Goodbye 2013...Hello 2014!

Whoa!  So, let me begin by apologizing for my lack of blog posts this month.  I will be honest with you all, I was not prepared for the holiday season with everything going on.  This was my first year with a blog AND my Etsy shop.  Add daily life during the holiday season and something is bound to go on the wayside.  Unfortunately, that was my blog.  

BUT, I have learned a lot this holiday season about how to juggle my lovely blog, my Etsy shop, my personal life, etc.  It has really helped put some things in perspective for me, as well as open my eyes to the fact that I need to be super organized, prioritize a little better, and PLAN AHEAD!  

With that being said, I will not be doing a Project Life album for 2014.  I know, I know.  But as you all know from previous posts, as 2013 went on, I dreaded having to do PL spreads.  Even when I switched to a monthly set-up, it was still terrible for me.  I will finish my October spreads and get my June spreads in my album, but that is it.  I'm not even doing the month of November and December is documented in my Christmas album.  So, I have decided not to do Project Life in 2014.  I have plans to still do some kind of monthly documentation, but I still have more planning and experimenting with these ideas before I let you guys know about it.  I want to make sure I can actually do something and deliver before getting your hopes up.

Now, for some fun stuff...my plans for 2014! I have been brainstorming and thinking and getting super excited about this coming year.

One Little Word:  I decided to pull the trigger and sign up for Ali Edwards' One Little Word year long class. I picked a word this year and started out 2013 scrapping about it on my own.  That stopped about mid-February.  I want to be more intentional with my 2014 word.  I thought actually taking the class would help me get perspective of my personal life and just help make me, well, a better me.  I have a good idea of what my 2014 word will be, but I want to take a few more days to reflect.  I will post my 2014 OLW on Monday, January 6, 2014.

Just Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenges:  Yes, Kelly and I will be continuing our adventure together, using up those scraps and getting creative.  I cannot tell you all how extremely thankful I am to have met Kelly this past year.  We started out as penpals from a facebook group and have grown to be friends.  I'm pretty sure we were sisters in another life.  We are very excited to be continuing our scrap challenges and will be Skyping pretty soon to discuss some plans for 2014!  Get excited!

Speaking of the Just Two Midwest Girls scrap challenges, we will be posting another challenge this Friday, January 3, 2014.  You guys have until 8pm CST January 2, 2014 to link up your holiday cards you made this holiday season.  You can get more details about this challenge here.  You can link in my comments section or in Kelly's comments section.  We love it when you all play along, so show us what you've made!  You may win a $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket!  

Knitting Projects:  I was knitting like crazy this holiday season and LOVED it!  I don't want to stop doing this kind of creating, so I'll start posting about my knitting projects.  I don't have a set day or blog series I will devote to my knitting projects; they will be more spontaneous throughout the year.  I already have my first knitting project post in the works!

Pinterest Crafts Blog Series:  This is something completely new for my blog, as well as for myself creatively.  If you guys haven't caught on yet, I love to make things, but I've only ever dabbled with papercrafts until my knitting adventures recently.  I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to crafts.  I obviously have intentions of doing these crafts, or I would not have pinned them.  2014 will be the year I challenge myself creatively.  I don't have a name for this blog series yet.  This series will be a monthly posting on the 15th of each month showcasing one completed craft I found on Pinterest.  I will provide the original link, supplies, instructions, photos, and my thoughts on each craft.  This is going to be a fun project!

Me on the 27th:  **This will not be my banner for this blog series!  I just really love this photo and I don't have a good selfie of me currently.**  This blog series is a spin off of Corrie Jones' 2013 Monthly "Me" Layouts.  She documented herself with a picture and 8 things about herself on the 8th of every month.  This year marks the year of my golden birthday-I'll be 27 on February 27th.  I wanted to do something special for my golden birthday, so I decided to really focus on me, in the moment.  On the 27th of each month, I will take a selfie and note how I feel, what I'm doing, dreams, aspirations, achievements, etc.  I will then make a layout!  I won't be journaling 27 things about myself each month, because, let's face it, that's a lot.  I want to focus more on what makes me at each moment.  I will be sharing the layouts at the beginning of the following month, i.e. January's "Me on the 27th" layout will be shared in the beginning of February.  I haven't set a date for that layout share, but I will.  It helps me get stuff done if I have a "deadline."  

