Category: crafty

cross stitch #3 : rosy posy

A little over a year ago I set a goal for myself to complete, frame, and blog about ten cross stitch projects. Here I am today finally sharing another one with you, even though it’s only the third one in this challenge. This one is from Cross Stitcher magazine and it was pretty fun.

I placed it in a simple wooden frame I found at Goodwill. Eventually I think it might end up on the gallery wall in our bedroom that I’m dreaming up, but for now I have it propped up on our little buffet area.

It’s always so satisfying to see a completed project displayed!

March 5, 2014
project life 2013 : week 52 & end page

I’m done with my 2013 album! I have to say, even though I’m still like 9 weeks behind, I feel way better about this project now.

Okay, so this spread was December 23 – 31. I had photos from Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and a wedding we went to. All my other photos from this time went in the holiday minibook. I was really just trying to get this done and somehow include everything. I kept the journaling cards neutral because of how many photos there were.

I actually had an insert too for all the family pics we took on Christmas. I had one extra that I just had to put in, and I wanted to keep all the Christmas stuff on this side, so I made a little flip card.

On the back of the insert I cut down some paper and adhered this photobooth strip of my sisters-in-law and me at the wedding directly on top of the page protector. It was perfect.

Right side is simple photos and journaling about the wedding and NYE.

And here is my end page! I really, really did not want to spend much time on this so I just put in a bunch of cards from the seafoam and midnight core kits.

I did one stamp and the “goodbye twentythirteen” from Caylee Gray. Plus just a tiny bit of journaling summing up the year.

At the end of each album I am including a big 12×12 pocket envelope and I put inside all the cards and memorabilia that I want to keep but that didn’t fit or didn’t quite make it into the album itself. Since I don’t do a spread for each week there is plenty of room in the album for this, the envelope is heavy duty, and I have a perfect place for this extra stuff! Highly recommend this idea.

That’s it for 2013!

March 3, 2014
project life 2013 : weeks 50 – 51

More Project Life catch up!

This is from December 9 – 22, so basically the buildup to Christmas. I’m really glad I did the holiday minibook, because it allowed me to focus on the everyday stuff here and not be overly full of holiday stuff.

I did include a couple of holiday things that were also in the minibook. The completion of my niece’s stocking was a huge deal to me. I also put in a picture of Meredith at her Pappy’s nursing home Christmas party. The rest of this side is just extra fun stuff.

On the right side I started with my overview of the week with all the extra stuff that I didn’t have photos of. Then there are a couple pictures of my shopping trip with Dad and Meredith, some of her being adorable, and all the little baby boy clothes that we finally put away.

I always mean to include more quotes from Meredith, but then forget to. At least I have my “Meredith lately” blog series to refer to. :)

February 24, 2014
project life 2013 : weeks 48 – 49

I haven’t given up on Project Life! It’s still totally in effect, and I’ve finally started to work on catching up. Expect to see several updates on it over the next few weeks.

This spread is from the weeks of November 25 to December 8 which included Thanksgiving.

On the left side are all photos from Thanksgiving, a journaling card about the holiday, a movie ticket stub for a date night, and an iPhone screenshot of the weather when it finally got cold.

The right side had the rest of everyday life stuff. We decorated for Christmas, the Starbucks red cups came out, I went to an event with my mom, and Meredith came with me to a doctor’s appointment due to a power outage at her school. The only journaling I did on this side was a little about that day since it was out of the ordinary, and a week in review card for all the other stuff that happened.

I made this spread extremely quickly and it’s not a favorite but right now I really, really just want to get 2013 finished. I’m hoping to spend a bit more time on 2014’s spreads but the most important thing is just to do them!

February 18, 2014
holiday minibook complete!

Okay, after two days of emotional posts I need to focus on some lighthearted things for awhile. Let’s start with this, our finished holiday minibook! I know it’s almost Valentine’s Day but since nothing was getting done but the bare minimum until this baby was born, I’m pretty happy that I finished it while it’s still winter anyway.

For the base I purchased a mixed paper book from Petaline Prints (currently none are available but maybe she’ll have more next holiday season) which I loved and was perfect for what I intended. During the holidays I saved anything I thought I might want to add to the book, took lots of photos, and then after Christmas I printed them all and gathered together any extra paper, stickers, or supplies I thought I might want to use.

That pile sat around until last week when I spent just a few days putting it all together. I have never done a minibook before so this is kind of a trial run to figure out my style. I changed a lot of things around during the process as I decided what I did and didn’t like, and then tried to keep things somewhat consistent like the placement of photos and the way I did labels and journaling. I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to doing this every year, although right now I don’t plan to make any additional minibooks other than for the holidays.

Below you’ll see the finished project, and a few notes on particular pages. If you have any questions about any of it let me know!

The “making a list” printable was found at A Pair of Pears.

That drawing was made by an artist at the church we went to for Christmas Eve service. It’s supposed to be our family although it took me a long time before I realized he hadn’t given me someone else’s. :)

Inside the envelope are about 5-6 more Instax photos of Christmas Day. I didn’t want to overload the album with them, so I just pulled out the ones of our family to display.

Pretty simple overall, and very satisfying! Right now I’m in the middle of updating Liam’s baby book, then my next big maternity leave project will be catching up on Project Life. Yay crafting time.

February 12, 2014