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30/03/2015

Project Life | Week 7

Good morning! Today I'm sharing my spread for Week 7. Given that we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, I tried to keep the hearts and pink/red to a minimum on this spread. There were a lot of colours in my photos, and while they make it look a little busy, I prefer my photos to be in colour. I love black and white photos in mini albums, or on other projects, but when documenting my everyday life, I want to see the colours.


Here's my spread for this week. Studio Calico cards again. I realize now that I've been using my Studio Calico stash because it's on my desk and easily accessible. My Raskog carts full of all my other cards are a little harder to get to, and so I find myself using them less.


Here's the left side. I love love love my title card for this week. I'm trying to keep it consistent from week to week. The title card contains only the letters W and K and the week number. Below that I stamp the date using my Shimelle date stamp, and using a black pen, I put the dash between the dates. This week I had some extra journaling that wouldn't fit anywhere else, so I put it directly on the photo. I just used my white Uniball pen, and once the ink had a second to dry, it was fine. It didn't smudge, but it didn't write 100% clear either (it never does because I'm impatient and write too fast).

Here's the right side. So much food. We tried out a new recipe, and had my sister over for dinner, then played some boardgames, and I actually won a round of Settlers' of Cattan. I had a dinner date with my sister the day after Valentine's Day. Had the Filet Mignon work was selling for the whole weekend. It was delicious!

Thanks for coming by to check out my spread for this week. Have a great day!
-Alexandria

25/03/2015

Black & White Mini Album | Socks

Today I'm sharing another mini album. Since I made one for Gracie, I decided that I needed to also make one for Socks. I actually made this one around the same time, but decided to delay sharing it until now. I was hoping that I'd have other projects to share in the middle, but I just ended up making more mini albums. Of course.


Originally I was going to keep this one strictly black and white (socks is a black and white tuxedo cat), but soon found that black or white embellishments were minimal in m stash, so I added a bit of gold to the mix. The white frame is from a Freckled Fawn embellishment kit, the heart in the middle is from an ephemera pack I had in a bowl on my desk. Label and alphas from my stash and Heidi Sawpp gold mist.


For the most part, I kept my pages pretty simple. Using only black and white papers and adding in little gold pieces here and there.


As with Gracie's album, I wanted to capture his personality, and a few of his favourite spots in this album. Most of these pictures are from when he lived at my moms house because I don't have many recent pictures of him.


I tried to journal on almost every page. With either a memory, or some personality quirk of his. Like sleeping in weird spots (around items on the table, on the top bunk of the bed my sister and I used to share, etc.).


I also wanted to include things he likes. On this page it happened to be that he likes to chew on things that crinkle. In this case it was a granola bar wrapper.

Socks was MY cat. I cuddled him, he sometimes slept with me, we hang out sometimes still and watch Netflix in the basement, or I read and he curls up in my lap. Unfortunately him and Gracie don't get along, AT ALL, so he's locked in the basement, and Gracie is upstairs. I keep saying that maybe one day they'll get along, but Gracie is older and stuck in her ways, while socks is very territorial. Ah well, most children don't get along either.

Thanks for coming to check out this mini album.
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

23/03/2015

Project Life | Week 6

Good morning. Today I'm sharing my spread for Week 6.


This week was another bunch of Studio Calico cards. I'm paying for them, I might as well use as many of them as I can. I also finished another 3 books this week (crazy).


Here's the left side. I finished my Love Mini album this week after adding a few extra pages because it was too thin for my liking. Made a few congrats cards this week because my mom needed one for my cousins wedding shower, and did a little bit of blog planning.


Here's the right side. My niece and I finished up her mini album for her parents this week, and I forgot to snap a photo, so I stole one that my sister in law put on Facebook. The "don't be so hard on yourself" quote is a photo from Pinterest that is currently the wallpaper for my phone's lock screen. I included a shot of my One Little Word album as well as the sign after we filled in the white part. It's easily our best sign yet. So proud of us for creating something so beautiful.

Thanks for coming by to check out my spreads for Week 6. Have a great day!
-Alexandria

20/03/2015

FavouritesFriday | Instagram Accounts


Today I'm sharing some of my absolute favourite Instagram accounts, and a few things I love about each of them!

First up:
@ara_esp I've been following Ara and her paper creations since I created my crafty Instagram in 2012. At the time, I had 2 accounts, and only used my current one to post crafty things. I fell in love with her style and creativity. We've done a swap or two of crafty things, and I'm so glad that she's the first person I follwed, and still continue to follow!

@jesiiii I love her little wood paintings, and have been trying to save up to get a custom piece (or several) from her! Her creativity is inspiring, and I've fallen in love with her quirky style, her cat Digby, and her photos of abandoned buildings.

@littlepaperlane There are no words. I love seeing glimpses inside her little shop, and photos of her kids and their dog. Minty is easily my favourite Instagram kid on the planet. I love their Australian accents, and would absolutely love to meet their adorable little family. She's blunt, opinionated, and so so creative. I love seeing her window displays, and envy her creativity in making them.

@creatiate I don't even remember how I found this lovely human being. Her stamps are amazing, and I've also been saving for a bunch of them. I just love her creativity, and that she hand carves all of her stamps herself. That right there is the definition of small business. I've recommended her to TONS of people and I can't get enough of her creativity. She recently had a baby and isn't doing as much custom work, but the stamps listed in her shop are still beautiful pieces of work!

@jmm_crafts I love love love Harry & Bella (her cats), and love seeing them help her with her quilts. I love that she loves her cats as much as her hobby and shares them with the world! Makes me think of my cat every time I see hers trying to help her sew, or holding a quilt down. Cats are the cutest!

@angelascreativecorner Angela is the most creative human being I've ever seen. I love that she not only makes paper creations, but also makes cake pops, and sometimes even cupcakes. I love seeing all of her crafty projects and have definitely been inspired by her on more than one occasion!

@happiescrappie I'm definitely not a planner nerd, but for some reason, I LOVE her planner photos. I don't understand owning more than one planner, but she has a lot of them, and I love all the pretty colours. I think I'm mostly attracted to her photo style. So many bright colours, just browsing her feed makes me feel happy!

@wonderforest I probably have the biggest girl crush ever on Dana from The Wonder Forest. I've been in love with her work for quite some time! She's so beautiful (inside and out), and I'd be honoured to work with her to make my blog pretty. I've been reading her blog on and off for a few years, and her Instagram is simply beautiful. I love that she's also launched a Youtube Channel, and blog to help people with their blogs for free. I've learned so much from her, and I'm currently working on making mine a little prettier without (hopefully) spending a ton of money. I think I'm also a little biased because she's a fellow Canadian, but I love her blog, and her cute little Etsy shop. I also love that she has a line of device cases on Casteify.

Thank you for coming by to check out some of my favourite Instagram accounts. I hope you found some new people to follow. I'd love to hear some of your favourite followers! Leave a comment and I'll check them out. Feel free to link your own account, and I'll check yours out as well!

-Alexandria

16/03/2015

Project Life | Week 5

Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! It was Jon's birthday on Friday, and he had some friends coming down for the weekend, for what we call "Provocon". Basically a bunch of nerds playing games, eating, drinking, and yelling over each other. I missed a lot of the noise because my cousin got married on Saturday (while most of the games, yelling, eating & drinking was occuring). Overall, I'd say it was a good weekend.


Today I'm sharing my spread for Week 5. This week I used cards strictly from my stash of Studio Calico cards. I also used some thickers I got for Christmas, and some chipboard hearts from Studio Calico.


Here's the left side. Finished up my love mini album this week. My sister turned 17, so I included the photo of her from when she was probably 3 or 4, that I shared on Instagram with a birthday wish for her. Jon and Tori played with some lego while she was over. She was so excited to build a castle with Uncle Jon.


Finished another book, documented a snippet of a routine I developed this week. I started a few days with coffee and a book, and so I included that. Organized my stamps (I think I have a enough now) and made a new chalkboard for work. Definitely one of our best (we later filled in the white scallop around the outside and it looked even better).

Thanks for coming by to see my spreads this week! I hope you have a wonderful day!
-Alexandria

13/03/2015

Love Mini Workshop | Coffee Sleeve Mini Album

Good morning! Today I'm sharing a project that I made from a class from my favourite creative person ever Wilna Furstenberg. This post is not sponsored by her in any way, I'm just so over the moon with her classes that I keep raving about them here when I share my projects.
 http://www.iheartstudio.ca/product/love-mini-album-workshop/
This particular project is part of her Love Mini Workshop (which is possibly my favourite class of hers). You can purchase that class HERE. She also offered this class last year on Two Peas in a Bucket, but she added a few extra projects and added it to her shop. I'm absolutely glad I purhcased it because I've learned so many amazing things from her, and have a few more mini albums I want to make!


I shared this photo on Instagram last week. I took the coffee sleeve, and painted it with Gesso, then decided that I didn't want it to be white, so after I stitched some chipboard to the inside (the sleeve was extremely flimsy) I painted it with watercolours. This wasn't the effect I was going for, but I went with it.


Then I embellished the cover. I didn't want to hide the watercolours, so I kept my embellishments to the left side. I used ephemera from Maggie Holmes' Open Book line, and a couple of labels from my stash. The orange thread was used to bind my pages.


Here's the cover once I added all my photos and embellishments to the inside pages. I wanted them to stick out the top a little bit, and tried to keep them from hanging out the bottom.


And a close up, just because it's too pretty not to share.


The inside pages contain papers and more flowers from the Open Book line, some words from Wilna that I cut out using my Silhouette, and photos from my adventures with my niece last year.



Some of the cutfiles I painted with watercolours. Of course it would have been smart to paint them before I put them on the pages, but I didn't, so a few were painted after I stuck them down.


I tried to keep the pages a little on the simple side, and only used paper embellishments. No flair, or extra bulk since I wasn't planning to tie the album closed.



The back was also painted white with Gesso. This is the only proof you have that it used to be a coffee sleeve. In person you can tell along the spine on the inside that it's cardboard under there, but I didn't want it to look like cardboard, or a coffee sleeve.

I'm so excited to create similar albums without actually using a coffee sleeve. I have a few in the works with watercolour paper, and different papers for pages (including a vellum page).

Thanks for coming to check out this mini album. I hope that it helps you to try and make a mini album from a recycled material. Wilna proves that you can create mini albums from literally anything.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

11/03/2015

One Little Word | February Prompts

Good morning. Today I'm sharing my February One Little Word prompt, and my monthly reviews for January and February. When I share my March prompts, my goal is to also share my monthly review with it. For my reviews, I took the PNG files and cut out the monthly reflection portion and typed out my thoughts.


With my monthly review, I don't feel that I wrote what Ali suggested, or in the way that she suggested. I just started typing, and didn't do much, if any, editing. My review to me, was a place to be open, and share whatever was coming to mind when I thought about my word and the things that did, or did not happen. 


Here's my prompt for February. I struggled with this, so much more than the January prompts. It was hard for me because essentially, I HATE collages. I hate cutting and pasting things without structure. I feel as if this prompt pushed me away from my word a little bit. Like when you force yourself to do something you REALLY don't want to do, and you're not sure if you feel better or worse in the end. In this case, I felt worse.
However, looking at it now, I'm glad that I pushed myself to do it. There's a lot of white space, and overlap, and I'm okay with that. I tore out a page from a magazine, that was a bunch of eyeshadows. I loved all the colours, and so I stuck it down first. It filled in a lot of white space. Then I stopped planning and just started sticking things down, trying not to over think it. It has a lot of things that speak to me, for various reasons, and I needed it. It hurt me to make it, but I needed this vision board because I was losing touch with my word without even realizing it.
So a huge thank you to Ali for telling us all to do it, even if we REALLY didn't want to.


Here's my February review. Since I didn't actually complete my February prompt until the start of March, my review doesn't contain much (if anything) about my hate of the vision board prompt. It also doesn't contain much about my distancing myself from my word. Those things will probably be in my March review.

Thanks for coming by to see my vision board, and my monthly reviews. I knew when I was typing them, that I was going to mount them onto some patterned paper to add a bit of visual interest to them. I hate just plain pages, and I had way more to say than would have fit onto the little cards.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

09/03/2015

Project Life | Week 4

Good morning! This morning I'm sharing my Project Life spread for Week 4. At this point, It's clear to me that a lot of these spreads will contain what I've been up to. Jon and I have talked about getting a 6x8 album to contain spreads of what he's been up to on a monthly basis. Because I take my photos with my phone, unless he sends me photos, I never get what he's been working on, and it generally doesn't get included. Or maybe once a month we'll just include a 2 page spread of his painting (which is actually a great idea).


Enough blabbering. Here's my spread for week 4. I used cards from my stash of Studio Calico, and one from the Midnight Edition.


Here's the left side. The yellow alpha stickers are by Amy Tangerine. I love them. They came in a book with 4 or so different colours, and they perfectly matched the yellow of this spread. I also love that they're translucent, so the background shows through a little bit. The Today's List card has a list of places we were going while we were in the city. We'd planned to go to the movies, but decided to hang out in the hotel instead.


Here's the right side. I spent a lot of time in the craftroom this week, and it shows in my pictures. I also finished two books (which was awesome) and so I journaled a bit about those.

Thanks for coming by to see my spreads this week.
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

06/03/2015

Congratulations Cards

Today I'm sharing some cards I made for my cousins wedding shower / wedding. My mom asked if I could make a last-minute card for her shower, and so I made three because I knew I'd need another one for her wedding, and one for Jon's sister's wedding this summer.



I pulled out these frame cutfiles from iheartstudio.ca, my watercolours, some stamps and water colour paper. I tried to just go with it, and have fun with the watercolours. I didn't want to over think it too much, or try and be such a perfectionist.


For this first card, I used the frame with the hearts. I painted a square small enough to fit in the frame, with watercolours. Once it was dry I glued it to the back of the frame. Added dimension with foam squares. Stamped and cut out the congratulations sentiment, and used foam squares to adhere it over the crochet cotton. I hid the knot behind the sentiment. I love that it's clean and simple. This is the card we ended up using for her wedding shower at the start of February.


I painted a piece that would fit on the front of the card, and have a little white border around it. When it was dry, I stamped the cake and sentiment onto the card using this stamp set from Studio Calico. We decided we'd use this card to go with the gift for their wedding.


I never do anything with just yellow, so I made this card. I used some left over ribbon I had sitting on my desk, another frame from the cutfiles above, and another congratulations sentiment. This one is so bright and happy. It could be used for a baby, or a wedding. My plan is to use this one for Jon's sister's wedding. Her colours are blue and yellow.

Thanks for coming by to see these cards. Pull out your watercolours, or any paints you have, and make one card. If it's not fun, then put them away and do something else.

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria

04/03/2015

Tag & Pocket Mini Album | Gracie

Good morning! I was going to post yesterday, but things were a little busy last week and over the weekend, so I didn't get my Project Life spreads photographed. I did however, get the living room rearranged and all of our Ikea furniture assembled. The room feels so much bigger, and more organized. I actually enjoy spending time in the living room now. Just need to get our new couch and we'll be all set!


Today I'm sharing some photos from this little mini album I made for our cat Gracie. A few weeks ago, I asked how many albums it would be acceptable to fill with photos of my cats. Everyone encouraged me that cats are cute, part of our family, and absolutely should be recorded, even in their own albums. The tutorial to make this album (and a few others), and the cutfiles for the tags and vellum pockets can be purchased here. Wilna offered this class on Two Peas in a Bucket last year, but added a few new projects, and added it to her site.


Here's a close up of the cover. I splattered some watercolors on a piece the size of the cover. Then I layered some papers from my scrap bin, added some ribbon with hearts on it, and spelt out Gracie with white foam alphas and stitched them down. Then I adhered it to the rest of my album.



I added stickers, ephemera, ribbon, diecuts, and a photo to each of the tags and pages. I journaled mostly on the tags, and kept any additional bulk to a minimum. I added chipboard stickers here and there, but tried to use them sparingly.



I tend to keep things more on the simple side. Mostly because when I embellish it looks exactly the way it happens. I just throw things on the page.



I've been trying to use up some of my stash more, and a lot of it consists of ephemera and stickers that I wanted, but haven't used yet. The embellishments on this tag are from Notes & Things by Crate Paper.



I also wanted to document Gracie in a lot of her natural habitat. Like when she forces her way onto my lap, and refuses to move for a couple of hours.




I also wanted to include photos that perfectly showed her personality. Like when she just flops over on her side and meows at me asking me to pet her. I know she's asking me to pet her because when Jon tries she hisses at him. He clearly doesn't know what she likes.



I haven't done much stamping lately, but while looking through a few that were sitting on my desk, I found this one from Kellie Stamps (here), and knew I had to use it in this album. It was perfect for this card.

I also just browsed Kellie's shop, and absolutely need to buy more of her stamps! They're beautiful!
I hope you enjoyed seeing this album full of photos of Gracie. I imagine more of them will be coming in the future. There's just so many techniques I want to try.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria