PROJECT LIFE: January 2015 + Title Page

HELLO 2015!

The cover of my album includes a newspaper clipping that is adhered to the front.

And so I began using lots of sparkle and shine.  I love how this turned out and want to continue to create more simple pages like this.

Week 1 took up a 2-page spread and my intent is to keep each week on one page.

I incorporated a lot of vellum cards and pages which was a different fun for the week.

 The week of Jan 5th was my hardest week...and saddest of the year so far.
After 7 years, I had to make the choice to put my lil guy Barkley to sleep.  He had a sack of fluid around his heart and no operation was feasible for him.

 So I grieved by dedicating several pages to him including the last photos I took with him.

TEARS!! but so many good memories of Barkley.

While cleaning up the house, I decided to cut up his favorite toys & clothes and put them into a panaromic spread.  He was such a jumpy fellow, I love the photo of just his feet in the air. Some items included a little circle cutout with notes about that toy.

And then more photos of the past I had with him with stickers and embellishments.

Man I miss that guy!!!

TAKE 10 CREATIVE TEAM: I'm In!!

YIPPEEE!!!

What could be a more wonderful way to start off 2015, then to be selected as part of The Studio 29 Designs' Take 10 Creative Team.  It is a pure joy so far working with these fabulous women.  Each person has their own AWESOME style.  And it's so fun to see the creations and inspirations come to fruition.  Not to mention, I completely love getting surprising Happy Mail and doing pocket scrapbooking/Project Life. 

 

Make sure to check in tomorrow for my first SNEAK PEAK here and go check out my profile* on the site as well.

 

(*note it was completed prior to my lil guy, Barkley, passing away.)

UNSCRIPTED SKETCHES DESIGN TEAM

I MADE THE CUT!!

And couldn't be HAPPIER :)

Check out their website for weekly Project Life inspiration!!!

Unscripted Sketches

RUBBERMOON: Shrinky Dinks

Oh, to be a child again!

Oh Wait, you don't need to be a child to still enjoy the fun of Shrinky Dinks!!

Not knowing how everything will turn out, I wanted to play around with this oldie but goodie.

In 3 (okay maybe 4) Simple Steps, I made several embellishmnets to use for future projects.

STAMP

It's a bit hard to see the stamps on the clear Shrinky Dinks.

I used a variety of stamps including my favorites from RubberMoon:

Sunny Carvalho and Mindy Lacefield collection

Staz-On and Archival inks worked best as they did not smudge. 

Brilliance was used on the black sheet, I just had to let it dry longer.

  I did have to sand down this brand, but love how the ink pops by itself.

COLOR & CUT

Coloring a few with Prismacolor pencils, but also leaving some just simply stamped.

SHRINK

And just like in my childhood, I still got giddy anticipating the results and

watching the pieces curl up and shrink and flatten back out.

The theory of using a brown bag under to remove the shrinky dinks didn't work so well.

 It was better to just stick with the cookie sheet alone.

Many curled up and stayed curled. 

When trying to flatten...I broke the bunny's ears. Poor Frolic :(

But hey....just like in childhood...Glue will fix it :)

I love the colors on the black, but one thing to remember is the colors don't show through the opposite side as with the clear sheets.  Hence the rougher texture. 

Completely adore how all these turned out.

You may not be able to tell, but they are vibrant.  

(The sun has gone down so lighting isn't the greatest. Apologies. )

It's hard to tell how small some of these are. I adore the lil' scully. And the lime green dog.

ADORE. 

Both of those stamps and many others can be found at RubberMoon 

 

These gals would make great jewelry pieces.

Just remember to punch holes before shrinking...(.which I didn't.).

 

And then the rest of the batch.

 

I made the beach themed ones for an upcoming trip. (Is it June, yet?!?)

I plan to use them in my Project Life album in various pockets. 

Again, the sizing is hard to photograph, but it shrinks about 40% from the original.

 So...what are you waiting for....

 

Grab some stamps!

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Create a childhood favorite!

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And a memory to last forever!

(unless you flatten it after shrinking :)

PROJECT LIFE: February 2014

And February 2014 is in the (Project Life) books.

Starting with the cover page, I used some embroidery, bows, rub-ons, overlays, and wooden embellishments.

My goal each month was to take a picture of me and CJ for the cover page, but the beginning of February didn't happen.  So I settled for a female & male figurine cut-out (one of my last purchases before Archiver's closed....still a little upset about that..can ya tell)

More overlays this weekend which was full of work and the SuperBowl.  Special elements included: a vintage letter 'A' from Donna Downey Studios and sequins sewn into a pocket.

Hello LIFE's little goodness...baby cousins, wooden spools, One Little Word décor, no cavities, Olympics start, shopping, babysitting, and my new fast food love Popeye's.

My dentist is retiring which totally sucks, but he was nice enough to refer his patients to a neighboring dentist in the office across the hall.  Hope she is as great as he was.

Gotta love silly faces & Chuck E. Cheese on the weekend.

(doodling during a work meeting to stay awake...SHHHH ..don't tell anyone)

However, it is proven doodling keeps your mind active and more attentive.  And YES, I heard every word in the meeting :)

And then it rained, and snowed, and rained and snowed, and snowed, and snowed.

Thanks Storm PAX.

Unfortunately, this was also a week to say farewell to a great artist MaryAnn.  I had the pleasure of being her Happy Mail partner in 2013.  She was loved by many, but damn cancer took her life.

Also had fun seeing pictures of my nephews first birthday party

 and enjoying a day of love (=heart sequins)

Plus dined at my favorite sushi place Cow Fish Sushi.

YUM YUM YUM

I found some cute pull tab embellishments from the dollar store.

Ironically, I found places to use all of them this month.

Enjoyed some yummy dessert at Cow Fish as well.  Plus displayed some Valentine's items including a text from CJ since we weren't together for the day.  Also, the gifts I made which were LOVED by the recipients. 

Lots of randomness this week.  I did cut off the bottom cards as I want to keep those personal to me, but lots of mail received.

The month's ThrowBackThursdays were all past birthdays of mine involving cake :)

Signed up for Danielle Donaldson's workshop.....and I can't wait for it to start.  Come on April 15th!!

And finally HELLO 37...it's Birthday Week.

After a rough Monday...the rest of the week was so fun and celebratory.

nails, cupcakes, food, ice cream, gifts, art, oldie but goodie treasures 

For right now, cards are in a plain page protector with a sheer sticker on top.  I plan to do something more but haven't decided.  Honestly, the one product I was going to use from Project Life was the large envelopes.  However, they were constantly getting stuck on the binder clasps and pulling out pages....so this was my Plan B.

On my birthday, I played with my Instamax Camera...Love It. 

I included wrapping paper for this week as well.

And here is another pull tab card. So cute...

My friend Melissa took me out for my birthday and celebrated in the fun...then I came home to a box of lots of artsy goodness from Teresa including this brush scripted drawing card and "Cherish" card below. (I opened my family's gifts at 12AM of my birthday...and they all were thoughtful and wonderful items) I truly feel so much love on my birthday and moreso as the years go by.

The last page was various happenings but lots of filler cards.

Lots of extra pages this month, but it was my birthday month & it snowed.  What can I say!

 

The last insert of the month was from tournaments the basketball teams won from my Rec Center.

 

Now to get started on March.  I realized I work about a month behind which is fine by me.  I need to lessen the embellishments for March and April as my 1st album is quite packed as it is.