Project Life: Week Twenty-Three

Today I'm sharing my layout for week 23. This week starts off with our trip home from my Grandma's (see week 22 for the trip to my Grandma's). This week was very photo heavy, but there were also a lot of cards from the Studio Calico Sugar Rush kit that I wanted to use up.

Here's my first left side and the insert. I used Jade, Honey and Studio Calico cards for this layout. My title was made using light blue foam alphas.

Here's the left side. I included a map from our trip, and some photos of the ever changing weather. It started out rainy, then the sun came out.

Here's the front side of the insert. In the bottom pocket I included some of the songs we sang a long to on the way home. Jon and my sister are almost as terrible as I am, and we had a blast! The top photo is a mirror shot of my mom and my brother in the car behind us. I journaled about it in the 3x4 slot below it.

Here's the back of the insert and the right side to the end of the trip. I used more Honey, Studio Calico, and a couple cards from the Midnight edition as well.

On the back of the insert, I included more weather/scenery photos. I can't help but have a weakness for the bold colours of nature!

Here's the right side. This page was mostly about how we raced to catch up to my older brother and his fiance. We caught up to them about 20 minutes from home. We all thought it was pretty funny, and never thought Jon would seriously race to catch up to them.

Here's the rest of our week. It was pretty uneventful after our trip. I used more jade, and honey cards. 

Here's the left side. We got our new washer and drier before we left, but when we got back, Jon got some help to move it down to the laundry room and move the old ones out. They're beautiful! I started reading a new book so I included that, and a photo of a couple pages. I started sanding my little writing desk finally, and snapped a picture of our green yard. I also snapped a photo of the layout I was working on in the craftroom. I spent most of my free time doing PL this week since it was pretty rainy.

Here's the right side. Jon had a tournament so I included those photos and had him journal about the tournament and how he did. I'm terrible with those things, and I love to have his perspective in there. I might have to tag along and get photos of him actually playing the game to include in future spreads.

Hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Twenty-Two

Today I'm sharing my spread for week 22. This was a semi-busy week as we spent the weekend visiting my Grandma and Great Grandma. It was a fun weekend nonetheless. 

*Unfortunately I found out yesterday that my Great Grandma passed away. I'm glad that she's no longer suffering, and that we could see her this one last time before she went. When I share week 28 I'll share my tips for including loss in Project Life.*

This week I used paper from My Mind's Eye, and cards from Studio Calico, 5th & Frolic, Polkadot Party, and Daydreamer. I also used some corrugated alphas. 

Here's the left side.The title card was made using My Mind's Eye Bloom paper. It came from their 6x6 pad. I included a photo of what work looked like this week since I got to see some of the demo (though I haven't been back since).

The right hand side has photos from the six hour drive to my Grandma's house and our stop in the mall. We took my niece with us so she could play with my cousins more than just one day. We had to stop halfway at the mall so my sister could get her phone fixed, so I bought my niece a new colouring book and a Frozen story book that kept her quite entertained on the second half of the trip, until she fell asleep holding the colouring book.

I also made a full two page spread with an insert from the birthday party my grandma arranged for my Great Grandma in the nursing home. It was hard to see her like that, but I'm glad I got to see her. Just a tip, don't ever drink nursing home juice, unless you have no tastebuds. It was awful! But the cake was delicious (my Grandma bought it from the local Co-op).

Here's the left side. I didn't do much journaling about her party, but I included the photos of everyone with her. Her son and his wife, the flowers we bought her and the cake.

I also included a few photos of my adorable cousins and my niece. (Top photo is my uncle with his youngest daughter. Bottom is my niece and my uncles two children)

Here's the right side and the back of the insert.

I included some things that weren't necessarily about my Great Grandma on the back. Like the ring I made Jon using the kids toys (we had this ongoing bet that I'd propose to him first and I did with that ring!) and the plaid pants he coloured in my niece's colouring book.

The right side had various photos of everyone that attended the party, It was great to see all of them. One thing I dislike is over embellishing the photos. When I have a whole page of photos, I don't like adding extras if I don't have to. I feel like it takes away from the photos. It's all personal preference of course.

Hope you have a great day!

-Alexandria 

Rosettes & Happy Birthday Banner

My mother was born on Canada day, a very long time ago. Someone usually offers to take her out, or BBQ dinner for the whole family. This year, Jon and I decided that we would host everyone at our house. We made an amazing dinner and I baked a pink lemonade cake (cupcakes here), I made some decorations that I shared on Instagram, and today I'm going to share here.

This was the sneak peek of the banner I shared on Instagram. I cut 2.5" circles out of teal cardstock using my silhouette. Then I created 2.5" circles with letters in the centre, and cut those out of white cardstock and glued them to the teal coloured ones. After this photo was taken, I punched holes in the middle on either side of each letter and tied them together with some string. I saved the letters that were cut out of the white, and used them for another project for the party.

I also shared this sneak peek of my stack of rosettes I had half assembled. In total I made 21 rosettes, though only 14 of them were shared in this photo.

I laid out the rosettes on the floor of my crafroom and started gluing them together. The floor is the only place I have the space for all of them. I made them all the same size to save myself some time, but making them in different sizes does add more visual interest.

I shared this photo on Instagram as well. It's possibly my most favourite picture I've ever taken of anything crafty. It was taken mostly to show the patterned paper I used for the rosettes, but it is so gorgeous I just want to frame it and hang it in my craftroom.

Here's the finished product. You can't really tell, but there's string going from the top right and top left corners. Its the only thing holding this up. I tied the happy birthday banner to that string so I can take it off and put up a different banner, or use only the happy birthday banner, or put it with a different set of rosettes. The only issue I have now, is where I'm going to store these rosettes when they're not in use.

Remember those letters I saved? I hot glued them to toothpicks and used them to decorate the cake. I threw them out afterwards because they had icing all over them in the end, but the cake looked amazing with the candles lit behind it (unfortunately I don't have a photo). 

I have a feeling I'll be hosting more parties at my house, perhaps a surprise baby shower for my sister-in-law, and my brother. Who knows, but this party was awesome! And a great excuse to use my crafty abilities. I'll share the card I made my mom in a later post when I share my cards from the Studio Calico Camelot kit.

Check out THIS POST with some tips for making the perfect rosette 

Have a great day!

-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Twenty-One

Good morning! Hope all of my American readers had a great long weekend! Today I'm sharing my spreads from week 21. This was a full two page spread with an insert. The insert was made using half of a design C page. Probably my favourite page for inserts.

This week I used cards from Studio Calico, Honey, Maggie Holmes Styleboard, Amy Tangerine Plus One. I think there's one or two more cards in there that don't fit any of those, but I've been forgetting to write down what I used each week. 

Here's the left side. This week I went with a red/pink colour theme throughout. I babysat my niece while my brother and his girlfriend celebrated their anniversary. They got engaged but didn't tell me until the next day, but I included that in here because it was special.

The front of the insert has Jon's painting from the week. I love how well these rainbow guys turned out. they're my favourite. Which is why they're on the front.

Here's the right side and the back of the insert. 

Just some models Jon built. Not really exciting so I hid them on the back of the insert.

Here's the right side. I included Jon's work selfie, and him and my niece playing legos. I used to be concerned about cutting people's heads off, but since she's in the picture right next to it, I was okay with it. Even if she wasn't I would have journaled about who was in the photo. In the bottom right corner I journaled about work closing down for renovations for the summer, and what that basically entailed.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope to see you again on Wednesday when I share the decorations I made for my mom's Canada Day birthday celebration!

Have a great day!

-Alexandria

Studio Calico: Bluegrass Farm Card Kit

Today I'm sharing the cards I made using the Studio Calico Bluegrass Farm card kit. I definitely wasn't excited about this kit at all. The colours weren't my favourite, and I struggled to make pretty things with it. I feel like I'm more of a pastel person, but I'm glad that I challenged myself to use this kit.

This card was made towards the end using some of the scraps. I feel like my style is very plain and simple, and this card clearly reflects that.

This card was inspired by one on their site. I fell in love as soon as I saw it. This was the first card I made from this kit, and if I hadn't made something I loved this much, I feel like I wouldn't have used the rest of the kit at all! I love the white on white at the top, and the doily strip under the red. I'm currently obsessed with that punch (It's by Martha Stewart).

This was the very last card I made. I was down to the last little bits and pieces. This card was also inspired by their site. I just love the shape. I see more of these in the future.

This one was a struggle for me, and was inspired by their site. I'll admit that not all of my cards are pretty, this kit has more than just one, but someone out there will love it, even if I don't.

This card didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but I still love it. It was inspired by their site, but with my own flair, as always. The EEK! flair is from the Project Life kit, and the wood veneers I pulled from my stash, I coloured the arrow green.

This card was inspired by their site. I hate this one. Jon thinks it's interesting, but every time I look at it, I want to throw it out. I imagine it will just sit in my box of cards until the end of time. Or someone from my family will be like "hey this is cool, I'll take this one".

I feel like this one isn't complete. I wanted to use the yellow block alpha stickers they sent in the kit, but I'm not necessarily a fan of alpha stickers. I only recently bought my first sets of thickers. I just hate that there will always be those letters that you simply have no use for, unless you get creative with your titles, or find other ways to use all the leftover letters.

I pulled this one from my head. I have mixed feelings about it. My favourite part is the tag. I should have included a close up of it, but you can click on the photo to see it larger. I cut a set of flowers to match the portion on that edge and adhered them with foam squares. I love doing that with patterns that repeat certain elements.

For some reason, every single card I made with this kit has some sort of bunting/banner on it. I don't know why, that just seemed to be a common theme throughout this kit for me. I could have stamped "hooray" but chose to use the alphas instead.

That's the end of this kit. I still have a few pieces left, but they'll probably just be dumped into my scrap box and used for other projects.

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers. Have a great weekend everyone!
-Alexandria