Project Life Week 3

Here is week 3 for Project Life. Hopefully the pictures are glare free this week.

My week runs Sunday through Saturday. I notice you can see my pink fuzzy slippers in this shot. Hey, I live a classy life **snort**.

The highlight of this week, definitely my youngest making the Honor Roll. He struggles some with school, so this was a HUGE accomplishment for him. Sunday's picture includes Pastor leading bible class in the Fellowship hall. I included the study sheet for the lesson.

We had our first winter storm and snow days. The boys don't enjoy them as much as they use to because now they are old enough to shovel. BUMMER! I included screen shots of the weather forecast/Winter Storm warning from the Wunderground  weather website. The boys were looking like wildthings so haircuts were in order. I added the appointment reminder card.  That's it for week 3. I just uploaded week 4 to the Walmart website so I should get my photos later this week.

Project Life

I am doing Project Life this year. I attempted the project back in 2010, but failed miserably. I got to April, and gave up. This year I'm determined to document my family's daily life. Instead of taking a photo daily (this is what put me over the edge 2 years ago), I'm concentrating on taking random photos throughout the week. I may take 3 pictures, I may take 15. I'm also making an effort to collect daily ephemera to include in the weekly spreads; things such as receipts for gas, fast food receipts, emails, church bulletins, ticket stubs etc.
I've completed the title page and first 2 weeks so far. I'm always a week behind due to uploading my photos online and picking them up at Walmart. I'm not printing my pictures at home due to 1. a crappy printer and 2. I'm too cheap to use all that printer ink and photo paper.
Here is the title page:

Please forgive the poor picture quality. I have no clue how to photograph the layouts without getting that nasty reflection. I need to get a good photo of Mike to place in his slot. I love using my Cameo machine to cut out all kinds of fun shapes and captions.

Here is week #1:







I strongly dislike my handwriting. It's messy and unsightly, but it is the easiest and fastest way to get the journaling accomplished. I also hope my family looks back and can appreciate the handwritten pieces. My most prized possessions are my grandmother's handwritten recipes. This week, I have a regular  8 1/2 x 11 page protector between the layout pages that I used to hold Thomas' basketball program and my department meeting agenda.

Here is week #2

Again, sorry for the glare. I must work on my photography skills! Ephemera this week includes  snack packaging and a shopping list. I'm making a point of photographing the routine, mundane happenenings, like laundry, dishes, snacks etc. I plan on taking a photo of our home during all four seasons. I also plan on photos of vehicles, cell phones (those change quickly!), clothing, meals/recipes, family pet, and home decor.

Here's to 52 weeks of everyday life photos and journaling!

Simon Says Challenge

This week's challenge theme on the Simon says challenge Blog is Thanksgiving/Thank You. I needed to send my dear friend, Ruby a Thanksgiving card, so I decided to enter this challenge for the first time. I used two Hero Arts stamps for the background and utilized the kissing technique. I pulled out my brand new Perfect Pearls and incorporated them onto the stamped trio of images. I did learn when using Perfect Pearls to IMMEDIATELY set the images with a misting of water. I did not do this right away and had a few smudges on  my images. I love the shiny goodness the PP gave my stamped images. A button and twine would have been a great finishing touch on the sentiment banner, but I had to keep this fairly flat for mailing purposes.

Please excuse the poor photography, not my strong suit! Thanks for looking.
Stamps: Hero Arts-Woodgrain, Large Fabric Design, PTI-Take Three Fall, Fall Elegance
Paper:PTI Fine Linen
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink-Wild Honey, Gathered Twigs, Versamark, Memento-Rich Cocoa
Other: Perfect Pearls, square punch, corner rounder, PTI Woodgrain impression plate

Get Well Tag

A coworker was hit by a car last weekend so I made her a quick get well tag......

I took the picture in my car using my phone. Stamp set is by Lawn Fawn. Background stamp is Hero Arts. I colored the image with copic markers.

Mini Album for a Friend

I can finally post the pictures of the mini album I made for friend, amy. It was her birthday this past Wednesday, so I had to wait to post the pics! I used THIS pattern from Laura Denison. I used the Splash collection by Echo Park for this mini.

Stamp-a-Faire Challenge #10

Here is Challenge #10-So, your last challenge is to add a stamped focal point over a stamped background, all in the same layer! There is really a lot of opportunity here for some fun mixing and matching!

I needed a stash of sympathy cards. They needed to be simple and flat for mailing ease.
Paper: PTI-Vintage Cream
Stamps: PTI-Leaf Prints, YOF Carnations, Hero Arts-Envelope Pattern
Ink: Memento-New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves, Rich Cocoa, PTI-Chai

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop

Welcome to Papertrey Ink's July blog hop. This month we were given a picture as inspiration for our July cards.

I've been staring at this photo for weeks. The more I looked at it, the more I fell in love with EVERYTHING about it. I love the bright, bold colors and especially the contrast between the colors. I love the mixture of patterns and the geometrical vibe with the panels in the bench and window.

I adore the flower and butterfly pillows. And that quilt! Oh, how I love that quilt. I'm a sucker for anything quilty. As much as I adore this picture nothing was jumping out at me. I couldn't pinpoint one thing that stood out. I finally took a cue from the panels on the bench and window panes. I decided to make little panels depicting all the elements I love in this photo. I ended up using only three of the panels, my favorites. I also incorporated all the lovely colors into my card, not my usual go to colors. I used the circle punch idea from one of Nichol's challenges yesterday to showcase the sentiment panel and ribbon. This is such a fun technique, and so simple! I also utilized a technique from Jennifer McGuire called "fingerinking". I used watered down distress inks to fingerpaint(tap) the colors onto the sentiment tag. I put a bit of Perfect Pearls into one of the colors to add some shimmer.

As always, click on the picture for a larger view. Here are the details:
Paper: PTI-White, Aqua Mist, Melon Berry, Ripe Avacado, Hawaiian Shores,Green Boutique, Hobby Lobby-glitter paper
Stamps: PTI-Embellishments, Year of Flowers Collection, My Minds Eye-Gerdie "Girly" stamps
Ink: Ranger Distress inks-Old Paper, Tumbled Glass, Dried Marigold, Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, Memento-Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, PTI-Chai
Other: Hobby Lobby-white ribbon, circle and square punches, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Provo Craft-embossing folder and label die, Copics(R02,R05,BG11,YG93)