Kellie Stamps | April Release

Today I'm sharing a layout that makes my heart happy. I used pieces from a past Story Kit from Ali Edwards (I literally never use it while it's still available and I don't know why). I also used the cross stamp from this digital set of Kellie Stamps.

This layout took me a little while to put together, but once the pieces came together I couldn't stop looking at it.

I put all the pieces in a vertical line and kept everything pretty simple. I think the background paper could have been a little simpler, but I really wanted to use this paper that I made. I love that the red pieces stand out against the black and white.

I backed the hexagon heart this piece on white paper to keep it from blending into the background. I just stuck it on white paper and roughly cut around it. It's not perfect, but I love how it separates the two pieces. I also love the acrylic word. I've been using them on a lot of my projects lately, and I love them so much!

Thank you for coming by to see this spread. It's super simple and just documents my niece trying to write "Auntie Alex". She's only 5 and given her very small knowledge of words she did a really good job. I can't wait to watch her writing develop!

I also used the April release in my Day in the Life album (here).

Day in The Life | Finished Album

Today I'm sharing my Day in the Life album. I used pieces from the past AM/PM Story Kit from Ali Edwards (you can find out more information about the story kit subscription here), the Day in the Life kit (here) and Kellie Stamps from the AM TO PM, COFFEE and RAD. I made my album from two pieces of chipboard, some binder rings nad some yellow paint. I love how it turned out. I threw in some extra pieces from my stash as well, and love how all the pieces came together.

I did all of my journaling on 4x4 pieces for each section of the day (morning, afternoon, evening). I used the times on each of the photos, and wrote a sentence or two about what was happening at that time. I'm not adding any journaling between the photos, so leave a comment if you have any questions. Enjoy!

I had so much fun doing this project, and I absolutely look forward to doing it again later this year. I love the opportunity to document a day in my life with more detail than I normally would. It's also a great opportunity to make a mini album and try out some new things and see what works and what you don't like. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Build a Life You Love

Good morning! Today I'm sharing a layout that I absolutely love. Ever since that first hand embroidered page I did, I've fallen in love, and try to add embroidery to as many projects as I can. It's something I just love to do while I'm watching TV, and I can definitely see more of this in the future. I love the texture it adds to my pages and how easy it is to add some colour.

With this layout I tried something a little different. I stitched my title on the left side, and then I went back and cut and "interior offset" using my silhouette and cut pieces to fit inside of each letter and painted them similar colours with water colours. I love how they turned out. The letters looked incomplete without the paper in the middle, and I'm so happy with how it looks. On the right side, I added a piece of rainbow chevron striped paper, a photo of Jon and I, a little chipboard banner, and some typed journaling. I wrote the journaling as more of a letter to Jon, and love how this layout turned out. I love that the focus is mostly on the large title, and there's minimal embellishing to take away from that.

Thank you for coming by to check out this beautiful spread. I think I might frame this one and hang it in our bedroom. It's too pretty to sit in an album where no one will ever look at it.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
-Alexandria

Week In The Life | Sunday

Today I'm sharing the final round of pages from my 2015 album. I love how this whole album turned out, and Jon's flipped through it and he loves it too, though he didn't notice some of the little details and things. That's completely okay with me. It means that he's likely to flip through it again and look for those little things I've pointed out to him.

One of my favourite things that I did in this album, was adding the numbers here and there. Here I added a 9 because I woke up at 9. I wanted to use the numbers wherever possible, and this was the perfect way. I used every single number and I'm so proud of myself!

The yellow labels were a little harder for me to use up, but I used more than I thought I would. The one on the bottom left photo says "love this".

I used A LOT of the gold and cream perforated strips throughout. I love that they're small and just a simple way to add a little extra something to a photo. This photo is super dark, but lighter in person. It's gracie curled up on the bed with me.

To finish off the album, I printed this quote from one of Ali Edwards' #givesunday posts. I thought I would just end it there, but then I grabbed some stamps and these little 2x2 squares from Studio Calcio that have been in my stash since last year sometime, and created a little see-through page for the back. I love that you don't even have to flip that page, everything is readable from the front, and just ends the album with a bit of colour.

As you can see, my album refuses to stay closed. It's so incredibly full, but I'm so happy with it. I know Ali mentioned in one of her posts that they should make the spine larger for the next kit. I agree. My album is PACKED and has literally no space left for anything.

Originally, my daily review cards (the front of the 3x8 pockets) were going to have the wood veneers from the kit on them, but they made the album too thick before I even added anything to it, so I removed them and stamped the days instead. I'm happy with how it looks, but really loved the veneers. Maybe next year!

Thank you for coming to check out my Week in the Life album. This was my first year doing it, and I enjoyed it so much, but now I'm nervous about doing December Daily. Maybe I'll have to limit myself to one two page spread for each day, or even less than that so it all fits into one 6x8 album. I've also been considering doing a 4x4 album for Christmas. We'll see what happens.

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria