Month of Challenges Update

I'm still plugging away at the Month of Challenges, although I'm not as caught up as I would like to be. I'm about 7 pages behind, but I'm still hopeful I can complete all the challenges. I'm sure it will be down to the wire though! Here are a few more pages I've completed since my last posting:

Day 10 - Imperfect Photo Challenge

created with We Are Storytellers collaboration by The Lilypad designers; Gardenia templates by Sara Gleason

Day 13 - Scraplift Challenge

lift of Vans by Christina: http://the-lilypad.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=175613&title=vans&cat=514
created with What Fun papers and elements by Sara Gleason; Merry Holiday papers by Amber LaBau; Gesso Bits by Just Jaimee; stitching from Year in Review kit by Just Jaimee and Mommyish; Traveling Typewriter font

Day 14 - Quickpage Challenge

created with Sunkissed papers, elements and tapes by Amber LaBau designs; MOC day 14 quickpage by Amber LaBau

Day 15 - Puppet Warp Challenge

created with Platform 9 and 3/4 by Valorie Wibbens and Emily Merritt; Happy HoHoHo template by Two Tiny Turtles

Day 17 - Scrap a List

created with Hunter Storyteller Collection by Just Jaimee; A Stacked Mess vol. 1 by Just Jaimee and Erin Wright; AniTypewriter font

Day 21 - Simple Template

created with Wonderful You kit, pocket cards, and number squares by Amber LaBau designs; Press Plate no. 40 by Paislee Press

24 - Art Journal

created with At the Moment elements by One Little Bird; Beech Tree Papers by Sara Gleason; Needed More Stitching by Amy Martin; Bebas Neue font

I have a few more "in the can" but I won't be able to post them until Friday, because I used product by Just Jaimee that is releasing then. Stay tuned!

Project Life 2014: Week 51 (and that's a wrap!)

I'm so excited to say my 2014 Project Life album is complete! It feels so great to have stuck it out all year and have it finished before January is over. Now to do a final printing and slip them in the album.  I used a new collection from Digital Design Essentials, which was just the push I needed to get this final week scrapped.

created with Winter Break collection, DOTW Wood Veneer freebie, and Holiday Spots word art by Digital Design Essentials; The 52 Weeks by Heather Joyce

Left side:

Right side:

I always love the DDE collections! Gina is always right on trend and with her designs, and they have just the right amount of everything for a PL spread. Here's the new Winter Break collection I used:

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2014: Week 50

Week 50! Do you realize what this means?! I'm only one, yes ONE, week away from completing my 2014 Project Life album!  I've kind of been scrapping my weeks out of order- I actually did week 52 a while back and I just have week 51 left.  For this spread, I was surprised to see I didn't have many photos to choose from despite a pretty busy week. Sometimes when life gets busy, I just forget to pull out the camera.  Especially at big gatherings - I'm the worst at remembering to get photos! I am a bit bummed I don't have a photo record of some of these things, but at least I have things recorded in the journaling. And the photos I do have a fun, plus I kind of like a simpler spread sometimes. Here's a look at week 51:

created with Memory Pockets Monthly: Joy collection; Joyful Elements by Amber LaBau designs; AniTypewriter, Bebas Neue, and CK Jot font

Left side:

Right side:

For this spread I used the Memory Pockets Monthly: Joy collection, plus a few things from Amber LaBau's Joyful elements:

2 years old + Dollar Days Sale!

Dollar Days is in full swing at Pixels and Company! All of the designers have added lots of new items, as well as some old favorites, and it's all just $1 each.  The best deal in digi, for sure! I had a chance to play around with some of the new things on this pocket style layout of my littlest guy when he turned two.

created with Outside the Box pocket pages v1 by Gennifer Bursett; Vintage Alphabet Cards by Celeste Knight; Corked no1 by Shirley Polk, By Hand: Months and More and Every Little Bit: Grateful bundle by Deena Rutter

I've been wanting to scrap these photos for a while - and that cute vintage alphabet card is what inspired me, I knew I wanted to use it here! The whole set of cards is just adorable.  Have fun shopping!

