Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Good Bye - Dear Great Auntie

My Great Aunt passed away early Monday morning.  She was a loving aunt to 5 nieces and nephews, 6 great nieces & nephews & 3 great-greats.  While the end was not unexpected and she was blessed with a full and long life, we are all still very sad. 

I have wonderful memories of her and playing with a set of three brown and gold pitchers when we'd visit.  I will always associate fruit cocktail with her and my other Great Aunt, collectively they were know as "The Aunts".  The sisters spent many years living together, each other's constant companion.  I think we are all more than a little concerned about how my remaining Great Aunt will carry on.  But for now, we are taking a moment to reflect upon, remember, and celebrate with love our Aunt, who up until now was a constant presence in all our lives.

I will be offline for a majority of the remainder of the week  Between this and Brad being off on one of his rare business trips I'll have my hands full.  I will check in periodically but if it takes longer than usual to get a response, I hope you will understand the delay.

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Monday, January 14, 2013

Project Life: November 2012

Since I am several weeks behind in sharing my Project Life pages from the end of 2012 I decided to speed things up a bit and do all of November in one go.  Hope you like this accelerated version of share time!
November 4-10, 2012

After taking so many pictures throughout October I think I needed a photography break!  The first week in Nov. is mainly devoted to a family literacy night for first graders held at our school.  The other half has pictures of ER in the dresses I ordered from my friend Steph at Sew Fierce.  Continue to just love, love, love them and got so many compliments on ER's Christmas dress.  We plan to order another version in non holiday fabric, ER likes it so much.  It's very comfy and easy for her to get on and off, also looks great without the sash.

The big world event was, of course, the re-election of President Obama.  To commemorate it, I used the President's official picture (available at the White House website), a campaign graphic I really liked, and the picture of him hugging Mrs. Obama during one of the campaign stops that went viral - it was all over the place.  I put some journaling about the election where the blank card is.  Because politics can be such a contentious subject I opted to keep this private.
November 11-17th, 2012

This was the week I got my Clementine Core Kit, the first paper official Project Life kit I've gotten.  I was so excited to get the actual physical kit.  For a die hard paper junkie like me the digital version (which I had used previously) just never is going to cut it.  I was so happy to get my box of goodies I went back and changed out a couple journaling cards from the past couple weeks for ones from the kit.  I used my favorite colorful "Live Out Loud" filler card and based the rest of the page around it.

This week is filled with some pretty normal details of life: trying a new art kit on the weekend, Daddy vacumming while LB runs to "hide" behind the couch - peeking out from time to time, blog reviews, finally finding some leg warmers for ER, and more bruises on LB - something that's become all to regular and that we wish wasn't.

The second half of the week is in a page protector from We Are Memory Keepers (WRMK), from their system called Albums Made Easy, the collection you can find at Target in their scrapbook aisle.  It's really cute, double sided, and expensive.  See some of it in this YouTube video, I have most of the same stuff.  You'll see more of it later on in this post. 

All right, back to the second half of the spread. It's mainly about the Holiday Tag Making Party I hosted for some neighbors.  I created a collage of the party set up details and then used a "My Story" 6X6 journal card from the WRMK pads shown in the video I linked above.  The 6X6 pads are also great for Design E.   Along the bottom are some pictures of the finished tags my friends made, a journaling card, and then a 3X4 mini photo collage of the Art Night held at my daughter's school attached to a journaling card with some washi tape.

The two 4X6 journaling cards I used this week are from Celeste Knight: Bright Basics - Journalers 2, I added a few Days of the Week elements from the digital Clementine kit but otherwise left them alone except for my date and text.  The quote filler card was a freebie I got from Erin Kay Studios, when she was still designing under the name Secret Stash. 
November 18-24, 2012

I used more of the 6X6 journaling pad from WRMK I got at Target to record what we are thankful for on.  ER wrote directly on them, the lines are perfectly sized for her.  It's such a nice way to incorporate her into Project Life.  You can see half of a 4X6 journaling card underneath the picture of E with Grandma on Thanksgiving.  The little Thankful flag on the group picture is actually trimmed from the bottom of Bella Blvd 12X12 sheet of paper.  Far too cute to just toss.  After Thanksgiving, ER went to spend a couple of nights at Grandma Norma's, where they did a lot of fun stuff like making chocolate suckers and decorating the tree.
On the back of the insert are some pictures of the family at a BBQ restaurant we've been wanting to try.  My parents and brother had been to another location but it was the first time for me, Brad, and the kids.  It was pretty good, although I'd skip the baked beans and go for the corn bread, tortilla soup, or potato salad as sides next time.

