Christmas Cards - For My In-Laws

I can't believe that it's already December. It's my niece's birthday in a few days, and we have 3-4 Christmas's to try and attend this year. Luckily most of my family lives close enough to make day trips to see them, instead of taking two weeks off to make sure we see everyone. I'd love to go a little further and visit my Aunt & Uncle in Manitoba for Christmas (I have yet to see the house they've been living in for the last 4 years). We'll see how things go.

Every year I make Christmas cards for my in-laws. I usually choose an animal that's somehow associated with them. This is the third year, and the last two years we did a horse, and a panda. This year, we decided on a deer, and after flipping through a dozen card making magazines, I found a simple on that had a deer head on it. I love that they include any cutfile details in the fine print at the bottom, so I downloaded the one they used and started planning.

I chose this cutfile but I hated the head of the deer. So while browsing Pinterest, I came across this photo, and so I used the trace feature in Silhouette, and traced the deer head. The image was small, so I traced it while it was small and after removing the image, I changed the size of the cut design to be the size I needed it for the card.

I used the "mount" from the original cutfile so the deerhead didn't look like it was just floating on the card. I typed out the Merry Christmas sentiment in word, and made a table with boxes the size I needed so I didn't have to think about it, I could just cut them out, cut the ends to make a banner and glue it down.

I love this paper. It's from the DCVW glitter pack. We decided on a stripe because it was more visually appealing than just the solid colors. I love that the glitter doesn't come off on your hands, and get everywhere, but I hated how thin it was. I had issues with it sticking to the cutting mat too well, and ripped a bit of the leftovers trying to get them off, luckily no deer were harmed in the making of these cards!

I also love that the deer don't all look the same. There's a few that are similar, but they're not exactly the same. I apologize for the terrible photos. I meant to do this post last night, but when I got home it was dark, and I couldn't find the lamp, so I took the photos this morning, in a rush before work.

Thanks for coming by to see these Christmas cards! I'm hoping to get mine and Jon's done fairly soon, but with my luck they won't be going out until next year, again.

Have a great weekend!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Forty-One

Good morning! Today I'm sharing my spreads from week 41. This week was the week that work re-opened, so we had a lot to do, and tried to squeeze in some downtime early in the week so we weren't crazy stressed at the end of the week.

This week I used Studio Calico cards (again, I know). My title card is from the Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party mini kit.

Here's the left side. Look at my nephew! Isn't he just the cutest little boy ever! We started the week by babysitting my niece for the whole day, and my nephew came over after supper so they could have date night. My niece fell asleep on the couch after getting really upset because she accidentally kicked her brother in the head. He cried a bit and she had a tired meltdown. Everyone was fine, and we enjoyed the rest of our day together.

Here's the right side. My sister and I were enlisted to work on some chalkboard signs for work. I did all the lettering, and she drew the little wheat details on the bottom of the please wait to be seated sign. I also had to make a giant "we are open" poster for the front window. It was so bright I thought I was going to be blind by the time I finished.
That photo in the 3x4 pocket (of the person) is Jon when he was really young. Someone found it when they were bringing up some stuff from the kitchen, so I snapped a picture of it. It used to hang in the kitchen, and it's the one thing I'll always remember about working back there. Plus it's a picture of little Jon, how could I not include it?
I was going to keep the original newspaper clipping, but it was from 1996, and it was really fragile and yellow from hanging in a restaurant kitchen for almost 18 years, so I snapped a close up of Jon singing, and used the photo instead of the paper clipping.

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

Project Life: Goals for 2015

I know that every single blogger out there who shares their Project Life spreads does a post like this near the end of the year, I figured I might as well jump on that bandwagon too. I've been browsing a few blogs to see their plans, and I've picked up a few ideas that I'd like to use next year. One of my fave creative people shared her goals recently, and inspired me to share some of my own! Kellie over at Give a Girl a Blog makes some amazing layouts, and stamps. She's such an inspiration, and I'm so excited to receive some of her stamps soon!

1. Stay in one 12x12 album (if possible). Our lives aren't "exciting" and I don't want to add in all the fluff that we had this year. I also want to try and keep the amount of albums I'll need to store in the future, as small as possible, but I'm in love with mini albums, so that might be a little tough.

2. Use my stash more. I have way more core kits than I'll ever use in this lifetime, and I'm considering separating out 1/3 of each of them to sell/share with family & friends who want to start Project Life, without getting overwhelmed by a whole kit. That being said, even after I separate out 1/3 of what I can, I'll still have so many cards leftover to get me through more than a year.

3. Jon's perspective. I want to include more of his memories, feelings, photos, etc. no matter how bad I may look in some of them. He hardly ever takes pictures of things, but I want him to start because this is OUR life, and I want more of him to be included in it. If he says no, I'll respect that, but I'd like him to say yes.

4. Selective photos. I want to be more selective when choosing photos to include. This year I included basically all the photos I took, which led to us having 2 albums for the year. If a particular spread is only one page long, and another is several pages long, I want to be okay with that. This is our life and some things will have a ton of photos, while other things may not have a ton of photos.

5. Design A pages. I want to continue to use Design A pocket pages. I love the consistency in using the same style throughout, and adding in a few inserts here and there when needed, regardless of the style.

6. Stress less. This year I mostly kept up with my weekly spreads, however sometimes I fell behind, and because I generally tried to keep a few short notes about each day/week, I was able to quickly catch up. I used a set of planner pages from a site that exists no longer, but these ones from A Vegas Girl at Heart are perfect for any Project Lifer, regardless of the design you use. I love that at the bottom it has space for you to draw the design of your pages and plan where things will go.

7. Go with the flow. Previously, I would have stressed a bit if I didn't take a photo from a particular event, and I'd try and find one that someone else took and I could use. In 2015, I would rather just enjoy the moment, and journal about it later, than worry if I didn't get a photo from it.

8. Start & end date. This year I started on the 1st of January. Next year, my plan is to also start on the 1st of January. I know that this means I have a half week ending this year, and a half week starting next year, but it's important to me, to keep the month of December together, as well as the month of January. Though this might change when it reaches the end of the year.

9. Weeks. If I do next year on a weekly spread basis, like I did this year, I'm changing my weeks from Sunday-Saturday, to Monday-Sunday. There were a few times that we went somewhere for the weekend and the trip was split in two because of my week set up. I was fine with it, but I think I'll make the switch to Monday-Sunday for the ease of documenting it. It'll also make it easier to find calendar cards, and I can stop altering my planning pages.

10. Mini Albums. This year I did the 30 Days of Me album, I plan to do it next year as well, around the same time. I'm undecided on whether or not I want to do a separate December Daily album, however this year I'm doing some fancy December pages in my regular album, thanks to some inspiration from Andrea over at Retrohipmama.

I'm sure as I get closer to next year, I'll think of a few more things that I want to add to this list, or change on this list. But I figured that a short list of Project Life goals would help some of you with your spreads, and inspire some of you to consider things you do and don't like about your current way of documenting your memories.

Have a great day!!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Forty

If you saw my previous post today, Week 39, thanks for coming back to see this one. If not, just scroll down to the next post, and enjoy! In this post, I'm sharing Week 40. This week we had an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family, because Thanksgiving weekend work was having their "Grand Re-opening" and we knew we wouldn't be able to make it to Thanksgiving with my family (but somehow made it for dinner anyways).

Here's my spread for Week 40. The temperature started to drop this week, it was the start of October, and we were doing a lot of prep to get work ready to open at the end of the week. I hosted Thanksgiving, started my 100 Happy Days album, made waffles, and fall themed papercrafts. It was a busy week.

Here's the left side of my layout. I really wanted to use the "take a hike" card from Studio Calico, so I made it work. I added a phrase sticker from one of the kits, "bright mornings, sunny days & warm nights". Essentially my goal was to make it say "take a hike bright mornings, sunny days & warm nights" and beside the phrase sticker I wrote "sweater weather is better weather".

Here's the front of the insert. The top photo, was a hilarious coincidence. I was sitting in the car while Jon got the mail, and since we were out and about, I snapped a photo for the Instagram photo challenge I was doing, and after I took the photo I realized how many minivans were in the photo. There's an entire row of them, and in front of us was another minivan. It was funny to me, so I included it. I love the pumpkin card from Studio Calico. I am glad I live in a world with Octobers, cooler temperatures, beautiful changing leaves, and pumpkins!

Here's the second half of the layout. Lots of pumpkins, and crafty goodness.

Here's the back of my insert. I was working on some last minute scrapbook pages for work (all those hunting layouts I made can be found here). I also made waffles, which were amazing as always! The card on the bottom is from Studio Calico. I thought it was fitting since we were celebrating Thanksgiving this week. I might go back and add a few things we're grateful for.

Here's the right side. Those little paper pumpkins before and after they became a garland. My very first attempts at pumpkin pie (it was so simple, even though I don't eat pumpkin pie), and of course my little fall display. Isn't it just beautiful?

Thanks for coming to check out my spread for week 40!
Have a great day!
-Alexandria

Project Life: Week Thirty-Nine

My intention had been to post this last week, on Thursday, but I was so busy Wednesday while the sun was up, that I didn't get a chance to photograph it, so today I'm sharing two weeks. Right now I'm sharing Week 39, and a little later (around noon MST) I'm also sharing Week 40. I understand I could have put them into the same post, but as a reader of blogs, I actually prefer to see each different week in different posts. I have no idea why, I just do.

This week I used up some more Studio Calico cards. I start to make a dent in them, and then another kit comes and I have a ton more cards. Luckily though, I think I'm making my way through some of my core kits as well.

Here's the left side. Jon made brownies this week, which was kind of monumental because before we started dating, Jon knew how to cook the few foods college kids would eat (macaroni & cheese, instant noodles, etc.), and now he's making brownies unprompted.

Here's the right side. I caught Gracie sleeping in her diving position again, and got a photo of it this time, I took a candid photo of Jon making dinner. I was working on this spread and he saw the picture and went "when did you take that one?" He was making dinner and pudding for dessert (isn't he just the greatest?). I was hanging out with socks one morning and eating a granola bar, and he decided that the wrapper looked like something he could chew on, and then he got tired of that and stretched out across my legs.

That's all for this spread, make sure you come back later today to see Week 40 as well. 

Have a great day!

-Alexandria