Project Life 2015: Week Three

This past weekend I went to Digi Night Out - it's a fun meet up with local digi friends. We all bring out laptops, we scrap, we chat, and we even get free stuff! This month Gennifer Bursett was our featured designer and she offered a huge set of pocket style templates.  I love them so much I've decided to use them for all of my PL pages for 2015!  (I'll need to go back and add them to weeks 1 & 2, but that should be pretty easy.) The best part is that she put them in her shop for just $1 per pack as part of the Dollar Days sale going on at Pixels and Company. That an amazing deal!

Here's a look at how I used them for week three. I also used a couple of dollar days products by Celeste Knight, including the white stitches and those fun envelopes & tags.

created with Back to Basics pockt pages v1 by Gennifer Bursett; Pocket Tags and Messy Stitches by Celeste Knight; Now Trending kit by Gennifer Bursett; Bebas Neue, DJB Kiersten script 2 and CK Jot fonts

Left side:

Right side:

I do love the look of the page protectors - but I've found that instead of putting them on TOP of my page, I place it underneath. That way I still get the look of the protector, without graying my photos and cards. Just a little tip! I know some who put it on top but lower the opacity a bit. Just a personal preference! Thanks for having a look!

The Nutcracker Ballet

I scrapped this layout earlier this month but forgot to share it here. This is a special memory from this holiday season. I took my daughter to see the Nutcracker Ballet. She is four, and for the past year, when asked what she wants to be when she grow up, she says, "a ballerina!" I enrolled her in a ballet class this fall and it is her favorite thing!  I got the tickets last minute, and she was so excited and so cute. We got dressed up, went to dinner at Chick-fil-A (her choice) and then to the ballet. I was worried she would get tired, but she sat with her eyes glued to the stage for the full ballet.  We bought a little nutcracker at intermission and she still carries that little guy around. Definitely a special memory I wanted to record, and something that will likely become a tradition for us.

created with Digital Scrapbook Collection | January 2015: Winter Wish by the Pixels & Company designers; Stringfellows and Fanwood fonts

I used the Winter Wish kit, available by subscription this month and in the Pixels and Company store:

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2014: week 52

This was Christmas week.  I had SO many photos! That can be a real scrapping block for me.  Of course, I could just do more pages, but in the interest of just getting my 2014 PL album DONE, I chose to limit the week to just one spread.  I can always go back and scrap more of my Christmas photos later, either in pocket or more traditional form.

So, how did I choose which photos to include?  First, I went though them all and picked out the ones I loved most. Then, I asked myself - which ones tell the story? I found I had several that, although beautiful and unique, all told the same story.  Baking and decorating cookies, for example. I had several photos of kids decorating, photos of cookies fresh from the oven, photos of decorated cookies on plates.  I simply chose ONE from that group to represent the story of baking cookies. I find this approach and the simple question of  "which photo best tells the story?" really helps me to quickly narrow down my options.  I did the same with sledding photos, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning photos, etc. In the end I fell like this is a great representation of our week and the stories are there.

For this spread I used the December subscription kit, Joyful, from Pixels and Comapny. It's no longer available via subscription, but you can find all the various products in the P&Co store.

created with Joyful mini kit and Joyful journal cards by Deena Rutter; Joyous kit and Joyous journal cards by Jen Allyson;Joyful mini kit and Joyful cards by Meredith Cardall; Be Joyful kit by Gennifer Bursett; Joyful kit by Celeste Knight; Not So Joyful kit by Shirley Polk; Bebas Neue and CK Jot fonts

Left side:

Right side:

Now, to just go back and fill in those missing three weeks, and 2014 will be done. Almost there!

Month of Challenges... & other recent pages

During the month of January, the Lilypad hosts its "Month of Challenges" which is a layout a day and lots of crazy fun. I tried it last year and although it's tough to do that much scrapping, I hung in there and finished so I decided to give it a shot again this year. I'm hoping to use the challenges to scrap some more Christmas memories, catch up on Project Life, and get some other pages done as well.  These are the pages I've done so far:

1. Blind Scrap challenge

created with Memory Pockets Monthly papers & elements, A New Day papers & elements by Stolen Moments design; leaves from Hunter Storyteller Collection by Just Jaimee

2. Blending challenge

created with Numerology , Alpha Snipsand A New Day papers by Amber LaBau; Memory Pockets Monthly: Foliosubscription; Folio Personal Brushes by Allison Pennington; NeoRetroShadow font

  

3. Art Inspiration challenge

created with Memory Pockets Monthly: Joy collection; Pocket Full of Joy and Joyful papers by Amber LaBau designs; Strung With Care by Forever Joy Designs; Museo font

4. Clean and Simple challenge

created with Beautiful Like Me by Just Jaimee; Sofia font

5. Photo Treatment challenge

created with A Stacked Mess vol. 1, Quick Pockets vol. 1 Photo Journal Cards, and Storyteller 2015 Hunter Collection by Just Jaimee; Another Typewriter font

6. All About challenge

created with January 2015 Hunter Storyteller collection and  2015 Storyteller 2015: Mega Tag + Label pack by Just Jaimee; Dawning of a New Day font

7. Scrap Therapy challenge

created with Chin Up kit by Allison Pennington; Sewn Pockets by Valorie Wibbens

8.Out of Bounds (extraction) challenge

created with Sweet November papers and elements by Little Butterfly Wings; Our House papers, elements, and journal cards by Just Jaimee; Bebas Neue and CK Jot fonts

9. Combine two templates

created with Sweet November papers and elements by Little Butterfly Wings; Our House papers, elements, and journal cards by Just Jaimee; Bebas Neue and CK Jot fonts

12. Detailed template challenge

created with MPM: Joy collection by the Lilypad designers; MOC template by Sara Gleason; Traveling Typewriter font

Quite and eclectic mix of pages so far! I was able to get my week 2 project life spread scrapped (woo hoo!) so I'll count this post as my documentation of that Here's the full spread:

created with Sweet November papers and elements by Little Butterfly Wings; Our House papers, elements, and journal cards by Just Jaimee; Bebas Neue and CK Jot fonts

Crossing my fingers I can make it to 31. Here's to crazy scrapping goals! 

Project Life 2015: Week 1 & January P&Co Subscription

I can't believe it's January 13 and I haven't blogged about this months' subscription kits at Pixels & Company! You know how the holidays are so busy, and you sort of look forward to January for its promise of daily routine and calm? Well, I do, but folks, it's a lie. Life is as busy as ever.  It hasn't stopped me from scrapping yet, but the blogging thing always gets pushed back a bit so bear with me as I try to catch up.  First up I wanted to share the new  Winter Wish collection:

And the bonus for this month, these printable planner pages. (These are probably what I need so I'm not feeling so overwhelmed!)

I used this collection for my first week of project life for the year. Acutally, I ended up tacking the last few days of the year onto my first week.  This probably seems like a weird choice- and I wasn't planning on doing it this way, but as I was looking at what I photos I had I realized I had a bunch from the last few days of the year, and a grand total of TWO for the first few days of 2015. It just made more sense to put them all at the beginning of the year, plus it gave me chance to really document our fun New Year's Eve party.  Here's a look:

created with Winter Wish Collection from Pixels and Company; Bebas Neue and CK Jot fonts

Left side:

Right side:

You might have noticed I haven't exactly finished my 2014 album.  I've got three more weeks to scrap and post here, but I'm diving right in to 2015 so that I don't start the new year already behind. Really, I'm so proud of myself for never getting too far behind in 2014, and here's to the same for 2015! Thanks for having a look. :)