Author Archives: Heather

Jul6

Project Life Round Up

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Heather

Believe it or not, I did not abandon my Project Life album for the year. That’s not to say I’m not behind, though.

July through December is completely done, with photos, journaling, and a tiny bit of embellishing, as well as a few bits of memorabilia thrown in.

How about the rest of the year? Let’s see:

Sunday I got the photos I had on hand arranged and in the album, along with the cards and papers chosen to fill in the rest of the spaces. That takes me up to the middle of April.

Monday I worked on journaling and adding memorabilia.

Tuesday was all about adding finishing touches, and choosing the photos for the rest of the year.

Wednesday and Thursday I began again, arranging photos, and adding papers to the blank spots.

Friday was back to journaling. Sometimes this is the longest and hardest part of doing Project Life.

Saturday was for finishing touches.

Sunday, I showed it to the boys, and asked them if I should do another album for next year. Since I got lots of “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” and no really big interest in looking at it, I don’t feel the need to do this again next year.

I’m glad I have this, and I will be doing PL again, but I’m taking a break from this style of scrapbooking for awhile. It’s entirely too time consuming for me, and it doesn’t feel like playtime at all.

Who’s still doing Project Life? What’s your favorite part about it?

Who’s given up? Don’t feel guilty, it’s totally okay if you have. Goodness knows the only reason I didn’t quit this year was because I’m too stubborn for my own good.

Jun29

Summer Album Share

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Heather

Summer Album Share

Last week, we talked about Amy Tangerine’s Daybooks, and how much fun they are. Want to see one in action? I used one to document our first summer after we moved.

The outside had a fun acetate overlay, and clouds printed on it. I added the labels, and made a sun by cutting two circles out of contrasting colors, laying them on top of each other, and cutting them into wedges. Made it easy to create a quilt-look, and I can make another sun out of the left over pieces! I wonder if I still have the pieces… 😉

Before I even started using the interior pages, I decided to add even more to the book, and glued a paper bag onto the front cover. The card for the pocket it made was made of a scrap piece of printed acetate. For any patterned papers that I didn’t particularly like, there were only a handful, I covered up most of them with a piece of paper, a photo, or a journaling card.

Photos didn’t have to fit exactly on a page, but if they extended past the end of a page, I made sure the photo or paper on the back covered the exposed back. I used a lot of washi tape, and scrap paper, as well as a set of die cuts from the same Amy Tangerine line.

My creative goal for this album was to have fun, and put together an eclectic and messy, yet still visually approachable book. Most of the photos used started as 4x6s, and were trimmed or cut to fit the space. One of my favorite things to do in the album was to have a photo lay across the gutter.

One of the coolest thing about the Amy Tangerine daybook, is the wide variety of paper shapes, colors, and textures. There was even an envelope that made a handy place to store vacation memorabilia.

This was so much fun to put together! Hopefully the kids will be willing to pose for some pictures this year. They’re getting old and crotchety. I’m raising little old men!

Looking at this right now, I’m debating on whether I’ll use the daybook I’ve chosen, which is a spiral bound, or switch to one of the sewn ones I have. I really did love being able to bridge the gutter, but I like the idea of a spiral bound better right now. I’ll let you know what I decide.

How are you going to document your summer? If you want to join me with a Daybook summer album, you can find some on Amazon:

Jun22

Documenting My Summer

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Heather

Documenting My Summer

In order to document my summer, I need a plan. Something small, easily carried, and visually inspiring. Luckily I have a stash that will help me do this.

Are you all familiar with Amy Tangerine’s little mini-albums? I think she called them daybooks. (Check some of them out on Amazon.) Way back when, when there was a local scrapbook store here, they carried many of her mini albums, and I stocked up on them.

I used one to make an album about the summer of 2012, and now it’s time to use one for this summer.

A peek at a few of the pages:

The product packaging for this album consisted of a heavy cardstock actually on the spiral spine, so rather than cutting it off, I cut the hang strip off the top, and covered the product description on the back with the first piece of scrap paper I found that was big enough to cover it.

The plan for this is to use only papers from my scrap bin, project life cards, and whatever embellishments are lying around handy. I’ll print small pics at home, and bug my kids to add their two cents in occasionally.

The point is to make this as free-flowing and unconstrained as possible. we’ll see how that turns out. 😉

Apparently I’ve never shared the previous daybook, so I’ll share that with you all next week. It’s one of my favorite albums ever.

Go make something! I’m going to go play too!

Jun15

Summer Want-To-Do List

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Heather

Summer Want-To-Do List

One of the reasons I’m looking forward to summer vacation is because I’ll have time to do what I want to do. That doesn’t mean two months of sleeping in and ignoring the kids at dinner time, (seriously they really need to be fed every day?) but rather two months of self-directed productivity.

All my time at home this past year was spent in preparing for class, correcting and grades, and when it got overwhelming, binge reading all sorts of books and binge watching movies and tv. Thank goodness my husband cooks, or the kids would have been eating chicken nuggets and fish sticks half the year.

So what do I want to do this summer?

Well there’s the crafty things like finishing my current Project Life album, and doing a summer fun album, and creating a book of life album about my grandmother.

There’re the writing things, like finishing and publishing my book about using sketches, and finishing my children’s book, and finding the cash to pay an illustrator for another children’s book I’ve finished.

If I’m teaching next year, the jury’s still out on that one, I’ll want to do a tiny bit of prep every day, to make next year much more pleasant.

There are the little trips we’ve got planned this year–visiting an aquarium with my youngest, hiking with my oldest, and spending some quality time with my sister.

Then there are the just plain fun things that could make or break the summer. Things like getting the kids outside more, teaching my youngest to ride his bike, going to the beach, watching lots of movies, reading lots of books, star gazing, and last but not least, hanging with my friends.

That sounds like a pretty good summer to me, how about you?

This is the current state of my Project Life album, messy desk and all.

Jun10

Summer’s Almost Here!

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Heather

Summer’s Almost Here!

I really look forward to summer every year, but this year? I’m practically jumping up and down as it gets closer and closer. At last, I have no more preparations to do for class, and only a few papers to correct before I can get started on grades. I’m proctoring 2 regents (the big NYS standardized subject tests) and reading one more to a student. The last thing on the list for teaching this year is to attend the graduation ceremony. That’s totally do-able.

The kids are close to done as well. My high schooler is done with classes on Monday, and his last regents exams are on Friday of next week. My youngest has a week and a half of school left, so there’s only a handful more lunches I need to pack for the rest of the year. And my exchange student is heading home next week as well. It’s going to be quiet around here without him.

The thing I’m looking forward to most? No 6am alarms.

For those of you with kids, has your summer vacation started yet? For those of you not still wrapped up in the school schedule, what are you planning for summer fun? What are you all going to be doing crafty-wise? I’m going to take advantage of no school today and come up with some ideas for things I want to do over the summer. I’ll probably even bug the kids to make a wish list/summer bucket list.

Look out summer, here we come!

(If you’re curious, it’s a digi page, all supplies are from Traci Reed’s Are We Done Yet kit available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.)

NoExcuseScrapbooking.com

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Author Archives: Heather

Project Life Round Up

Summer Album Share

Documenting My Summer

Summer Want-To-Do List

Summer’s Almost Here!

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