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29/04/2015

#myselfiescrapbook | Week 2

Good morning! Today I'm sharing the pages from my selfie scrapbook for the Week 2 prompt. You can find the prompt on Jen's blog here.

Here's the beginning of my pages for week 2. I love layers and different sized pages, and see-through elements, and I think that's obvious in these pages. I also love labels and tags and cutting things up.
Originally, I had the two 4x4 photos with the tag in the middle, but decided to add the "Yep I take photos of myself" card in between them. I might move it later on, but I like it here for now. It came from the Ali Edwards Click Story Kit, which you can purchase HERE until the 15th of May.
On the back of side I used the card that says "photos" over and over and just used it like a patterned paper. I added a paper heart to the back of the "me" wood veneer, a paperclip from Amy Tangerine and a wood veneer that says "love this". I added the paperclip to hold everything in the pockets. I thought about stapling, or sewing them, but decided I liked the look of the paperclip more.

I added a label, a chipboard star and the bottom half of the sticker to the top of this photo. The rest of the sticker went in the bottom right corner of the left photo. It's definitely my favourite photo from this week. On the right side, I wanted some see-through elements, so I cut a piece of clear plastic and adhered a label to either side of it for my journaling. I love that they're just floating in the pockets, but also serving a purpose.Those photos weren't traditional "from where I stand" photos, but I included them anyway.

On the back side I have two more photos and more labels. On the right side I included the "20 things about me" that I was tagged in on Instagram. It was something neat so I included it in my album on a piece of book paper. I painted some gesso over the page and added a label and flair to the center and paraphrased my 20 things from Instagram to fit onto this page.

They wouldn't all fit on the front, so I added some to the back and drew my own lines (like Ali Edwards does all the time). I had so much fun creating pages this week. So looking forward to the next few prompts, and trying to take selfies beyond the prompts, and include those as well.

Thanks for coming by to see my pages this week! It's still not too late to join in on the fun and start your selfie scrapbook!
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

27/04/2015

Project Life | Week 10

Good morning! I meant to share this spread last week, and thought I had it scheduled, but apparently I didn't. So I'm sharing it now. I'm sharing Week 10, and the more I get into this year, the more I realize that I'm actually okay with documenting everything from my perspective. I'd love to include Jon's, but he's very reluctant and I don't want to force him. I absolutely include things that we both do, but it's mostly about what I do, my photos, and my perspective. He also seems to be okay with it, so we'll see how things  go.

Here's my spread. I used some of my Studio Calico stash because it's getting out of hand, even though I've been using it for almost every week at this point.

Here's the left side. More snow, of course. Finished a couple more books, tried the new Salted Caramel Timbits from Tim Hortons. They're so sweet, but soooo amazing. It's like a mouthgasm. The stomach ache I got from them was absolutely worth it! Also snapped a photo of a beautiful sunset on our way home. We were stopped for a train, so I managed to get some good shot with my iPhone.

Here's the right side. I also got a shot that had the train and the elevator in it. I love the almost silhouette affect in the photo. So pretty. When we dropped my sisters purchases off at my mom's house, Jon wrote on the window. He drew a pile of poop and some flies and wrote "ha ha poop". We laughed for like 10 minutes about it. I finished reading The Longest Ride (so good. Excited to see the movie). We watched Big Hero 6 (so cute!) and I finished a mini album full of photos of my niece, using a coffee sleeve and a tutorial from Wilna at iheartstudio. The tutorial was included in her Love Mini Workshop, and I'm so addicted to making mini albums in that shape. I made a cutfile for the inside pages, and the cover (so I can make it with watercolour paper) and plan to make a bunch more!

Thank you for coming by to see my spread this week. I'm hoping to get back to sharing my pages every Monday, and hopefully get back into the habit of doing the Monday Link up with Karen. I hope you have a wonderful day!

-Alexandria

24/04/2015

#myselfiescrapbook | Week 1

Good morning! Today I'm sharing my pages for Week 1 of my selfie scrapbook. I'd hoped to share these sooner, but didn't  get them photographed before I left for my trip to Manitoba, so I'm sharing them now. Better late than never right?

For the beginning of my album, I took some inspiration from a Minibook workshop I took last year at Studio Calico. It was taught by Marcy Penner (one of my faves) and she had a lot of transparent elements, layers and different sized pages. I love that you can see right through my title page into the pages that come after it.

