Part II of my Christmas 2013 Album

Happy Sunday lovely readers!  As I mentioned in my Just Two Midwest Girls scrap challenge post, I would post Part II of my Christmas album this weekend.  I have photos below of the Journal Your Christmas prompts #20-25 scrapped in my album.

Prompt #20

This prompt is all about a gift given to someone special.  My journaling will go on the tag(s) in the glassine envelope.  My pictures for the majority of my album do not correspond with my journaling.  I'm just including a photo for each prompt that I had taken throughout the month.  Darwin was my "trimming the tree" partner this year when I was decorating.  All he did was hang out in the tree box...great helper.

Prompt #21

 This page is about the reality of my December 21st; what my house looked like, what my day looked like.  That picture is not what my house looked like on the 21st!  I didn't even wrap any gifts until the 23rd!

Prompt #22

The journaling for this prompt will be about the things that make me smile, give me warm fuzzies during Christmas.  All the kindness, gratitude, and giving that comes with the holiday season.

Prompt #23

This prompt was assigned to December 23rd, or Christmas Eve Eve (that's what we call it).  I'll be journaling about some of our family traditions we do getting ready for the big day.

Prompt #24

Christmas Eve's prompt talks about why I love Christmas.  I made a vellum pocket to hold tags for my journaling.  That paper from Glitz Designs Hello December Line, the paper that says "what I love the most about Christmas," was perfect for this prompt.

Prompt #25

Christmas Day was definitely a two-page spread.  I had so much I wanted to include, that I'll have to include a smaller insert just for my journaling.

If you want to see more detailed photos of my Christmas Album:  Part II, check out my gallery at 2Peas.  Also, Kelly and I are hosting a challenge all about December/Christmas albums.  Details can be found here.  Those that play along could win a $5 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket!

I hope to have my Christmas journal completely done by the end of January.  I have 14 more prompts/layouts to scrap and a few layouts to "touch up."  I'm getting to the point where I just want this album to be done!  If I didn't have a few other projects to complete for future blog posts and Valentine's cards to make, I'd work on this album until it was finished!  

Have a wonderful Sunday!  Stay warm and safe if you're in my area and the northeastern part of the country.  See you all again on Monday.

xoxo,
Heather

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

Just Two Midwest Girls Scrap Challenge: "Kill" A Kit!

That's right, Kelly and I finally figured out our official name for our blog challenge series!  AND we have a banner!  Look how adorable we are?!  Kelly designed this banner, so make sure to stop by her blog to let her know how much you love it!

Okay, so, big bummer, no one played along with us for our last challenge, so no one won the $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket.  But, if you guys want to play along with this challenge, you could win a $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket!

Our challenge:  "Kill" A Kit!

Citrus Twist Kits' "Celebrate" October Main Kit

Kelly recently started subscribing to Citrus Twist Kits.  We both get the main scrapbook kit each month. We decided it would be fun to see how much we can create with our September and October main scrapbook kits.  Now, I only worked with the October kit, but I believe Kelly killed her September and October kits.

  Lately,  I've been having a difficult time making layouts.  I've been super excited about starting my December mini album and I've been making Christmas cards, so layouts haven't really been on my creative front burner.  Luckily, I know from past experience that watching scrapbook, card, or Project Life spread process videos, especially Glitter Girl videos, gets my creative juices flowing.  And, to be honest with you guys, I didn't even touch the October kit until last Thursday!  But that night I finished 2 layouts, 2 cards, and started another layout.  Friday I had off work, so I was able to work on "killing" this kit.

I could have made at least one more layout than the three I completed, but as I mentioned earlier, I was having a difficult time getting layout inspired, so I did what I could and didn't push myself.

Something cool I did with the "Playtime Kitten" layout:  the cat die cut is from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party Die Cut package.  The die cut itself was cute, but it was outlined in pink and had "true friend" written in the middle.  I wanted the cat to look more like my cat, so I heat embossed it with gray embossing powder (which I purchased recently, on clearance at Hobby Lobby!).

Also, I'm really getting into making homemade embellishments to have ready for future projects.  I watched this video on YouTube by Ashley Laura where she makes a bunch of homemade embellishments using scraps on her table.  I thought that was a genius idea and a great way to use up your stash and save time in the future.  As you saw in the video, I made a handful of my own embellishments based on what I have been loving at the moment.

So, your challenge this time around is to show us how you recently "killed" a kit.  It can be a monthly/bi-monthly kit you subscribe to or a kit you put together yourself from your stash or during a trip to your LSS.  Link up a video, blog post, and/or photos to my comments section or to Kelly's comments section on her blog.  Anyone who plays along has a chance to win a $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket.  You have until Wednesday, December 4th at 8pm CST to play along!

Happy scrapping!

xoxo,
Heather

Sweet & Kelster Challenge: Using the Same Products-Treat Bags!

Hello lovely readers!  Welcome to another Sweet & Kelster Blog Challenge!  Congratulations to Heather Adams on winning the Halloween challenge.  Kelly will contact you about your $5 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket!

Are you guys ready for this challenge round?  This time, Kelly and I decided to create something using the same product!  We both had different takes on this challenge, but that's the beauty of a challenge!  Kelly sent me these adorable treat bags she had purchased from The Plaid Barn I believe last year.  This site is one of those daily deal websites for crafty stuff!  Can't go wrong there!  Anyways, she mailed me 9 treat bags:  5 orange and white striped glassine bags and 4 brown and white striped glassine bags.  

I got these cute babies in the mail Saturday afternoon.  I was already holed up in my scrap room and my mojo was high.  As soon as I opened the package and saw these treat bags, I knew what I was going to do with them.  It was really a spontaneous idea:  a "Thankful" mini album!  The colors were screaming autumn/Thanksgiving, so it was perfect.  And, I save all my paper treat bags from kits, so I definitely had enough bags to cover the 30 days of gratitude.  Now, I didn't plan to make a gratitude album this season.  I get a little overwhelmed with mini albums (I still have one that I've cut the paper for and printed the pictures and haven't done anything since), but I was already feeling the craft-high, so I just went with it.  I was definitely going to journal daily about my gratitude, but a project was not an intention.

So, here's the finished project...

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to hand-paint my title, like in this layout by Garden Girl Kristina Nicolai-White.  And, if you read my post yesterday, you know that I've been obsessed with gold! I just had to try this technique and I love how it turned out.  

I really wanted to challenge myself beyond using these treat bags, which was to use my stash for embellishing my mini album.  I wanted to stay with the traditional autumn color scheme of burnt orange, deep red, darker/mustard yellow, deep green, and brown.  I pulled everything in that color scheme from my stash.  And let me tell you, there wasn't much.

I do have to let you guys know that I cheated a little.  You see that cute felt leaf, the green sequin leaf, and the fall-themed stickers?  I got those from Michael's Saturday night.  Again, not intentionally.  Michael and I went to get him some sketchbooks and I happened to see a display of fall-themed craft stuff for 80% off!  I got felt leaves, sequin leaves, and fall-themed stickers each under $1! I couldn't say no.  So, I was able to add some fall-themed embellishments to my mini album.  Something I am thankful for!

I had a lot of fun putting this mini album together.  It's simple, but cute and all I have to do is write down what I'm thankful for each day on the piece of cardstock in the pocket and slap a photo on the bag side of each day.  As you guys were hopefully able to see in the tutorial, each treat bag was folded in half to make 2 pockets.  Each pocket will represent a day.  Journaling goes on the pull-out cardstock and a photo will go on the back of the day.  I'm doing a photo daily journal #mythankful30 using a list from @lilgik at feedyourcraft.com.  I am not documenting every photo on Instagram, only because some photos I'll have to pull from my photo library because some of the prompts may not match up to the day (i.e. a bright sunshiny day on November 23rd may not be sunshiny).  

Here's a picture of some of the plain paper bags I used in my mini album as well.  

I still haven't decided how I'm going to bind it.  I did punch small holes in everything, but it's really thick, so I don't know if rings would be a good idea.  Right now I have it all bound with twine, but I don't know if I'll like it.  

Now, it's your turn!  Share a project of yours and someone else's using the same products or kit. Make sure to include the link to your project and the other project in the comments section or Kelly's comments section for a chance at the prize.  Remember, the prize is a $5 gift certificate to Two Peas in a Bucket!  You have until Wednesday, November 20th to link up your project!  Now, go check out Kelly's take on our challenge.  You won't be disappointed; it's super cute!

xoxo,

Heather

Sweet & Kelster Challenge: Halloween!

Happy Thursday lovely readers!  It's time for another challenge with my dear friend Kelly over at Things About Stuff!  We only had one person link up their take on our watercolor challenge:  Mandi.  Gorgeous Mandi!  You guys should check them out here, here and here.  Mandi, please email me at heather.sweet12@gmail.com to talk about your prize!  

If it isn't obvious enough from our title, our challenge this time was Halloween-themed!  Kelly and I both love Halloween scrappy products, but neither of do much for the actual holiday.  We decided that we'd take advantage of our challenges and create something with Halloween products.

Aren't these treat bags just the cutest things EVER?!  I've never made anything besides PL spreads, cards, tags, or layouts, so this was definitely different for me. As you guys know, my sister is in college.  When I was in college, I always loved getting happy mail, cards, and packages.  It didn't happen often, but it was awesome when it did happen.  I want to make sure my sister gets lots of happy mail.  So, Hollie, I know you're reading this and these treat bags are coming your way!

This treat bag was inspired by a Simon Says Stamp YouTube video recently posted.  It was so easy to make too.  The only thing that took a little time was die cutting those different colored circles.  I used my Cuddlebug, so I had to run the different colored paper through 4 times.  But after that, it came together so easily.  

