#myselfiescrapbook | Week 3

Good morning! Today I'm sharing Week 3 of #myselfiescrapbook. I didnt take as many selfies this week as I thought I would. As it is, I've already taken more selfies this year, than I ever did in the entirety of last year. That's pretty crazy, but also super awesome!

This weeks prompt was to take 1 selfie 4 ways. Basically it means to take 4 selfies of different things. The example was 4 shades of lipstick. I chose my 4 go-to hair styles. I've never really noticed the differences of the different ways I wear my hair, so it was cool to see how it changes with a few bobby pins or a hair elastic. I used a divided pocket page, and added some gold number stickers to the right hand side. I trimmed a piece of clear plastic and stuck the numbers back to back on the plastic. I love that it adds that bit of gold I've had throughout this album. I chose not to do any journaling on this page and just left it as selfies and numbers.

On the back side, I have the other two selfies. I love that you can see past the numbers to the page before/after. All the see-through elements are my favourite in this album! There's a lot of them. On the right, I included a selfie with my favourite child ever. We were coming home from my sisters band performance, and we were laughing and singing along to Taylor Swift. It was so much fun, and this picture isn't a good one of either of us, but I wanted to include it because the memory is important to me, and there will always be embarrassing photos of us out there somewhere.

On the back, I adhered some pattern paper to the back of the frame to make it a little prettier. It was just plain brown kraft and I hated it. I had to include another from where I stand selfie because I was wearing my favourite shirt and carrying my favourite otter bag.

Thank you for coming by to see my pages for week 3. I've been having SO MUCH fun with this project. I hope you have a wonderful day!
-Alexandria

#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

#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

Studio Calico: 30 Days of Me - Part 5

Thanks for coming back for the final part of my 30 Days of Me album. It's winding down and I'm almost sad that this is almost the end. Though I feel like I've wasted enough of your time with this album, so of course today will be the last day. The first four parts can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

First up, "Daily routine" for this, I just included a photo of my electric kettle, and journaled about my lack of routine. Since work closed in May, my routine has been basically non-existent. I've tried to get myself into a routine, but it hasn't worked. the one constant, was having a cup of tea after I woke up, so I included the kettle.

These two pages are my absolute favorite for very different reasons. The left one, is my favorite content-wise, and the right is my favorite technique/appearance-wise.

"I dream of..." at first I almost put a photo from the old TV show "I Dream of Genie" but I actually hated it, so instead I found some photos from the internet that were of things I do actually dream of happening in my future.
Top right: The house we want to build out on the 6 acres of land next to Jon's parents' place. We browsed plans for a couple months, fell in love with that house, and found out it wasn't possible right now. I dream of this house, literally. I'm looking forward to building it, hopefully next summer.
Bottom left: One day (hopefully soon) I dream of Jon proposing. We've talked about it a lot, and I've given him a few ideas of what he could do that would make my heart melt, and he has a few ideas of his own. We've talked about rings and I sent him a picture of what I wanted, we agreed on a metal so that when we get married, our rings will match. I know that I want to build the house before we get married, but a proposal is a totally different thing in my opinion.
Bottom right: I also dream of having a family. Preferably after we get married and build the house, but who knows. I took this photo from pinterest. It was the best way without having a strangers face in my album, plus I just love that photo.

This page was either going to work out beautifully or fail the minute I started. I only had one attempt to do it because I made the mistake of putting the alphas on the top before I painted it. If it hadn't worked out, I probably would have still used it, just covered it with something. For this prompt "Life is..." I didn't want to try and use one word to describe life, because life is so much more than just one word. I took out my Acrylic paints and painted two green and one purple strip. It's rather thick on one side, and there's so much texture that it was a little tricky to write on. I love the way it looks. I used a white uniball pen to write on it, and added an arrow wood veneer from Freckled Fawn.

"Evidence of me" I struggled with a little bit. I had a few ideas, (dirty dishes, baking, my pile of dirty laundry on the floor in the bedroom, bobby pins all over the house), and decided on this photo. Its a close up of all the little scraps and bits that have fallen onto the carpet by my desk in the craftroom. These little paper bits get stuck to my feet and I always find bits of paper in the kitchen and living room, which are on the opposite end of the house. It's my little way of leaving evidence that I've been crafting.

For the "I love..." prompt, I wanted to keep it simple and wrote a list of things that I love on a little tag and punched holes to attach it directly to the rings. I love how simple it is. I fit pretty well everything I love onto here.

"Currently Playlist" was a prompt...I think. I'm writing this from work and my list is at home on my desk. I added all the songs that I've been listening to, mostly on repeat. I used some music paper from the Music Mini kit from Studio Calico. I added some stickers and little acrylic music notes from the kit as well.

Just a close up of the acrylic music notes and the sequins.

The last prompt for my album was "Goals". My sewing machine needle broke when I was trying to stitch this pocket closed, so I had washitape holding it closed (that ugly pink and green striped tape you can see in a few of the other photos). When I went to photograph this page I remembered I had the tape on there, and had fixed my sewing needle, so I quickly stitched it shut. When sewing a pocket closed with things on both sides of the pocket, make sure to complete both sides before sewing!

I kept my goals simple, and hopefully attainable. My goal is to finish all of them before I do this again next September. We'll see how that goes!

The spine with its cute little purple label I made. I just measured the label that came inside of it, and made a text box in Microsoft Word, the same size, and typed my title in there, printed it and cut it to size.

Plain front cover. I was thinking about adding something, but there's so much going on inside that I think I'll just leave it plain black.

The bursting right side. You can't really see the dividers here either, but I know they're there. I love that crochet cotton showing on this side!

All the ribbon, and twine sticking out of the top. I think I should add something to the rings to hang out the top/over the spine a little.

Another shot of the bottom, I shared two photos of the bottom (halfway through, and finished). It's so full!

Here's a flipagram I made of the whole album, for those of you who might not want to read the blog posts, but just wanted to see the album.

Thanks for coming by to see this mini album. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I think Studio Calico has taken the class down, but you could easily make up your own prompts to just focus on you right now. I hope you enjoyed looking through this.

Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Studio Calico: 30 Days of Me - Part 4

Good morning! Thank you for coming back to see Part 4 of my 30 Days of Me album. It means so much to me that you came back to see part for, if you missed the other parts you can find the rest here: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3. Just click on the part you want to see! Happy reading!

Today I'm sharing all the pages inside the "Fall in love with your life" section. The focus of this section was things about my life that I love. I included prompts that focused on important pieces of my life right now.

First up, is a little sequin pouch, and behind it, something very special!

Because I wanted this little sequin pouch to be directly attached to the ring of the binder, I stitched a little square and punched my hole from the center of it, just to ensure it didn't split and have sequins come out everywhere.

This is something I'm pretty excited about. It looks like some patterned paper stitched to a pocket page and tied with ribbon, but it's so much more than that.

Just a close up of the stitching around the pocket page.

The pocket opens up on the right to reveal this.

It opens up into a little 6 square mini album page, inside my mini album.
This was inspired by Nicole Reaves' minibook class at Studio Calico. She made these little 8x12 pages, and glued them together to make a mini album. I took that idea and made a litttle 8x12 page, cut the right and bottom sides off of a 4x4 pocket page and stitched my page to the pocket page. I tied it with ribbon to keep it from flipping open whenever it wanted.
In this little mini album, within a mini album, I put the "Loving right now" prompt. All of these are things that I love right now. From ampersands, to cupcakes, history to my messy desk to mini albums and sequin pockets. I did a bit of journaling for each item with a photo, and created a list of things I love in the top left square.

 

I left the back of the mini album within a mini album, blank. I didn't want to make it look busier than the paper already was.

For the "Around the house" prompt, I included photos of a few of my favorite things. My new writing desk that I painted this summer, Gracie sleeping in her new favorite chair, and the rustic clock, and chrome owl that are my favorite two pieces from my livingroom. The title card is from the Marcy Penner minibook class and the alphas are from Studio Calico.

For "On the menu" I included a few new recipes we've made in the last little while, and all the baking that I did in preparation of work opening, and us not having as much time as we'd like. I made so many muffins, I'm surprised we're not sick of them yet. I tried out a recipe for a cucumber salad, and one of our favorites: Chicken Bacon Ranch in the slow cooker (recipe to come).

The "In my bag" prompt, was something I was actually a little excited about. I just bought a new wallet, and I had been meaning to clean some junk out of my purse (the empty icebreakers container, the receipts, the little Boston Pizza mints), but instead of cleaning it out before snapping this, I took a "real life" photo, because not everything can be clean and organized.

On the back of In my bag I put "Currently". I included the date, and filled in the prompts on the card. This card is from a Studio Calico kit (I think), but might also been in another of Becky Higgins kits (I'm thinking a Dear Lizzy mini kit perhaps) I wanted to keep this simple, and clean, I feel like that's exactly what this is. I love the title being down the side.

Next up I included the "Working on" prompt. This was a fairly simple one for me. I knew exactly what photos I wanted to include because all the projects I'm working on right now, were either on, or near my desk. There's way more than what I included here, but these were the three I'd worked on the most in the month of September.

"I love to..." I also did this one near the end. Tried to keep it fairly flat, and I wanted to include more of my handwriting. For this one, I just chose three things I'd done this particular week that I loved. I bought new books, my Studio Calico kits came in (including my 30 Days of Me class kit. Better late than never), and I went shopping at a local shop that I love to death!

I don't normally make "To Do" lists, but in preparation of a dinner we were making for Jon's parents before going to the movies, I made one so I made sure that I didn't forget anything. Rather than rewrite the list, I just attached it to a scrap of patterned paper, and added some staples to the bottom to make it extra secure.

The "lessons learned post was a tough one for me. I didn't want it to be overly serious, but I didn't want it to just be generic things I've learned. I also wanted to keep it a little light hearted. Just used some ledger paper, and alpha stickers to keep it simple.

 

Here's my final divider. It says "There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind". This section is more about the future, and it has two pages that make my heart happy.

Thanks for coming to see part 4 of my 30 Days of Me class album. It's winding down, and I'm grateful that you've stuck with it so far! If you're just starting, don't forget to click the links at the top to read the other 3 parts!

Have a great day!

-Alexandria