Category: crafty

  • project life 2013 : weeks 18 – 19

    I am still so happy to be keeping up with this project. As I was taking these photos Meredith was looking through last year’s album. She came across a picture of herself wearing her favorite jacket and she pointed at it squealing, “my jacket!” (although it sounds more like “muh shackee!”). It was incredibly cute and made me so happy to be keeping these memories in a way that she can already appreciate.

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    These weeks I had a lot of photos. They included my day in the life plus Mother’s Day, and apparently I was picture happy during that time as well. I had to seriously edit which ones I included because I wanted to leave space for journaling. I thought about splitting it up into two spreads but didn’t want to get behind.

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    Week 18

    It was a normal week. There was a cold front. We went on our pizza outing, took a visit to a state park, went to a friend’s 30th birthday party, and I sung during the service for the first time in our new church. Starbucks had their frappuccino happy hour so I indulged quite a lot (and made gold). Meredith became interested in my makeup. I was reading The Accidental Tourist for book club.

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    I took a video of Meredith “reading” to herself. Best.

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    I kept the same format as last month for day in the life. I included my notes page in the binder as well but didn’t take photos of it this time.

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    Week 19:

    Another fairly normal week with a crazy weekend. My parents got M. a new tricycle to keep at their house. She learned how to make coffee using the Keurig. We had pizza with my father-in-law one night. David won a bunch of money on a lottery scratch-off ticket. He had flowers sent to my work for Mother’s Day. The weekend included a baby shower for my friend Melody, a birthday party (with pony rides and carnival games!) for my friend Sara’s kids, and all kinds of family gatherings for Mother’s Day. I got my quilt laid out and finished the audiobook Abhorsen.

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    Took a video of Meredith riding the pony. She was way less excited than I was. :)

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    I said I took a bunch of extra photos these weeks, and most of them I just left out but there was one that I wanted to include but it just didn’t fit. So I adhered a tab to the top and slipped it in behind the journaling. Whenever I include a tab it will alert me that something is hiding there just waiting to be pulled out.

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    Supplies used: Seafoam core kit, SMASH tape, Finding Nana calendar printable, Avery clear index tabs, Avery kraft label

    Tools used: Design A pocket pages, staz-on ink, Office Depot date stamp, EliseJoy stamps, Studio Calico exclusive Day by Day class stamps, Stampin’ Up heart, circle, & tag punch, Technique Tuesday Just Awesome tabs stamp, Sharpie pen, American Crafts slick writer, Fiskars paper trimmer, Fiskars corner rounder, Tombow adhesive

  • a woven wall hanging

    Several of you have already given me great suggestions about what to do with the buffet area of our house, so thank you much for that! It is really getting me inspired to work on it.

    Today I want to share with you what I hung on the wall right next to that space, which is my handmade woven wall hanging. I got the idea for this from Rachel’s blog, fell in love with it, and decided it would be one of my vacation projects. I built a loom using scrap wood, nails, and string I found at my parents’ house. Then I gathered some different types of yarn and cording from the craft store and just dug in.

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    It took awhile to figure out the best way to weave, but after awhile I got in a groove. I got about halfway through during vacation and then it took me several more weeks of stolen time here and there to finish it up. You could do it in a day or two if you had the time. I’d say it took about 8-ish hours.

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    When I got near the bottom and my yarn ran out I just decided I was through. In theory I wanted it to be longer but I was too excited to finish it up right then. So I just cut the strings and tied them up.

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    To hang it I just fed a small dowel rod through the loops at the top and tied another piece of string on. I had to tie it pretty tight, otherwise it kept slipping in toward the middle.

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    I am proud of this project because I had never tried something like it before and I think it turned out pretty well. I am already planning to do more.

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    There are some things I would do differently next time. First I would choose more varieties of texture  with my materials. Plastic string, fibrous twine, ribbon, and fabric would be great. I also want to try one that is “messier” using natural twine as the base and letting it show through more by not weaving as tightly.

    So who wants to have a weaving party? :)

  • project life 2013 : weeks 16 – 17

    Hey look, I’m somehow still caught up with Project Life! This spread is from April 15-28. These weeks were pretty normal ones around here.

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    Week 16:

    We had dinner with David’s parents a couple times and Meredith had a blast going through family photos. She was teething and had a lot of trouble sleeping, so I was kind of a zombie for most of the week. I read a lot and finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed. We started a weekly experiment of visiting a new local pizza place each week to find our favorite. We visited my mom at her school’s garage sale and played at a local park. David and I went on a movie date to see Olympus Has Fallen. I went to book club and we celebrated my sister-in-law’s and David’s grandmother’s birthdays.

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    I love this new (for me) detail for simple journaling on photos.

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    Week 17:

    It was a rough week at work because I made a couple of (minor) errors and I had to be in charge. We had really nice evenings all week, playing at home and visiting David’s brother’s family. We went to a new pizza place. It rained all weekend and Meredith took a 4-hour nap allowing me to finish my quilt cutting and the woven wall hanging. We celebrated my nephew Lucas’s 4th birthday with a pirate party at the park. We also celebrated my brother’s birthday with a family lunch at his new house.

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    I took an action photo of everyone playing outside at my brother-in-law’s house and just wrote directly on the photo to say what was happening. I love love love this and will be doing it again!

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    Below is one of my favorite photos so I put it in twice for emphasis. It’s super blurry because it was in dim lighting and using the forward-facing iPhone camera, but just look at how much love there is between us. :) Meredith does this thing now where she just starts rubbing her face on mine and pushing into me and we call it “playing faces.” It’s the absolute best.

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    In this pocket is a little envelope and inside I tucked in some hidden journaling. Throughout my albums if I include a paper clip it almost always means you can open up what’s inside.

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    Just a little summary of our weekend here.

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    I think this is one of my favorite spreads. :)

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    Supplies used: Seafoam core kit, Freckled Fawn washi tape, Studio Calico letter stickers

    Tools used: Design A pocket pages, staz-on ink, Office Depot date stamp, EliseJoy stamps, PromptShop stamp, Studio Calico exclusive Day by Day class stamps, Stampin’ Up heart stamp, Sharpie pen, American Crafts slick writer, Fiskars paper trimmer, Fiskars corner rounder, Tombow adhesive

  • list 6 : with me at all times

    It’s time for Book of Lists! Still loving this little project.

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    When it came down to it I really didn’t have all that much to put on this list! Just the basics.

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    my phone

    something to read

    lip ointment

    God

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    In the picture is Lanolin, which I use on my lips, the book I’m currently reading (The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler), and my phone. I hate the case it’s in and I’m super excited that I have a new one on the way.

    Each month when I get out my Instax camera to take a picture for this project I’m reminded of how much I love it. I’m thinking of doing a month-long Instax challenge sometime this year just for fun! Anyone out there have one? What do you use it for?

    Next month: We’ll be posting on June 3 and the topic is “I’d rather be doing.”

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    Confused by Book of Lists? Read this post! See all of my lists here.

  • project life 2013 : week 15

    Here’s my Project Life spread for the week of April 8-14, which was the week I was home on vacation. It ended up being a fairly colorful layout which is fun. I have a lot of very neutral layouts as well but they all go together.

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    I included an insert for our trip to the zoo because we took a lot of pictures that day and they were so cute.

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    On the left side is the mini loom and the start of my woven wall hanging, an Instax outtake, my brother and Meredith as well as a little journaling about how we visited him on his birthday, a filler card, and photos of my cross stitch progress and my crafting desk where I spent a lot of time.

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    I kept the insert super simple. Just photos, a short journaling card with prompts, and tickets.

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    Here’s the back of it. I used a Smash fabric tab to distinguish it as an insert.

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    On the right side is photos of Meredith’s and my organized closets, another filler card (I didn’t take many vertical pictures this week for a change), and my painted toes relaxing.

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    We spent some time with family and Meredith and her cousin Cameron had a blast driving this motorized toy car around. I got an adorable video of it, too.

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    Here I taped in the ticket from our date to see the play my brother directed.

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    And lastly, another simple journaling card detailing all the stuff I got done that week. Washi tape was a special edition from Freckled Fawn.

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    Thought: I love my simple style of layouts, but one thing I want to incorporate more as far as embellishment goes is stamps and writing directly on photos. It is in keeping with the style but adds just a little more interest without being distracting. (Take this and this for example.) I just ordered these stamps and a bunch more of these (I already have a few) and I’m excited to put them to use!

    Second thought: In the future I am going to start listing the supplies and tools I use at the bottom of each post, just in case it can help someone out there.