tuned soon for a full blog post on where it all happens......including my work table set up, storage for all my Project Life and other products, my favorite supplies to use for Project Life and lots of links.

Project Life Week of December 4-December 10, 2011

Edited for question: Clem asked.......how are you doing the photo collages? The photo collages from this post were done using the Diptic app on my iPhone.

Happy day after Christmas. Did you all survive? Jordy woke us up dark and early at 5am. So we got a very early start to the day and enjoyed opening presents at home. Then we had lunch at my folks and supper at the in-laws. A very nice day spent with loved ones. Today Eric installed the new flat screen in the girls' Lounge. They're playing Dance 3 on the Wii right now. This week we have two big parties planned to break in the new room....one for Jordan's friends, one for Josey's friends. Yes, I am nuts but it's a great way to get the girls to clean. Fun with friends=a clean house for mama. ;)

Today I'm working on cleaning up the Craft Department so that I can take photos of my Project Life work area and do a post soon. In the meantime I have another recent week of Project Life to share. The Winter weeks became a lot busier as we neared Christmas so most slots were filled with photos.
For this week I used papers and accents from My Mind's Eye's Happy Days collection. It's a real favorite of mine from MME. I had lots of areas that I wanted to add journaling to also so I reached for some return address labels and used my vintage typewriter. I love adding these labels to my Project Life for journaling. Here's my left page.
And here's my right page.
In a recent blog post, I showed some hand made journaling cards that I made from an Etsy kit. This week, I put all of those cards to good use. I really like having a collection of journaling cards available that will all fit into one week's theme. I easily filled in the blank spots with photos or other journaling cards. For the main, dated insert I added some buttons and my date stamp.
Here are the first 2 journaling cards. They each have My Mind's Eye patterned paper as backgrounds and then small photos on top. The ticket is from MME's as well. Here you see the small, typed labels come into action. You might notice that I stitched over each label. Once I had my 2 pages completed I noticed that the labels did not stick well to the thick Kraft paper of this particular line of MME. No biggie and I kinda like the look.
Here I used another journaling card that I had already made. On the right I added 2 square sticky notes from Studio Calico's Classic Scrap Pads. I stuck them to a sheet of copy paper, inserted them into my typewriter, typed my journaling, then stitched to my journaling card. A portion of the journaling was done with small letter stamps.
Here I used two more journaling cards from the little batch I made. I love these two....Washi tape, paper doily, Tiny Tim staples, chipboard star, ticket, stitching, old dictionary paper, small Hero Arts letter stamps, Mister Huey. Lots of crafty goodness in such a small amount of space. Definitely gives me my scrapbooking fix. :)
Here I've done some fancy work with 4 Instagram photos that I made into a collage with the Diptic app. I trimmed the photo in half and then added them to two, separate journaling card slots. They end up looking like 1 square photo with a few embellishments like the Papertrey number die and MME ticket. I love that I can capture 4 photos of one event, like Josey's basketball game, without having to add additional page protectors.

Here I used Diptic for this photo also. I typed my journaling onto a Large White Tag that was stapled & stitched to my 4 x 6 base + I also stitched on the typed labels.
For this 4 x 6 insert I added an Instagram photo of the day we finally got our tree up. I added some My Mind's Eye mini circle garland and stapled on some Washi tape.
Another insert that uses an Instagram/Diptic modified photo of the girls' Lounge room. I added a banner from My Mind's Eye + used 3 labels for journaling.
Same type of photo here that shows progress on one of the girls' quilts. Note: The quilts went by the way side due to the holiday happenings. I'm planning on working on them again once things settle down. I did get one top completely done, the one you see below. The chipboard arrow square is from MME. Those fun products really got a work out this week.
And one last 4 x 6 insert that shows more typed labels, MMY product, Washi tape and a photo collage of the girls with their friend Megan. I hung up a small chalkboard that I forgot I purchased at the thrift show this Fall. I thought the girls would like to write holiday messages on it. First thing on the chalkboard said: "My mother is crazy". I could really feel the love on this day from Josey.
And that's it for another week down in the scrapbook. Wow, there was a ton of memories added this week....and I got them all recorded. This year's album is gonna be so awesome. I'm so glad I'm nearly caught up. Stay tuned for a year in review post coming soon in addition to my Project Life work space. Okay, I think I'll go kick some Dance 3 butt on the Wii. Watch out, Reds. ;)

Project Life Week of November27-December 3, 2011

It's almost Christmas Eve by the time this goes live. I hope your holiday is merry and bright and filled with love & laughter, family & friends.

Today I have a Project Life layout scheduled just in case you get a chance to pop on the computer. This week presented itself with an interesting pile of photos. I had a few holiday looking photos and then the yellow VW bug photo. There was no getting around that bright yellow car. So I decided to focus on the color yellow and just work with it. By using yellow through my 2 page spread, I was able to balance out that main yellow photo a bit. I also did a fun application of some ruffled ribbon to the outside of my page protector. I'll talk about that a little later down the post.

Here's my left side of my 2 page spread. I didn't make a main dated page this week because I thought the photo of my December Daily album cover was good enough. I added a simple label sticker that had the week typed on it. This week you might notice that I also started using my new printer, hence the white border around my photos. I love how the white frames the photos so I'll probably continue to print with the white border.

This week was a mix activities including starting my December Daily album, working on the girls' Lounge room, documenting photos of Charlie harassing the cats, a funny photo of Jordan and more basketball.
On my right page, I experimented with Diptic photos and the ways they can fit into the journaling card inserts. I discovered that if you use a Diptic layout that has a vertical division, you can trim those photos in half, insert them into two separate slots and they still look like one photo. Here on this full page view you can see how I used the Diptic photos to create a vertical look to an otherwise usual horizontal layout. I'll show you more at the end of the post.
Here's my journaling cards starting from the left side of the first page. I used My Mind's Eye stamps and mini garland, Chevron patterned paper and a Chevron bag from my Etsy shop.
I embellished the front of the bag and then used a Large Manila Tag to journal the story. All of my Kraft colored patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye. For the metal clip, I used a small silver clip, removing on of the clips and then smashing down the metal parts with my hammer. This way the clip lays more flat in my album.
Here are two Project Life journaling cares that have been embellished with patterned paper, stamps, chipboard pieces and a packaging piece from the Pottery Barn bean bags that were delivered this week. If you look closely you'll see that each one of my journaling cards has been stamped with the tiny star border from My Mind's Eye with gray ink.
The last two journaling cards on the right side of my 2 page spread. I used more patterned paper, some tickets from My Mind's Eye, misted chipboard stars and some small letter stickers.
On this 4 x 6 photo of Josey playing basketball, I added a smaller square photo. I like that this shows her playing both defense and offense.
And here's the fun application of the Diptic photos and some ruffled ribbon that came in a Studio Calico kit. This takes on a 6 x 12 page protector look but all of the photos were put into the regular Project Life inserts. The top square is one 4 x 4 Instagram photo slipped into a 4 x 6 slot. On the right of each 4 x 4 photo I used a 4" piece of a ruler accent from My Mind's Eye plus added a journaling label that was made with my vintage typewriter.

The middle 4 x 4 looking section is actually a Diptic photo that was cut vertically down the center of the photo. Each half was slipped into separate journaling slots. But if you butt them together in the middle it still looks like one 4 x 4 photo.

The bottom 4 x 4 section is another 4 x 4 Instagram photo that was slipped into a 4 x 6 photo slot. On the left side now, I had some blank space. I thought this yellow ribbon that I'd been hoarding would fit in perfect with the yellow theme of this week's layouts. I thought about cutting it up into 3 sections and adding to each photo but then it hit me.....just use Scor-Tape and adhere the ruffled ribbon to the outside of the page protector. A fun and dimensional look. It's kind of neat to be thumbing through the album and then come across this 3-D ruffly ribbon that you can touch from the outside.
Here's a close up view of that Diptic photo that was cut in half vertically. Love this idea and I've already used it several times since this layout.
Here's that 12" strip of ruffly ribbon. I might try this with other trims too, who knows?
And that's it for today. After the holiday I'll have some more informative Project Life posts going up on the blog. These will include a 2011 review of some of my favorite memories and techniques I used this year.....a view of my Project Life organization.....a listing of my favorite Project Life supplies.....a reminder of how I'll use my new calendar system....and some good tips on how to get started with Project Life in 2012 if this is your first year. I'll also give my thoughts on how it feels to have a full year of every week of my family's lives documented. Two full albums of memories. So awesome.

And with that, Merry Christmas everyone. :)

Paper Bag Gift Pouch..

Sooo, how is the holiday going for you? About this time of year, I'm ready to just enjoy time with my family and let all of the preparations go. What's done is done. What didn't get done can wait. There always seems to be people that I forget to get gifts for. Just those little thank you type gifts to show your friendship and appreciation. Usually for me, these gifts are of the paper crafted variety which most of my friends and family love. So as always I end up making some gifts well after the holiday is over and they become lovely little New Year's gifts of sorts.