To start, I cropped my photo to a circle, and added the "My Story Matters" from this digital brush set by Ali Edwards. I used the PNG file as an overlay, and changed the colour to a light grey so that when I printed it, you could see through the letters. I typed out #myselfiescrapbook and cut it like a banner. I placed my photo in the pocket and stapled my photo to the pocket page (next to story) so that it wouldn't move around. I then stapled my banner on top of the pocket page.
I love how my photo looks even after I turn the page. It goes perfectly with the tag on the right.
Using the "I AM" stamp from Ali Edwards' One Little Word mini kit  I stamped onto the tag. Then in Word, I typed out a few things about me that were relevant to right now. I love that it offers a little glimpse into who I am, and what I like at the moment.

On the back of the tag, I used a frame from my stash (I believe it came in a Studio Calico kit) and a quote from Julie Gagen (found here).
When I was reading through Jen's intro post about #myselfiescrapbook I knew that I needed to include this quote in my album somewhere. I could have put it on the front of the tag, but decided that it was better for the back of the tag. I didn't want it to distract from my front page, but I love how perfectly it fit with the "my story matters" that I put on my front page.


Behind the tag, I have a little 2x4 pocket that was hidden behind the tag. Originally I thought about moving the tag, or changing the order of the pockets, but decided I was okay with it hiding behind the tag. It's almost like a little surprise when you turn the page.
The first weeks prompts included starting with my feet. I don't really take pictures of my feet, but after a few prompts that involve my feet, I'm a little obsessed with taking selfies that include my feet! This particular photo happened to include Gracie who is always near my feet in the morning.

The second prompt I did was "hands". I hate my hands. Like to the point that I do everything I can not to draw more attention than necessary, but for some reason I notice other people's hands and assume they're staring at mine. Anyways. Enough about my hands. I added a label and journaled straight onto the photo. The journaling on my photo is a short description of what they do/endure during the day.
On the right was "hair" (obviously). I had a wonderful hair day, and took advantage of the natural light in the craftroom. I wish my hair curled that nicely everyday, but since it doesn't I'm trying to embrace the imperfect curls as well. I printed some labels on vellum as well as cardstock and cut them out. Some are from Studio Calico, others are freebies I found on Pinterest. Just whatever I had saved on my computer.

Next up was "favourite shirt". This shirt is one of my favourites right now. I don't know why, I just really like it. Used a self-timer app on my phone to snap this photo.
On the right was "what I carry". I have 2 bags, and so I took a photo of each bag, and it's contents, and journaled about what's in each bag, and where I take it. The top bag was the one I take to work. It usually has my keys for work, a book, and a little zipper pouch full of random things that usually go between both bags (mints, advil, lotion, etc.). The bottom bag is my purse, which has my wallet, a TON of random candy and receipts and lists I forget to clean out of it, my glasses (that I never wear), some lotion, midol and there was a hair elastic, but I don't think it made it into the photo.

Next up was jewelry. I don't wear it much these days, but when I do, it's one of the necklaces in the top corner. The pearl was my very first birthday gift from Jon and I love it so much! The robot and mustache are ones I purchased in college, but still love. My favourite pieces, are two of my owl necklaces. Is it obvious that I'm obsessed with owls? I adhered the labels to a scrap of clear plastic that I cut to fit in the pockets. I used the same label shape on both sides of the top pocket, and a different shape for both sides of the bottom pocket.
The right page's prompt was "now let's see you". I was originally going to take a head to toe selfie, but was feeling like a whale that day, so I opted for just a photo of my face.

I'm definitely enjoying this project so much! I've loved seeing everyone's pages on Instagram, and in the link ups (that I'll be adding my link to). This project fits perfectly into my One Little Word prompt for this month, and I'll definitely be including a piece of this in there in some way.

If you haven't joined the #myselfiescrapbook, it's definitely never too late, and I absolutely suggest that you check out Jen's blog Sunlight & Air and jump on board. You might regret it for a little while, but you'll have so much fun!
Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria

22/04/2015

#myselfiescrapbook | Introduction

Good morning! Today I'm sharing a little bit about a project that closely resembles the 30 Days of Me class I took last September. This one is also about documenting yourself, but in a slightly different way. Jen from Sunlight & Air along with a few other ladies have created something they call "My Selfie Scrapbook" you can read Jen's intro to the project here, find a list of suggested supplies here, and find the first week of prompts here.