The dinner was for my Dad's birthday and the rest of the page has pictures from cake and opening presents.  This page protector is another one from the multi-pack by WRMK from Target.  I used some of the 2X4 journaling cards down the side.  I added some more details on the flag card at the top after photographing.  The birthday stickers are very old Die Cuts with a View.
November 25 - December 1

The 2X4 journaling cards I used for my Dad's birthday are double sided and I picked them out, knowing I wanted them to work with the next week as well.  I used them to journal about that week's Daisy Scout Meeting, watching the first holiday TV special of the season, and LB playing the drum set we got for review from Goblin Kids.  At the top left corner is E holding another lost tooth, that actually happened at the end of the week but it fit best in that slot.  I added a couple details about the tooth coming out in the space above.
The 5X7 insert holds a picture from the Sears portrait session we had that week.  We took ER several times to Sears for pictures when she was little and I felt like I should have some of LB too.  What a mistake!  It took hours and the studio moved so so so slowly.  I didn't really love any of the pictures we got but picked some out so it wasn't a complete wash.  I had a Groupon that was about to expire for the portrait package or I would've just walked away.

It was our second attempt at getting some pictures of LB.  What a nightmare.  He absolutely refused to sit for the photographer. Threw a giant, loud, and prolonged tantrum the first time I tried taking him one morning by myself.  I had to reschedule and decided to bring the whole family as back up.  Plus this way if things went downhill we could at least get some of ER by herself.  It wasn't what I planned for but we ended up with several good ones of her, a pasable family picture, and only one of LB by himself. 

The bottom third of the page has my favorite pictures of ER taken for the fascinator review.  She looks like such a little lady and so grown up in them!  We took those on the same day she worked on a Christmas card for the upcoming service project her Daisy troop was working on with Meals on Wheels.  I want her to remember how important it is to do good deeds for others and since we were giving the card away to a home bound senior along with an ornament "tray favor" I took a picture of it to remember what we did.

That takes us through November, only one month left in 2012 to share!  I'm 90% done with my December pages, but I'm not sure I'll get to photographing and editing them all for next week.  I may just jump into 2013 with my beginning of January pages and share December when I can.  Thanks for coming by and seeing how Project Life has been going! 

If you've got pages to share with me, leave me a comment and I'll be sure to come by!  I'll be sharing these with Jessica at The Mom Creative.

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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Coupon Code & DIY Valentine's Day Cards from Martha Stewart Crafts

Valentine's Day is only a month away!  It's time to get crackin' and whip up some handmade cards.  I always think these are the best way to let your sweetheart and favorite people know how much you're thinking of them.  To make your cards very special and personal I've got some ways to help you unleash your inner cupid that are as easy as 1-2-3 when you've got help from Martha Stewart Crafts!
{1} To express your heart’s desire, start with the utterly charming Martha Stewart Crafts “Stamp Card and Envelope Set” – it includes 18 scalloped edge note cards and matching envelopes with heart-accented labels so you can share your love with everyone you wish.

These cute itty bitty cards are just 3.275in x 2.275in, with envelopes that are 3.4in x 2.5 in, making them perfect for class Valentines.  I love the peek-a-boo envelopes and sweet details!  I actually got a card made by my friend Jennifer Wilson from Simple Scrapper last year.  It was so cute I've kept it!
{2} Add your personal stamp with the “Wood Stamp Valentine’s Day Hearts” set of 12 mini stamps nestled in a reusable wood crate.  

These are just darling and sized perfectly for the card and envelope set.  Their small size makes them perfect for little hands and easy to store.  My favorite one has the teeny tiny hearts on it, those would look great and really stand out with when stamped and embossed.   This set of Pastel Embossing Powders would work perfectly.
{3} Seal with a kiss…and with “Valentine Cupid” and “Valentine Cupcake” stickers. Yummy confections, cherub silhouettes, hearts and more Valentine icons shine with glitter and foil accents. 

These cupid themed stickers feature iconic symbols of the holiday and any leftover pieces would look great on scrapbook pages and on your Project Life pages.  Their size is perfect for adding onto your 3X4 journaling cards or to create your own decorative filler cards.  Plus arrows are really on trend for all things scrappy.

Coupon Code

To make things even sweeter, you can save 20% at MarthaStewartCrafts.com now through Valentine’s Day! Just enter coupon code BLOG20 at checkout.
I bought this Heart Stamp and Ink Set last year.  It was a great price for a set of stamps and inks! I'm planning to use it to get started on my cards soon.  I love clear stamps because I'm not the best stamper and it's a whole lot easier to position everything perfectly with them.  I use it with the Small Stamp Mount with Foam, which is also very helpful for beginner stampers.  It helps me get the right amount of pressure for perfect results.

How about you?  What type of crafty fun are you planning to pick up?  What are you planning on creating for Valentine's Day?

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Disclosure: Information and images provided by Martha Stewart Crafts,  no samples or compensation were provided...I'm just a paper crafting junkie and excited to share some of my favorite things with you!
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