Last year those gifts were my paper bag pouches with notebooks and little cards tucked inside. Here's a creation I created while guesting at Cosmo Cricket. Some of my favorite projects ever. You can see the full post with all the little details here.
I stitched together little pouches from paper bags, made notebooks and little coordinating cards. Very cute and well received.
Here's another batch I made. I remember using these for teacher treats. So easy to tuck in packaged candies, cookies in glassine sacks, cards and more. You can see the full post for these pouches here.
This year I used a similar design but went with a more neutral color palette to match the little notebooks I made here. Inside I tucked an embellished notebook and 2 small thank you cards. I plan to write little note telling the recipient that if they choose they can keep the goodies for themselves or re-use the embellished pouch another gift. Just tuck more goodies inside.
For the pouch I used my Paper Bag Pockets. Very neutral so they can be embellished a million different ways. I used a Dainty Doily and stamps from My Mind's Eye along with their tiny circle garland. I tied the pouch up with Wrinkle Ribbon from the shop plus a stamped Large White Tag. An Elle's Studio tag is tucked under the Wrinkle Ribbon. Studio Calico Mister Huey mist was splattered over the finished pouch.
For the small thank you cards, I used a sentiment from a My Mind's Eye stamp set along with a paper doily, Washi tape and brown baker's twine. I stitched pockets for these from vellum. These will be great to tuck into a little thank you gift or along with a home baked treat.
The embellished notebook was made from my Plain Jane Notebook Kits which are on sale now in the shop. They include a fun variety of lined, grid and ledger papers plus a few embellishments to add on.
A great little gift set. I need to make up lots of these for little New Year's gifts + they will be nice to just have on hand. For mailing, simply wrap in tissue and place in a bubble mailer. Flat packaged candies like little chocolate squares, etc are always a fun treat to tuck in also. You could also leave out the notebooks and cards and replace with fat quarters of fabric for the sewer on your list. So many possibilities.
Hope you enjoy! Back to the holiday fun for me. I'll have some updated Project Life layouts for you the rest of this week + some fun packaging Jordan made using Papertrey goodies. See ya soon.

Project Life Week of November 6-November 12, 2011

Today I have a more recent Project Life layout to show. The highlight of this week was getting our new puppy, Charlie. I'll be adding in some page protector inserts to highlight a few more photos of that special day.
If I recall right I think I used a lot of Studio Calico product from a monthly kit plus Project Life items from the Amber collection. Here's my left page.
And here's the right page. Some of our favorite photos are ones that feature the girls with all their friends. Jordan has a photo with all her girlfriends while at an 8th grade movie night. And we love the photo of Jordan with her friend face timing two other friends. Isn't technology a wonderful thing?
For my main, dated insert I used a Large Journaling Tag from Elle's Studio. The 4 x 6 size is perfect for Project life. I also added 2 styles of chipboard letters. I had to mix and match the letters on "Charlie" because I ran out of some of the woodgrain letters. The silhouette paper along the bottom is from Studio Calico and the fabric scallops came in a SC kit also.
To speed things along this week, I hand wrote all my journaling. Here I added Studio Calico sticky notes + some patterned paper + the little people Washi tape. I used my date stamp three times on one journaling card, listing three events on one card.
Here I used a page from a Smash Book journaling book. On the right, I added some typing to an Amber journaling card along with a small photo. I love adding in the small photos to the journaling cards.
Here I used an Amber journaling card that was stamped with an Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday stamp. A little more Washi tape with staples and the date stamp. On the right I used a Studio Calico chipboard butterfly and stitched on some more of the Studio Calico silhouette patterned paper.
More chipboard letters here with a play on the word party....to partay as the girls would say. I finished up with another Smash Book journaling page and a leftover snippet of the scallop fabric.
So, how are we wrapping up our 2011 Project Life albums? Are you caught up? Way behind? My goal is to have my 2011 main pages completed IN 2011. I have 2 layouts to catch up. Then I have lots of inserts pages to work on. My goal for 2012 is to work on my current pages plus catch up on the insert pages...maybe 2 weeks at a time. I was going to do some traditional scrapbook layouts but now I'm thinking I'll just add in more of the Project Life page protectors. The pages will get completed much faster that way. We'll see.

Today:

Lots of house cleaning. Josey is having friends over and we're gearing up for 2 big sleepover parties to break in the new Lounge. I've had some request for photos of the new room so I'll try to do that soon. :)