After a little bit of debate with myself, and convincing myself it was too much like 30 Days of Me (which I plan to do again later this year) I decided to JUST DO IT. I've been looking for excuses to make mini albums, and what's more perfect than a glimpse into little details of life right now? It's only been 7 months since I did 30 Days of Me and things have already changed. We bought new furniture, we're back to work, my nephew is almost a year old. Things aren't insanely different, but different enough that of course I'm going to document them. I hate that I waited so long to get started!

I'm a little bit behind on this project. They've already shared the first 3 weeks of prompts, and I only have the first week finished. Later this week I'll share my pages for week 1. I was gone last week and the week before I left was a little hectic so I didn't get a chance to post this before I left, but I'm doing it now! Better late than never right?

I hope that you'll join in on this wonderful project these ladies have put together. It's never too late to start. The link ups for week one and 2 are still open, and I'd love to see what you create!

Thanks for coming by! Have a great day!
-Alexandria

15/04/2015

One Little Word | March Prompts

Good morning, today I'm sharing my March Prompts for One Little Word. I'm not going to say I struggled with this prompt, but it definitely did take me a bit of time to get through it. Even now I find myself thinking I'll add more to it. It's almost addicting to create goals that you're going to work to achieve. I find that writing them down and outlining little steps to make them happen is the best way for me to achieve my goals. I can talk about doing something until the world ends, but until it's written down and I put little steps towards achieving it, it's almost impossible for me to even take a single step towards achieving a goal.

Here's the first two pages of action items. In the beginning, I had a hard time getting to 5, but then I started to really think about things I wanted to DO this year, and I made it to 10. I was happy to leave it at those 10 things, no need to overwhelm myself, but I found a few  more things I wanted to DO and so I have 15 action items. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, Ali did suggest that you don't go overboard, but by outlining all the things I want to DO, I feel like there's a better chance of me DOING most of them.
I was inspired by one of the girls in the Facebook group, to add small steps with little boxes I could check when I complete a step towards my goal. It's so rewarding to know that you're making progress, without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the goal.
The bottom one on this page "Take more risks" was a really vague goal, so I wanted to outline a few things that were 'risky' for me, or were something that I wouldn't have even thought about doing before this class. Things like "apply for two design teams", "do something that scares me", "learn something new" and a couple of suggestions. It's all about seriously deciding what you want to DO and just writing it down.

Here's the second spread. I wanted my monthly review to face the last page of the month otherwise I think I would have written down more action items.
This page was less about personal goals, and more about just things I wanted to DO for myself, or both of us, or creatively. I listed things like "get a credit card", "open an Etsy shop", "Blog" (with specific notes), "paint my house", and "landscape". These were the easiest things to make smaller actions for. There are so many little steps that were quickly outlined and won't be too hard to complete. They're exactly the simple tasks that I needed to make myself achieve more items on my list!

My Monthly review is the same as the last two months. I enjoy having all that space to write, and adding a bit of colour to my pages with some patterned paper. I think it makes it pretty. This paper is from Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan line. I love it!




Thanks for coming to check out my March One Little Word pages. It means a lot that you came to read my boring goals. I hope you have a wonderful day! Hopefully the weather is nicer wherever you are.

-Alexandria

13/04/2015

Project Life | Week 9

Good morning! I'm getting pretty excited about my trip to Manitoba. I'll be honest, the thought of spending a week with my parents, isn't necessarily my idea of a great time, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing my cousins and getting away for a few days. It'll definitely give me something to document in the coming weeks. Today I'm sharing my spread for Week 9. 

This week I chose to use blue & aqua/teal. It compliments the bottom right photo perfectly! Most of these cards come from Studio Calico, a couple of them come from Dear Lizzy and the Blush Edition from Becky Higgins.

Here's the left side. The top right photo makes my heart so happy. I came around the corner and found Tori laying on the floor flipping through a little photo album. It was the cutest thing, and I definitely want to put mini albums full of people she knows in a space that she can reach them because watching her flip through them is the cutest thing ever. I used Amy Tangerine vellum alphas and my Shimelle date stamp on my title card. I added some ephemera from the Amy Tangerine Stitched collection to the blue card. The bottom right photo was the room design I created using this site. You can customize the patterns/colours of items, but I just wanted to use it to make sure that our new furniture would fit in the room, and figure out how to lay it out so that everything would fit. I saved it and cropped it close to the walls then printed it to fit in this slot. The photo on the bottom left is from mid re-arranging. We were running out of room to move, and it was getting late. Jon was trying to drill a hole in the floor to run the cable for the TV through the basement and up so we could put the TV on another wall.

