I know it's late in the "resolution" game, but I really want to try some new things this year. Something I have really wanted to do for a while is make MORE VIDEOS. I love making videos. I love creating, so why not combine the two! And....I am determined to get myself in front of the camera, as you will see in this new (and incredibly awkward) video today! Ideally, I would love to have you all over to craft together in my studio, but for now, I will have to settle on videos and pretend talking to people. So for 2016, my goal is 52 new videos just for you! One video a week for every week of 2016! I'm a few weeks behind the game, but I'm going to try my best to catch up and stick to my goal!
Come hang out with me for a while today as I walk you through setting up my January planner! (And I also uploaded a few older videos to my YouTube channel, so come subscribe and follow along!)
Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you join me on this video adventure! If there's anything that you want to see or any particular project you'd love for me to create, just leave me a comment here and I will definitely add it to the list!! Happy crafting (and recording)!!
Oh man that's a lot of books!! Will you just look at all of those memories?
I can't believe that this project is done and finished. Each album really was a labor of love, but looking back through all of the memories and stories recorded, there's not ONE thing I would change about the process. I loved being able to try something new every month. It kept this year-long project doable and fun. Printing still is my nemesis, but having these photos off of my camera is pure happiness.
If you're thinking about tackling a project similar to this, here are some things I learned this past year!
1. Always start with an album size. There were many months where I really struggled and went back and forth on an album size. If I would have just picked one and moved forward, it would have saved me so much time. So pick your album size, run with it and don't look back! You always have next month to change things up!
2. Print your photos first. As soon as I selected my album size, I started printing my photos. I typically printed mine altogether towards the end of the month (or the beginning of the next month). I found it much easier to batch print, than to try to print throughout the month. As far as photo size was concerned, I always printed a variety, but made sure my largest photo was the size of my album (6x8, 4x6, 4x4, etc....). The double spread photos were usually printed last after I started putting my album together.
3. Don't overthink your book or your pages. Seriously. I can't stress this enough (and I'm totally guilty of this and am mainly talking to myself here, lol). When it's all said and done, that one page you spent so much time worrying about, or thinking about, will just be a page in an awesome book you put together. So don't overthink the process. Just do it!
4. Cut down your ephemera. I trimmed all of my cards, artwork, programs, etc.. to whatever sized album I was using for the month. Remember, it's better to cut it down and put it in an album than to "save" it for another day (which likely means it will never make an appearance again).
5. Repeat your favorite size! If you are trying to do a new book every month, then you will mostly likely repeat a size. That's totally fine!! The 4x4 (and 6x6) size was by far my favorite and it made it's appearance three times last year. This size was very easy to work with and was very simple to put together. This size definitely took out a lot of the guesswork when it comes to what to put where/what to put in a pocket etc... Find what works for you and go for it! There are definitely no rules with this project!
6. Shop your stash. I moved through so many products last year and I am SO grateful for that! I am the world's worst hoarder, so it was tempting to hold onto stuff at times, but I am so thankful that I made myself use it! I actually appreciate the card/album/paper more seeing it used rather than sitting in my stash!
And if you are BORED out of your mind and want to listen to me for two hours, well, here ya go! All 12 videos for your viewing pleasure! ;) Thank you to everyone who followed along with this fun adventure! The process was fantastic, but having these completed albums is truly the icing on the cake!!
Hello!! Today, I thought I would share a look at the rest of my December Daily/Project Life album! This is the FINAL book in my 2015 Project Life series and I really can't believe that this project is over. Each album is truly a treasured keepsake... And just looking back through all of our photos, I am just SO shocked at how quickly my kids have grown and changed. The days may seem long, but wow, the years are short!
For December, I decided to combine my book to include both our daily activities, as well as our Christmas events. The beginning of the album is more "day-to-day" stuff, and the end of the album is more Christmas-y stuff (which is basically how our month went).
I used a 4x4 album that I had in my stash and I just LOVE this size. I know I've said it a zillion times before, but if you are on the fence about wanting to create a mini album, this size is the perfect size! Promise! I kept the pages super simple and easy, and as you will see in the walk-through video and photos below, repetition is the key to finishing!
I've shared pages 5-14 in another blog post, but below is a walk-through video of the entire album (excluding days 1-4 which were part of the 25 Days class at Studio Calico)! Enjoy!!
Have I mentioned I really love this size??? :)
Thank you SO much for following along with me this past year! 2015 is fully recorded and really is such peace of mind knowing that my photos are OFF of my phone and computer! Tomorrow, I'll be back to share with you some of the things I learned this year. If you have any burning questions, just leave me a comment here and I'll be sure to answer them tomorrow!! Yay!
