Spring Break-Project Photo Rescue

Ah, Spring Break. How I love you!*

We didn't go anywhere for Spring Break this year, not that we really ever do anyways. Andrew's industry really starts picking up this time of year so it's short trips if any for us. I did however, have a lot of projects I wanted to get to. 

The main project for this week was to get my scrapbooks organized. I have a few themed albums and some Project Life albums, but the rest are just albums full of random layouts. Sorted mostly by the year I made them not when the photo on the layout was taken. So, if you wanted to see the evolution of my scrapbooking, it was perfect! However, 99% of the world would rather see the evolution of our lives. Heh! So, a sort of sorts was in order.

I had two sources of inspiration for this project. One, was Project Photo Rescue. A project that Becky Higgins created and I watched so many videos about and was so inspired by. Unfortunately, I was inspired right before our school carnival. And, as I was in charge of that this year, I had to focus on other things. I watched this, this, this, and this video and read this blog post as inspiration and motivation. My other source was a layout reorganization that Ali Edwards did a few years back. Here is her blog post on that project.

First, I gathered all my albums and put them on my bed. There's actually more than I thought which makes me pretty proud of all I have scrapped. :)

After I had them all together, I sat down and took notes on what I had and what was in each album.

Then, I moved onto my mini albums. I have quite a few random shaped/sized ones that I keep in a basket in our dining room. 

I sorted through them and repaired the ones that needed a little love and taking out the ones that needed finishing or were Christmas themed.

After all that, it was time for the bulk of the project. I placed sticky notes on my dining table with the years from 2006-2016 and went through each album and stacked each layout on their year. This took a while because I wasn't as good about dating my layouts as I am now.

I also had stacks in my scraproom for older layouts. 

While looking up some of the older photo ages on Lightroom, I was reminded that I had over a year's worth of photos that were completely undated. It happened when I backed them up and didn't set it up right and then I lost the original photos. So, I decided to reorganize these photos in monthly folders as best I could. That took forever!

Here's my completed stack of layouts in my dining room.

And, the older layouts in my scraproom.

I moved all my Project Life albums into a 2x2 Expedit in our living room and put my themed albums in there as well.

I took the older layouts from my scraproom and put them in albums and labeled them.

Then, I gathered all my empty albums and set them up in my scraproom.

I tried to estimate how many albums I would need for each year and matched them up so that I had coordinating albums for that year. Then, I started putting them all in their albums.

And, here they are! I have so many of those damask patterned ones because they were on sale for like $6 at Tuesday Morning and I hit every TM in the Portland-metro area to get them. (My dining room curtains are that pattern.)

I used the damask albums for odd years so that they didn't all run together. It's easy to see where the years are this way. Then I labeled the albums with this fancy punch and used some cute mini bulldog clips to attach them. This 4x4 Expedit is in my dining room.

It feels so good to have this project done and my family really enjoys being able to find specific years and events more easily.

*I know it's Summer Break right now but the school year gets so busy after Spring Break that I got halfway through this post and stopped. I finally got my act together today! :)

Week In the Life Album for 2014

I did it! I finished my album! Well, I have a 4x6 spot and a two 2x2 spots to complete but other than that, I'm done!!! Woot!!!

These are the leftovers from my kit. I just tucked all of this in my Project Life album to use on that week's page. I keep a 12x12 page protector in the middle of each week in my album to add memorabilia and other stuff from that week and it all fit nicely in there.

I did a video walk through of the album and shared all the pages as well as some info on how I completed it.



Products Used: Kit(w/stamp set) & Gold Album-Ali Edwards, Inks-Stampin' Up! (Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie & Sahara Sand), Heidi Swapp (Navy), Color Box Chalk Ink (Lime Pastel), Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist), & Encore Ultimate Metallic (Gold), Embossing Powder-Stampin' Up! Gold detail, Pen-Sharpie Fine Point in Black, Stapler-Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, Stamp Sets-Technique Tuesday (Today You by Ali Edwards), Vellum-Staples, Envelopes-?????, Patterned Paper-Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party, Teresa Collins You are My Happy, Basic Grey for Studio Calico, Echo Park Creative Agenda, Stickers-Echo Park Creative Agenda, Border Punch-Fiskars, Marker-Gold Sharpie

Sorry about the not stellar video quality but I shot it with my iPhone 4s attached to my tripod using...binder clips, an IKEA kitchen shelf bar, a clamp from my husband's shop, and yard sticks! Yeah, I'm full on professional here, folks!

I've got a few more video ideas rolling around. I've got some organization tips I'd like to share, new products I want to drool over, and layouts I'd like to share including why I added certain items.

Are you interested? Let me know if you liked this and I can make more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week in the Life

This last week I took part in Ali Edward's Week In the Life project. I'd tried it a few times and never completed it. This year, with a lot of forward notice and the added incentive of buying her kit, I did it! I documented each day and now I'd like to share some of those with you.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the week!

