A Vegas Girl at Heart

Project Life Idea

2012-02-29T15:51:00.001-05:00

Caroline over at Scrap and Slice has a fantastic idea for embellishing Project Life journaling cards using the Making Memories Slice machine.

As a proud Slice owner, I am so excited to try this out myself! :)

Click here to go to Caroline's post.

Austin's First Birthday - Inspiration

2012-02-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

I realized last week that it is now under 4 weeks away to Austin's first birthday party. While I don't really have any specific theme, I do want to make the party decorations something to remember. I plan to DIY most everything, except the typical plastic silverware and paper plates. So, I've been furiously searching Pinterest and Google for inspiration.

Birthday Party Centerpiece by Jen Jockisch
Birthday Party Garland found on My Bride Story
Birthday Mantel Decoration from eighteen25 (can't find actual post)
High Chair Cake Banner found on Half Baked
Birthday Cupcakes (Love the Flags!)
First Birthday Hat by Dainty Couture
Happy Birthday Banner from The TomKat Studio
Favor Box from Paper Cookies

Austin is 11 Months Old!

2012-02-28T21:24:00.001-05:00

Project Life 2012 - Week Eight

2012-02-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday, Week Eight.

It felt really, really good to take last week off from blogging. I spent a little more time with my family, a little more time crafting, and less time worrying about what to post and when. I expect to take more weeks off in the future, but I am excited to get back with some new stuff.

Anyway, here is last week's full layout:

It's funny, because Lindsay was over as I was pulling this together, and the whole time I kept telling her how much I was hating it. But now that it is complete and in my album with all my other weeks, I'm starting to dig it.

Here are the closeups:

This week I used a bunch of little embellishments from a Heidi Grace Designs punch paper pack I picked up months ago at Tuesday Morning. (Only $2.99 and I've gotten SO much out of it already!). The "life" tag on the title card, the "friends" tag on the cat picture, and the bunting flags tag were all from this set.

A couple of highlights:

I used a title card from the Clementine kit, but cut the months strip from an Amber card.

On this 4x6 journal card, I attached two pictures that I took from working on stuff for Austin's birthday party.

I used some of the Clementine paper with an Instagram photo of the cookies Brad made last week. The tag is from K&Company's Wild Saffron Die-Cut Tags pack.

I wanted to note a few things that are working for me with Project Life this year.

Printing my photos at Wallgreens. They're ready within the hour, and since Wallgreens is right down the street it's an easy pickup. Prints are 19 cents each, with no minimum (CVS charges $1.50 under $5). I upload my pictures either Saturday night or Sunday morning, and have them by Sunday afternoon so I can do my layouts.
Setting aside Sunday evenings specifically to work on my layouts, and then photographing them Monday during the daytime (to get the natural lighting). I pull my post together Monday evening.
Using these printable templates from Marcy Penner. It makes it easy to note which photos I want to use where when deciding which to send to Wallgreens for printing.
Using OhLife to record very quick notes about what occurred each day. I just am not someone who can do my journaling during the week, so it is helpful to pull up OhLife on Sunday evenings and do all my journaling at once.
Mixing the kits. I am finding myself a little bored with the Amber kit. While pretty, the colors are often just not what I'm looking for. Mixing the Clementine and Amber kits make me much happier.
Using my iPhone and Instagram. I don't carry my DSLR with me all the time, and while I did just put my point and shoot into my purse as a backup, I usually just pull out my iPhone to snap a quick pic of an event or moment during the week. I use Instagram often to edit them, because as we all know, cell phone photos are generally crappy quality, and grainy, especially when shooting indoors. Instagram takes that crappy photo and makes it artsy enough that it looks nice in the Project Life layouts. At least, it makes me ok with only having cell phone photos and not as many nice DSLR ones :)

That's all for this week. Make sure you stop by The Mom Creative and check out everyone else's layouts!

Project Life 2012 - Week Seven

2012-02-20T20:14:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Project Life Week Seven. This week I had a lot of Instagram photos that I wanted to incorporate.

Here is the full layout:

And a closeup of each page:

For my Instagram photos, I made an insert with a 6x12 page protector. I just attached all 8 photos to a piece of light green card stock that coordinated with the Amber kit colors.

I did a couple of fun things this week. First is a title card, inspired by this one I spotted last week on Pinterest.

And then I added a little embellishment to the photo of Austin and Sadie. Note that I attached this on top of the page protector, instead of directly on the photo. I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to keep it, so I thought I'd better not risk ruining the photo.

There you go! Please remember to stop by The Mom Creative on Tuesday and check out everyone else's layouts.

See you next week!

Taking a Break...

2012-02-20T19:27:00.003-05:00

I had a couple of scheduled posts that I've gone ahead and published. I will be posting my Project Life layout tonight, and then I'm going to take a little break from the Blogger world for the rest of this week. This means, no freebie this Friday. I will, however, be back with freebies next week.

Today's events have gotten me down and I feel I need to take a little break and re-focus. At this time in my life, I'm already in therapy for my anxiety and stress, and being so focused on today's issue can only hurt my progress.

So, enjoy my Project Life layout for the week (coming shortly), and enjoy the cards I've just posted, and I'll be back next week. :)

Just a little reminder for myself...

2012-02-20T19:24:00.001-05:00

Enjoy Sign | Slice of Style

Latte Love Series #3

2012-02-20T19:24:00.000-05:00

Click here to view on Etsy

Supplies used:

Fiskars Latte Love clear stamp set
VersaFine Onyx Black ink
Kraft card stock, white card stock
Gelly Roll Clear Star glitter pen
Copic markers #s C-3, C-5, V12, E47
Foam adhesive

Latte Love Series #2

2012-02-20T19:23:00.000-05:00

Click here to view on Etsy

Supplies used:

Fiskars Latte Love clear stamp set
VersaFine Onyx Black ink
Kraft card stock, white card stock
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder
Copic markers #s C-3, BG15, BG23, R32, E33, E35
Foam adhesive, permanent runner adhesive

Latte Love Series #1

2012-02-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Supplies used:

Fiskars Latte Love clear stamp set
VersaFine Onyx Black ink, Studio g chalk ink (silver)
Kraft card stock, white card stock, patterned paper
EK Success Scallop Diamond Edger Punch
Copic markers #s C-1, C-3, E35, R29
Foam adhesive, permanent runner adhesive

Inspiration for this card came from this design by Jen del Muro

Edit: I note that a lot of traffic is coming from a Pin of this card by the original artist on Pinterest. Please note that this card is NOT being resold, and after consulting a friend in copyright infringement, this does not qualify. However, because the artist contacted me privately asking for it to be removed from Etsy, I have done so.

On a personal note, I meant nothing malicious by using this card as inspiration for my own, with my own stamps, my own supplies, all of which are quite different from the original card. Every card maker out there sees inspiration all over the place, be it on Pinterest, on a card sketch blog, or in the Stampin' Up catalog. I saw a card I loved on Pinterest and tried to make my own version. The only reason it was up on Etsy is because I try to make a couple of bucks back on my work so that I can keep creating. My Etsy shop is not profitable. I'm lucky to bring in $20 a month from it. However this entire incident has left a very bad taste in my mouth and is very disheartening. Not only does it make me feel like "why bother" to even create, but it makes me want to close up my shop for good. I create because I enjoy it. If I were Hallmark, intentionally stealing someone's idea just to profit from it, I could see an artist being upset by this. But I'm a mom, with a full time job who just likes to make stuff. It keeps my husband happy if I can sell something I've made, rather than to just keep spending and spending.

While legally I've done nothing wrong here, I don't wish to enter into any kind of legal battle over one greeting card, so I've taken down the Etsy listing and noted the inspiration card in my blog. If you're coming here from Pinterest, Splitcoast, or, apparently, Facebook, please note that I meant no harm. However in light of the comment on the Pin by the artist and other things I've been told today, I felt a statement on this issue was necessary.

Sorry, one more thing, regarding my own copyright mark. If anyone finds something on this blog and wants to use it as inspiration, they are very welcome. The only reason I have a copyright mark on my photo, is to prevent someone from using the photo somewhere and claiming it as theirs/their work. I am not copyrighting the designs. I did the work, and took the photo. But definitely, anything I make, I'm sharing it specifically because I want people to find it, love it, and use it.

Review: Ristorante Pizza

2012-02-19T10:42:00.002-05:00

This past week I got a chance to try two types of Ristorante Frozen Pizza. We picked up the Mozzarella, and the Speciale.

Some pics:

This is after they came out of the oven (they cook directly on the rack, not on the cookie sheets, I just used the cookie sheets for cooling).

Both were quite tasty, and I really enjoyed the thin crust. They were, however, on the small side. The pizzas are more like a typical individual sized pizza, even though there are supposed to be 3 servings in the box. To compare, 2 of us can split a Red Baron pizza (at 19.7 oz) with 3 slices each and that makes a full meal for us. The Ristorante pizzas are only 11.5 oz, so we ended up eating a whole pizza each (we split them, half and half) as a meal.

Here's a photo that hopefully shows the size of the slices.

The Mozzarella could use a little more red sauce, but had sufficient seasoning, tomatoes and spinach. The Speciale had plenty of pepperoni and ham toppings.

I also wasn't really loving how they cooked directly on the oven rack. The instructions say not to use a cookie sheet, but this makes it a little more difficult to get them out of the oven (using a spatula to move them onto your plate or cookie sheet when done) than the pizzas that let you cook right on a cookie sheet. I think an option might be to preheat the oven with the cookie sheet inside, and then cook on that.

I would buy these again if they were on sale or I had a coupon. It is a little hard to justify these over the larger Red Baron pizzas.

Disclosure: I received a product sample, coupon, collateral or other special premium from BzzAgent.

Sally Hansen Celeb City

2012-02-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

Scrappy Saturday: Valentine's Layouts

2012-02-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

Just posting some inspiration for your Valentine's Day layouts. I tried my best to find ones that were less obnoxiously red and pink. :)

scrapbooks etc

Designs by Sharon

Two Peas in a Bucket

Scrapbook.com

9 Recent Pins

2012-02-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

Freebie Friday: My Handwritten Font

2012-02-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

For awhile now I've wanted to turn my handwriting into a font. Really, ever since I found out you could actually DO that. I finally went ahead and created my own font, with yourfonts.com. And now I can share it with all of you as a freebie.

There are also several symbols included in the download:

Click here to download the .ttf file. Instructions for installing the font is here.

Pointers for Point-and-Shoot Cameras

2012-02-15T15:07:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to pass along a post I spotted over at Shrimp Salad Circus with some tips for taking photos with a point-and-shoot camera.

I recently got my DSLR but struggled with loving my photos for years with a point-and-shoot. And, I still plan to keep my P&S as a backup camera in my purse, when I don't want to lug my DSLR around.

This article has some great tips, so click here to check it out!

This week's polish

2012-02-15T09:38:00.002-05:00

Keeping up with painting my nails. Took an Instagram photo of my polish for this week:

The gold is one I've had for years (I keep my polishes until they have gone bad, and this one hasn't), and the sparkles I got up at 5 Below. I need some more fun polishes! I used to have so many when I was a teenager.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T01:00:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to show off the (only) two cards I made this year for Valentine's Day. The holiday totally snuck up on me, so I didn't get the chance to use my new stamps or anything. Oh well, there is always next year.

Anyway, this is the one I made for Brad:

This was made with Stampin' Up's Boatloads of Love set, and my Copic markers. Inspired by this card.

And here's the one I made for my mother:

The Valentine Greetings stamp is from Stampin' Up but I have no idea what set it is from, it came in a big box of stamps as a gift. The flowers are from a set of flower embellishments found at Tuesday Morning, and the button came from a bag of heart button embellishments at Michaels, but a couple of years ago. I used my Creatopia and my Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder on the blue paper. Inspired by a design shown in the Stampin' Up catalog.

Project Life 2012 - Week Six

2012-02-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday, Week Six. This week I kept it (mostly) simple. I didn't really use any embellishments, and opted to just mix the Amber and Clementine journaling cards.

Here's the full layout:

And closeups of each page:

I changed up my title card this week. I used paper from the Clementine paper pack, and cut out the month column and the date spot from the Amber card that was in the slot previously, and layered them with a photo of Whitney Houston, who passed away this week. I don't usually incorporate current events in my layouts, but I do like the idea of this and plan to do it more often in the future.

I also included a photo of one of our favorite new shows this year, Alcatraz. We really love this and look forward to Monday nights and watching it together!

That's it for this week. Gotta run, little miss Sadie is looking for some love! Be sure to stop by The Mom Creative and check out everyone else's layouts!

CoffeeShop Blog Perfect Portrait 2 Action

2012-02-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

This week, Austin got his first two teeth. I snapped a picture of them after his bath a few nights ago, and just couldn't wait to share it. But first, it needed some editing.

I have been following The CoffeeShop Blog for awhile now. Rita is a stay-at-home mom who creates all kinds of totally FREE actions for Photoshop & Photoshop Elements, because she loves to share them!

I downloaded quite a few of her actions (you can actually download ALL of her actions in one easy step with a reasonable donation to her site here, but I just picked the ones I thought I'd use to start with). However I am still really new to editing with things like layer masks, so I hadn't had much of a chance to try any of them.

The picture I took of Austin's teeth, I really wanted to make it pop, so I went ahead and followed Rita's Perfect Portrait 2 tutorial (I do have Perfect Portrait 3 but wanted to start small, LOL) and I am really pleased with the results!

I first color corrected the photo in Photoshop Elements (I do this using "remove color cast" because it's the easiest way for me) and used the spot healing tool to remove a few of the red marks from Austin's face. Then I ran the action. The action has a lot of layers and layer masks. You use a brush to brush on the effects, and adjust the opacity of the layers to your liking. The total time it took me to edit the photo was about 30 minutes, but this is because a) it was my first time really using an action, and b) I had to swap back and forth between the image and Rita's tutorial so that I could learn what each layer did and how to use each one. In the future I'd imagine editing an image with this action would take maybe 10 minutes.

Here is my photo of Austin after using Rita's Perfect Portrait 2 action:

I just love how vibrant the colors are, and how bright his eyes are!

Here is a comparison for you:

It was already a good photo, but the Perfect Portrait 2 action just gave it that extra something to really make it stand out :)

Please check out The CoffeeShop Blog and try out some of her actions!

Freebie Friday: Handwritten Valentine's Day Overlays & Brushes

2012-02-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this week's freebies. In theory, I love them. The issues I'm having are with my hand writing. Other people have mentioned on my blog that they love my hand writing. I, however, kind of hate it. ;) But, they're free, so if you like them, then great!