Layout Shares:  I will continue to post my layouts I do throughout 2014.  Because I won't be doing a Project Life album, I hope to tackle more layouts.  I'm planning on STARTING my wedding, honeymoon, and childhood albums.  These projects will be ongoing and I'm not going to put any kind of deadline or schedule on these. I am starting to get excited to tackle these long-term projects, so I figured I better harness that excitement and just scrap it!

Okay, there are my plans for 2014.  I am very excited about them!  What do you guys think about my plans for the new year?  Are there any particular series or projects you're looking forward to?  What are your plans for 2014?

Happy New Year,

Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

Happy Tuesday lovelies!  We're getting closer to Thanksgiving (aahhh, next week!) and Christmas!  So pumped!  Anyways, I'm back this week with some Project Life.  I have the end of September and beginning of October to show you all.

This side is the end of September.  I haven't been good at journaling daily or taking any pictures. I've been slacking. The end of the month is completely random.  There were two big events that I didn't document at all.  I'm so disappointed in myself.  Michael's birthday was on the 26th and my last day with my friend before she moved to DC was on the 30th.

I didn't even have dates for these pictures.  Totally slacking.  I used Dear Lizzy's Polka Dot Party for this spread.  I am in love with this collection.  

I tried to keep this really simple mostly because I had no idea what to document! 

The right side is the beginning of October!  I "documented" the first 12 days, but I really only have pictures and a story from UMSL family weekend.  I have also come to the conclusion that I take too many pictures of my feet.  

I've been loving circle cluster embellishments.  They are so easy to create and so versatile.  I don't think I'll ever tire of them.

Okay, so there's some Project Life to inspire you all to document your daily life.  It may be simple, but at least it's done!

Also, don't forget about the challenge I have going on with Kelly over at her blog.  We're challenging you to use the same product(s) as used on a project and create your own project.  Details can be found here.  Those that link up their take on our challenge will be entered to win a $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket.  Come play along!

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

My goodness, can you believe it's November?!  The last few months have been flying by!  I'm getting so excited for Christmas and can't wait to get my hands on the Citrus Twist Christmas Daily kits.  Yes, I got both the main scrapbook kit AND the pocket style kit.  I couldn't help myself.  I can't wait to get them!

Anyways, here's my (almost) last spread for September.

Guys, I do want to apologize for the quality of these photos.  It's really difficult for me to take photos with natural light because I'm never home when there is natural light flooding my windows.  Unless it's the weekend, but I still haven't been able to work that far ahead.  I am working on it though.  I promise!

Okay, with this spread, I used my September Citrus Twist main scrapbook kit.  I don't know what it is about this month's kit, but I haven't been that inspired to use it, so I'm using any project as an excuse to "kill" this kit.  My October kit is still sitting in it's box and I'm itching to use it!  But I want to try to use as much as September's kit as I can.

Complete side note:  I need to get better at telling stories using pictures that remind me of certain things, triggers memories, etc.  I think that's what has been a barrier for me.  I feel as if I don't have good pictures to scrap or pictures that tell a story, but I have a stack of photos on my table!  I need to channel my inner Shimelle and scrap photos that trigger a memory or something like that.  

I love this "title" card!  I've totally been digging lace doilies and would love to add them to everything!  Also, the exclusive wood veneer that comes in the Citrus Twist kits are awesome!  The "Hello" tag is just such an example. You can't find anything like that anywhere else.  I was totally inspired by Stephanie Bryan's week-long posts about vellum on write. click. scrapbook's. blog a couple weeks ago.  So, in honor of inspiration, I printed my journaling on vellum!  And it was so easy!  Definitely recommend.  I didn't have to do anything special to it.  I just treated the process as I would treat printing on a journaling card.