Here's the right side. The top left photo is the finished TV wall. It's beautiful and I love our new furniture. I love that the doors have glass on the top to display knick knacks and my colourful books, and the bottom of the door is closed in so we can hide all of the DVDs and boardgames. The top right was my brainstorming the new sign. The idea was there, and I knew in my head how I wanted it to look, it just wasn't executed well. The bottom left was my sister wiping off our best work so far. It's so pretty I wish we'd just left it. I was surprised that no one tried to smudge it at all.The bottom right photo is my ampersand wall. I want to add to it, but currently all I have is a bunch of little ampersands. I'm thinking I'll collage them in the shape of an ampersand. A few people have asked me "Why the and signs?" and my answer is simple: "and". It symbolizes the inclusion of something. There's more than just me, it's me AND Jon AND Gracie AND Socks, AND our families. Plus they're pretty. The frame is from Ikea, all of our TV furniture is also from Ikea.

Thanks for coming to check out my spread for Week 9
I hope you all have a wonderful day! I'll be sure to update you about my trip when I get back.
-Alexandria

10/04/2015

Ali Edwards Story Kit | Gathering Spread

Good morning! Today I'm sharing another layout I made using one of Ali Edwards' Story Kits. This one I made using the Gather Story kit. I had this photo sitting on my desk for quite some time now, and I knew I wanted to document it, but I wasn't sure how or where I was going to use it. I thought about using it in my Project Life album from the year the photo was taken, but when I ordered the print, I had to get it a weird size because of the dimensions of the photo, and when I tried to cut it up (I ordered it twice) it cut into peoples faces. I thought about just sticking it into an 8.5x11 page protector, and sticking it in that way, but since I hadn't done anything with it, and I wanted to make a page using the kit, I decided I'd use it for this.

This spread is very similar to one that Ali made in her process video for this kit, but it's also very different. I used a little bit of everything to make this spread. I used the phrase stickers, the canvas pieces, the digital files, the stamps, the digital cards (if I'm going to cut it up I prefer to print it out), and the little story cards. I used my computer to type out the titles for each of the little story cards, as well as the little "titles" between the story cards.

The photo in this spread was taken on New Year's Eve in 2011. My Grandpa passed away on Christmas Day, and we had the funeral New Year's Eve. My Aunt wanted to get a picture of his Grandkids, and the three Great-Grandkids (one of the Grandkids is missing). We're such a good looking bunch. Despite it being the holidays, so so many people came. The church was overflowing, and I know it meant a lot to my Grandma to have so much support from people who knew my Grandpa. Enough about how sad this day was. I think it's important to document all the moments. Not just the ones where you're happy and your life looks so perfect. I'm so grateful that she made us all stand there for this picture, even though I for one, didn't want to. 

This is definitely my favourite close up from this layout. I love how the gather stands out against the canvas piece. I used red Colorbox ink and the gather stamp. I added the hearts with black ink, and I love how it looks. The little titles were adhered to the story boxes with double sided tape. I added the titles and the stickers to avoid having odd sized gaps between the cards. I was going for a haphazard grid look, and achieved that with different sized elements.

I used the digital file for the acrylic hearts to cut this one out of red paper. I resized it to 2". I glued and then stitched it to the canvas piece. I added the blue chipboard piece that says "better together" to the middle of the heart. You can see a tiny bit of where I stamped on the photo. I used the "ah, family", hearts and "in good times and hard times" stamps. This photo is from one of the hard times, and I wanted to document it.

Along the right hand side, I stamped "the more we get together the happier we'll be". It's true. We don't get together very often, but when we do, we usually have a good time, and it was so nice that we were all together for this. We all would have preferred different circumstances, however still enjoyed each other's company.

I want to thank you all for coming by to see this spread. If you don't yet subscribe to the Story Kits, I suggest you do so! They've definitely helped me document moments in my life, I might have otherwise overlooked. They've encouraged me to look at some moments in a new way, and I'm so grateful to Ali and her team for creating products to help us document our lives in a new way. I definitely look forward to sharing more layouts using her kits, and I look forward to getting more of her kits!

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

06/04/2015

Project Life | Week 8

Good morning! I hope you all had a nice Easter. My Grandma from Saskatchewan came out to visit us, and everyone except my sister made it to dinner. My baby sister is currently in IRELAND of all places, until later this week. I'm so happy for her, and so glad she was fortunate enough to go on this trip with her band group. I'm definitely looking forward to creating an album of some sort for her to remember her trip! I'm also looking forward to her coming home and being able to talk to her about her it! Ireland is on the top of my "to visit" list!

Today I'm sharing my spreads for Week 8. This week was pretty uneventful, lots of crafting, a trip to the city to pick up some furniture for the house. This week I used up some more of my Studio Calico stash.
Here's the left side of my spread. Caught Jon and Gracie cuddling on the couch right after I'd asked her to come sit with me. Jon and I watched "The F Word" which was conveniently changed to "What If". Tori and I made a beautiful ball to hang in her room. Mom's Sunday School class made them at church the previous week, and she had some leftover supplies. It was supposed to be a prayer ball, on which they write things they were going to pray for, but Tori just wanted to make a pretty ball to hang in her room. She's the cutest! I also finished the cover, and put all the ribbon on the tags of my mini album for Gracie. It turned out beautifully!
Here's the right side. I used the tag card to create a quick summary of the things that happened this week. After my haircut on Wednesday, Jon and I went to Edmonton. We picked up all the new entertainment furniture for the livingroom, and had dinner at Montana's. I got some new books in the mail (I've read all of them already) and a new coffee mug. It's so ME! I also finished my mini album for socks, and worked on one of the tags for Gracie's album. The stamp I used is this one, from Kellie Stamps. I'm currently waiting for another order of stamps to arrive in the mail, and can't wait to use them!!

Thanks for coming by to check out my spread for Week 8. 
I hope you all have a wonderful day!!
-Alexandria

01/04/2015

Ali Edwards Story Kit | 7AM & 7PM

Good morning! My apologies for this being late, I had meant to share these spreads on Friday, but that didn't happen, and then I was going to share them earlier this morning, but that also didn't happen. I had issues getting the photos off my computer, but now that I got that fixed, I'm absolutely excited to share these layouts with you.


A couple weeks ago, Ali Edwards encouraged subscribers to join her in documenting two moments in their day. The first would be at 7AM and the second would be at 7PM. It didn't matter where in the world they were located, they were to do it at those times in their time zone. I've subscribed to her Story Stamps since they were released in September, and I subscribed to the Second Story kit she released (to accompany the stamp) a few months later. I've been hoarding the last two kits, but when she announced she was documenting her 7AM & 7PM on March 10th, I knew there was no way I could do it that day, but I could absolutely do it a few days later on the 14th.


Anyone who knows me, knows I'm absolutely not a morning person. So getting up before 8:30AM is a huge deal for me. On the 14th, my cousin was getting married in a small town two hours from where I live. Her ceremony was at noon, and we were stopping along the way to pick up a few things, so we had to leave by 8AM to make it on time. This meant getting up at 6:00AM to be ready in time. I definitely slept through my alarm and woke up at 6:30.


I set an alarm to go off at 7AM and another at 7PM so I couldn't "forget" to snap a photo for each. I didn't want to document this for any particular reason, other than it was a little out of the norm for me to be up that early, and I wanted to document it. This whole day was focused on my cousin getting married, but I wanted to also remember what I was doing that day.




At 7AM, I had put on around half of my make up, so no morning selfie, that would have been terrifying. Instead, I snapped a photo of my make up lined up on the bathroom counter to document that at 7AM, I was in the middle of putting my face on.


My family decided that they would have a "reception" immediately following their ceremony, which meant it was a light lunch, a lot of visiting, a few games, and after it was over they'd go have their photos taken. This meant we were heading home around 4:30/5. We were all hungry, and agreed to stop halfway for dinner.

At 7PM, we had just finished eating dinner. My niece was colouring, my brother was holding my nephew, trying to get him to eat a bit before they piled back into the car. My sister-in-law was visiting with someone she knew near the bathrooms. My parents were talking (I don't know what about), and my sister was on her phone. I snapped a photo of my parents, and one of my niece colouring. I decided I'd choose my photo later.



While standing in line at Tim Horton's, waiting for our order, I scrolled through the selfies my sister sent me, and decided that I document my niece all the time, so I chose the photo of my parents. It was important to me to document that moment because for the last few years I've noticed my parents drifting apart. I know that I'll want to remember the few times that they were actually getting along, and they're the people that brought the 8 of us together at dinner that night. Even though my younger brother couldn't make it, it was something I wanted to document.




There you have my layouts documenting my day. Perhaps at some point I'll do Day in the Life, but if I can't even finish a monthly photo challenge on time, how in the world am I supposed to take photos throughout the day of what I'm doing? BUT, I'm working on it!

Thanks for coming by to check out my layouts. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

-Alexandria