Category: crafty

Here we go! I am already behind because I wanted to wait for my core kit to arrive before beginning, but I am taking notes and staying organized so I don’t think it’ll be too hard to catch up.

Most of the paper here is from the Seafoam kit. I’m pretty much in love with it, although I definitely gravitate toward the neutral and seafoam colors in it and away from the yellow/orange so I just used the ones I like best here. The number stickers in the top left pocket are ones I’ve had forever and I think I just got them at an office supply store. The “we” badge in the bottom right pocket is from Ormolu but I can’t find it in stock right now.

The part I stressed about most with this cover page was finding a photo of us. Last year I did individual portraits and that’s what I had in mind, but I ran out of time to take them and the thought of trying to get them done stressed me out. I also didn’t have any good family shots that weren’t holiday-related. This photo of us that I chose originally had a Christmas tree in the background and that’s not the vibe I was going for. :) So I turned it black and white and blurred out the background in PSE. I think it works! This copy was printed on regular paper and is poor quality, but I will switch it out for a better one soon.

I’ve had these tags from the Etsy shop Handmade Modern for awhile and I thought this would be a good place to use them. I stuck them in pockets with Project Life grid paper.

On this paper I used a stamp from the Studio Calico Day by Day class to add a little extra.

As I’ve been preparing to start this new album I’ve had some thoughts about how I want to do it:

>This year my weeks will go from Monday to Sunday in order to keep the weekends together.

>I’ll be working primarily with the Seafoam core kit. I do have other things to add, but it’ll probably form the basis of the entire album.

>I want to include more black & white photos. I’m really going to try to keep a similar color scheme and feel to each spread, so if a photo doesn’t quite “fit” I’ll probably turn it black & white.

>More QR codes to videos! They are so fun.

>Since I’m already blogging about my pages, I want to use that space to recap our weeks as well. That way I can easily keep you up to date with our current happenings.

That’s what I’ve got for now! I’m so excited for this year. :)

It sure feels good to have one whole year in the books. I still love it so much.

I tried a couple of new things on this last page that I will be doing more of in my 2013 album. One of them you can see in the top photo, which features the group of us who gathered for New Year’s Eve for the 7th or 8th year in a row, where I added text right onto the photo in PSE.

On the bottom row I cut out the “notes” from a Paper Source wall calendar and wrote a summary of our year, and the label on the bottom right is a printout from the Studio Calico Day by Day class along with the stamp.

But this is the coolest thing ever. I got the idea from Manda’s blog (which you should read because she’s awesome). I uploaded a video to YouTube and then used this website to create a QR code for it, took a screen shot, cropped it down, and printed it out so now my album is interactive! I’m kind of obsessed with this idea and I’ll definitely be including it whenever I have an interesting video. (This one has some silly dancing from NYE on it and is private for now.)

To round out the pockets I cut down a calendar from Paper Source with this pretty paper, and then just stamped 2012 all over a piece of kraft paper.

I never really lost steam with this project all year but I am now completely reenergized. I’m expecting my core kit to arrive this week and I can’t wait to tackle 2013! Most likely I’ll share my title page next week along some more thoughts on how I’ll proceed this year.

Happy Monday!

This is the last spread of 2012, and all I have left to do is the back ending page! I’ll share that with you in the next week or two since I’m awaiting the arrival of my core kit to start 2013’s album.

A color scheme emerged naturally this week. I usually don’t use much red but I love it as an accent color with the teal + neutrals since it was Christmastime.

On the left side are some everyday photos & journaling about Meredith’s favorite stuffed animal, plus I cut out some of the kraft paper that she and I colored to wrap David’s present in. Included a duplicate photo of our work Christmas party that I already have in the December daily, and then I thought the calendar page (from Paper Source) fit in perfectly. Those labels are printables that I got from the Studio Calico Day by Day class. I am sooooo excited to have a working color printer now!

I made this journaling card out of a Project Life grid card and washi tape from Target.

On the right side, if I could go back and change something I’d probably switch the black and white chevron paper with something more muted, but it’s not bad as is. I got to include a quote I cut out from a magazine months ago (I think I was just barely getting around to reading last year’s Christmas issues, ha) that is perfect for our life. In the bottom left I put in the essentials from Meredith’s first Christmas card since it was too big to fit on its own (from a favorite patient of mine, blurred for privacy). Then the single photo I took on Christmas day, of my parents in front of the gift pile in my house. :)

I didn’t want to go into detail about Meredith’s 5-day-long illness since I wrote about it lots in the December daily album, but these two photos pretty much sum it up.

I listed our main gifts received on a SMASH journaling card. Then wrote just a couple sentences about the hellaciousness of work post-holiday, on another printable from the SC Day by Day class.

Yay! So I’ll wrap this up hopefully next week and then it’s onward to the next album!