I've been working on putting together the album and even with a big break for a trip to Hawaii(I know, rough life!) I feel like I've gotten really far! I've got all my pictures in it and quite a bit of the journaling and embellishing done. I probably will have it done in the next few days. 

There are almost 40 pages so I don't think I'll be photographing the entire album to share here. I may just share a few of my favorite pages along with one full day. Or, I may try to get a video walk through of it. I've never done that before so we'll see how that goes. Maybe during Thanksgiving break?

Are you doing a WITL album? How's it going?

Family Heirlooms Mini Album

I made a mini album documenting all the family heirlooms that we live with in our home. And, do we have a lot!  

I made an intro page and then misted the first wet media page with some Lindy's spray and a chicken wire mask. These chairs that now live in my kids' bedrooms used to be used in the drying and sorting barn on my grandfather's teasel farm. 

I played with another mist and a vintage doily mask from Kaisercraft. I used the acrylic page to document some really cool books that I read when I was in the 5th grade. It's an Encyclopedia of sorts for kids called The Book of Knowledge. I read all of them and loved them! 

 On the back is the lawyers case that I was given by my grandparents because I was one of the few family members who had read those books.  LOL! Throughout the book I used these tags I cut out. I threaded them all with Denim Lil' Twiney. Next are some half sized pages.  The photo of the heirloom is on the front and the information about it is on the back. There's a bench from my mom's grade school, a mirror from my grandfather's dresser, a bottle crate from my grandparents grocery store and some milk glass from my grandmother. 

I still love making these cute little banners by cutting a Lil' Petal into fourths. 

The next acrylic page has the story of my great-grandmother's laundry basket. I used the lacy looking paper for this because she was a great seamstress and it felt appropriate. :) 

 I have a teasel basket, again from my grandfather's family farm, by my front door that's just perfect for holding shoes, helmets and other outdoor gear. The next wet media page has more mist with the doily mask and the story of my great-grandmother's irons. It's crazy to think that I use for decoration what she used everyday for it's intended purpose! 

 These last two pages have some room left for a few more items I need to document.  I have a few pieces of furniture made by my great-grandfather in my room that's just waiting to be tidied up so I can get a clean shot.  LOL! 

The Traditions line from Carta Bella was just perfect for this album. The colors and patterns work beautifully with the theme of family heirlooms. I'm really glad I made this album, it's important to me that my kids know about their past.

Supplies Used:

Punky Sprouts:  Punk-a-licious, Funky Punky Fiber Pack-Denim, Funky Punky Fiber Pack-Canvas, Lil' Petals-Denim, Lil' Petals-Canvas, Lil Parchment Blossoms

Carta Bella:  Traditions Collection Kit

Lindy's Stamp Gang:  Rudolph' Nose Red, California Poppy Gold, Gator Gumbo Olive, Breakfast Club Blue

Other:  Ink-Ranger

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Last month, my mom and I took part in a tour of six different scrap/stamp stores in Oregon called Passport to Creativity. We had a great time! And, at the last store, we made some adorable embossed bag albums! 

I thought that would make really cute gifts for Audrey's preschool teachers. Her last day was this Tuesday and we just adore the teachers at her school. 

The books are really easy to make. You just emboss three paper bags, poke a hole in the bottom of the lower right corner and thread twine through. Thread the twine through a length of straw and tie at the top. 

Then, all you do is embellish. I used Thanks Flair from Bossy Joscie and some cute resin frames from Webster's pages on the cover. 

The tags that I placed in the bags are from the Happy Days line from Papermania. It's a line out of the UK and I'm crazy about it! Unfortunately, the LSS I found it at only had the 6x6 paper pad. I did find the 12x12 papers and some stamps at HSN though.

I had Audrey draw a picture of herself with her teacher and glued it to one of the tags.

Then I printed out a picture of her from her first day of school and glued it to the last tag.

I added a cute phrase sticker and another Bossy Joscie flair. These grey Polka Heart flair are so stinkin' cute!

The best thing about these is that are very easy to make quickly. Yet, you can still have fun personalizing them.

Here's a look at the embossing I chose for the front of this album.

Oh, and I used washi tape to adhere a movie gift card to the front tag. It took a while to figure out what kind of gift card to get but I think this was a good choice. Who doesn't love the movies?

Here's Audie's pic for this one. She drew Mickey in the picture, too! 

I had to include a couple Studio Calico wood veneer people and another Bossy Joscie flair. 

These albums are a great way to use up odds and ends from other projects. 

Because of the embossing on the bags, you don't need a ton of embellishment. (A tip for embossing the bags, put a piece of scrap paper in the bag before you emboss to keep the bag from tearing.)

Now, I just need to make one more for Mickey's teacher for next month!