My plan for 2016 is simple and easy memory keeping. I know I want to document our days in some way, and I think I'm at the point where I mentally want it to be easy. I loved each of my Project Life books from last year and each and every one tells a different story about a different month. They are SO fun to look back on and time and energy I put into them was so worth it. But for this year, I really want to focus on photography, so instead of just tossing memory keeping aside altogether, I've planned to incorporate some easier and simpler means for memory keeping.
One of my main projects for this year is to record ONE story per month using Ali Edwards' Story Kits. I am a BIG fan of kits and limited supplies. The "collector" (i.e. hoarder) in me loves to grab all the new products and hot items, but I know when it comes to actually using them, I often feel overwhelmed and exhausted with all this "stuff". Narrowing down the products I want to use helps me tremendously when it comes to creating; and Ali's Story Kits are just such a great foundation for telling a story.
I'll be using a 6x8 album and a variety of page protectors (mostly likely the 6x8 size). Each month, my plan is to pick one story, or tell one "overall" story of our month. I will most definitely be using lots of photo collages because I love how they alone can tell the story of our month. Other months, I'll stick to one story, or maybe write a letter or something. And if I feel I have more than one story to tell, while then, I'll create extra pages. The goal here, though, is not worry about which story I tell or which story gets left out, but to get my thoughts and our memories down on paper. I am a firm believer that there is no right or wrong way when it comes to memory keeping.
This is a look at December in my album. We took a trip to the mountains right at the end of December (after my December Daily album officially ended), so I decided to start with this story. To the left, I used Picmonkey to create a simple collage and then typed up my journaling on a piece of 6x8 card stock for the right hand side. So so easy.
For the first part of January, I wanted to talk a little about our "right now", our goals, etc... I did this page right at the beginning of the month, so I'm actually thinking about doing an additional "collage-type" page at the end. Or maybe not...we shall see!
This process is SO simple and SO easy, and if you've been on the fence about memory keeping, or journaling, I couldn't recommend this approach more. You really only need limited supplies and your photos - and you could use any supplies here, old or new! Remember, it's not about how many pages you make, or how many memories you record. It's about living your life and recording those moments you want to record! Whatever you do, I promise you will never regret getting your photos off of your camera and writing down details of your days.
One of my favorite ways to create a scrapbook page is to use all of my leftover scraps and extra photos together. I've always gravitated toward a white background, so I tend to have lots of "scrap" papers leftover. And I print more photos than I know what to do with, so combining the two turns out to be a win-win for me!
When I'm pulling my extra supplies out to create a page, and I have a lot of elements I want to include on a page (photos, papers, etc...), I love to pull out my circle punch and go to town.
Circles are so versatile and add such a fun element to any project! Sometimes I layer them together with other round embellishments, and other times, I crave a little more uniformity on my page.
For this page, I used various papers and photos punched from circles and left part of a row empty to add in my title. You just gotta love circles and you can't beat using your extra supplies to create a page!!
What's your favorite way to use up those scraps and extra photos??
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."
Anna: Saturday shenanigans at the park. Love all of the stables and little houses scattered around the park. Canon 6D, f2.2, ISO 100
Drew: My sweet boy and his new hair cut. Daddy got a little carried away while I was out of town and decided to give Drew a trim. I'm never leaving again... Canon 6D, 35mm, f2.0, ISO 400
A new year always sparks new possibilities. I love thinking of how i want to tackle the year and all the things I want to achieve creatively. This year, I'll be taking a much more relaxed approach to memory keeping. While I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Project Life books from last year, they were a lot of work. Not that they took a large amount of time to create, but mentally, they were a lot of work. Most months I struggled with what size and type of album I wanted to create...did I want to use lots of journaling cards, create my own cover, etc... mentally it was just exhausting. I love each and every one of my books, but my OCD personality needs a big break this year!
But I couldn't imagine NOT documenting this year in some fashion. I thought about it for a hot second, but it just didn't feel right. There are so many stories and memories that I would have forgotten if I had not kept up with Project Life or traditional layouts. So many photos would be sitting on my computer had I not had a plan and a focus for memory keeping.
For 2016, I plan to use Ali Edwards' Story Kits as my platform for memory keeping. I'm the worlds worst at storytelling and her kits really do "spark" a story for me. I love that they have a monthly theme, so I'll be using the theme to tell some story of that month. Some months might have more than one story, but my goal is to do at least one story. They will likely consist of mostly words and photos (as in the two projects above). I'm keeping it simple this year!
I also planning on printing monthly photo books through various companies. I take a TON of photos and my biggest fear is that these photos will just sit on my computer and phone. so just like last year, I'll have monthly books, just in a simplified format. Photo books are quick and easy, and I actually really enjoy creating them, so I'm pretty excited about that!! (and p.s. - if you have a favorite photo book company, leave me a note in the comments and I'll check them out! i'm needing 12 different companies.)