I purchased the October Add-On stamp, which you can see an image of above, and it's all about food.  I needed a stamp like that because I document a lot of food and meals.  This stamp set will also come in handy with the holidays coming up.  Yum, holiday food....

Look, I made a filler card.  From scratch!  I love that patterned paper from Carta Bella's Hello Again collection.  This patterned paper was in the CT September kit.  I don't think I used anything other than this kit, except for the gold triangle washi, yellow alphas, and the orange/white labels.  It was definitely easier to complete this spread working from a coordinating kit. I don't mind putting together my own kits, but it takes me forever going through my stash.  Having it already done is so much less stressful.

Don't forget, you guys have until Wednesday at midnight to link up your take on the Sweet & Kelster blog series Halloween challenge.  Details can be found here.  There is a $5 Two Peas in a Bucket gift certificate for the winner!

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

Hello lovely readers! I'm back with another Project Life spread.  This spread documents the middle-ish of September.

As the year has gone on, I'm making note of things that work for me when it comes to documenting daily life.  I do know that I need to get back to writing down what we do each day and pictures I've taken.  As much as I felt it was a chore, it was so much easier to tell a story and provided me with feelings during certain events, etc.

I've also noticed that I work better with a PL kit as compared to doing PL without a kit.  I don't know if it's the coordinating products or what, but looking back at the beginning of the year when I had a PL kit, I was keeping up better than I am towards the end of the year.  I'm not quite sure how to handle this problem that doesn't involve subscribing to another PL kit.  Not that I don't want to (*wink, wink*), but I'm trying to use up my stash!


For this spread, I used my beloved Midnight Core Kit.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, love, love, love this kit.  It's so easy to work with.  There are not any particular stories in this spread.  These are just random pictures taken in the middle of September.  I did note on my only 4x6 card some things we did during this time frame.

Okay, that's it for me today!  My goal this week is to finish September and start on October. I can already tell you that I have not taken many pictures this month...

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

And another week has come and gone.  Oh boy, I cannot believe it's the end of October...and I'm just starting the month of September in my Project Life album!  At least I am continuing to document our lives.  

Side note:  I finally made a decision on my December Daily (TM) 2013!  Back in this post, I talked a little about Christmas-themed lines and kits.  I went a little overboard though... I pre-ordered the Citrus Twist Kits Christmas Daily Pocket Life kit AND the Christmas Daily Main Kit.  I couldn't help myself!  I loved the color scheme in the Pocket Life kit, but I loved so many pieces from the Main kit too.  I don't get add-ons with my monthly scrapbook kit and I've been pretty good lately about not buying scrappy stuff I'm not going to immediately use, so I thought it was okay if I overloaded on Christmas stuff.  Plus, I don't have any Christmas papers. The only bad thing is I won't get these kits until the middle of November.  But I'm excited nonetheless!

Back to Project Life...I have a spread from the beginning of September.  This is honestly just a bunch of random stuff that happened.  I don't think there is any particular story I have to tell.  

  
I used Simple Stories original SN@P! line.  That line is so much fun!  And it really made it easy to complete this spread.

I have been obsessed with sewing small banner clusters on my PL cards.  It's easy, but adds a lot of personality and texture to a spread.  Also, I am loving these Jillibean Soup Alphabeans.  I bought 5 different colors the last time I was at Archiver's.  

 

This is a fun technique I tried for the first time.  I've written on photos before, but never with white ink!  I love it!  I like the look, even better than black ink.  I actually got the idea from my dear friend Kelly.  I remember reading a post on her blog about writing on a photo with a white pen.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact post, but it was definitely her blog!  She has lots of fun techniques; you all should check it out.

If you didn't notice, I'm also digging printing on my PL cards.  But I ALWAYS recommend printing out your text first to make sure it fits in your designated text area.  You guys should try it!

Okay, that's it for me today. I'll be back tomorrow with some wishlist favorites.  And on Thursday, Kelly and I will be posting another challenge!  Don't forget, you guys have until Thursday, October 24th to link up your take on our watercolor challenge.  There is a prize involved that will consist of a scrappy product(s)...Just sayin' *wink, wink*

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

Guys, guess what?!  I finally finished all my August Project Life spreads and started on my September spreads!  I am so proud of myself!  I have three spreads from August to show you guys.  To spare you all a photo-heavy blog post, I'm only going to post one photo of each spread.  You can check out more details from each spread here, at my 2Peas gallery.

Last week, I posted a spread ending with my trip to St. Louis.  This left side of my spread just shows more about where we stayed.  This side was pretty simple to complete.  I didn't have too much on my table to work with, just because it seems to help the process progress a little faster.

While we were in St. Louis, my dad took Hollie and me to a Cardinals game.  And boy, was that a great game. It was a beautiful night in the STL!  This was my first Project Life spread in which I used the Simple Stories Sn@p! line.  It's nice to have coordinating cards, papers, alphas, and stickers.  This page is the first time I printed my journaling on a journaling card.  You can fit so much more by typing out your journaling! I'll probably be doing that for those stories that require a little more "talk."

I had to have a full two-page spread devoted to the day we moved in Hollie.  It was exciting and surreal and a little emotional.  I used the Seafoam Edition of Project Life for this spread.

And finally, the end of August!  I used some new goodies I recently purchased at my local LSS.  The We R Memory Keepers Chalkboard line is really lovely.  I don't buy too much WRMK, especially their paper, but this line is gorgeous.  

Okay, that's it for me today.  I'm determined to be caught up with my 2013 Project Life by the start of 2014. I only have 2 more spreads for September to complete and one from October.  I may be able to get caught up by the beginning of November!  **fingers crossed**

Just a little reminder, the what's trendy...watercolors challenge with Kelly is still going on.  You guys have until this Thursday, the 17th to link up your take on this challenge.  And there is a prize!  

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

I'm back today to share some more of my Project Life album.  Super, super behind by the way.  I am bound and determined though to be caught up by the start of 2014.  Did I just say 2014?!  I can't believe it!  The new year will be here before you know it.  Enough about how fast time flies, here's a spread from August (man, that seems like ages ago...).

All my cards are the Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic edition of Project Life by Becky Higgins.  I just adore that collection.  I was able to find the die cuts at Hobby Lobby and the 12x12 paper pad at Michael's for $5!  Anyways, most of this spread documents the last Saturday my sister was in town.  I signed up to volunteer at a United Way event in the county I work to help raise money for my agency to get more funding from United Way.  I made Hollie come with me because I didn't want to be by myself.  Plus, it was good bonding time.  It was actually not as eventful as I thought.  We were assigned an obstacle, which we just made sure the runners didn't get hurt.  Because we were a little bored, we took lots of pictures.

I've been trying to get better at including more memorabilia, which I think I did well for this spread.  I included the email about volunteer registration, as well as the map of the race course.  

A quarter of this spread begins to document my trip to St. Louis with my parents and sister to move Hollie into college.  My next 2 spreads I'll show next week will highlight the rest of that trip.

                 

What I like most about this spread is the little bits and pieces I used that have been sitting on my scrap table for a long time.  I keep a few small trays on my table with journaling spots; labels; and bits and pieces from past kits, things I took out to use, but didn't, etc.  I like being able to finally use those bits.  Having those kinds of little pieces hanging out on my table has really helped me utilize my stash and scraps more. 

There you have it; another spread done and making it's way to the album.  (OMG, you guys should see the pile of layouts and Project Life spreads sitting on my shelves that have not made it into an album!)  How are you doing keeping up with Project Life?  Did anyone change their documentation format like I did?

xoxo,
Heather  

A Special Announcement & Customized Project Life Cards

For those of you that read my post yesterday, you might remember that I had a special announcement for today...

My dear friend, Kelly at Things About Stuff

My lovely friend Kelly and I will be teaming up for an ongoing crafty blog series!  Kelly, or Kelster Jean as some of you may know her, is an incredible papercrafter!  Go check out her blog, Things About Stuff.  Her projects are so inspirational.  We plan to bring you, our amazing readers, fun inspiration through various challenges thought up by us!  We have tons of ideas and can't wait to share them!  

A little about how Kelly and I met...we met through a scrappy pen pals facebook group around the beginning of the year.  When I found out my new pen pal had a blog, it definitely inspired me to pursue my dream of starting a blog a little more seriously.  It still took me a little bit, but knowing I had a fellow scrapper and friend with a successful and inspirational blog really helped me get over my fear.  

We are ecstatic about this new friendship and inviting our readers to get to know us and participate in our challenges!  Keep coming back for more information!

On to today's project...I want to share with you guys some more Project Life cards I created for my facebook group.  Along with the Halloween-theme cards I posted last week, I also joined the open-theme swap.  For my open theme, I decided to scrap with what I'm loving at the moment:

• using new product right away
• using up my scraps
• tags
• this new-to-me stamp set I purchased from the FSOT board at 2Peas
• mist splatters

All the cardstock is from my scrap box.  The tags were punched out using the new We R Memory Keepers Chalkboard 6x6 Paper Pad.  The tag punch (which I've had since high school) is my favorite tool at the moment.  The stamp is from Studio Calico's Marks & Co Project Life Kit.  I used four of the new Stampin' UP! In Colors:  Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, and Strawberry Slush.  I then used one of my circle dies to cut out the stamped image.  I splattered my cardstock with Opaque White Mister Huey's.  My die-cut stamped images are adhered with pop dots.  

These cards were a lot of fun to make.  I love being able to break in my new scrappy goodies right away.  It was not too long ago that I would buy something and then not use it for months.  I've been changing my ways!  

Okay my friends, that's it for me today.  Don't forget to head on over to Kelly's blog to read about the announcement and to check out her crafty skills.  And come back to hear more about our blog series.

xoxo,
Heather

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

I know, I know.  It's basically Wednesday and here I go posting my Tuesday post.  I have to admit, I haven't been feeling particularly crafty.  Do you ever get in that weird mood when scrapping doesn't even sound exciting?! *shame on you say the crafty gods*  I get that way if I take more than a few days "off" from scrapping (and sometimes when it's that time of the month).  Last week was pretty busy for me, so most evenings I wasn't even at home.  The weekend was packed with birthday shopping, party attending, etc.  It's like I lost my scrappy mojo when life got in the way!  So, there's my long-winded excuse for posting so late on Tuesday.

Beginning of August

As you can see, I've continued into August with the Midnight Core Kit.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  LOVE. THIS. KIT.  I feel as if it's made my monthly documentation easier.  I don't know why.  I really can't explain it.  

Not including the tail-end of July, this spread was the only spread in which I used different design photo pocket pages other than Design A (my favorite) or Design D.  Not being such a perfectionist with documenting my daily life has opened up my options.  Watch out scrappy world!  Here, I've used Design H and Design G.  I just love this spread.  It makes me smile, mostly because of that cute little girl on the far right!  That's my niece Abigail.  She looks exactly like her Uncle Mike (my husband).  She has a lot of the Sweet genes.  She is a good mix of my sister-in-law and her husband.  She is our only niece as of now and I want to eat her up!  Love her!  Anyways...

This spread spanned some of the first part of August:  the 1st to the 15th (not including the trip to St. Louis to move my sister into UMSL).  I had one of my last "dates" with my best friend.  She headed back to graduate school (go Jess!) right after Hollie went off to school.  My sister-in-law, her husband, my beautiful niece, and my husband's aunt were in town the first weekend of August.  Hollie and I had a sister date.  

Title Card

I love these Thickers!  I actually had a hard time using them on traditional scrapbook layouts, but they work perfectly with the Midnight Core Kit!

Right Side

I noticed that the yellow color in the Simple Stories Sn@p! original collection is the perfect match to the yellow in the Midnight Core Kits.  Or, at least enough of a match.  This was an awesome discovery because I had such a difficult time using that shade of yellow (as you may have picked up on, I'm a bright scrapper).  So anytime I can use my stash, I love it!  It just means I can buy new stuff!  *wink, wink*

So, there you have it.  Tonight, I finished a Project Life spread.  I'm trying to catch up for you guys!  But, let's face it, who's ever really caught up...

xoxo,

Heather

Halloween Pocket Style Cards

Good morning everyone!  I'm back today to share with you all a Project Life card swap I've recently finished.  If you're not aware, there is this amazing Facebook group-Project Life Card Swap Divas-that organize many monthly swaps.  I've been involved with the group for a few months now and love it!  This is how it works:  you sign up for swaps with a theme or themes that are of interest to you; you make how ever many Project Life cards according to how many people signed up for that particular swap; you send in all your cards to the host; she sends back one card created from each person in the swap group.  It's a great way to create, to challenge yourself, use your stash, and get a ton of different Project Life cards.  Every month there are main monthly swaps, mini swaps, and bonus/extra swaps.  So far this month, I've participated in the pocket-themed, Filofax/planners, Halloween-themed, and open-themed swaps.  Today, I have a few pictures from my Halloween-themed swap.  

**To warn you, the pictures are not that great.  I'm not home during the day during the week to get good pictures with good lighting.  I'm going to have to work way ahead on projects to get them photographed during the weekend for you guys.

I love the Halloween-themed scrapbook products out there, but I don't ever scrapbook Halloween.  Last year, Michael and I didn't do anything for the holiday; I didn't even make Halloween cards!  So, I jumped on the chance to create some Halloween Project Life cards for a swap.  I picked up some new products at my LSS.

I had a lot of fun with these cards.  I used ink pads I haven't used in awhile.  I used a different color combination (green, purple, orange, black).  It was just fun.

As most scrapbookers, I've been in love with enamel dots.  They are so lovely and just create that perfect touch, but they are expensive.  Let me tell you about puffy paint....Michael was actually the one to pick out this set of 15+ bottles of puffy paint at the store the other day.  He thought it would be cool if I used some.  I said "Yeah, awesome!," but didn't really know what I'd use it for...until I experimented in my scrap room!  I've been using them to mimic enamel dots!  The only downside is the dry time:  at least 4 hours.  But, it's totally worth it for a more affordable way to get that enamel dot look.

That's it for me today.  Come back tomorrow for Filofax Friday!  I also want to tell you guys about this amazing company, pinkfresh studio.  I won a giveaway on Caroline Hancock's blog last week, which included a goodie bag of new pinkfresh studio products!  I got my goodie bag and everything is yummy!  Come back tomorrow to see some lovely products!

xoxo,
Heather 

Project Lifein' It Tuesday

So, I'm a tad behind in documenting my daily life.  And by a tad, I mean June is not documented, August is only half done, and September photos haven't been printed, let alone edited.  At the end of May, I decided to go from weekly documentation to monthly.  I was getting a little too stressed that I wasn't getting enough pictures each week, etc.  I wasn't enjoying the process anymore.  I do like documenting monthly a lot better. I used to subscribe to the Studio Calico Project Life Kit.  I didn't renew my subscription after the 6 months because I wasn't impressed with how the kits were progressing through the year.  I didn't think I was getting my money's worth.  Anyways, I've also acquired SO MANY CARDS!  So I stopped subscribing to any Project Life-style kit.  But I've noticed that it's harder for me to put a spread together without a kit.  Not having coordinating embellishments and fun stuff, already picked out for you, makes the process longer for me.    And therefore, I don't keep up with documenting my life as much.   I'm hoping a weekly blog post will keep me motivated!  

Here goes, this is the end of July.

In August I bought the Midnight Edition Project Life Core Kit.  When this kit "premiered" at Winter 2013 CHA, I did not like it.  I don't remember why, but recently I started to really, really love it!  So of course, I had to have it.  This kit is absolutely lovely.  It's really easy to work with.

The end of July was mostly about my sister's spontaneous third tattoo and my Saturday day date with my best friend.  This is my first spread in a long time that I have LOVED!

I think I may have to subscribe to another Project Life-style kit or a card kit or an embellishment kit.  I miss how easy it seemed to be when I had a kit.  Do you guys subscribe to a Project Life-style kit?  What do you like/dislike about it?

xoxo,
Heather