I've made two handwritten Valentine's Day themed Photoshop brushes (.abr files that work in PS/PSE), and two photo overlays (.png files) using the brushes.

Use them when sharing photos digitally, on your blog, or add them to your photos before printing for Project Life next week.

Here are the brushes in action (on both of these I've lowered the opacity just slightly):

Sadie is essentially a Valentine's Day gift for me, so this fits!

Photo by Jennifer Millian

And here are the overlays in action:

Photo by Jennifer Millian

Here are the download links:

Happy Valentine's Day Brush

I Love You Brush

Happy Valentine's Day Overlay (in both black & white for convenience, but you can also change the colors)

I Love You Overlay (in both black & white for convenience, but you can also change the colors)

Day In The Life

2012-02-09T23:16:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I stayed home with Austin while my mom took a day off, and I decided to use that day to do a Day in the Life. I had intended to post about it but life got in the way. You may remember that I did record some of it in my Project Life layout on week 3. I'd included some of the photos as an insert.

This week Ali Edwards did her Day in the Life, and I thought I'd finally get around to editing and posting my pictures. (Settle in, folks, this is a long photo post). I opted not to narrate and let the photos speak for themselves, except for two things. Yes, I do "make" my bed every morning. It keeps my bedroom looking neat. And Brad came home in the middle of the day from a dentist appointment, which is why his mouth looks all wonky.

Oh, and here's how the cats spent their day:

That was our Day in the Life. Head on over to Ali Edwards blog and check out her day, and others. Oh, and she's got a freebie here that you can use in your own layouts.

Survey!

2012-02-09T11:25:00.000-05:00

The rules:

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are readingthis. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

So here we go ….

1. I can tuck my ears into themselves. Have since I was a baby, and I stilldo it when I’m bored, or when I’m driving (no lie).

2. Not that this is a secret, but I have an anxiety disorder. And, I amINSANELY obsessive. Once I get an idea in my head I can’t let it go.

3. At this moment, if I could pick one place to visit, it would be the SanFrancisco area. I am dying to go to Alcatraz and the Winchester Mansion.

4. Kind of stolen from Shannon – I am addicted to Burts Bees (and ChapStick).If I suddenly realize I’ve forgotten it one day, my lips will actually hurtuntil I get my hands one some.

5. I am scared to be alone in my home. In fact, I’m actually scared to godownstairs in the middle of the night while Brad is asleep upstairs. I amconstantly looking over my shoulder as I walk back up staircases in my house.

6. When I was in school/college, I actually enjoyed taking notes. Onehistory class I had, the professor talked the entire class, and you just had towrite down pretty much everything he said. I think that was my favorite class. JSometimes I wish I could take a college course online now, so that I could takenotes.

7. I knew Brad was the man I was supposed to marry about a week into ourrelationship. 100% certain of this, and I never doubted it, even if it took hima lot longer to get there.

8. I miss Game Nights with Shannon, Bryan, and Adam.

9. I just joined Weight Watchers at work. (Hopefully, we’re still waiting tosee if we have enough people).
Only planning on doing it for 3 months, becauseit will be fully reimbursed by my health insurance. But I’m excited to get somehealthy eating tips from them.

10. Similar to #8, I need more crafting/girl time with Shannon and withLindsay. Ladies, we’ve gotta schedule regular times to get together!

11. I do not plan to have any more children. One baby, and one pregnancy, isplenty for me!

Now, I have to answer Shannon’s questions!

1. What’s your favorite animal at the zoo? White Tigers. And Penguins,though around here that tends to be more of an aquarium type of thing.

2. What is your worst, and best habit? My worst is speaking/reacting beforeI think. I have no idea what my best one would be. I suppose telling Brad andAustin and my mom ‘I love you’ every day. (or in Mom’s case, almost every day).

3. Who are you most like in your family? I suppose my mom. She’s worse thanme, but we both have a little hoarding tendency. We love “stuff.” However, itdoesn’t take over our living spaces. We just like to fill our storage space tothe max. JAlso, we both LOVE containers and pretty boxes. But, there are definitequalities that I hope I never pick up, such as criticizing my child’sparenting.

4. What celebrity do you think you would be actual friends with if they knewyou? The cool people don’t like me, and Shawn Michaels is married and probablywouldn’t be “friends” with me. I’d probably be friends with someone from HGTV.Or maybe Rachel Ray.

5. What kind of class would you like to take? Too funny that this comesafter my random fact above. Probably history. Again, because I love takingnotes. My favorite history class ever was The Holocaust, in high school. We hadan amazing teacher.

6. Would you go on a reality show? If so, which one(s)? Shannon, I can’tbelieve you’d turn down the $5,000 visa gift card. I so want to be on “What Notto Wear.”

7. If you had to change your first name today, what would you change it to?Lexi. Always loved the name Lexi.

8. Do you dance at weddings? Hell yes.

9. What is the worst thing you have ever tasted? Egg Foo Young. Or pickled beets.Both of them are something I will never put into my mouth again.

10.Would you rather go without deodorant for 3 months, or without brushingyour teeth for one week? Without deodorant. I rarely stink, but I can’t evenstand not brushing my teeth for a day.

11. Carebears, or Popples? Oooh, I had a Popple sleeping bag when I waslittle! But I never actually had a Carebear or a Popple. I do think Popples arecuter because they flip inside out, though! So, Popples!

And now, MY questions to my tagees!

1. If you could swap careers without further training or money concerns,what would you do?

2. What is one thing you are constantly struggling with in your life? (Workor personal).

3. If you had $1 million (net after taxes), what would you do with it?

4. If you could only read one blog/website for the rest of your life, whichone would it be? You have to choose ONE. Search engines don’t count, sorryfolks.

5. Describe your dream home. What does it look like? How big is it? Whatspecial features would it have?

6. It’s your last meal before a major fast (for whatever reason). You caneat anything you want. What is it? No judging here, be as unhealthy as youwant!

7. What’s your favorite movie from your childhood?

8. If you were stranded on a deserted island, but you had clothing, electricity,food, and water, what would be the one item you would want with you?

9. What is your favorite thing to do (when not away on a vacation – I meanduring your regular everyday life)?

10. How much would you need to be paid to lick the inside of a garbagetruck?

11. A Christmas Story or Christmas Vacation?

I’m not tagging anyone specific, because I hate makingpeople do surveys if they don’t want to. But I hope everyone reading this couldanswer at least one of my questions (or all of them, if you like!) in thecomments. Or, repost this and leave a link to your post.

52 Reasons

2012-02-08T20:17:00.000-05:00

I've seen a few of these 52 Reasons Why I Love You projects on Pinterest and wanted to make one for Brad to go with his Valentine's Day gift. One of my favorite posts on this is from little green bird. I used her post as inspiration for my version.

I used a basic pack of playing cards (bought at CVS), and gave them a rough sanding with some medium grit sand paper on both sides. I also used a wadded up paper towel dipped in Tim Holtz Tea Dye ink to age them a bit. I wasn't really particular about how the sanding or dyeing looked on the cards - I thought randomness was better for this project.

For the reasons, I made a blank document in PSE that was 1.5x2.5 to write my text in. I used my double circle brush, with American Typewriter font for the numbers. The font for the wording is actually Becky Higgins' free font, found at the bottom of this page. I saved each reason image and then printed them all together onto some fancy ivory printer paper. I used my paper trimmer to cut them to size, and then cut a sheet of black for each one to layer with.

On the cover I used a glitter pen over the '52' to add just a tiny bit of sparkle.

I can't wait to give this to him next week. I just know he's going to love it. Brad has always really appreciated my craft work. I hope this shows him just how appreciated he is.

Pin It

Air Display for iPad

2012-02-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

Awhile back, Shannon gave me a graphics pen tablet that she wasn't using. I'd been thinking about one for making digital stamp images. I tried using it and it, unfortunately, doesn't seem to want to work with my computer. I'm not sure the reason, maybe the pen battery died or maybe I don't have the right drivers on my Mac for it.

Recently I've really been wanting to make some handwritten photoshop brushes. I tried doing this with pen, paper, and scanner, and I found that the image uploaded wasn't smooth enough for my liking. I could see the little areas where the ink bled a little into the paper. So I started looking at pen tablets on Amazon and they were pricey. And I am cheap.

Suddenly, it hit me that perhaps I could use a drawing app on my iPad to make an image and then upload it to my computer. So I immediately purchased this highly rated and super inexpensive BoxWave stylus for my iPad. (At this point, still unsure which drawing app I would use).

During my research for the right drawing app, I came across a brilliant app called Air Display. Air Display turns your ipad (or phone, or other computer/device) into an extended monitor for your Mac/PC. What this means is I can now open up Photoshop Elements through the iPad screen and draw right on the iPad screen. So with my stylus, I now turn my iPad into a graphics tablet. For a total cost of $18 ($8 for the stylus, plus $10 for the app).

I tried it out tonight and it works! I just used my finger to test it:

You can see that this view basically copies exactly what's on my desktop. (It also changes up the actual desktop resolution while you're connected).

You can use the app as an extended desktop too, not just a copy. I need to read more about exactly how to go about doing these things. I found the extended desktop feature first, when in portrait mode, but rotating my iPad turned on the duplicate desktop screen (which is really what I needed anyway). But the good part about an extended desktop is you can dock some things like open chat windows onto the iPad and keep your main screen open for working.

How cool is this?! My stylus arrives Thursday, so watch for some handwritten brushes and overlay freebies to come soon.

Photoshop Brushes

2012-02-07T16:43:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to remind my old readers, and direct my new readers, to a set of month/day Photoshop brushes I have for sale in my Etsy shop. These are wonderful for digital scrapbooking and perfect for Project Life. You can use them in PS/PSE to add dates to your photos, or perhaps create your own journal cards.

Pin It

Project Life 2012 - Week Five

2012-02-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Project Life Tuesday, Week Five. I apologize for the not-so-great photos this week. I had to do my Project Life on Monday rather than Sunday, so I had to take my pictures at night without natural lighting.

I'm finding that these layouts are both fun and a bit of a struggle for me. I have this intense desire to come up with creative touches to the album, and that is a little stressful. I find myself comparing my layouts to others I see online and feeling that they're just not good enough.

Anyway, here is my full layout:

Here is a close up of each of the main pages:

You can see that I have an insert this week. I took the program from Summer's School of Rock show and a 4x6 journal card, attached them to some of the Amber edition paper, and inserted into a 12x6 page protector. On the journal card I included a quote from the bio on Summer inside the program. Her bio was really awesome and acknowledged that she plays pretty much everything. She sings, plays guitar, drums and keyboard (all really, really well!), and she actually learned the trumpet just for this show.

Here's a closeup of the front and the back, which is just the patterned paper showing through:

I also used some embellishments this week in my album.

In the above photo, I used a chipboard bird sticker from Studio 112. I've had these since around Christmastime and have been itching for an opportunity to use them. I thought the bird went perfectly with the photo of Austin at PetSmart.

Also above is a Saturday day of the week sticker from Creative Memories. Lindsay passed along a sticker kit called Calendar Weeks and I thought they'd be perfect for Project Life!

And then the red bordered butterfly journal spot was part of a clearance pack at Michaels I picked up last year.

The label on Summer's performance photos is from K&Company. It's part of the Wild Saffron Die-Cut Tags pack.

Finally, I just wanted to include the picture I took of Brad and Austin watching TV in this post, because I just love it so much:

The color on this photo came out kind of red, and I didn't feel like spending the time to correct it, so I converted it to black and white instead. I love the effect.

That's all for this week. Be sure to stop by The Mom Creative and check out everyone else's posts!

Introducing...

2012-02-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

Sadie Whittaker

Brad and I picked out a gorgeous Golden Retriever puppy tonight. She's 6 weeks old, and we can take her home next weekend. :) I took to her right away - she was really friendly and playful, chewing on my fingers and snuggling in our laps. She's the perfect new addition to our little family. :)

Freebie Friday: Free Project Life Journal Cards

2012-02-02T22:09:00.003-05:00

A tiny bit early for you this week, because I'm nice :)

Here are four free printable journal cards for you to coordinate with Project Life. Hope you enjoy! Click on the image to download:

As always, if you use them I'd love for you to comment with a link to your post. And please, feel free to Pin them and spread the word.

I must say, I'm really enjoying making these freebies each week. It gives me a chance to learn and improve my design skills. :)

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Resolutions Check In

2012-01-31T10:13:00.000-05:00

Weight Loss – I lost 7.5 pounds in January! Starting weightwas 173, I am now at 165.5. This makes me SO happy, to officially be out of the170’s and only 1 pound away from pre-baby weight. I have 20.5 pounds left to mygoal weight of 145. I’ve been (up until I got very sick last week) working outa lot. I am increasing my running – even running a mile straight two days in arow. It feels really, really good. I have not used my Xbox game much. I wantto, I very much want to, but finding the time to do it is a little harder. Iwant to run, because it gets me fast results, so I’m thinking of maybe gettingdown to a good weight via running (and the crunches/weight lifting/squats), andthen using the Xbox game later on, when I’m looking for maintenance more thanfast weight loss.

EDIT: Wanted to add, still going strong with zero fast food (fast food being McD's, Wendy's, BK, Taco Bell, KFC and equivalents). Yesterday I did hit my first slight craving for McD's and I think that was because I was sick. But it's been easy to resist. I actually get annoyed when I see any commercials for it too!

Dedicated Schedule/Planner – I’m not doing that great atthis. I’m still using my planner and writing in this time, and certain things I’msticking to, like my Project Life nights and my cleaning/organizing night. Butthe crafting nights, not so much. It’s going to take more effort to make thiswork. It might even require a re-planning of the schedule. The good thing is, Idon’t really feel like I am lacking in doing the stuff I want time to do. WhereI feel I’m lacking is with the business stuff. Personally…I’m kind of justdoing what I want to do, and so that’s been nice. I need to be a little morefocused with regard to the business though.

Organizing/Cleaning – working really well, up until thispast weekend, because I was really sick and Brad had to watch Austin. But we’vebeen really, really on top of keeping the kitchen clean every day, andvacuuming every weekend, and laundry and other stuff like that. Next weekend Iplan to catch up from this past weekend and we’ll be good to go again.

Nails/toenails – still painted, though I missed re-doingthem on Sunday, so they’re a bit chipped right now. I bought some pretty newpolish though!

Makeup – missed 2 days so far, once because I totallyforgot, and yesterday because I was still really sick and just didn’t feel likewearing it.

Project Life 2012 - Week Four

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

Nothing overly fancy this week. I spent the first half caring for a sick baby, and the second half caring for sick me, so there wasn't a lot of picture taking and not a lot to report.

Here's the full layout:

And closeups of each page:

The "sore throat" label was cut from a pack of Cepacol. I went through every throat relief option I had available. (Not that any of them helped).

I used journal cards from both the Amber and the Clementine kit that I thought coordinated well. One thing I wanted to point out - when I was trying to come up with enough to fill up the journal cards, it hit me that I could insert some images of my sunglasses and boots. I just printed them out on regular paper, cut and stuck them onto the journaling cards. I added the "fab" Smash paper tape as a little accent.

Something I found helpful this week - using a printable layout template by Marcy Penner. I was sitting on the couch watching Austin and being sick, and it was nice to plan out the layout on the paper instead of having to have everything right in front of me. I think I'm going to use it every week to help plan.

Make sure you stop by The Mom Creative and check out everyone else's layouts too!

This runs through my head all.day.long.

2012-01-30T15:51:00.001-05:00

Doctors, Hospitals, Epidurals, C-Sections...A True Story

2012-01-29T21:52:00.003-05:00

I don't want to make this post a big deal (even though it is long), but it's something I felt compelled to post about so I wanted to. It's under the cut.

A few of the blogs I follow lately have had a few interesting posts that got me thinking back over my birth experience. I never had a birth plan, other than to avoid an epidural or c-section at all costs, but ended up with both. And both of them, I'm really, really cool with.

There's a lot of talk out there about doctors wanting to do c-sections so that they can deliver on their own time and not while they're on vacation or in the middle of the night. I'm sure, in some places, that happens. But that's why I firmly believe you should, you know, get to know your OB and if you don't like him/her...move to another practice if you have that ability.

I am fortunate enough to have a PPO insurance plan which allows me to go to any hospital, doctor, or specialist that accepts my insurance without a referral. I realize many people don't have this option, and I can't speak for them. I'm only speaking for those who do have at least some level of choice in where they give birth and who they give birth with - be it at home, in a birth center, or in a hospital.

I'm getting sidetracked. I only want to post about my own experience - the reality of what I went through. I had a really hard time finding enough of a real life description of c-sections or epidurals (not medical jargon, actual real life experiences) when I was preparing for having Austin. I thought MAYBE this would be helpful for people to hear that these things really aren't so scary.

Doctors - My OBs were amazing. In full disclosure, one of the female doctors didn't give me the best first impression during a routine office visit (not that she wasn't nice as could be - just that that day she seemed to be rushing me) but she ended up doing my son's circumcision and did a beautiful job and was really friendly and took time with me in the hospital. So I can't really fault her for what may have been a busy day for her. Back to the practice though - I got to meet with every doctor at least once, so that I would be comfortable when delivering, because I would get whichever doctor was on call at the time. One doctor informed me early on that I had a low placenta (which COULD have led to Placenta Previa but didn't) and when I asked, worried, about a c-section he assured me I wouldn't need one. This same doctor performed my eventual c-section and specifically told me when he was stitching me up that he made sure to stitch me up so that next time (if I was going to have more children) I could have a VBAC. Not one doctor in that practice ever encouraged or pushed c-sections. In the end, it was me who actually made the final call (more on that later). I write this because people are very, very quick to stereotype all doctors together as c-section hungry, and that just isn't the case. Talk to your OB early on about their c-section rates, or their view on them. You should be very comfortable with your OB and if you aren't, then change practices (if you can).

Hospitals - there was a post on a blog I frequent about what the blog owner was packing in her hospital bag, and people were very, very quick to jump on her and tell her how it was going to go at her hospital and that her list was unreasonable. None of these people know her hospital/birth center's policies or what she has discussed with her OB. Every hospital has at least some differences in their procedures. Some are more strict with things than others. Here's my reality:

From what I recall, the only thing that was strict procedure with them that mattered to me was that you could only have 2 people in the labor room with you until you went to the maternity floor. They were very strict on that. When my mom and dad and stepmom came to visit me after delivery, they only let one of them in at a time. Other things they may be strict on, but I don't know, because I didn't need to ask. There are a lot of birth plans out there. I went in with an open mind. I knew what I didn't want (epidural, c-section) but everything else was ok with me if needed. However, during check in procedures, while getting my IV, the nurses asked me lots of questions, and gave me ample opportunity to speak up if I did/didn't feel strongly about something. The only thing I asked? That I didn't have Austin put on my chest until he was cleaned up. I even asked if that made me a terrible mother, and she told me that a LOT of women request that, actually. It made me feel very at ease. Again, in full disclosure, they WERE thrilled when I said he'd have formula, and that I allowed pacifiers. I truly believe this makes their lives easier, and I don't really blame them for being happy about my answers. I was actually really relieved, again, because I went into the hospital fully expecting a huge fight with the nurses about breastfeeding. My hospital has something like a 90% breastfeeding discharge rate, so I expected to get a lot of pressure to breastfeed. It was quite the opposite, and maybe that's because I made my choice clear to them - no one ever pressured me once to breastfeed. Other than this, I didn't really care what they did. It just wasn't important to me. I was glad to have a healthy baby, and that's all that really mattered.

My hospital allowed me to move around the room until I had my epidural. I could take a shower, walk around, use the rocking chair, whatever I wanted. All I really wanted to do was lie on my side and moan quietly, because the back labor was more pain than I could tolerate, but I did ask to move to the rocking chair at one point and was helped off my monitors and to the chair in minutes. No one pressured me to have an epidural, either. I made that choice, and I asked for it. And dilation didn't matter for when I could have it. They believed I was only 1cm dilated when I got mine. (They did a cervical check after I had it in, and I was 3-4, but the last check they had on record when I asked for it was 1cm). There was one nurse that I didn't like during the overnight in labor & delivery, but I'll give her credit - before that epidural, during the 3 hours I had those killer back labor contractions, she coached me. She told me I could do it, that i was strong, that I was handling things so well. She encouraged me to keep going. I made the call to have the epidural, not anyone else.

Epidural - Before you have one...all you can picture is this giant needle sticking into your spine, and it's scary as hell. I was dead set against it. Not that I didn't believe in them, I was just terrified of having one. That needle scared me more than almost anything. I thought I was so afraid of it, my stubbornness would get me through labor without having it. Once I started having back labor, I just couldn't do it. I managed three hours. Had I known I'd be ready to push in another 2 or 3, I might have tried to do it without...but at that point I thought I'd be looking at an 8-10 hour labor (I thought inductions went slowly) and I just didn't think I could make it. I'd been throwing up for 8 hours, and the pain, oh the pain, I just didn't think I had it in me. So I asked for that epidural. I asked to have it BEFORE my Pitocin. They gave me no resistance on having it before the Pitocin. An amazing anesthesiologist was called in, they sat me up with Brad in front of me, and I am telling you, one contraction and that thing was in and I barely felt it. I'm not lying. Maybe because the pain of the contractions was so bad, or because my anesthesiologist was so good, but I felt a teeny, tiny amount of heat (some describe it as a burning sensation - it was not even remotely like burning, just warmth) as the numbing meds went in and the rest I didn't feel. It was really easy (surprisingly easy) not to move while they were doing it (another thing I was worried about - what if I jerked with the contraction pain and paralyzed myself). I remember being so exhausted and hot from the contractions that all I wanted to do anyway was slump against Brad. He sat in front of me with his arms around me and held me as they put it in and it was over before I knew it. I remember even saying "that was IT?" because it went so quick and was so painless.

And then, oh the relief. I went totally numb from like, chest level down to my knees pretty quickly. They did a cervical check shortly after I lay back down and I didn't feel a thing. The previous cervical check had hurt so badly, I was in heaven when I couldn't feel them from that point forward. Also, I was finally able to get a little sleep (if for only a couple of hours). I hadn't slept all night.

I wrote this about the epidural because I just want to repeat what a lot of other people have said - you seriously cannot feel it if done properly. I suppose you have to trust your hospital staff.

C-Section - here's where there's room for interpretation. I have heard that being induced leads to Pitocin which leads to an epidural because supposedly the contractions are harder, and then that epidural leads to a stalled labor and a c-section. I don't really know what to say about that. Maybe that is true. And perhaps the induction and epidural had a hand in my c-section. I don't think you can know that for certain. What I can say is the facts about what happened. I had Cervadil at 4pm the evening prior. It started my labor about the middle of the night. I received a pain killer via shot and rested (but not slept) a bit. The Cervadil was removed at about 4:30 am, and I was told I had not dilated at all. At 5am, my water broke. So I believe the Cervadil did help kick start labor. I went into full active labor pretty much immediately when my water broke for the next 2-3 hours and then received my epidural. I can't honestly say how quickly my contractions were coming, but I remember not really feeling like I had any rest. There was no Pitocin at this point. I got Pitocin administered once I had the epidural. Two hours later, I was 8-9 centimeters dilated, and Austin's heart rate was dropping. I believe because things moved along very fast. This seems to be a direct contradiction to everyone that says epidurals stall labor. Not so in my case. They lost his heart beat on the external monitors (which scared us, having heard that heart beat all night long) and had to use internal monitors. I remember throwing up while they put the monitors on. He was experiencing decels. I was scared. I wanted him here, and healthy, and I was so tired, I didn't care how it was done. In fact I told my OB flat out "It is ok if you want to do a c-section, I just want him here." He replied that while they were prepping the OR, if I was ready to push when they got me down there, he would have me push. I told him that I didn't think I could push. This was where he told me that I was pushing really well while I was throwing up. So here is another point where I want to show that my OB even encouraged me pushing Austin out if possible. I was the one that made the call about just doing the c-section.

As for the c-section itself. I was very worried I would throw up during it. They pumped up my Zofran and all my nausea vanished. They also boosted my epidural so that everything from my arms down was numb. I do remember feeling my feet and insisting that they fix my socks, which had started to fall off. I was wheeled down on the gurney, transferred to the table, and prepped. They put these things on my legs that kept filling up with air, I guess to maintain circulation in them. I didn't really "feel" this as much as knowing that something was vibrating a bit near my feet. Brad was allowed to come in (there was a slight question on this - if it were a drop dead true emergency, he would not have been allowed and would have had to wait in the nursery). He stayed right next to my head, not wanting to see anything, and talked to me the whole time. The nurse that I liked from the morning shift was with me, and another amazing anesthesiologist was right by my head too. He's the one that ended up talking with me while I was stitched up. He made me feel very, very at ease. I'd been terrified of being left alone in the OR but I barely noticed because he was so great. I didn't feel a single thing during my c-section. Even when they said that I'd feel pressure, I didn't. The one thing I do remember is as I was being stitched up, it felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest, I was having trouble breathing, but I told this to the doctors and they assured me it was normal and I'd be propped up shortly. In full honestly, I found the whole procedure very relaxing. Yes, relaxing. I didn't feel anything, so I was just lying there, waiting to hear my baby cry, seeing him for the first time, and it wasn't scary (to me - hubby was really upset). I actually felt relieved and relaxed.

As soon as Austin came out they wrapped him up and brought him to us for a picture, and so I could see him myself. Brad went with Austin while they checked him over and cleaned him up and I got stitched up, and then I met them in my labor room afterwards. I shivered a lot for awhile after the c-section so I didn't want to hold Austin right away. It wasn't until maybe 7 hours after my c-section that I held him for the first time. I was afraid to drop him. I thought I was too tired, too weak. Shannon's mom helped me hold him for the first time. I'm ok with this. I am happy I waited until I was comfortable holding him. I didn't have any baby experience prior to Austin, so I was a very nervous mom the first few days. I slept off and on the first few hours out of the c-section because I was just so tired. Brad even fell asleep while my mom held Austin.

I have one regret here - I do wish that I had not had visitors until I hit maternity. I wish I'd taken that recovery time to spend with just Brad and Austin. But that's hindsight, everything went just fine, and it's not something to lose sleep over.

While I'm on the subject, I will post a little bit about after the birth/recovery.

Immediately after returning to labor and delivery and for several hours, they have to check your fundus, and it's pretty painful, not gonna lie. They press around your belly and belly button to make sure your uterus is contracting properly and it sucks. It only takes a few seconds but it isn't fun. And you are in bed until the next morning, typically. With a catheter. Which also sucks being taken out. Not that it hurts, but it's like this intense urge to pee for a second and it really is VERY intense. I've had catheters twice and both times, same deal. They suck. Those were really the two sucky parts about my c-section.

Recovering from the c-section was tough for only a few days. I'd say day 3-6. (to my surprise, I was able to walk around easily the day after the c-section). Those days, as the cut starts to heal, there's a very tight sharp stretching pain that you can get if you move too quickly (I only got this when getting up or getting down, never when lying down or walking around), and it can be scary. You won't have pulled out a stitch, even though I swore I did like, 10 times. The nurses and your doctor will be constantly looking at your incision and they'll alert you if anything is wrong. Other than this pain, recovery was easy. Within 2 weeks I was told I could resume sexual activity again if I desired (and once my bleeding had stopped). I didn't want to, but it was interesting that we were told we could. No 6 week wait period like with a vaginal birth. I could wipe when going to the bathroom. It didn't hurt to go to the bathroom. It was a breeze. 10 months afterwards, I have a very, very light pink scar at my bikini line. It's barely noticeable now (surprisingly so!). My OB did a wonderful job stitching me up. Bleeding was minimal after the first day, maybe because of the c-section. I didn't bleed like a stuck pig as some people describe. (That came with my first period!)

And some other points -

Cervadil - it's like a sandpapery tampon they put up behind your cervix the night before the actual induction. It doesn't hurt much if you relax and prop your pelvis up on your fist (sit on your fist!), but it is uncomfortable. It hurt WAY worse being taken out. I had to lie down for two hours after getting it to make sure it didn't fall out right away, but after that I could move around and eat what I wanted. I ended up with blood pressure issues which changed that for me a bit, but if I hadn't had those issues, I could have been doing whatever I wanted.

Water breaking - people who say they feel and hear a pop aren't lying. That is exactly what happened. I was lying down, and felt what I described as a swift punch in my lower stomach, heard a noise, and immediately afterwards had a huge (my first painful) contraction. I went to the bathroom and gushed water and blood and mucus into the collection pan. I was glad they didn't have to break it for me, that I got to experience what that felt like. After that it was gush gush gush during every contraction. Laughable the amount of fluid coming out. :)

I think I wrote everything I wanted to but if anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask (respectfully, please - I won't answer and will delete any comments that question my choices or my birth. My blog, my rules).

Austin is 10 Months Old

2012-01-28T21:19:00.001-05:00

Austin turned 10 months old today. Just two more months and it will be a whole year since I had him. I still can't believe how fast time is flying.

Freebie Friday: Days of the Week Photo Journal Cards

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

I created these 3x4 journal cards to go along with Project Life. They're gridded cards with a box for your photo. There's 7 different ones, one for each day of the week. These are layered psd files for use in Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, so you can add your photos to them prior to printing. Click here to download.

These are really easy to use:

Open the journal card psd file you want to use in Photoshop/PSE

Open up the image you'd like to insert

Drag the image layer to the psd file, and make sure the image layer is above the shape layer

You'll need to create a clipping mask. In PSE on a Mac, you can do this by pressing command G, or selecting layer from the drop down and create clipping mask. (I don't use Photoshop so I'm not sure the process for doing this in Photoshop).

Use command T (or image-transform-free transform) to resize the image so that it is the size you'd like in the box.

This is the result once you've adjusted your image:

I hope you enjoy. If you use them I'd love to see your layout! Please leave a link to your post in the comments :)

Calendar Insert Cards for Project Life

2012-01-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

I created these fun insert cards for Project Life. They took me a long time, so I unfortunately can't give these away as a freebie. Check out my shop to purchase.

These are for use in Photoshop/Photoshop Elements. You can change the background color of the cards, as seen in the June calendar card above. These would be really fun to insert into your Project Life album to highlight a special event that month. You could print the card and circle the date of the event with a Sharpie.

Perfect Sweet Potato Chips

2012-01-26T13:52:00.002-05:00

I'm home sick today and don't have enough energy to leave my bed, so I thought I'd go ahead and post about my sweet potato chips. After several attempts, I have found the perfect dehydrated sweet potato chip recipe. They're so tasty and crisp, I just had to share.

First, I start with two peeled sweet potatoes. (That's all I can fit into my dehydrator. Someday I'd like more trays for my dehydrator so that I can do larger batches).

I chop them in half to make it easier for slicing:

I use a mandolin to slice them, on the super thin slices setting. This is my mandolin, and it's perfect and inexpensive.

This is how thin the slices are:

Once they are all sliced, place them onto the dehydrator trays:

Next, I season them. I found the perfect seasoning for our chips. We use Steven Raichlen's Island Spice Rub and I also add a little Kosher Salt. I've also used his Kansas City rub (delicious, with a little kick) and just regular salt and pepper. Use whatever spices you like. We just like a little kick to our chips (and really, that's the only way I can get Brad to eat them) so we use these rubs for a super delicious taste :)

A note: several websites suggested using olive oil on the chips. We tried this twice, and found that having the oil on the chips did make them quite tasty, but caused them not to dry out, so they were more chewy than crisp. I like my chips crisp.

Once your slices are all seasoned, put them on to dry at 135 degrees for 7-9 hours. Previously I'd tried drying them at a suggested 115 degrees and found that they dried much too slowly for my liking. I prefer to set these to dry overnight, so the 7-9 hour timing is perfect for us.

The two sweet potatoes make approximately 4-6 servings of chips, depending on how many you like to eat in a sitting. (The bowl below shows 2 of our servings).

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Sunglasses and Boots

2012-01-24T13:34:00.000-05:00

Now that I have contacts again, I need some non prescription sunglasses. Found these Lauren Conrad ones at Kohl's today:

I also needed some black winter type shoes, because I have nothing wintery to wear with my black pants. Kohl's was out of pretty much everything, so I hit Famous Footwear, and got these cute boots!

I did see this gorgeous sweater at Kohl's that I really wanted to love, but it didn't look as great on me as on the mannequin. I do LOVE the color palette in this outfit though. A light rose-pink, cream sweater, and light gray pants. Beautiful.

And I resisted trying on any of the other cute new stuff, because I'd like to get skinny first! I am looking ahead to birthday shopping!

Project Life 2012 - Week Three

2012-01-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to week three of Project Life 2012. This week's layout took me longer to complete because I have a larger insert with extra pictures, but I am really thrilled with how it turned out:

Here is a closeup of the two main pages:

On the first page, I inserted a screenshot from my phone of the weather on Monday, which was a bone chilling 7 degrees. I also used a journal card from the Clementine kit, and one of my label freebies from last week.

I also included a screenshot from my blog, showing off my My Memories giveaway. The photo on the bottom right is a picture of the show Super Why on our TV. It's Austin's favorite right now!

On the second page, I included an email that Austin typed to Brad while he visited my work last week. On the far right, is a little Stampin' Up stamp image of a sick mouse, to go along with my sick little baby in the bottom right. (Poor guy had a rough past few days, and he's still sick).

On that page you can also see a "Day in the Life" numbered grid card. That was made using my grid card freebie and digital number elements from the Amber kit on Jessica Sprague. The font is a free font from Ali Edwards, which you can read more out about here. The numbers correspond to numbers on the images in my insert:

The insert is actually a design G Project Life photo pocket page, which is currently out of stock but should return soon (check Becky's site for up to date information).

I did a Day in the Life with Austin last week, which I intended to post about this past weekend but with Austin being so sick I haven't had time. I wanted to include a bunch of these photos into my layout for the week. For the vertical photos, I just put two 4x3 sized photos onto one 4x6 sheet. Ali Edwards has a great tutorial for doing this.

I wanted a little title for my insert, so I cut out the words "day" and "life" with my Slice machine ("day" is from the Greetings cartridge, and "life" is from the Think Pink cartridge). The "in the" letters are some chipboard stickers that I picked up on clearance at Joann's awhile back. I used an idea I'd seen on Ali's blog last week and attached "life" to a clear transparency so that the picture behind it could peek through.

I love that you can see it through the back, too!

So there you have it, my Project Life for this week. I really enjoyed putting this one together!

Make sure you stop by The Mom Creative and check out everyone else's Project Life layouts too!

Saving/Storing/Organizing Greeting Cards

2012-01-23T21:00:00.004-05:00

I'd seen an idea previously about binding greeting cards you've received, and I finally got a chance to try it out. I am hooked!

So far I've done two years worth of Christmas cards, and all the cards I received from my baby shower and when Austin was born. All I did was punch two holes in each card with my Crop-a-Dile Big Bite, and loop binder rings through the stack.

Next up, are the cards we received when we got married! :) I never used to save many greeting cards, other than some special ones that were from, say, my mom, or Shannon, but now I plan to save them all :)

Video tour of my craft room

2012-01-21T18:49:00.001-05:00

SweatyGirl requested a video tour of my craft room, so here it is. But here are a few warnings:

a) I took this with an iPhone, in portrait mode, so the quality isn't the best.
b) I suck at taking videos. The minute the camera turns on, I get nervous, so I say "um" a lot.
c) I don't know a thing about editing videos, so this is straight out of the camera.

And the winner is...

2012-01-21T13:01:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Courtney, who had entry number 4 in the givewaway!

Courtney, I've sent an email to the address connected to your account!

Didn't win but want to get My Memories Suite yourself? Use this coupon code (copy and paste it):

STMMMS36607

for $10 off My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software AND a $10 coupon to the My Memories store - a $20 value!

Freebie Friday: Labels

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Two little freebies for you this week - printable labels, perfect for embellishing photos or journaling cards with a title or date.

2.5"x1"

2.5"x.5"

I prepared one of next week's journaling cards already using the first label and tested it out with a previous layout. I love the little touch it gives to my card. I snipped off the end, but you could use the full label as well.

For the second label, I stamped the date I took the photo on it and cut it to size.

Click HERE to download both of these freebies (two .jpg files). Enjoy, and please feel free to pin them and spread the word. :)

And now for something completely different...

2012-01-19T15:19:00.003-05:00

Coexist.

2012-01-19T14:09:00.001-05:00

A friend sent me an interesting article today, that I thought worth sharing. And, I really liked the logo, so I'm putting it up here too. :)

Project Life 2012 - Week Two

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to week two of Project Life Tuesday 2012. Here's a look at this week's layout:

Closeups of each page:

Yikes! I just noticed the glare from the sun on the bottom right! Oops.

I used a sharpie on a few of the journaling cards for an extra little pop. I tend to get a little bored with my handwriting, so I'm always looking for ways to spice up my journaling cards. :)

One of the exciting points of the week was a bit of snow on Thursday. It's been pretty much a snowless winter so far, and I was really happy to get even a half inch of snow :) Austin was very interested in it, too!

I also had to include this adorable photo I snapped of Austin while he was cruising around before dinner:

Earlier this week I had pinned a cartoon on Pinterest that I thought was really funny, and fitting since Brad and I are trying to lose weight. I cut out the cartoon and stuck it on my title card, along with a torn section of Smash tape.

Image borrowed from Ribbon, Glitter and Glue

I also used a couple of stickers from a scrapbook page kit I'd picked up awhile back at Christmas Tree Shops. (Colorbok Warm Memories Page Kit).

I started printing my photos through Walgreens this week, and I couldn't be more pleased. CVS had a $1.49 service charge for orders under $5, but Walgreens doesn't. 19 cents a print, and they were ready in about a half hour. Better quality than my home prints, and saves me from having to buy photo paper or replace ink as quickly.

There you have it for this week. Check out everyone's Project Life layouts over on The Mom Creative!

Fancy town :)

2012-01-16T23:49:00.001-05:00

I'm really proud of myself tonight. I designed a new logo for my blog header and for watermarking photos ;) My new blogger banner (also seen at the top of the page, duh!):

and showing it used as a watermark on a photo:

I'll be totally honest, this took me forever to do. I first used just the outline from a stamp I had, and stamped the banner image. I scanned it into my computer, brought it into Photoshop Elements, and erased the background so I just had an outline.

I played around with the outline for awhile before deciding that I wanted the flags to be patterned. There's probably an easier way to do this, but to make the pattern, I first made a triangle shape that fit over the outline, and made 7 copies. I lined them all up, and then proceeded to fill each shape with some digital scrapbook paper (freebies from Persnickety Prints! Patterns are from the All American Tweeds set, which actually comes with some buntings but I wanted to make my own).

To fill each shape, I dragged the paper into my logo, and positioned the paper layer above the shape layer I was working with. Then I created a clipping mask, and resized the paper so that the pattern showed appropriately. I repeated this for all 8 flags.

I saved the image as a brush so that I could use it for watermarking photos. I love the little touch of professionalism it gives my picture!

My Memories Suite Giveaway!

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

As many of you know, I am a user of My Memories Suite. Back in August, My Memories contacted me and offered me a chance to review their software and give away a copy to one of my readers for free. Well, I have some great news! I get to give away another FREE copy!

When I did my first review, I tested out a few digital scrapbooking layouts. However, I am not a digital scrapbooker, so I use My Memories Suite for other projects. I love using the embellishments and papers in my designs. There are so many digital kits, and lots of freebies for you to download and use. I also use My Memories with kits from other sites, like Persnickety Prints. You can also use it with digital Project Life.

I made up this quick journal card using the Clementine Project Life digital kit (I've put a watermark over this because the digital elements are for sale, and I can't allow anyone to download this). I just added one of the digital embellishments, and then set the background paper from one of the My Memories freebie kits.

I also have been wanting to start designing birth announcements, so I thought I'd test one using Austin's pictures. I think it came out pretty good for my first attempt:

These are just a couple of the examples of things you can do with My Memories Suite that is not digital scrapbooking.

Want to try making your own digital layouts with My Memories Suite? I'm giving away one copy of Version 3 of the software to one of you lucky readers.

Rules for the Giveaway:

1. Mandatory - Visit My Memories and tell me which digital kit is your current favorite and what you would do with it. (Comments that do not answer this question will not be counted as an entry).

For additional entries:

2. Follow me! Leave one comment telling me you are following A Vegas Girl at Heart. (This also applies for current followers - just leave a comment).

3. Spread the word! Blog or tweet about this giveaway, then leave me a comment letting me know you did (with a link).

Please make sure you leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner!

The winner will receive a code for a free download of My Memories Suite software. Giveaway ends Friday, January 20th, 2012 at 11:59 pm Eastern time.

If you can't wait for the giveaway, and want to purchase the software yourself, you can use this coupon code (copy and paste it):

STMMMS36607

for $10 off My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software AND a $10 coupon to the My Memories store - a $20 value!

Good luck and have fun!

Scrapbook Redirect

2012-01-13T15:22:00.001-05:00

Remember Austin's scrapbook? It's been on my "to do" list for, well, 9 months, to keep up with it. And I've failed. If I remember correctly, I only have two months completed, plus an additional title page.

The thing is, I love those title pages. I love having a larger sized photo of Austin's monthly picture, with his stats that month. I really want to finish those for his first year. But I have zero desire to do the other traditional style pages that I'd need for a "complete" album.

So I've changed direction. I've ordered up a black signature binder from Becky Higgins.

I've also ordered 12x12 page protectors, which I will use to insert the completed traditional pages and finish the title pages for the first year. This will make me happy. I also purchased these page protectors, and I have these ones at home already. I'll be using those for all the prints that I had planned on putting into the traditional album. No journaling, much less stress. Just finish the fun title pages, insert my photos, and done.

This has already reduced my stress level because I don't have to worry about having to come up with a year's worth of traditional layouts. I'll share pictures soon :)

It's coming!

2012-01-13T12:47:00.000-05:00

Monday I'll be posting a giveaway of the My Memories Suite Software! Make sure you check back on Monday to enter :)

Freebie Friday: Soft & Sweet Photo Overlay

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

This week's freebie is actually the first photo overlay I made. I never offered it as a freebie previously, so I've gone ahead and made the file available for download.

Photo by Jennifer Millian

Click the picture to download the .png file.

Stamp Index

2012-01-12T23:37:00.001-05:00

When I had very few stamps, I started a binder for the images, so that I had a place to refer to when looking for a stamp to use. I tried to keep up with stamping new ones as they came in, but eventually, when my collection grew exponentially, I could no longer take the time to stamp them. I photocopied them (in singles or in sets) and inserted them into the binder as best I could, but I ended up having a lot of stamps in the wrong categories.

A big culprit is the Stampin' Up sets, which often cover several themes. So I set out to create a new stamp index for my rubber stamps. (My clear ones are organized by category in clear bags, so having them in this binder isn't necessary at this time).

I used a three ring binder, and baseball card page protectors. I picked up two packs of 30 at KMart, and they're a really good quality. I then cut white cover stock into 2.5"x3.5" sized cards, and began stamping my images on them.

On the back, I wrote the manufacturer and stamp or set name, and what type of stamp. Initially I had expected to have clear stamps in here too. It turns out that writing "wood" was unnecessary for me, but I'm kind of an all-or-nothing girl, and wanted to be consistent. :)

Most stamps fit one to a card, but I do have many smaller stamps, and those I put two (sometimes three) to a card, especially if they coordinated.

I got some new $1 stamps at Michaels this week for Valentine's Day, a few of which are shown below.

I put the images in by category. In some cases if an image worked for more than one category (like balloons, which works for birthdays and parties), I put the image into each one. I labeled the page protectors with Post It write on tabs:

And there you have it! I counted the stamps up once I was done - 519 wooden stamps, which does not include 5 full sets of wood letter stamps. Once you add in my clear ones I think I'm pushing the 1000 mark. Crazy! I need to start USING these babies. I think this year I'll be doing a lot of card making :)

This took me 3 nights (about 9 hours) to complete the 500+ stamps. I wanted to get it done so I could make some cards this weekend, otherwise, I would have gone at a slower pace and done maybe an hour a night.

41 weeks, 2 days

2012-01-11T12:18:00.004-05:00

Austin is 41 weeks and 2 days old today. He's been out for as long as he was in. :)

Here he is, when he was born at 41 weeks, 2 days, and here he is today.

He's grown from 7 pounds, 15 ounces to 19 pounds, 12 ounces. He's gone from 20 inches to 29 inches. And from drinking a couple of cc's of formula to chowing down ground turkey and mashed potatoes. From a swaddled up little bundle to a crawling, standing, cruising, babbling little man.

He's amazing.

He's beautiful.

He's my baby.

Freebie: 4x6 Grid Card

2012-01-10T21:10:00.003-05:00

An extra freebie for you all this week. This is the base grid 4"x6" card that I used in my Project Life layout this week.

Click this link to take you to the zip file download. There is a .png format and .jpg format file, so you can edit it if you like or print it as is. This is great for inserting into the larger Project Life pockets if you don't have a photo.

This week I used it in Photoshop Elements and added one of the elements from the Jessica Sprague Project Life Turquoise edition.

Hope you enjoy!

Freebie: Project Life Binder Labels

2012-01-10T13:36:00.002-05:00

Check out Becky Higgins' blog today for free Project Life binder labels. You can add your own handwritten titles or edit them in a photo editing software and then print. They fit perfectly into the slots on the new style of Project Life binders.

I am definitely going to use these, and I think I'm going to find some way to use adhesive and attach one to my old Turquoise edition binder too.

Love these!

Quickie!

2012-01-10T09:28:00.003-05:00

Three pounds lost since January 1st! Boo-freakin-yah.

Reflections of a First Time Mom

2012-01-08T13:27:00.000-05:00

As I warmed up Austin's bottle this morning, I was thinking of how thankful I was for my bottle warmer. It's a really good one, in my opinion, and I thought, I should share this with people, so they know how awesome it is. And that led me to thinking, I should also tell people about some of the things that we bought that worked great for us, and some that we didn't end up using so much. And I was remembering how crazy stressed I was before Austin was born about what I needed to be ready for his arrival and how I hit up a bunch of my good friends for advice and then thought, well, why not make this a blog post.

This will get pretty long, so I'm going to put it under a jump. Also, while I am noting what worked for US, I realize these things may/will not work for everyone. I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully offer some tips. Also some reflections on things I wish I'd done. This isn't just product-related, either. And it may not be in logical order ;)

Product-wise:

When I went to start my baby registries, I immediately felt lost and overwhelmed. I took a peak at high chairs and there were something like 95 different ones on the store website. I emailed some friends who'd recently had babies (thanks Mama Castner and The Sarah Lady and a few others) and demanded they tell me what exactly I'd need for the baby. They played along, like the good sports they are, and sent me their own lists of what they thought I'd need as well as what they needed. I was so thankful for this - I'd done a lot of googling and couldn't find a really good, down to earth listing of what was needed online. Most of what I'd found were lists by the big baby stores done up to make you spend more money in their store.

Here are some of the things I found most useful, and not so useful (and this is not an all-encompassing list of what you need for baby - I just want to make note of things that actually made a difference to us):

Bottle warmer - going to start with this one since I've already mentioned it. I'm a formula feeder, and we make up enough bottles for a day ahead of time, so a bottle warmer is a must. We bought the First Years Night and Day Bottle Warmer and I cannot rave enough about it. Early on, when Austin was waking up twice a night for feedings, it was a major help to be able to keep the warmer in his room, and bring up two bottles at night to keep cool in the back of the unit. We'd fill up the little reservoirs with the right amount of water, and in the middle of the night it was a piece of cake to warm up that bottle and give it to him in his room, without having to go downstairs, get it out of the fridge, and warm it up down there. I'll tell you, I realized how much I loved this thing when our power went out and we had to heat the bottles up on the stove in boiling water. By the way, I love Dr. Brown's bottles. They don't seem to give him much gas (he only burps once after a bottle). I tried a couple of others (a freebie, and glass one) and didn't care for them as much. Also, don't bother with buying 4 ounce bottles - buy only 8 ounce sized. We didn't use the 4 ounces beyond a couple of weeks, it's better to save your money and only get the larger size. We have 12 bottles, so if needed we can avoid doing dishes on a given day.

Receiving blankets - this one is important, I think. The hospital receiving blankets rock. Why? Because they are HUGE. Every receiving blanket I got at my shower from brands like Carter's were just too small for swaddling. Good for maybe wrapping baby up in occasionally but not practical for sleep time. The best receiving blankets I got were from my Mother in Law. She made us 8 blankets, and they were extra large and swaddled Austin for several months. The size is key to keeping the swaddle tight while the baby sleeps. If you can sew, I'd suggest making your own, much larger than the regular store bought ones.

Diapers - I've tried Huggies, Pampers, and Pampers Swaddlers, and I like the Swaddlers the best. They have a yellow line that tells you when the baby is wet (helps to avoid diaper rash, I think, because you don't leave them in a wet diaper too long), and they're soft and fit really well. The Huggies felt really hard/papery to me, and I have to say the same for the regular Pampers.

Baby Swing - this is a "skip it" in my opinion. (or get a used one). I loved the swing Ali bought us for my shower. But we didn't end up using it beyond a couple of weeks after he was born. He never cared for it. After a couple of months he'd cry if we tried to put him in it. They're just so expensive, if you're paying for things yourself, this is one I'd avoid spending money on. He much preferred the next item on my list:

Fisher Price Rock & Play Sleeper - this one was recommended by The Sarah Lady and I'm so glad she did. This avoided us needing a bouncer, and it's nice because you can rock it with your hands or feet. Austin fell asleep in this a lot. We'd sometimes sit him in it to watch a little Sesame Street (yes, we do let him watch TV on occasion - I love TV, why shouldn't he? :) ). We used it for months, finally putting it away when he started trying to pull himself out of it (which I'd say was around 7 months?). We'd bring it back and forth to my mom's house every day, too, because she'd put him in it during the day as well.

Bedding Set - another "skip it." Even though I too, was wrapped up in wanting a cute nursery and thought that I just had to have a cute bedding set, it's just not practical, and I have huge buyer's remorse. We spent something like $180 on a not-very-fancy-but-cute complete bedding set (the sheet, comforter, diaper holder, valence, bumpers, and bed skirt, plus a separate matching mobile) and after those first "look at our nursery" photos, had to put the bumpers away. They're not really safe for the babies to have in the crib, and I hear even later on, they can use them to pull themselves up (and possibly out) of the crib, so they're kind of useless. We bought a separate bumper, the breathable bumper, and that's been in the crib since day one. He's also never used the comforter, and the bed skirt is not necessary. You need more than one sheet if you don't want to be doing laundry all the time, so it's more practical to buy the sheets and items you need separately. It'll save you money.

Flea Markets - honestly, best place to get baby toys. You'll only pay a buck or two, go home and give them a good scrubbing with some Clorox wipes, and you've got yourself toys that would normally cost $10-$30 each on the cheap. I scored one of those alphabet puzzle floor mats for just $5 at the flea market this year, and having hardwood floors, it's been a saving grace. We put it inside his hexagon play area and it pads the floor in case he falls. New, those things are around $80. I've also gotten a Bumbo at a yard sale for $12, less than 1/3 of a new one.

Baby care stuff:

Let baby sleep in his/her own room right from the start - I wish I'd done this. I was so worried about SIDS I couldn't stand the idea of putting him in his own room right away. We had him sleep next to us in a pack and play bassinet for the first month. Until I got some much-needed advise from the nurse at my pediatrician's office, that we should move him to his crib. None of us were getting much sleep with him in my room. Our sounds would awaken him, his sound would keep us awake. My need to look over at him and make sure he was breathing would keep me awake. He only had a couple of feedings a night but I was getting NO sleep. The night we moved him into his own room and turned the monitor sound to the lowest setting, all three of us started sleeping better. Now, I wasn't breastfeeding, so it might be more beneficial to your sleep if you are breastfeeding to have the baby in your room, I don't really know.

The first couple of weeks - alternate shifts with your spouse, if you have that luxury. Brad had two weeks off when Austin was first born, so we could care for him together that first few weeks. Neither of us slept the first night home from the hospital - one of us would get up and the other would get up too. After that first night, we swapped to four hour shifts and that allowed us to get some sleep without worrying about the baby. I'd go up and sleep for four hours while Brad stayed awake with Austin, and then he'd go sleep for four hours while I stayed awake. We only had to do this for maybe a week or so before Austin started sleeping more regularly and went to his two feedings a night routine but it dramatically helped both of us out to do it that way.

Diaper bag - I keep mine in the car. I haven't used it as much as I thought I would because generally we're not out long enough to need stuff in it, but it does come in handy sometimes. Here's what I put in mine: diapers & wipes, a changing pad, small trash bags (just get the cheapies from the grocery store, no fancy trash bag dispenser is needed), a change of clothes and a pair of pjs, a toy, and an extra binkie. I also leave his medical vaccine record book in there because I use my diaper bag most often when going to the pediatrician appointments, since you strip the baby and I usually put him in a clean diaper. On occasion I've kept a package of boogie wipes in it. Sometimes a blanket, if it's cold or I think he'll need to lay on the floor (when he was younger and wasn't mobile). And then sometimes I've put in a few of the travel ready-made formula bottles.

Photos/Videos - one thing I wish I'd done is document my pregnancy better. I really only took the standard bi-weekly belly photos. I wish I'd done it every week, side view and front view, and documented more of what I was feeling. Like how the girl from The Art of Making a Baby does. I love her weekly posts, and I wish I'd done something like that. I guess I was too busy focusing on being sick and miserable to do it. I am actually strongly considering going back and documenting my pregnancy Project Life-style. I can look at old blog posts and use my weekly photos to do it. One thing I do that I encourage others to do, is videotape your baby, starting as soon as he/she is born. I love looking back on videos I took of Austin when he was just a few days and weeks old. It's amazing to look back at the transition. That's something I don't have of me when I was a baby, so it's all that much more important for me to capture Austin this way. Pretty much everyone has video capability on their phone now, and that's what I use to take most of my videos. I don't think I've even used the video option on my new camera yet.

The hospital:

What to bring - this is what I used while in the hospital - camera, laptop (I was there for 6 days check-in to check-out), maternity sweatpants, comfy tshirts & nightgowns, toiletries. My hospital provided underwear, non-slip socks, and pads. They did NOT provide breast pads though, so if you're not breast feeding you might want to bring those. I had to resort to putting washcloths into my bra, and I soaked through those really quickly. I brought cards and my ipad and other clothes and things that I just never ended up using. I thought I'd want the games to help pass the time during my induction but everything rolled along so quickly and there were plenty of questions to answer and things to eat and tv to watch in the hospital that I never even opened them up. For the baby, bring a going home outfit (two, in two different sizes, in case the baby is bigger/smaller than you expected) and a carseat. If it's winter, bring one of those bundle me things for the carseat to keep him/her warm on the ride home. The hospital will provide you with everything you need while the baby is there, and plenty of goodies to take home with you.

Once the baby is born - I wish I'd taken some time to have it just be me and Brad. I called my mom right away, because that's what I do, and Brad's parents and my dad and stepmom, and I had visitors before I'd even left labor & delivery. Grandparents are excited, yes, but I should have taken a few hours to have it just be us before allowing visitors. I missed that family time with the three of us.

What to take home - if your hospital allows it, take everything you can. Take the underwear (it's a meshy, disposable kind and it was the only thing comfortable for me the first two weeks after my c-section). Take the pads, take the baby wipes and as much formula as you can (one of our nurses was amazing and snuck us an entire CASE of the ready made bottles to take home). Take a bunch of the pacifiers they give you in the hospital (if you are going to use pacifiers). Take the thermometer and the suction thing from the bassinet. Don't forget to grab the little piece of paper on the bassinet that has your baby's name and birth information too! It's great for his/her scrapbook. Oh, and before you leave, have the nurses show you anything you need - how to dress the baby, how to wash them, how to swaddle. Get as much information as you can. They are there to help you. At first I felt like I should already know what I'm doing but the second or third night with Austin I realized I had questions so I pulled aside a nurse and asked away).

A note on pain medication - if you have a c-section, they'll give you pain meds. My hospital really pushed Percocet on me (alternated with Motrin). The Percocet made me really sick, and I didn't want to take it. I finally stuck up for myself and asked to switch to extra strength Tylenol, and that made a huge difference in how I was feeling. Don't be afraid to speak up!

I'm sure there's more to say, and I expect to update this post for anyone in the future who stumbles upon it, but I've spent enough time typing this up today :) I hope it was a little helpful. Again, this is just what worked for US, and I recognize that every baby and family is different and things we did might not work for others. I'm just hoping to give some tips based on our experience.

Oh, if anyone has more helpful tips please feel free to comment!

Project Life 2012 - Week One

2012-01-08T11:17:00.000-05:00

The first week of the new year. Surprisingly, I took very few photos this week. Most of them were using my cell phone. I don't think I picked up my camera (other than for blog posts) after January 1st.

Here are closeups of the pages:

I'd taken a photo of Austin and done some editing on my iPhone with Instagram and Iris Photo Suite, so I printed it at 2.5"x2.5" and placed it on a journaling card. (I did the same with the picture of the snow flurries, though that one I just cropped in iPhoto before printing). I thought this was a good way to use the square photos, since they generally won't fit in one of the smaller pockets. (Instagram pics are 4x4).

Finally, I made this little "highlights of the week" card:

To make this card I used one of the digital elements from this Turquoise edition elements pack on Jessica Sprague. I also have purchased the Clementine elements pack. The elements come in PNG format, so I opened this one up in Photoshop Elements and recolored it to coordinate with my layout. (I did this using the ColorZilla firefox add-in - I pulled up the Amber elements pack and sampled the color from the image online).

I made the grid card using PSE too - I have a custom pattern I made with a grid box, and I just paint filled a blank 4x6 document with the grid. Dragged the Project Life element onto it, lined it up, and merged visible layers. I then saved as GIF file (to maintain transparency) and printed onto a pre-cut 4x6 sheet of white card stock. I don't print these directly from PSE - I haven't figured out how to change my paper size to a 4x6. Probably really simple but it's easy enough for me to just save it. Besides, I might use it again in a future week.

I want to take a moment to draw your attention back to the Project Life digital elements on Jessica Sprague's site. I discovered these last week and was super excited. Not only can you buy each of the FIVE Project Life kits, in full, for just $20, but you can buy each item separately too. I didn't need the full kits (at least, not yet) because I don't plan to actually do digital Project Life, but I did want some of the extra elements so that I could make up my own journaling cards or filler cards. I bought the Turquoise and Clementine extras and am not disappointed :)

EDIT: I posted this on Sunday, but this is the first week of 2012's Project Life Tuesday over on The Mom Creative, and I'd like to link up anyway. Starting next week I'll be posting my layout on Tuesdays.

Project Life 2012: Title Page

2012-01-07T14:59:00.001-05:00

Ah, the beginning pages of a fresh new scrapbook album. It's like the beginning of anything, for me. A blank journal. An empty box. The possibilities of what they may contain give me chills.

Here's a look at the first page of my 2012 Project Life album:

I used ideas from a few different sources, along with some of my own personality, to create this page. The photos are all from Austin's last photo shoot back in October. I thought they captured our family as we look at the start of 2012 the best. I used a mix of papers from the Amber and Clementine Project Life kits to complete it. The Everyday Life paper below is from the Clementine kit.

First, the 2012 image is a freebie from Catherine at Design Editor. I printed the the image on white card stock and punched with my 2" circle punch.

The idea to attach our names to the photos came from this title page by Nicole Reaves. I used my old typewriter to type out our names onto card stock and then I cut them into small strips and attached with a permanent tape runner.

The idea for printing our name on the title card came from a title page by Jennifer Woodbury that was featured on Becky Higgins' blog. I printed right onto a 4x6 sheet of card stock I cut from the Project Life Amber card stock pack.

If you're interested, here is how I did this: In Photoshop Elements, I started a blank file, 6" width by 4" height, 300 resolution and transparent background. I typed my text in three separate layers (the font is American Typewriter) so that I could move them all freely. Once they were lined up how I liked, I merged visible layers (keeps the transparent background), and saved as a .gif file. I then uploaded my file into iPhoto and printed as if I was printing a 4x6 photo. I tested on a blank white sheet of card stock first, of course.

So there you have it, the first page of my 2012 album. Looking forward to completing the first week tomorrow evening.

One Little Word 2012 - Gratitude Journal

2012-01-06T21:13:00.003-05:00

As part of my One Little Word journey in 2012, I wanted to enjoy some part of every day this year, and record it. I have ideas for including these in my OLW mini album, but I need a place to record them in the meantime. I started doing it electronically on my daily OhLife emails, but when I was at Michaels tonight, I spotted this gorgeous journal ($2.99 with my coupon!) and knew it would be perfect.

I love having a physical record of what I enjoyed this year. I think it will hopefully make me appreciate these little moments more. :)

My Memories Quick Page Freebie

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I use My Memories Suite to create some digital scrapbook pages, cards, and other fun digital projects. I haven't had as much time as I wanted to use it in the past couple of months due to the holidays, but I am looking forward to creating more layouts this year. I also plan to host another giveaway of the product soon, once I've installed and used the Version 3 upgrade I received.

In the meantime, I have a Quick Page Freebie Kit to offer my readers. I expect to offer freebie pages a few times a month. I plan to include my own layouts using these freebies in the future but as this freebie expires, I don't want to wait to show you all until I've got time to play :)

This weeks freebie is a cheerful and bright two page layout, and includes the papers and the digital elements to create these quick pages. The elements and Quick Pages are.png and the papers are .jpg format. These Quick Pages will not autoinstall into the software itself, but are used by adding to your project as you would a photo, and then layering your photo behind the open box. From there you can add journaling, embellishments and more to truly personalize!!

Click here to visit My Memories and download your freebie. This freebie will expire in just over a week, so hurry on over to download it!

Don't have My Memories Suite yet? Use my exclusive coupon code STMMMS36607 for $10 off and a $10 coupon to My Memories store!

Freebie Friday: Twenty12 Project Life Filler Card

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

I'm bringing back Freebie Fridays after taking time off for the fall and holiday season. I hope to bring you at least one freebie each Friday this year. As most of you know, I work full time and I have a 9 month old, so I don't have much time to do anything really elaborate. I hope you enjoy them, none the less.

Anyway, this week I have a simple filler card - sized 3"x4" - which would fit nicely inside your 2012 Project Life title page. The colors are based off of the Clementine edition, but I'm sure you could make it work with others as well. Print it at 100%. You can round the corners after printing, and add your own embellishments.

Click the picture to download the file.

Scrapbooking Plans

2012-01-05T15:10:00.001-05:00

Falling Behind

I fell way behind this year on Austin's first year scrapbook. It is definitely a source of stress for me. I have a Shutterfly code for a free photobook that expires at the end of this month, but I was struggling to decide what to use it for. And I have Project Life. And lots of old photos.

I've been scrapbooking for years, off and on. I have a huge wedding scrapbook, and I have one for events leading up to the wedding, and another for our honeymoon. I have one for Disney vacations, a mini one for more Disney vacations, and a general one that I made when I first started out scrapping back in college.

Having started Project Life, I've learned that I can still be creative, without the stress of designing the perfect page. This is the way I want to continue to scrapbook. But I can't make copies of this easily to share with Austin when he moves out on his own. And I don't want to give up my scrapbook at that time, I imagine keeping them until I pass on.

After reading The Mom Creative's post on her thoughts on scrapbooking, it all became very clear to me what I truly want to do. Pretty much exactly as she's done. She just laid it out there in a way that gave me that light bulb moment.

So my plan is:

Finish up that first year scrapbook. I realize it's a stress point right now, but I REALLY want to complete it. I love the way the first few months were coming together, and I am determined to finish it. I'll be starting back up on this over the weekend. I'll start with the monthly title pages, as those are the most important to capture the changes in Austin, and then fill in with the other monthly photos. Once this scrapbook is done, I don't plan to do any further traditional scrapbooking.

I will continue the Project Life scrapbooking process as long as I can - for years, until perhaps Austin is grown and moves away, maybe even longer than that. Hopefully the products will be available for years to come.

I'll scrap all my old prints (and photos on my computer that I have not printed yet) using the Project Life format in a general, all encompassing album (as mentioned in my previous post).

I will be using my free code to produce an annual scrapbook for Austin. This will be 2011, and will include photos and journaling about him for the year. Going forward, I plan to do one of these every year for him until it's no longer necessary. He can take these books (or perhaps, a copy of them) with him when he leaves home.

For special events that I want in a separate book, I'll either go the photo book route, or create a special mini book.

How about you? How do you scrapbook or record your memories?

Randoms

2012-01-04T22:59:00.004-05:00

I found this free printable today while reading through Becky Higgins' blog post about 2012 Project Life. It's a template you can print to help you figure out your layouts for photos and journaling.

Click here to visit Deb Duty Photography and download the printable. She's even made it fit on a letter size sheet of paper to be super easy to print.

You can even do your journaling right on the template for the week. I think this is a great idea to write down which photos each day you want to print, too. Then at the end of the week all you have to do is print them, instead of searching through all the pictures you took that week and figuring out which ones to use.

Other things - Not that anyone cares about this, but it was bothering me that I had December 2011 in the 2012 album, so I did some rearranging. I moved December back into my old Turquoise album, and took out the layouts I'd done when I first started which had our engagement and wedding. This leaves 2011 in one album. I have 2012 now, ready to fill, and I have the Clementine binder with the wedding and engagement layouts for all those old photos I want to scrap. So, three binders - 2011, 2012, and a general all encompassing binder for my old stuff. It doesn't sound like it matters, but mentally, I feel a lot more organized.

Finally, I've got Friday's Freebie ready to go (and next week's too). It feels really good to be able to provide freebies again. They're simple, but I like to be able to post them because I am always looking for freebies myself. It's only fair to give a little back. I hope you all enjoy them too.

Book Review: Being Kendra, by Kendra Wilkinson

2012-01-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

I've never actually been angry before that I bought a book. Even a book I didn't like, I can handle the fact that, hey, it just wasn't for me. But I am angry that I spent $25 at the airport a couple of months ago on this piece of garbage.

I loved Kendra's first book, Sliding Into Home. (Full disclosure, I have no idea if I'm supposed to italicize book titles in a blog post). It was fun, juicy, and entertaining. It was written as if Kendra was speaking. I note that she had different writers for the books; maybe that had something to do with it.

In any case, Being Kendra is absolute shit. I mean, the worst piece of writing you could ever possibly read, ever. EVER.

First - she contradicts herself, constantly. In one chapter she goes on and on about not having time to care about her appearance or weight the first 9 months after her son is born. In the next, she's hitting the gym hard core as soon as she gets back from her 6 week pp checkup. She works out and works out and works out and doesn't lose any weight (turns out she has a thyroid condition). Hank gets cut from the Eagles and she grabs the phone and forces him to go to Minnesota, and in the next breath she's yelling at him and saying that he's failed as a husband and father and how could he do this to her? Oh, and how she's a great mom because she lets her son fall down and takes him to the park to play and isn't overprotective, but then yells at people to put on hand sanitizer before touching her baby and won't leave the house because she's protecting him. Just a few examples of the contradiction this book is FILLED with.

Second - she spends about 2/3 of the book telling us what a perfect mom and wife she is. How she will never let her child stay up past 8pm and how awful it is that other celebrity moms have their kids out to late night dinners. How while reading is nice, she makes sure her son gets outside and touches the trees and sees the sky, not just reads about them. How she knows how to keep her man happy. How great her sex life is. How if you don't come home and want to jump your man's bones every single day then there is something wrong with your marriage.

Third - she had to have been contracted to write a second book, and had absolutely NOTHING to talk about. She spends entire chapters detailing daily routines or repeating the same things over, and over, and over again. Down to the exact hours of the day her son drinks his "all-natural smoothies with banana, strawberries, and blueberries with a little bit of yogurt" and when he naps and where he naps.

Being a mom is her 9 to 5. Marriage is her 9 to 5. Oh, but she's also a celebrity and so that means she has to make appearances and make money because poor Hank can't support the family by himself. Even though she yells at him and expects him to be a man.

There's an entire chapter devoted to how bad a mom her mother is. There's a very boring chapter on how she would have sex in her Dancing With the Stars trailer every Tuesday. And how she purposefully farted on DWTS so she could create her own moment. There's a long section about their nanny, who she loved but later fired because she was so jealous that the baby bonded to her.

She goes on and on lecturing the reader about eating healthy. How she slapped a hot dog out of Hanks hand once because he was going to eat a third hotdog (or heart attack on a bun, as she called it). But then in another chapter talks all about how many Dunkaroos she ate when she was pregnant and after she had the baby. She actually includes a couple of "recipes." Let me tell you, the LAST person I want recipes from is a former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner.

Which brings me to ANOTHER point - she mentions her friendships with Holly and Bridget, and proceeds to totally diss Holly because she's a Vegas showgirl and always on the prowl for a new boyfriend and Kendra is so beyond that lifestyle now.

There's a chapter where she says she had her "Britney moment" and tore their apartment to shreds. Hank came home and got so mad he passed out. That time, she didn't hit him. But the other argument they had, she actually clocked him. Over a damn text message that she misinterpreted.

I made it through half the book before I had to start skimming. I was determined to at least get through it so I could post a proper review, but even I have my limits. This book made me want to hurl it out the window. It actually makes me want to hunt Kendra down and smack her with it. It has 100% changed my opinion about her - I honestly loved her show and thought she was just a ditsy blonde but was funny and down to earth. Now I can't stand her and her patronizing, holier-than-thou attitude.

The book is just so repetitive, from the lecturing on eating and parenting, to Kendra whining about being a celebrity with no privacy, to reminding us a zillion times she used to be a stripper and used to be a drug addict, to bitching about Hank's football career (while insisting that he wanted to quit and she wouldn't let him), to all the sex talk. Which isn't even juicy sex talk. It's all about the great sex they have and where in the house they have it (everywhere but the bed, of course, because the bed is like driving an Oldsmobile) and for how many minutes and how many days a week.

I could go on about how bad this is but I'm totally done wasting my time on it. I'd really love to get my $25 back, please. Oh, and the 4 hours of my life I spent trying to read it.

Resolutions Update

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am planning on updating my blog monthly with a check in on how I'm coming along with my resolutions. I've updated them a bit since first posting, so here's the official listing:

Weight loss: My new goal is 145 pounds. I started (January 1st weigh in) at 173 pounds. That's 28 pounds. I successfully completed the first two days of January eating perfectly according to my plan, and working out 1 hour each day (30 mins using the XBox Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 game, 30 minutes treadmill). By the way, this game rocks. I'm way out of shape, and it's killing me, but there are many different intensities, so I think anyone will get a good workout using it. I love that, unlike the Wii, you don't have to wear anything or use a remote for it to recognize you. It's very sensitive and recognizes your movements well.

Dedicated Schedule: I've already got these noted in my planner and intend to stay on track. I have allowed myself the flexibility that if I really don't feel like crafting for pleasure (Monday nights), I won't. Last night, I felt like reading, something I wanted to enjoy in 2012, so I did. And I don't feel guilty about it. I refuse to skip business crafting nights (Tuesday and Thursday), however - I consider that "going to work."

Planner: As you've seen on my blog, I made one myself, and am using it regularly. I carry it with me in my purse, and keep it next to me at work and at home.

