YLA 2013 | June class

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Project Life, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper, Techniques, Tutorials, Yearlong Album

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Gel Medium Resist, Ranger Distress Paint, Simple Scrapper

A few days ago I showed you how I had an idea for these pages, went through an epic failure, and then found redemption on better and bigger paper.

Today, you get the final product!

The rainbow page is my favourite – I love the colours and the pictures so much:

I first sponged glossy gel medium through a stencil, then added puddles of Distress Paint to the edge. I misted until I ran out of water (that’s only a slight exaggeration!) and let the colours run down the page. The texture is from rolling paper towels over to blot up the excess water. How cool is that?!?!

This second page is based on a Simple Scrapper template from the July 2013 Premium Member templates:

Once again you start with glossy gel medium through a stencil, then add puddles of paint to the middle of the page. Mist with water and tip the paper to allow the paint to blend and then run in different directions.

The resist is fabulous and has a great shine in real life:

I used some Heidi Swapp fabric that I died with the paint and some new Studio Calico wood veneer to add dimension and layers to the top:

So there you have it – a class LO all the way from idea to final product, with a mini tutorial to boot! Hope you enjoyed, I’ll be back later this week with more ICAD’s and the final LO’s from the June/July Paperie Card Kit.

A Day in the Life | April 2013

09 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Day in the Life, Project Life

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A Day in the Life, Ali Edwards

NOTE: Sorry for the delay in this post – could not get WordPress to upload a single photo yesterday. Sigh.

It occurred to me this weekend that although I try to do A Day in the Life each month, I never post the pics here. And since it’s a time-consuming, photo heavy taking day, I thought I should share some of what I capture.

Here’s a few from April:

7:37am – Ella

7:53am – breakfast

8:10am – Molly off to school

9:13am – Instagram with Gabe

10:52 – getting ready for our walk

12:02pm – walking home from school

1:37pm – homework

4:12pm – self timer pics with Gabe

4:46pm – taking pics of retreat LO’s

6:36pm – evening bike ride

Project Life – Weeks 7&8

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life, ScrapBook

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Project Life

Still going strong and still loving this project!

(As always, click on any photo to make it larger.)

Week 7:

A couple of weeks before Halloween but it’s definitely making itself known in our world! We bought pumpkins, went to Sunday School, played in the park…

…and made yummy brownies. Our city also got fancy new garbage cans that can be picked up by the truck itself – big excitement for 3-year-old boys!

M also drew a bunch of “Underwater Things.” Since she almost always draws people, or people holding people-shaped balloons, I had to keep this one!

Another week of fabulous weather and I’m hanging onto it as long as I can!

Week 8:

More Halloween lead up; we decorated little pumpkins, got M to agree to braids, and she drew trees on a picture:

We had lunch at the Harbour Front Park, I took a “make your own kit” class with Krista and designed my own page kit for the Retreat. The big deal this week was Marvin the Monkey – he lost an arm. It was repaired and a sling put on – can’t have a missing arm replaced without some fanfare after all!

The space at the bottom is for a pic of the LO I made from the kit I put together in Krista’s class. I’m having Photoshop issues so it will have to wait a little!

Project Life – Weeks 5 & 6

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life

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Project Life, The Collins Rep Group

I’m still going, still keeping up, and still loving Project Life. Here are weeks 5 & 6. as always, click any pictures to see them up close and personal!

We headed into October this week and so the kiddies got new winter hats they had to wear, even though we still were having summer temps.

I also managed to get downtown to see a reunion of Critical List, a local band I love, and met up with some old friends who I hadn’t seen in ages. The end of the week brought my trip to Orlando for the Collins Rep Show and the beginning of some fabulous classes!

My favourite part of this week’s LO was the insert:

M drew a picture of “mama and daddy, with flowers and fireworks, because I’m having a good day!”

Onto Week 6:

M’s Thanksgiving poster in one insert and my October 12 on Twelve in the other.

The end of the week me back home again, doing self timer pics with the camera – the kiddies favourite thing – M getting her regular 3 month eye check and a new prescription, and G getting a hair cut.

The beginning of the week was more Orlando and scrapbooking fun!

My favourite picture of the whole week was this one with Dyan Reaveley:

Project Life – Weeks 3 & 4

15 Thursday Nov 2012

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Ali Edwards, October Afternoon, Project Life

Another update with weeks 3 & 4 – and for the record, I’m still keeping up so big pat on the back for me! 🙂

(As always, click on any pictures to open a larger copy in another window)

Week 3 was a pretty laid back week with nothing much going on – thank goodness after the last couple of weeks! One insert with work that M brought home:

I saved this one because they were supposed to be practicing “M’s” and she wrote her name in the lines – made me laugh!

The full spread:

You can see that I got into the Ali Edwards digital overlays this week. Now I’m addicted so you’ll be seeing those a lot! What I love is that it simplifies my process even more – when I edit my pictures I can drop the overlay on at the same time, print the pic and be done, no more embellies needed!

