May 2015 | Travel Mini Album

Today's post is going to be a long photo heavy post. With our anniversary trip coming up this weekend, I figured it was time to finish our album from our trip last year. This album basically covers the drive down, the zoo, and a couple other small moments from the trip. During this trip my old iPhone actually died for good, and I lost a few of the photos I'd taken, so I used the ones that Jon had taken (which was most of them anyways because his phone camera was better than mine at the time.

I definitely prefer chunkier mini albums, but given that this trip happened last year, and this years trip was fast approaching, done is better than perfect, but of course I added whatever ephemera I had from the trip - movie tickets, parking passes, business cards, and a few flairs and random little pieces.

This flair is from this set by The Crafty Pocket. We had to take a photo of this because it was barely stuck on the 1000 point section and some random guy stopped us to high-five us because we won 1000 points on the pirate wheel in the arcade. We were over the moon about this. We have so much fun at the arcade.

I included the map from the zoo as well. I had to fold it a little more to make it fit inside the album, but I love how it looks. I did it in such a way that you can sort of unfold it without taking it out of the rings. Flair is from this set.

This random acrylic zebra piece has been in my stash for a while, so I just stuck it on the rings here with the photo of the zebra.

The penguins are easily my favourite section at the zoo. They're just so active and excited all the time. I love watching them swim. Flair is from this set.

Used Kellie Stamps from this set and this set and printed it on some acetate because I received these stamps after I'd already printed the photos, but still wanted to use them in this album.

The end. Thanks for coming by to see this mini album. Calgary is easily one of my favourite cities in the province. We don't think we could live there full time, but we absolutely love visiting and going to the zoo. I'm so excited to go again this weekend and see the penguins!

Have a great day!

Project Life | Week 14

Today I'm sharing Week 14. I kept this week mostly simple, but did cut apart a couple of cards and stamp in a few places.

Left side; Here's the left side. I love the teal/aqua or whatever colour they're calling that now. Maybe it's blue? Anyways. I loved that "be awesome today" card from Studio Calico. It's silver foil and I love how the colours look together.

Right side; I used a couple of stamps from the Tough Story Kit (digital stamp available here) and some cards from my stash of old Studio Calico cards.

Maybe it's because I'm writing this much earlier than I usually get up, or I just don't have much to say about this spread, so I'll just end this post here. I hope you have a wonderful Monday, even if you got up earlier than usual and words are hard.

Kellie Stamps | May Release

Today I'm sharing my layout for the Kellie Stamps May release. This month I used another acrylic word from a past Story Kit (I love the big white title) and (this digital stamp) from Kellie Stamps which is also available as a physical pre-order until the 15th (here).

When Kellie told me she was releasing a label stamp I almost jumped for joy. I think I was at work when I saw the announcement I was just so stoked to be able to play with labels and have a purpose.

This layout tells the story of my niece asking if we can make a craft before she even says hi to me. I told a super short story and used the colours of the digital Craft Story Kit (no longer available but you can get the digital stamp HERE). I also used the physical stamp set to stamp a few sentiments on some of the labels.

Originally the date had been stamped on the top label, but I felt that the layout needed a frame and the date got cut off. I love how the stitching adds that little bit of texture to the layout. Even on the "STUFF" label where I stitched over the word.

I didn't stamp on all of the labels and my stitching wasn't always straight but I love how it turned out. I've been really into embracing all the white space lately, which is a huge deal because every art class I've ever taken has insisted that you have no white space.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and a Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there.

#operationreadmore | March & April

March was a busy month for me. I started my accounting course at the start of the month, and that led to me only reading 3 books. I got halfway through Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, but knew that I'd never finish it in March so I left it for April.

Anyways, in March I read:
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
The Life Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight
(Which was amazing by the way.)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

It was so awesome to re-read the Harry Potter books. Books 1-4 were my favourites as a kid, and everyone I hear talk about them who's read them as an adult says they're better for the kids than the last few books. Books 5-7 get darker, and reading them as an adult I definitely got more from them than I did while reading them when I was younger.

Books I read in April:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Me Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
A Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

I loved A Year of Yes and The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck. Both are those books that encourage you to change your life. Even if it's just in small ways like saying yes to certain things, and saying no to other things.

I've been looking at my bookshelf, and it still has a bunch of books on it, but I love the excitement of new books. Eventually I'll get to reading all the books on my to-read shelf, but I love the feeling I get when I add books to it.

Project Life | Week 13

Today I'm sharing Week 13. I've seriously been trying to use my stash, and get some things off my desk, so my spreads lately have had the addition of a few embellishments here and there, and I've stopped hoarding cards from Studio Calico kits from almost 2 years ago.

Left side; I loved that ampersand card so much I didn't want to use it. I almost took it out of this spread, but after I stamped on it, there was no going back. I added some labels I made using Kellie Stamps (this set) and (this set). I used these same labels in my Day in the Life album and they've been sitting on my desk asking to be used.

Right side; kept it rather simple. Added a flair from (this set) by The Crafty Pocket. I just put a couple glue dots on the edge and stick it down. Adding a foam dot to the back makes it too thick for the pocket pages, but would be fine in a chunky mini album.

Thanks for coming by to see this spread. I hope you have a wonderful Monday!