Organization/Cleaning: This is part of my schedule noted above, but I spent my vacation week organizing and cleaning, and it feels really nice. So far, we're spending the few minutes it takes to do the dishes after dinner or put something away, and it's working. I hope we can maintain this. I've got Saturday nights dedicated to cleaning and organizing (laundry and vacuuming are the big Saturday to-dos), and with the small daily maintenance, this shouldn't be a problem. Much easier to take a few minutes to wipe the counter down at night then to spend an hour doing a major kitchen cleaning.

Other things:

I decided, after reading SweatyGirl's resolutions, that I want to try to keep my nails (and toenails) painted. I painted them on New Year's Eve and touched them up last night. I'll plan to change out the color every couple of weeks, with just touch ups in between.

Along those lines, I am intending to wear makeup every work day. I don't intend to make myself wear it on the weekends, but my plan is to wear, at minimum, eyeliner and mascara to work each day. I spent the five minutes it took to put it on this morning and it feels nice. It was a little challenging with a 9 month old pulling up on my pants, but I made it through the process.

And then some other small things I'm attempting to do/have done - wash my face before bed each night (I'm so lazy about this), be in bed by 11 and up at 7, and the previously posted about giving up of Facebook.I also bought a small journal to carry with me and write in whenever I have a thought. Mostly, it's stuff I don't want to blog about. I have a lot of things running through my head, a lot of random thoughts, and I wanted an outlet for them.

I like this post - having everything concisely narrowed down helps me focus. So far, the first 2 days of 2012 have been perfect, exactly as I wanted to them to be, and if I just remember, one day at a time, I'll be able to keep on track.

Memory Monday: Project Life - December 25 - December 31, 2011

2012-01-02T19:49:00.002-05:00

The final Project Life spread of 2011.

This week was fun - filled with Christmas, a play date with the Castners, and Austin turning 9 months. Brad and I were both on vacation this week so we spent a lot of time playing with Austin as well as getting things done around the house.

Close ups of each page:

I used another 4x6 photo insert this week for the extra Christmas photos. I also included the wrapping from my gift from Austin.

On the back I put in the lottery tickets my brother gave us for Christmas (we didn't win).

I used a 6x12 insert so that I could include the Christmas wreath Austin made with his finger prints at daycare. The one I used is currently unavailable (the Project Life stuff goes FAST!) but American Crafts has a version here.

One of Austin's toys came with a little booklet, each page said "B something." The back cover summed up all the pages, so I kept just the covers and inserted into my layout. (I'd previously thought about keeping the whole booklet but it was quite thick and I didn't like that it was stretching out my page protector).

That's it for 2011! On to 2012 :) As a reminder for anyone who recently popped onto my blog, I started using the Amber kit and binder as of December 1st. So 2012 will be in the same binder as December 2011.

One Little Word: January 2012

2012-01-01T17:12:00.005-05:00

January is all about defining our word. The layout provided by Ali was for 9 small canvases, but I opted to keep it to 6 which worked for my mini book.

I can't stand my handwriting and knew that I'd spend far too much time trying to perfect it for this, so I decided to just type the words into the template and print.

On the blank canvas, I opted to stamp a simple phrase, and a flower. I then cut out my word using my Slice and outlined it in black to make it stand out.

We also were supposed to include a photo of ourselves at the beginning of this journey, so I had Brad snap this one today. I made sure Austin was in the picture because I want most of all to enjoy watching him grow this year. He's very important to my word.

I went with an antique tone to the photo so that it kept with my color scheme.

I have something else I need to work on for this album but I haven't figured out how I want to do it yet, so that part will have to wait. We are encouraged to include anything we like in the album and I'm definitely planning to do so.

2011 Highs and Lows

2011-12-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

2011 was a year of ups and downs for me.

I started off the year pregnant, in my third trimester.

Photo by Jennifer Millian

I was a miserable pregnant lady. Ask any friend of mine, or my husband. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

In March, I had a baby. The love of my life was born.

In July, I got to spend time with two dear internet friends who I finally got to meet in person this year (Laura for the first time in January, SarahBeth in July).

In October, I had to say goodbye to my best animal friend of 19 years, Gizmo. This is the last picture I took of him on the day he passed away.

Finally, I just celebrated my first Christmas as a mom:

This year I watched my son go from a bump kicking inside my belly to a little man who is now crawling, standing, and feeding himself bottles. I spent 10 weeks at home on maternity leave that I can't really even remember. I fell into a depression that I'm still struggling to pull myself out of.

I rang in 2011 in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. A crazy start to a crazy year. This year I'll be welcoming in 2012 at home, probably cuddled up in bed. A low key start to what I hope is a much more low key year.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Project Life: December 18 - December 24, 2011

2011-12-29T15:56:00.002-05:00

I was behind a couple of days in doing last week's Project Life because of the Christmas holidays, but I finished it up last night.

This week I had plenty of photos to choose from since it was the week leading up to Christmas.

It's hard to see in the picture of the layout, but the bottom right corner is a picture of Austin with the tree reflecting in his eyes:

I just thought it was so pretty to see the lights twinkling as he looked at the tree, I had to capture it.

This week I used an insert for extra pictures of Christmas Eve. Here's the front:

And the back:

I made sure to include a screenshot of the reply Tweet from Ali Edwards about my One Little Word cover page. (Thanks to Mama Castner for the idea!)

Another week complete :)

Slice Storage

2011-12-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

While getting my Project Life storage unit, I grabbed another one to store my Slice and accessories.

I want to note here that when Brad ordered three cartridges for me for Christmas, Making Memories sent him a bunch of extra freebies too! He got 3 extra blade refill packs, two sets of the pen tips, and two sets of marker tips. And when I sent in my Basics 1 cartridge because I was getting an error, they replaced it and sent me a brand new cartridge - Basic Elements and Seasons - free!

Michaels was having a major clearance sale on Slice cartridges and accessories. Cartridges were just $9.99 each (compared to over $30 for most cartridges on Amazon). The accessories were around $3 or less. Even the machine (the new Pink Elite, which I am so jealous of) was on sale for just $40. Anyway, I picked up 5 new cartridges. With the ones I got for Christmas and the free one from Making Memories, I am up to 11 cartridges. So for about $3, I picked up this little zipper binder to hold them. (It holds up to 24 cartridges and booklets).

The best thing about the unit is that I can use my Slice right on the top!

Clear Stamp Storage

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may have seen how I previously was storing my clear stamps. I decided after awhile I didn't really like the clear cases, so I stopped putting new sets into them until I figured out a new solution.

After some searching around last week, I found this new solution, and (at least for now) I am really happy with the outcome.

Here is my tutorial:

I have a bunch of clear cellophane bags with resealable flaps that I ordered for my greeting cards, and I wanted to store the stamps in those bags. So the first thing I did was cut a bunch of white card stock in the size of my bags (in this case, 4"x6"). I then took the clear sheet that has the stamp images and attached it to the cards. (The one below had previously been cut for my cd cases and I had to cut a little more to make them fit all on one card - some of the stamp sets I didn't need to cut up to fit).

Then I laminated the card using my Xyron 5" Creative Station.

Now that the sheet was laminated, I could stick the clear stamps to the back.

Then, I laminated another sheet of card stock (writing the name of the stamp set on it) and stuck it over the stamps, forming a sandwich of laminated card stock with the stamps in between, which allowed them to slide into my clear bags easily. Here's a finished set:

In some cases, I had sets that fit nicely into a bag - either the size noted above, or a slightly wider bag that I also had. I didn't have to cut those sets or laminate a front sheet, because I could just slide the set into the bag with the sheets the set came with:

Initially I'd stored them in two of the cd case boxes:

But then I wanted to be able to make dividers to sort the types of sets, and so I finally settled on using a photo box that I picked up years ago at Michaels (they still sell these).

I sorted the sets by type and cut some chip board as dividers. Here's the final result:

I really like storing my clear stamps this way (again, at least for now!).

The Christmas Post

2011-12-28T22:22:00.003-05:00

My Christmas photos are up on my family photo blog, if you'd like to take a peek.

Austin's first Christmas was lovely. He did get a bit overstimulated, mostly from being out of his usual routine, but he had a good time. He wasn't all that interested in the toys though. We kept trying to give him some of the new things to play with and all he wanted to do was tear up the puzzle mat on the floor. Some of the things he loved, though, were his new Let's Rock Elmo, the set of cars my mom gave him, and this spinning light up gear toy we gave him.

We ordered Chinese food for Christmas Eve, and we did a pot luck on Christmas Day, so it was nice not to have to cook a ton of food. We do have a lot of leftover cookies, candy, and desserts that we need to finish up before January 1st (or I'm giving them away!).

It was a really nice Christmas, but I am glad it is over. I can't wait to pack up my tree and decorations and get my house back in functioning order. :)

Goodbye, Facebook!

2011-12-28T20:27:00.001-05:00

I just did something I've been thinking about for a long time. I deactivated (deleted) my Facebook account.

I've been annoyed by all the changes Facebook has been going through, but this last change over to the Timeline style profile is the last straw for me. Even if you adjust all your privacy settings accordingly, you are still stuck with an ugly, hideous profile page. And yes, I know my news feed will still function normally, but I don't care.

I don't need Facebook. There are plenty of people who live their lives and don't have Facebook. I am very, VERY active on this blog. I have recently become quite active through Twitter. And most people know my email address, or at the very least, my cell phone number. I love to text. Finally, I set up a blog to post pictures to so my family can still keep in touch.

Seriously, if you want to keep in touch with me, there are many ways to do it. So I don't need anyone telling me that it sucks I won't be on Facebook anymore (or LiveJournal for that matter), because if you actually care to keep in touch, you know how to do so.

This is all I want to say about that.

Project Life Organization

2011-12-28T17:26:00.000-05:00

I created a little Project Life station next to where I take my photos so that I could leave my binder out and have all my supplies right at hand. I used some of my Christmas money to pick up a couple of craft storage units at Michaels (on sale for 40% off).

The craft unit has a slot for my extra page protectors and my card stock in the back. It has a smaller slot in the middle where I'm storing extra embellishments that coordinate nicely with my set. And in the front are three sections where I have extra journaling cards, some other inserts that I plan to use, and the super long journal cards and stickers. There's a draw in the bottom where I have my date stamp and ink pad with room for more embellishments.

To prepare for 2012 and make it easier on myself, I followed the instructions in this post over on Lovely Living and pre-dated my title cards and inserted my journal cards for the whole year. I have a bunch extra that I figure I can change out as I go, but at least this puts cards in each week that I can just slide out and fill in.

Now I'm ready to go!

In other Project Life news, upon seeing Mama Castner's Clementine kit today, I ordered up one for myself (with the binder and card stock). I anticipate using them for my old photos that need to be scrapbooked (a bunch I even need to print!). The kit is gorgeous, so I can't wait to get it.

One Little Word 2012 Necklace

2011-12-28T16:23:00.000-05:00

Mama Castner and I had a play date today with our boys, and we exchanged Christmas gifts. She gave me this amazing necklace with my One Little Word stamped in metal. The minute I saw the ones that Ali Edwards and others have, I wanted one, so I am so excited to receive mine!

I plan to wear this every day in 2012. :)

Salt Dough Ornaments

2011-12-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

I spotted some beautiful footprint ornaments on Pinterest several months back, and knew immediately I wanted to make them as gifts for Austin's grandmoms and aunties.

I actually used this recipe (not the one on Pinterest) to make our ornaments. One batch makes approximately 5 ornaments.

A few weeks ago we set about making the ornaments on a Saturday. Brad helped me - he's the cook in our family, and I needed an extra set of hands when positioning Austin's feet. (We actually tried hand prints first, but he kept grabbing the dough so they weren't coming out nice).

The dough was mixed using our Kitchen Aid mixer. We used a bowl to form the round shape, and Brad trimmed around the edges with a butter knife. I used a pencil to make the hole for the ribbon to go through (BEFORE baking! This is important!).

Oh, and the recipe says you can bake them in the microwave. We tried this three times, and failed each time. The problem with the microwave is that the water in the dough tries to escape so fast that it makes the dough bubble up and the footprints turn out all wonky. It is much better to just bake them in the oven.

After they were done baking, Brad gave them three coats of spray paint, and two coats of a polyurethane spray.

I wrote Austin's name and the year on the back of the ornament. (Did this before the poly step).

Then I tied some pretty organza ribbon through the hole so they can be hung. Of course I made one for myself and put it right up on my Christmas tree:

Pin It

Journaling: In Your Own Words

2011-12-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

I happened to be searching for an online journaling class and stumbled up on this free pdf from Elle's Studio. What I love is that they have input from some of my favorites including Ali Edwards and Marcy Penner.

One of the things that I really want to improve upon with my Project Life layouts is my journaling, so I am excited for this find!

One Little Word 2012 Cover Page

2011-12-20T21:29:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I worked on my cover page for One Little Word 2012. I am excited about the class, but I wanted to do this in a mini-album format, rather than the page protector/binder format on the supply list.

I used Ali's template provided on the class site in Photoshop Elements and adjusted it from portrait to landscape. I adjusted the size to 5x7 instead of 4x6, because I wanted more space on each page. I then changed the color of the outline and wording to a dark brown. I printed this on white heavy card stock and trimmed down to size.

I used my Slice Noel cartridge to cut out the lettering from Tim Holtz Idea-ology paper. I used the same paper to cut little squares that each feature a word that I feel relates to my One Little Word in 2012. I liked the text themed paper, because one of the things I want to enjoy next year is reading.

I used some paper flowers and dark brown metallic brads for a little feminine decoration. Even one of my sweet flowers has the word "enjoy" on it.

This past weekend, Shannon and I split the purchase of a Zutter Bind-it-All (on sale at Tuesday morning). I used it to punch the holes in my cover and back cover. I won't be binding the book until the end of the year, but I can punch the holes as I go. I'm keeping the cover and pages in a clear plastic storage box for now.

I'd love to know what you guys think!

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Tasty Tuesday: "I'm a dehydrating maniac!"

2011-12-20T10:49:00.003-05:00

Shannon gave me this baby for Christmas:

I was super psyched - I've been wanting a dehydrator/beef jerky maker for years (ever since we stopped by that tasty fresh beef jerky stand on our honeymoon). Brad and I got to work pretty quickly trying out "our" new toy!

I made apple chips:

I made an attempt at potato chips:

What I learned from the potatoes is that I need a mandolin to get super thin slices for chips (ours tasted ok, but they were very tough around the edges). I ordered up this one that should arrive tomorrow.

And the best part - we made beef jerky. Two kinds, a spicy (which is SUPER spicy) and a teriyaki, just using the pre-made seasoning packets that Shannon gave us.

With the pre-made seasoning, the teriyaki was way too salty, and the spicy way too spicy for my tastes. Brad is excited to make his own marinades, so in the future we'll adjust so that we get better taste results. However the meat we used (pricy stuff from The Meat House - $14 for 1.5 pounds which yielded probably a week's worth of jerky for the two of us - it filled up four trays in the machine) was perfect, and 8 hours in the machine resulted in the perfect texture/chewiness/toughness for the jerky. I'd call it a success!

I love this machine. Love it! Thank you, Shannon, for a fabulous gift! :)

Memory Monday: Project Life - December 11 - December 17, 2011

2011-12-19T00:30:00.000-05:00

I worked on this week's layout while watching the Survivor finale. Yay for being productive while spending three hours in front of the television.

Anyway, I'm rather proud of this one (apologies for the iPhone photos).

I found an idea online from Marcy Penner at Hello Forever to do a "highlights of the week" insert. I love this idea and plan to use it often!

I also inserted the number I pulled during my work Yankee Swap on Friday. I am LOVING having all my journal cards pre-designed and ready to just insert as I go. It makes things fall together so quick. It feels really good to be up-to-date with scrapbooking.

Since the iPhone photos came out so poorly, here are the photos I used in my layouts:

This weekend I spent some time downloading a bunch of free actions for PSE. I'm excited to learn how to use them over the next few weeks and start using them on my weekly photos.

Christmas DIY: Yankee Swap Gift

2011-12-18T22:09:00.000-05:00

I had to wait to publish this until after I've given this away, but I'm super excited about this year's Yankee swap gift for my work. Unless we make a rule that the Yankee swap has to be a joke gift, I refuse to give something useless. Last year, I gave an Amazon gift card, and everyone wanted it. This year, I gave the best gift of all - cash - but in a creative way.

First of all, I found this idea on Pinterest, so it's not my idea.

Here's my version:

I used cellophane bags I had from card making (purchased at Michaels'). I cut the lettering from the Noel cartridge on my Slice, and I hand cut the gingerbread man. I used a white gel pen for the decorations on the gingerbread man. The bag is sealed to the card stock topper using my ATG gun.

I'm pretty proud of this! :)

Stolen from SweatyGirl

2011-12-16T10:09:00.001-05:00

Shannon just filled out this on her blog, and I've stolen it!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
The feeling I get when I am snuggling in bed with my smiling, happy baby boy.

What is your greatest fear?
Death.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
I don't know, so I'm going to pretend this question asked what TV character I most identify with, and I'm going to answer Monica from Friends. It's like we're one mind.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I'm way too quick to react - both in speaking and in actions.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Thinking and acting like they are better than others.

What is your greatest extravagance?
What does this question mean? What I spend the most money on? Photography.

On what occasion do you lie?
To keep myself out of trouble, or to avoid hurting other people's feelings.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My smile. It is crooked. I can fix the after-baby belly, I can't fix the smile.

Which words or phrases do you overuse?
LOL.

What is your greatest regret?
Not letting Brad control my money sooner. If I'd given him control of my paychecks about 5 years before I did, we'd be very, very comfortably living right now. I'm a shopaholic.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Romantically, Brad. The person I love the absolute most? My son.

When and where were you happiest? (I am changing this to ARE instead of WERE)
See question 1. Oh, and geographically, in Vegas.

Which talent would you like to have?
I wish I could sew! :)

What is your current state of mind?
Unsettled.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I want to insert here that Shannon IS charismatic, whether she wants to realize it or not. She may not feel that way internally, but dammit, girl, you have a zillion people who ALWAYS WANT TO HANG WITH YOU because you are AWESOME. You definitely have magnetic charm, hon.

To change one thing about myself would be to stop needing/wanting to do everything and focus on what's really important. I would LOVE to be able to shut off my phone, to not want to blog, to not want to always have my hand in everything and just relax and play with my son all day.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I'm not going there. That's what I have my therapist for.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
I'd ideally never die. If I have to die, I'd like to be a ghost that can interact with the people I love, so it's almost like I never died.

What is your most treasured possession?
Most treasured material possession - my photos/scrapbooks.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I don't think I understand this question. Seriously contemplating suicide, maybe?

Where would you like to live?
See blog title.

What is your favorite occupation?
Celebrity. A-List, to be precise.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Too hard to pick just one. :) Pretty much any quality (other than procrastination) that my husband has.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Being available. (Not as in single, as in, being free to hang out).

What do you most value in your friends?
I like trust, yeah.

Who are your favorite writers?
I have a lot that I like. None that I'd call a favorite. Maybe Chelsea Handler or Jenny McCarthy for writers that I just can't wait to devour their books. (And they're not really writers, they're celebrities). But I'm a big fan of Marian Keyes and Emily Giffin, and James Patterson.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

Next question please, I don't have an answer to this.

Who are your heroes in real life?
I don't have any or know any.

What is it that you most dislike?

Bad drivers.

How would you like to die?
I'm hoping they figure out that immortality thing pretty quickly.

What is your motto?
Don't have one, and I don't want to pretend that I do.

Pawing Through Books: 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

2011-12-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Peggy over at Pawing Through Books is having a big giveaway right now, and one of their prizes features my magnetic bookmarks.

Please head on over to Pawing Through Books to enter their giveaway.

My 2012 personal crafting “wish list”

2011-12-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

I have, in my head, a million ideas. Between personal craftsand business related crafts, there isn’t enough time to do them all. So I’vespent some time thinking about what I really want to accomplish next yearduring my personal crafting times, and how I’ll be going about it.

Project Life. I’ve set aside Sunday evenings to keep up. Iintend to do Project Life for years to come.

One Little Word. I’ll be working on this once a month(starting in December with my title page), on Sundays after Project Life.

December Daily. I didn’t have time this year to start one ofthese, but I fully intend to do one next year. I love Ali’s December Dailies. Thiswill mean my December 2012 schedule will need to be adjusted to accommodate workingon this each night.

Austin's First Year. I only have a couple months of thisalbum done, but I fully intend to document his first year the traditional way.Once this is done, I will save traditional scrapbooking for mini albums andspecific events. I may do traditional layouts from time to time and insert theminto my Project Life albums. Traditional scrapbooking will be done on Mondaynights during my personal crafting time until I’ve caught up and completed thealbum. I hope to have it done by the end of April, after Austin’s turned a yearold.

House decorations. I’ve found lots of ideas on Pinterestthat I really want to create and help make my home feel more…cozy. Our houseseems so cold, so uninviting. It’s beautiful, but it needs to be more familyoriented. One of my Monday nights each month will be for decorations.

Blog. I want to bring back Freebie Fridays. I love makingfree digital things to share with my readers. Since I do a lot of the digitalstuff for my business, too, I’m going to mix these in with my two businesscrafting nights.

Photography. All that awesome time I plan to spend withAustin on the weekends will give me a lot of time to practice my photography. I’dlike to use these to keep up with my photography blog. But I’m planning on onlyediting and posting photos after my scheduled activities are completed for theday. I don’t want to skip business crafting or organizing/cleaning so I canedit photos. The photos will be there when I have the time to address them.There’s no rush, and I need to learn that.

Everything else. Those ideas will happen when they happen.And if they don’t…I’m not going to stress about it. I want to enjoy my 2012.After all, that IS my One Little Word.

Memory Monday: Project Life - December 1 - December 10, 2011

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am so excited, I finished my first Project Life layout using the Amber kit!

A few things I've started or will start doing:

I opted not to continue putting Austin's daily daycare sheet in the album. This is for two reasons - I don't really like it interrupting my layout and I think with a year of them the album will get too thick.

I am going to use OhLife a little more efficiently now, and do my journaling in the daily emails. Then all I have to do at the end of the week is copy it down onto my cards. It will be so much easier to complete my weekly layouts this way. It has been difficult to come up with proper journaling going on only the few word blurbs that I've been putting into OhLife.

I took out one of each of the journaling cards and put them into some protectors in the back of my album so that I can see which ones I have at a glance. Having them all bunched together in the journal card boxes is difficult for me to figure out which ones I want to use in the layout.

With the exception of the above layout (which has 10 days), my layouts will run from Sunday to Saturday. This allows me to work on my Project Life on Sunday without it still being part of the same week.

I may, in the future, batch my photo printing and run them through Shutterfly or CVS. I am not really thrilled with the print quality of the photos through my printer. Not that they aren't decent prints, but they seem very faded to me and I can't figure out why. My ink levels are 3/4 full so it isn't a low ink issue. And I'm not printing on economy or anything like that. And I hear it actually works out to be cheaper to order prints because printer ink is so expensive. What I would do if I decided to batch them is still work on my layouts and instead of putting in the pictures, I'd put a sticky note with what picture belongs in what slot. Then I could order prints say, once a month, and just slide them in when I get them.

Christmas DIY: Staircase and Chandelier

2011-12-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

I spent today finishing up most of my Christmas decorations. I still have a couple more things to show you, but here is my completed banister and my dining room chandelier decoration.

I am a terrible bow-tier but I put little bowls around the railing and on top of the green garland, and then used clothespins to hang my Christmas cards that I've received this year.

I tied more bows onto my chandelier. I think it makes the room seem more festive.

Oh, and I also came up with a table centerpiece. It's a work in progress. I want to make little paper ornaments to decorate the branches. But if I don't have time, these look kinda nice as they are, I think:

What's not in the picture is I tied a big silver and white bow around the vase.

I put out Brad's Christmas houses - he's only got 6 houses and very, very few accessories, so there's not much to see here:

I did get a really nice piece of news tonight though - my grandmother said that I can have her village! She's got a bunch of the department 56 houses and accessories. I am very excited. I don't think I'll be putting them up this year, because I'm pretty much decorated out, but next year I'll be able to make a special village in these book cases. I'm excited about this!

Iris Photo Suite iPhone app

2011-12-09T15:24:00.001-05:00

I downloaded Iris Photo Suite awhile back, but only really used it to add dates to my Instagram photos when I was doing Project 365. Iris is pretty cool - it supports the use of layers and masks, has a wide range of filters that you can preview live and change the opacity of, as well as the usual cropping and basic adjustments.

I was fussing around today on my phone and decided to try out a few of the effects you can do with the photos. Here's a few of the results:

I think these are some pretty neat filters. They give my regular photo a bit of a pop! :) Which one is your favorite?

(BTW - the font was added using Picnik).

Shout Out!

2011-12-08T11:19:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to put out a quick shout out to First Alert alarms. We have the hard wired smoke and carbon monoxide alarms throughout our home. I like that they are hard wired, because it doesn't put as much drain on the battery backup. I also love that during our first Christmas at our new home, the carbon monoxide detector went off at a low level, alerting us to an issue with our attic furnace before anything tragic happened.

Today, I love this company even more. Our alarm in our hallway died two nights ago - it gave a voice warning error and the indication was to replace the unit. I wasn't really happy about this - no alternative? No, try this, try this, try this? But I accepted our fate and the $60 price tag a new alarm would cost. Lowes' didn't have it in stock, so I had to order it online. There was a $9.50 shipping charge, and you all know how much I HATE paying for shipping. I found some newer models with free shipping and wanted to know if they were compatible with my unit. So I called up First Alert just to ask this simple question (were the units compatible) and without hesitation, they took down my address and are sending us a brand new detector for free. I checked and they have a warranty (new ones look to be 7 years, ours I think is 5), because they took down the date on the back of my alarm, too. (Only 2.5 years old).

So, shout out to First Alert for saving me $60!!! Sometimes, good things can happen when you call customer support :)

Austin meets Santa!

2011-12-07T21:57:00.001-05:00

Free Shipping Day

2011-12-07T14:39:00.001-05:00

I absolutely detest paying for shipping. This is why I order 95% of my products through Amazon, or I order enough at other websites to get to their free shipping minimum order amount.

Shannon just sent me this link to freeshippingday.com. Looks like on December 16th tons of stores are participating in free shipping with delivery by Christmas. If you've still got some holiday shopping to do online, this might be a great opportunity for you!

PicFrame for iPhone/Mac

2011-12-07T09:55:00.001-05:00

I wasn't quite ready to sleep last night, so I scrolled through the iPhone app store looking for some new photography apps, and found PicFrame. It costs 99 cents, but it's a great app for making photo collages. You can choose a bunch of different layouts, and adjust the frames, which you can't (as far as I know) do in Picasa. And it's a heck of a lot easier than making a collage in PSE.

You can adjust the roundness of the frames, the coloring, the width. You can even apply effects to individual photos in the collage.

I made the collage below (on my iPhone!) before going to bed in about 2 minutes. I loved the app so much I checked, and you can buy it from the Mac store too, for your MacBook. I went to add it this morning but turns out, I need to upgrade to Lion, so my MacBook is currently being updated. Yes, I did fork out the $29.99 to upgrade to Lion just so I could get this 99 cent app on my Mac. But seriously, folks, this is the perfect solution for me. I love making photo collages for this blog and my websites, and I've tried using the free version of Picnik, Picasa, Photoshop Elements built in collage maker, as well as getting some free storyboards from various sites like CoffeeShop. None have worked as easily for me as PicFrame.

This will be great when I can get back to posting my Disney trip photos from October. ;)

Christmas DIY: Fabric Scrap Garland and Paper Window Decorations

2011-12-06T22:23:00.001-05:00

I finished up my fabric garland yesterday while recovering on the couch, and tonight I made my paper window decorations. Both ideas were found on Pinterest, here and here.

Up first, my window decorations. I made enough for my four front windows:

And my fabric scrap garland. I used the same light string I'd bought for my fall cup garland and grabbed two bags of fabric scraps from my mom. I think the original inspiration was using ribbon but for me, this was more economical. I think I cut about 200ish strips to cover the light strand.

I still have a few more holiday craft ideas to come, so stay tuned! :)

Project Life Calendar System

2011-12-06T12:57:00.001-05:00

Michelle over at Mish Mash has a great post about using a calendar to help keep up with Project Life. Definitely a good post for me. She discusses how she fell 17 weeks behind, and, as you may know from my earlier posts, the same thing happened to me!

Click here to check out the post.

Tasty Tuesday: Hasselback Potatoes

2011-12-06T12:35:00.001-05:00

I find myself pinning a zillion potato ideas on Pinterest lately. Brad and I tried out this recipe from Seasaltwithfood a couple of times already, and they are delicious. Seriously unbelievable.

One thing to note - cut them as thin as possible, or they take longer to cook and they don't come out as crispy as they should.

Go check out that recipe and make them! Super easy and soooo tasty.