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28/05/2014

Project Life: Week Twenty

Today I'm sharing week twenty. It wasn't anything special, but lately I've been struggling a bit with choosing cards. I need to clean the clutter off my desk and get rid of some things in the craftroom and hopefully get my crafty mojo back. This week I stepped out of my comfort zone a bit and used glitter. I still hate it, but it was the easiest way for me to get alphas that went with this layout.


This week I used cards and paper from My Mind's Eye: Cut and Paste, Maggie Holmes, Studio Calico, Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party, Dear Lizzy Daydreamer, and customizable thickers.


Here's the left side. I added some chipboard stickers from the Sugar Rush kit from Studio Calico. The wood veneer heart is from Freckled Fawn. It was our anniversary this week so I journaled about that. Added a double flip pocket on the left to include some texts to my sister about a heavy metal band we wanted to start.


This title card was made using some paper from the 6x6 Cut and Paste paper pad by My Mind's Eye. These thickers were like double sided foam tape, so I added glitter to make them navy and match my layout.


Wood veneer heart and chipboard heart. Also included a chipboard arrow in the top left corner. It's pointing to the photo the journaling goes with.


This card is from the Dear Lizzy Polkadot Party mini kit (I think). I used it to write down the date. It was our two year anniversary and the first time Jon's ever bought me flowers. He's allergic, so he's always bought me other things instead (which I was okay with) but this year he said he'd suffer through it since we already had flowers in the house.


The card with the happy anniversary tag (from the flowers) above it was the inspiration for this whole layout. I wanted to use it desperately so I found a way to pull in the different shades of turquoise and pulled in some navy from the cape when I got my hair cut. I journalled about how I cut off 13 inches of hair again (and took a selfie). We also had the first 'twister' (basically a blizzard, just not from DQ) of the year. It was delicious!

There you have my week 20. Probably the first time this year that I've included something that wasn't a photo or a PL card. It fits perfectly!

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

26/05/2014

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I was looking for some new cake recipes since I'm hosting my Mom's birthday in July, and Jon's family is having their reunion in August, and two of my sister-in-law's are expecting babies. I wanted something that I could make for various occasions throughout the next few months.


I found quite a few different versions of this recipe, but the simplest one came from Betty Crocker.

Cupcakes:
1 Box Betty Crocker SuperMoist natural vanilla cake mix
3/4 Cup frozen (thawed) pink lemonade concentrate
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
1/4 Cup water
3 Eggs
Pink food coloring if desired

Frosting
1 Container Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Frosting
6 tablespoons frozen (thawed) pink lemonade concentrate
Pink food coloring if desired
Candy sprinkles if desired

Directions:
Heat oven to 350F. Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, using ingredients listed above. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.
Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
In large bowl, beat frosting, 6 tablespoons lemonade concentrate and food coloring with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Frost cooled cupcakes. Garnish tops with candy sprinkles.

I highly recommend following this recipe very closely. I did not, and my batter was very runny and I ended up with 4 dozen. The batter also didn't rise so my cupcakes were half the size of normal cupcakes. They were however, a huge hit with my family, and Jon's. They've all asked if I'm making them again.

Enjoy!
-Alex

23/05/2014

Project Life: Week Nineteen

Happy Friday! Today is my last official day of work. Long story short, work is closing temporarily for some major renovations, so I basically have the summer off. They're keeping 9 hotel rooms open because they were unaffected, so I'll be doing the laundry from those at my house, but the rest of the building will be shut down for 3-4 months. I know that I shouldn't be excited about it, but I am because it means I can be crafty all day every day, take spontaneous trips with Jon, try some of those Pinterest recipes that I've been pinning for the last year or so. It's exciting stuff. 

Anyways. Here's week nineteen. 


This week I used some of my new Strawberry edition, Maggie Holmes, Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste and Studio Calico. 


Here's the left side. This week I made Pink Lemonade cupcakes, I'll share the recipe on Monday. On the top right pocket, I trimmed down the 'not my day' clear card from the Studio Calico April kit. I had a particularly bad day with a customer complaining about stupid little things, and so I included my Facebook status and some journaling about the incident. 


I put some white thickets onto this card to imply working everyday. I didn't quite work every day this week, but between Jon and I, we've been working everyday.


This week I got more happy mail, so I included a bit of that in my layout. Jon went to a tournament so he sent me a couple of photos to put in the album. 


I don't always include text messages, but my sister and I had a kind of funny conversation, so I made another flip pocket to include our conversation. 


I made this flip pocket the same as the one from week eighteen, I just included two photos in the front pocket. 

There you have my week nineteen!