You can see more of the decoration on the back of the bag.  You could also make these treat bags with any holiday theme.  With Christmas coming up, I just may be making more of these...

The other 2 treats bags are more of a bag topper.  I used the Creepy paper from the We R Memory Keepers Bewitched line. The washi tape is from Queen and Co.  The "trick or treat" is from the Treat or Treat Lawn Fawn stamp set.  

This last treat bag uses stamps from a Fiskars set.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of this particular stamp set.  I had a lot of fun making these bags.  It makes me want to want to create more papercraft products outside of my usual box.

Now, go check out Kelly's blog to see what Halloween goodness she created!  Since Halloween is a week from today and more than likely you guys may be creating Halloween layouts or mini albums or PL spreads after Halloween, we're going to give you TWO weeks to link up your projects in either my comments section or Kelly's comments section.  So, you guys have until Wednesday, November 7th to play along.  And there is a scrappy product prize involved: a $5 gift card to Two Peas in a Bucket!

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

Sweet & Kelster Challenge: What's Trendy...Watercolors!

And finally, the day our readers have been waiting for:  the first Sweet & Kelster challenge (still the unofficial name)!  Kelly and I have a long list of challenges and projects we are excited to complete.  Our first challenge we thought to take on would be something that's very trendy in the scrapbook world.  If you're not living under a rock, you know that watercolors are super, super cool right now.  And I'm pretty sure Kelly and I purchased our first watercolor set around the same time.  It's like, we're meant to be crafty friends!  So, here's my take on our challenge:

Products Used:  Citrus Twist Kits September Main Scrapbook Kit;
Loew-Cornell Watercolor Set, Jillibean Soup Alphabeans in Whipped White,
scraps from Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic, scraps from Glitz Wild & Free,
 Prima Chalk Ink in Rock Moss,  Stampin' UP! ink in Crisp Cantaloupe, enamel dots

This layout just makes me extremely happy!  And, let me tell you, it was a challenge for me.  This is definitely not my norm for creating a scrapbook layout, but it was oh so fun!  If you've been following me or have seen any of my projects in my 2Peas gallery, you will notice that I don't use solid color cardstock as a background, like, ever.  I just really love patterned paper.  My inspiration came from Garden Girl, Corrie Jones.  I love everything she's ever created.  You should definitely check out her gallery.  Her techniques are just so inspirational.  I thought I've seen a video where she creates a layout like this with watercolor "sun rays."  Unfortunately, I cannot find it, but when I do, I'll link it up.


Back to why this was a bit of a challenge for me...my first cardstock I actually threw out because it was just horrible.  I've never completely thrown out the foundation of a layout, but I just had to this time around.  I ended up with too much gelatos on my page (this is the first layout that I've made with watercolors as the main technique) and it was a mess and not in a good way.  Luckily, I was only working on the background, so it was only paper I threw out.  Then I remembered my inspirational scrapbooker, and then everything shot off from there.  

Now, if you want to play along with Kelly and I in our trendy challenge featuring watercolors, please link of your project in the comments section.  You can link up in my comments or hers.  We'll be giving away a small prize (to be updated on this post later, so please come back) to a reader that plays along! You have until next Thursday, October 17th to link your project up. 

Okay, now go check out Kelly's take on the challenge.  I love that she didn't make a traditional layout, but more of an inspirational piece to hang in her scrap room.  Love it!  I actually don't have anything hanging in my scrap area, so Kelly's definitely inspired me to create something!

If you want to see more of this layout, check out my gallery at 2Peas.

xoxo,
Heather

Sneak Peak of the Sweet & Kelster (Unofficial Name) Blog Series Challenge

Happy Monday lovely readers!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  I had a wonderful weekend, but, as always, it was too short.  I was very lucky to be able to spend time with my sister in St. Louis.  (If you haven't seen her latest news on her blog series, Coffee & College, check it out here.)  This past weekend was family weekend at UMSL.  We always have a lot of fun when we all get together.

On to my sneak peak of the challenge Kelly and I are working on for our new blog series!  We will be posting our full projects on Thursday, but we wanted to get you all excited about what we're working on!  We still haven't decided on a name for our blog series, but we're hoping it will come to us soon. 

Can you guys guess what our challenge is about for this project?  Let me tell you, this challenge has been a little challenging for me so far.  I haven't really been feeling creative lately, so it's taking me awhile to complete this challenge.  But our challenge is slowly pulling me back in my creative bubble.  I have to be honest:  I'm not even finished with this project yet!  EEK!  But, I did start and will have it done by Thursday to share.



Here's another peak, just to keep you guys excited!  Go check out Kelly's blog to see her sneak peak she'll have posted today.  Don't forget, come back tomorrow for some lovely Project Life inspiration!  

 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