I'm sure I'll sprinkle in a few additional projects throughout the year, but these are my two core memory keeping projects! I'm looking forward to enjoying the process and letting the stories speak for themselves!
So what about you?? What's your memory keeping plan for this year??
"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."
Anna 1/52: watching the world go by... (Canon 6D, 50mm, f2.2, ISO 1000)
Drew 1/52: trying to catch snowflakes in the backyard. If you look really really closely, you can see the tiny white flecks flaring around. The temperature turned rather quickly and went from unseasonably warm to super cooooold. (Canon 6D, 35mm, f1.4, ISO3200)
I always love the start of a new year. I'm always searching for new projects and wracking my brain for something "new" and exciting to try. I have lots of plans in my head, but making them happen is a different story. I'm playing along with a few different photo prompts this year to continue my love of photography. I love thinking outside of the box with my camera. I love trying new angles, new lighting, new challenges. And I absolutely love photographing my kids. It's amazing to me how quickly they grow overnight - seriously. It's amazing how much they change and recording them in the here and now is so important to me. I had thought about doing Project 365 (taking a photo everyday throughout the year), but that kind of stresses me out a little. I'm sure I take a photo a day, but the pressure of having to take ONE was just too much. So my plan is Photo 52, or one photo of my children each week during 2016. At the end of the year, I plan to create a photo book of just their photos to catalog this wonderful year. One project down. A zillion more in my head to figure out.
I spent this past weekend at the Craft & Hobby Association show in Anaheim, California. I've never been, so to say that I was giddy excited to see all of my crafty friends IN PERSON is an understatement.
My flight left SUPER early Friday morning and I got to start my day following the sunrise across the country (and I also had a row all.to.myself, so that was nice too). So incredibly beautiful!
The show was full of excitement, hugs and craziness! We had a photo booth in the Big Picture Classes/Studio Calico booth and it was quite the hit. Any free second we had, we were usually "testing" the camera to make sure it was working properly.
I finally got to hug all of these ladies in person. Each is just a hoot and I am so honored to know them! Paige Evans debuted her new line, Fancy Free, and it is even more awesome in person.
I spent loooooots of time with these ladies setting up the booth, chatting and "checking" the camera for the photo booth. We had the brightest and whitest booth in the whole place for sure.
I did manage to sneak out of the booth for a few minutes here and there and ran into so many awesome people, including my fave, Maggie Holmes, the talented Olya Schmidt and the sweet sweet Lindsay Bateman. I loved being able to actually connect with people I've "known" for years!
This weekend is the Craft & Hobby Association tradeshow in Anaheim and I'm so excited to be going as the marketing coordinator for Big Picture Classes! Crazily, it's always been a dream of mine to actually go and see this show in person, and I'm so excited to catch up with old friends, new friends and more! One neck that I'll be sure to hug BIG TIME is Maggie's!! Maggie has a new collection for Crate Paper debuting this weekend and I can't wait to see it in person!! The new collection is called Bloom, and it truly is a breath of fresh air! Take a look!!
A little background about the inspiration for this collection: Bloom was inspired by Maggie's love of flowers and the fond memories she has of being in her grandmother's beautiful backyard garden. You'll find that much of the design in the new collection translates directly from this inspiration, including 6 different floral patterned papers, a stunning gold foil floral on vellum, and a large variety of colorful flowers, leaves and floral accents in the ephemera, chipboard and sticker packs!
Not only is BLOOM perfect for Spring, but it's also designed to coordinate with your everyday memory keeping, gift giving, crafting and more. The collection is filled with lovely feminine icons alongside cute trendy basics such as bows, hearts, labels and tags. New embellishments include 3 dimensional paper flowers, layered fringe hearts, a washi tape book, silicone shapes, mini leather tassels, clear stickers and more! As always, Maggie makes it all shine by layering gold foil and the perfect gold glitter onto many of her products. You will especially love the rich finish of the gold foil washi strips!
Today I'm sharing a few sneak peeks into Maggie's new product line! I love all the pretty floral touches and pops of gold. Maggie sure knows how to design a collection, don't you think??
You can find the full reveal of BLOOM on Maggie's blog, along with lots more photos of the her products and a grand prize giveaway, so be sure to visit and enter to win!
Today as part of the big reveal of this new collection I am giving away a sampling of the new BLOOM products here on my blog to one lucky winner! To enter leave me a comment here letting me know you're favorites from this new beautiful collection and visit me over on my Instagram feed for an additional chance to win!! The winner will be drawn next Wednesday and announced here on the blog! The other design team girls are also sharing more beautiful photos of BLOOM and they are each doing giveaways as well! Be sure to stop by Amanda, Kim and Jessy's blogs to see more and enter to win! Good luck!!