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria 

21/05/2014

Project Life: Week Eighteen

Happy Wednesday! I keep saying that I want to bring back washitape Wednesday, but project life has been consuming my crafty time as of late. I know it shouldn't be, but it has been. I made a few cards before Easter for an order, and shared them on my Facebook page, but I haven't made anything post-worthy since (except for two Mother's Day cards I forgot to even photograph).


This week I used cards from Jade edition, Studio Calico, Dear Lizzy Neapolitan and Honey Edition.


Here's the left side. This week I included my happy mail from Two Peas and Freckled Fawn. I didn't have space to put a journaling card in to write about going to Tori's first T-Ball practice, so I journaled right on the picture. I just used my sharpie pen and had no issues with smudging or anything. 


Here i trimmed my photo down to fit on a Dear Lizzy Neapolitan background card. I added a label from Studio Calico to the bottom to journal about it and a yummy flair. 


I'm not a huge fan of alphas, but I got some thinkers, and I've been trying to use them despite my great dislike. I feel like they just look better than my handwriting. I've also decided that on future spreads I might want to try stamping out the week. 


Here's the right side of my spread. I wrote directly onto the photo of the water bottles. I took the photo in a way that I'd have space to write on the photo or at least add a card/tag to journal on. I trimmed around the banner of the journaling card in the bottom left pocket and had it overlap the photo. I trimmed down a journaling card and adhered it to the bottom right photo. 


I've been seeing flip pockets everywhere so I decided to try and make one with things I have on hand. I trim pocket pages to use for inserts, so I trimmed a pocket out of one of the left over halves and stapled it to the front of the pocket. 


And below it I put my May calendar card. I can change out these cards if I want to, or add something to the top of the flap. You can buy pockets that are intended to be flip pockets. They come with a strip of adhesive on them to secure them to the pocket. 

Have you ever used a flip pocket, or made your own? I'd love to hear about your trial and error in the comments. 

Have a great day!
-Alexandria 

19/05/2014

Project Life: Week Seventeen

Hope you all had a great long weekend! I had to work, but it wasn't terribly busy so I managed to get some pages done. I've also been working on pages here and there from 2011-2013. I'll be sharing those later on. Today however,  I'm sharing week seventeen.


This week I used cards from the Midnight edition and a free printable I had left over from my spread a couple weeks ago. 


Here's the left side. I made edible cookie dough and lemon cranberry muffins, read the last book from the Divergent series and reread the notebook. This week I added some grey washitape to my title card because I wrote my title a little smaller, and wanted to fill some space. 


The stamps I used here I bought used in a giant box of things from one of the Project Lifers ladies. The emoticon wood veneer is from Freckled Fawn. 


Here's the right side. I blogged at work and wanted to include that, Jon got some painting done and I started At First Sight (not realizing it was the second of two books and I had them both). 

So there you have my super simple week seventeen. My pages are becoming very simple and quick, but I'm considering sorting my cards by color to make the process even faster. It just means that I might not be able to always tell you where something came from. 

Have a great week! 
-Alexandria  

16/05/2014

Project Life: Week Sixteen

Today I'm sharing week sixteen! This week was mostly uneventful, and I feel like I could have kept it to one page, but I wanted to include some everyday things (like the dishes).


This week I used Studio Calico, Jade Edition, and my title card was made using a sheet of 6x6 paper I got from a friend who also sent me the alphas I used for the week title. The alphas on my this week card, are super old ones I had laying around from when I used to do traditional scrapbooking, I got them at Walmart.


This week I took the pictures on my kitchen floor. A sheet of poster board is on my list of things to pick up when I have a chance, but for now, my beautiful new floor will have to do. Here I used a Journaling card from the Studio Calico April Kit, and some patterned paper for my title card.


Here's a close up of the title. I love these alphas! They're black corrugated paper and I just love the texture it adds to  my card.


 Here's the right side. Jon did a bunch of painting this week so I included all of that. I read three entire books this week, and it snowed again! I used a couple cards from the Studio Calico March kit and two cards from the Jade edition. I must admit that I really like the variety, and couldn't imagine using one kit. It would make it a lot simpler, but I feel that it might become boring/repetitive.


I added a card from the SC March kit and trimmed around the label so that it was on top of the photo. I adhered it with some washitape and journaled about the snow before adding the Emoticon wood veneer from Freckled Fawn.

Thanks for stopping by to see my layouts! I've also been working on a 2011-2013 album when I have a few free minutes, and I can't wait to share some of those pages with all of you!

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria

14/05/2014

Project Life: Happy Mail

I must admit that I have a crazy obsession with everything Project Life, and it may be getting a little out of hand. However, I feel like it's justified because I'm preserving my memories (and some of my relatives) using these kits I can't seem to get enough of.


This large order came from a Canadian/UK site called Scrapbooker's Inner Circle. I've ordered from them before, and they are amazing! I love how they packaged everything so nothing moved, they maximized the space in the boxes and got a lot more in there than I ever could. Their customer service is AMAZING and their orders arrive quickly. 

Here's what I got.

It doesn't look like much, but there are 5 core kits, 5 mini kits, three 12x12 albums, a ton of theme packs and a bunch more.


I've had my eye on Olive for quite a while and since it's an older kit, I managed to get it on sale! Below that is Strawberry, Azure, Heritage and Kiwi.


I also got 13 theme packs (crazy right?!). In no particular order: floral, celebrate, music, halloween, winter, christmas, mom, dad, spring, summer, fall, family and love.


I bought three 12x12 black faux leather albums. I have a bunch of memories I want to get into albums, so I bought three of them.


I got a 6x8 album and pocket pages for Jon's parents (working on a super special gift), the 12x12 coordinating paper for the Midnight kit and three small variety packs of pocket pages. 


We R Memory Keepers has some pretty amazing kits as well so I picked up a few of those. I got (left to right) Hello Life, Chalkboard, Captured, Quoted, Bloom and Tangerine.


Of course I bought all the mini kits as well. Cut & Paste, Plus One, DAy Dreamer, Polka Dot Party, & Stylerboard. I also bought a pack of pens to try, and some dividers.

I can't wait to start using all of these! I'm also pretty excited to share layouts made using them!

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Fifteen

Week 15. This week was a little busier! the weather finally warmed up a bit, and we took my niece on an adventure. I included a bunch of QR codes for videos and spent a lot of time on this spread. 


Here's the front half of my spread. I used blush, 5th & Frolic, Studio Calico February and March kits, some free printables, and some patterned paper from a 6x6 pad. 


Here's the left side. The snow started melting and so I snapped a couple photos and included some journaling about those.


I made my title card this week using sheet of paper from the In Bloom 6x6 paper pad by MME (my minds eye). I cut a banner from a scrap of white paper and wrote the week on it. 


I made the insert by cutting a Design D page protector in half. I did this simply because I had vertical photos and it was the only page I had on hand with more than one vertical photo.
I used google maps to create a map of our 'adventure' then I found a free road trip printable and cut out the adventure label. The journaling card to the right of it was also a free printable, it wasn't quite 3x4 so I adhered it to another card and then journaled on it. 


Here's the back and right sides of my layout. As you can see there were a lot of QR codes. For this portion I used SC February and March kits, Midnight, Maggie Holmes, Neapolitan, some music paper, and free printables. 


On the back of the insert I tried to keep everything in order. I wrote about my niece singing along to the choir grou and pretending to be the conductor. I included videos of the songs my sisters band performed and one of my niece dancing. 


On the right side, I included Jon's painting and some organizing he did in the basement. I journaled about the adventure we went on, the songs tori sang in the car and I recorded, and her and my sister watching Netflix in the backseat. After we dropped my niece off at home, my brother texted me to tell me that she was so excited about our adventure and couldn't wait to go on another one. It was adorable and so much fun. Probably the most excitement our album has seen in a while. 

Have a great day!
-Alexandria 

12/05/2014

Project Life: Week Fourteen

Today I'm sharing week 14. It was pretty simple, not too photo heavy, finally the end of March, but not the end of winter apparently. It was also Jon's dad's birthday.  


This week I tried to do pink and orange just because I think they're pretty together. I used Dear Lizzy: Neapolitan, and Coral. 


Here's the left side. The cupcakes were for Jon's dad's birthday, it snowed again, the orange card in the bottom right was a funny story Jon and I laughed about this week. 


Cut another Design C insert in half for the insert. I used the insert for photos from when my sister and my niece came to visit me at work.


I used floral washitape to adhere this photo to a background card. You can't really see the tape unless you look closely, which is what I wanted for this card. 


Here's the back side of the insert and the right side. I used the same washitape from the previous photo on my month card. 


The insert was design D cut in half. On the back side I included journaling about their visit. We coloured and threw paper airplanes in the hallway. It was fun. 


Here's the right side. I included Jon's painting and and a little journaling back here. 


Again I hid my journaling for the week in a bifold card. I just need to mark it so I know to pull it out for the journaling for the week. Also need to finish my month card. 

There's week 14. Another simple layout full of photos. I recently ordered photos from the last two years, and a bunch of scrapbooking supplies so layouts from previous years and some crafty hauls will be coming soon!

Have a great day! 
-Alexandria