Here’s the left page:

Also loving the foldable journal cards in the PL kit for slightly longer stories, like the Booty one – my kiddos love to “shake their booty!”

And the right:

More pictures from Miss M – she loves drawing grass, sky, and people lately – a self timer pic, backyard races, a visit to bring M to school and G being cute as always. Another week in the bag.

Week 4 was fun – we took family pics in the park, saw family for dinner, and had the cable guys working on the poles in our backyard – the boys talked about it for days!

No inserts this week, just a straight forward LO:

The left page:

And the right:

I’m loving how the title cards seem to work for whatever week and pictures I have and that I can easily alter the colour slightly with washi tape. Washi tape, October Afternoon stickers and coloured labels are the best PL items ever.

I’ll be back next week with a couple more and here tomorrow with 5 on Friday, since Things on Thursday was pre-empted by Project Life!

Project Life – Weeks 1 & 2

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life, ScrapBook

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Project Life

I actually did start Project Life the first week of September, like I said I was going to, and have kept up with it since – a big deal for me!

Since I really don’t need to bore you with all 8 weeks I have done all at once, I’m going to be nice and just show a couple of weeks at a time. Of course, it looks pretty similar to any other PL album – I just have my own pictures in it! 🙂

Here’s the title page:

Wood veneer, washi tape, and the Turquoise core kit – pretty simple!

Week 1 was jam packed with the last long weekend of the summer, M starting school, G starting swimming, and all the regular life stuff too so I had an insert:

Here’s the main spread on it’s own:

And this is the flip I made for some of Miss M’s first day of school stuff – this is what’s behind the bears picture!

My favourite pictures this week are the one of M jumping for joy before going to her first day of school and this one:

My kiddies throwing sawdust, aka. fairy dust, at the cabin. I love how the wood veneer stars turned out on the photo.

Week two had some more inserts since our fabulous, best ever in the whole world babysitter was here one night and did some crafts and also, it was 12 on Twelve:

I love how the 12 on Twelve is turning out – numbered photos on the front and descriptions on the back. I did it again for October and still love it so I think that will stay. A nice overview of daily life each month!

Again, here’s the main spread on it’s own:

It was an other busy week – last ice cream truck visit of the summer, swimming starting for M, Poppy learning to ride a motorcycle (never in a million years thought my dad would be a biker dude!), and M had a visit from a friend one afternoon.

Love those 3×4 journal cards with the alphabet, like the one on the far right – colouring in the initials of the girls and being able to customize them so easily is awesome!

I’m attempting to keep this album flat and simple and so far that’s helping me to stay up-to-date without having to stress over it. Adding to a running word document each day (thanks for that idea, Liz!) gets all my journaling out of the way and I try to sit down each Sunday to pick photos. Once they’re printed and in the book, the rest is gravy!

I’m already discovering that I love looking back even though it’s super simple and I’m only a few weeks in – I can only imagine how much I’ll like looking at it 6 months from now!

Next Wednesday, Weeks 3 & 4!

Project Life

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life

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Becky Higgins, Project Life

So, I jumped on the bandwagon.

With M beginning school last week, it seemed to be the perfect time to finally try out Project Life. I must be insane to put something else on my plate but I’d really like to document our lives and her first year of school, if possible. Let’s see how it goes – I think I’m already behind! Ha! 🙂

I’m going to let you know what I’ve done so far with regards to organizing and getting it all together, and I’d love to know what you do. Tell me what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t work for you! I need this to be as simple and quick as it can possibly be and, at this point, I don’t care if there are any embellishments in the finished product or not!

My photos are already organized on my computer in a way that works well for me so I’ve left that alone. All photos go into yearly folders and are then sub-divided into monthly folders. When I view my photos, I always do it in the daily format so it’s super easy for me to see what days I need for the week and just look through those pics.

Once I’ve decided on the pictures I’m using, I drop them into a Project Life folder which again is then sub-divided into weekly folders. I choose my photos with my templates in front of me so I can decide how many to use, or if I need an insert for more. As I choose the photos, I write in the placement on the template.

From there I do (very little and probably terrible) editing in Photoshop, send them to be printed, pack up the kiddies, and go get them!

I cut and corner round them all, inserting into the slots as marked and then add the Turquoise core kit items I want to use. And then basically, if I have no other time, I’m done. But this way I can just pick away at it when I get a minute here and there. No pressure, since the bulk is done and if nothing else gets added, I’m still ok with that.

Yes, it’s true. I’m ok with nothing but my pics and the dates. If I didn’t go into this with that mindset, I’d never keep it up!

The other thing I do during the week is an idea stolen from my friend Liz. This summer, since it was so busy, she kept a running Word document open and simply added to it each day. Genius! Journalling is the hardest and most hated part of this art form for me but this way it’s quick and easy and only takes a minute or two in the evening. I’m planning to simply print each week on cardstock and insert between the weekly pages.

Now, all that being said, I don’t have Week 1 finished yet: