December Daily 2015

Since I finished the album in February, I figured I would wait until later in the year to share my album from last year.

This was the first time I did a "true" December Daily.  Technically, I did a December Daily in 2012 which was part of my Project Life Album and I did a Smash Book type December album in 2014 which wasn't daily.

I told myself I would never do it again, because really, who does something "Christmasy" every single day and you can only tell the story of your decor so many times before it is like "ok, I know that story!" haha.  But then I seen the new December Daily stuff from Ali's site and I had to buy some!!  Plus I have so much Christmas stuff to use.  So I may do December Daily, but I may only document the 12 or so days my kids will be home.

With completed albums like this, I really think a video is the best way to show it off :)

Please excuse my fogginess...I have no idea why I forgot a few words.  This was the 3rd video of the day...I was tired...my brain is old...the list goes on and on.  I thought about reshooting it, but I figured I would have just fumbled on other words haha.

Thank you for watching.

December Daily(ish) 2014

In 2013, I had to have this Smashbook, but didn't use it.  Since I really need to use what I buy, I decided to use it to document my December in 2014.

I opted not to take photos daily 2014, but rather used the whole album as a snapshot of our whole month.  Since the Smashbook doesn't allow you to move the papers around, I stepped out of my comfort zone and scrapbooked them out of order.

Hopefully a video of the album is easier to watch instead of seeing a bunch of pictures that go on and on forever in the post.

Thanks for watching!



I go back and forth whether I like to "vlog" or not because I always fumble my words, but sometimes when sharing a whole album it is just easier I think.

Long Beach Mini Album

**quick note...I link a lot of the supplies, but I do not get paid from any one to link these :)

Back in April, my husband and I went to visit my daughter in Long Beach for a couple of days.  I have really embraced making mini albums of our quick trips.

When I got home, I put all the receipts and such aside...seriously, I do not know how I accumulate so many pieces of things on a 2 1/2 day trip!

In May, I met up with Jossie and Liz for a craft day and I made myself limit the supplies I was going to use on this mini album and I left the house with only 1 bag!!!!  woo hoo!

Here are the supplies I limited myself to use:

For roller stamps, I closed my eyes and picked a few roller stamps that I had to use...Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go, Maggie Holmes Shine, Amy Tangerine Cut & Paste, and Jennifer Garner-We Made It (exclusive at Joann-no longer available)...after I decided I was definitely going to need and use the time roller stamp from Ali Edwards...so that came along with me as well.  Later, I went back to my basket and pulled out the Jasmine Jones Foodie stamp.  During the trip, I had bought 2 more roller stamps from Typo, so I decided to use those as well...but those I just stamped to show on my page about buying them :D

For the washi and stickers, I closed my eyes and pulled out just a few:  
The red hearts washi is from the Dollar Tree
The lime green has white dots I don't know from where
I think the rainbow diagonal stripes came in a Studio Calico Project Life kit
I don't know where the red/white washi came from 
and the "Tickets" are from Shimelle  

The stickers are Dear Lizzy Fine and Dandy, Typo, and Amy Tangerine Better Together.  I also pulled out 4 sheets of letter stickers--I don't think I used them all.

Stamps were a bit harder just to pick willy nilly, so I just took a few that would work with my album.  Amy Tangerine, Ali Edwards, and a Kelly Purkey exclusive California set that is no longer available.  I later used a Kelly Purkey Bright Ideas stamp that is not pictured for the lines to write on.  I also used an older Close to My Heart baseball set not pictured.

I tried to just take the basic stamp pads along.  3 Hero Arts Ombre pads (they stain the stamps and acrylic blocks!) and 3 Close to My Heart stamp pads.

Here is the mini album I started with from American Crafts.

 I used a few papers from 2 older Michaels paper stack pad.

I printed all the photos in the album with either the LG Portable Printer or the Pringo.  Both can be used with the iPhone, but the quality isn't that excellent.

And a few other embellishments.

And they all fit into 1 bag...sometimes I take too much stuff to crops and it is overwhelming.  Of course I didn't finish the album that day, but when I came home, I limited myself to stick to what was in the bag to finish the album.

Since there are already so many photos in this post, I decided do a video to show the finished product.



I will note that I first made a video with my 2008 Pentax Optio camera and the sound was horrible...it sounded like a ghost was in the background making noises--hahaha...so I used my iPhone 6 and I am so happy with the quality...not only was the sound way better, but I think the quality was much better as well.

Thank you for getting to the end and watching!

Road Trip (destination-Kirkwood, CA) Mini Album

Last month, my husband and I embarked on a road trip.  The destination was Kirkwood, CA for a wedding.  We took "the long way 'round--The one with the prettiest of views, It's got mountains, it's got rivers, It's got sights to give you shivers"...

Initially, I thought Kirkwood was by Lake Tahoe which is near Reno which is where my son goes to school--so I was like "let's take Friday off and visit him after he gets out of school at 2pm".  Well Kirkwood is a little further than I thought it was (as you can tell we are not skiers-haha), but we were still closer to my son, so we took the long scenic route to our destination.

We got on the road early so that we could stop in Auburn, CA.  Every time we go up to Reno, I see the Historic Auburn sign and every time we don't stop for one reason or another (and we never want to stop anywhere on the way home :D ).

Once on the road, my husband reminded me that I hadn't gotten the couple a present--oops.  I was all for getting a gift certificate and a card, but he wanted buy them something off their registry.  The problem was the only Crate and Barrel on the way was in Roseville and they didn't open until 10am.  This changed our initial plan to eat breakfast in Auburn and we ate at Mimi's Cafe in Roseville instead while we waited for the mall to open.  My husband was not happy with our meal choice since he loves breakfast and isn't a fan of Mimi's.  But he survived.

We finally got to Old Town Auburn and it was a cute town, but we didn't buy anything.  We still had some time before having to get back on the road, so we stopped in Downtown Auburn (same town--down a few blocks) and walked around that section.  We got some candy from a candy shop...seen a closed old-fashion drugstore through the window...and my husband got a haircut from a barber shop.

Finally, we got to Reno around 2 and because I didn't communicate with my son very clearly, we only had about an hour to spend with him since he had plans from 3:30-6.  We took him to a late lunch/early dinner.  We could have stayed and visited with him after his plans, but I wanted to get to Kirkwood in the daylight since we had never driven those roads before.

It was a beautiful drive and I was able to step onto the Pacific Crest Trail before the sunset.

The next day, was the wedding, but it wasn't until 3pm.  There wasn't anything near were we were staying so we drove about an hour to eat breakfast (the most important meal for my husband).  And then we drove an hour back.  Which I suppose wasn't too bad since there wasn't anything to do at the Kirkwood Resort anyway (it was off season and every shop/restaurant in the resort was closed).

The wedding was beautiful in the middle of the woods at a place call The HideOut.  Luckily, there was a shuttle to drive us because it was 30 minutes away and part of the road was a one-way dirt road.

Sunday, we woke up and just drove home (1 stop to eat the most important meal of the day).  I told my husband the day before not to let me drink so much...but I still drank way too much...I am too old for hangovers!

Since I stopped reading so much, I have actually been scrapbooking a lot more :D I am happy to get this Road Trip mini album completed.

Instead of posting all the photos of my album, I did another slideshow.



Thank you for viewing.

Monterey 2013 Album (Amy Tan class--2015)

Last month, my good friend Liz and I drove up to Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley (it just recently closed--boo!) to take an Amy Tan class. It was so much fun! And we got a ton of goodies! (Seriously, the amount of product was totally worth the price of the class!)



We didn't get much done, but it was a blast. Amy is such a great person. I highly recommend taking a class with her if you ever get the chance. 

During National Scrapbook Day (see Jossie's post--we had so much fun!), I actually got a lot of the book complete by just copying Amy's layouts. I worked on completing the album all last week and I finally finished.


There are a lot of pages (47) and I think I figured out how to do a slideshow (ok, it works on a computer, but it won't show the slide show on an iPhone/iPad).

Since I had more photos that didn't fit on the finished pages, I actually added a few more of my own design--whoo hoo! I love Sea Anemones...this one looked like a sunflower :)

 

I also love Sea Horses! This one looks like a leaf. The paper I used, the numbers really didn't work, so I painted over with lime green and white acrylic paint.



My niece had given me a thank you card for taking her, so I used it in the back and added her picture inside the card.



One of the techniques Amy showed us was with the Fuse tool. Of course I had to buy one! On one of the layouts I did, I added sequins and loved the look.



ok...one last photo from our trip because jellyfish are also one of my favorite!

 

I really love sea creatures, but I don't like the water! hahaha...my brain freezes and I can't breathe right when trying to swim or use snorkel gear! 

Thank you for letting me share my album!

San Diego 2015 Mini Album

I didn't think it would ever happen, but it did...I completed an album in less than a month of my trip!!!  Whoo Hoo!!!! :D

On March 27, my mom, my daughter, and I embarked on a Road Trip to San Diego.  In a perfect non-traffic world, it should take less than 7 hours.  But it took us nearly 10 hours to get there and 9 hours to get home thanks to LA traffic and a few stops going down there and only 1 stop coming home.

It was a short trip and I actually brought my portable LG printer and some supplies thinking I could do some scrapbooking in the car and at the hotel.  But I did very little scrapbooking--how do those girls (Amy Tan and Kelly Purkey--to name a couple) do it???

This is my first time trying this type of "non-conformist" mini album...I don't know how else to describe it haha!  The pages aren't all the same size.  I am not sure if I love it, it is kinda hard to focus on a page when you can see parts of the pages behind it.  But it was fun to try.

I tried to add a flipagram, but I didn't know what I was doing wrong and I couldn't get it to work in the post...so please excuse all the photos of my album.

I finished the cover before we left.  Using some Color Shine, washi tape, and Amy Tangerine stickers from a couple of her lines.  You can't really tell, but I added a transparency on the front cover and the back cover to make it a bit sturdier.

See how the "Here We Go" PL card hides and messes with the layout behind it?

Yes, I could have left it out, but the PL card was used to journal on the back.  I actually completed the majority of the "polaroid" layout in the hotel.  I printed the photo of the 3 of us at In N Out burger!!  

My daughter knew I would used the receipt, so she wrote on it ha ha! To make the receipt a little sturdier, I put some washi tape on the back.  I used watercolors on the left side of the page and it kinda blend through--ugh--so I had to add the washi and some pink watercolor to the front of the page.

Again, I wanted to use another PL card to extend my journal space...not sure if I am a fan of this technique...Maybe I just need bigger journaling cards! :)

The right side is one of my favorite parts of the album.  I actually started most of it at the hotel and did some (very little) in the car.  The sand is actual sand from the beach we were at!  I brought the bag with me to the beach.  It is a SMASHbook bag which I don't know if they even make them anymore.  The Highway 1 picture inside the back is from a Message In A Box tin from Typo.  (I am not sure if they sell that set anymore either.)

I was so excited to be able to finally get to Paper Tales.  The receipt got wet in my bag, but I thought the tied dye look was still ok to use.  (sorry you can see me from the page behind this one!)

While at the restaurant, they took a few photos of us.  My mom and my cousin both bought a couple each--which were in some touristy paper frames...I just kept the free one that included photos of the foods. :)

Of course, no trip is complete without a few stops at Starbucks haha!

Thank you for looking.  I really had fun making this album.  As I am using the latest trends, I realize how much I enjoy my 2-page 12x12 layouts...but I will still keep trying new things out :)

Fleur de Lis Mini Album (surprise winner!)

My kids and husband laugh at me because sometimes I "heart" every single photo on my Instagram feed.  I like the pictures because they are always awesome!  Sometimes I don't even read what the photo is about.

So a few weeks ago, I did my normal...'I will like this photo without reading the caption' and the next day I see that I am tagged in this photo:

What???  I didn't even remember entering a contest.  Normally, on Instagram, you have to tag people to win stuff or repost the picture and hashtag and tag the contest coordinator.  So this time I had to look to see what I won.  It was a cute Fleur de Lis wood mini album from Genuinely Jane Studios.

Luckily, my kids went to a high school where the fleur de lis was their emblem--otherwise I would have felt bad for taking the prize. :/

I knew right away that I would decorate it and put their first day of school for each year they were in high school.  I could have just used the book as it was, but I decided to take it apart and only use 2 of the "pages" as the cover and the back.  Then I traced them to make inside pages in the school colors (orange and blue).

After, I painted one wood cover blue and the other orange.  My local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Island, carries 12 x 12 paper with the local high school names and logos and coordinating paper. So I covered the front and back with that. 

After all the work of tracing, cutting the odd shape, painting, and using an exacto knife to trim around the paper I covered the front and back with...I was pretty much done...I was at the point where I just wanted to finish it.

So here is my pretty plain mini album...maybe someday I will go back and embellish a bit more...maybe.

I can't believe it is ending soon!  My daughter was a sport and took a selfie on her first day of college for me, but I am sure my son will "forget" if I ask him.

Mini Album ~Birthday~

About a month ago, my friend ask me if I could take pictures at her daughter's 10th birthday party.  She wanted me to take pictures of the birthday girl with each guest so she could give them a copy of the picture in a frame as part of their favor. 

I set up using my D50 because it is way easier to use than my D300.  Then I printed the pictures out using my PoGo that I haven't used in forever.

That made me think about doing a mini album for her since I already had the pictures.  The theme of the party was "Circus", so I searched my mini album books and found a cute cupcake mini album (it kinda went together).  I wasn't sure how I was going to attack that one, so I googled to see if I could find some albums.  Well I found lots of cupcake mini albums made from a $1 mini album found at Michaels, problem was that they were made over a year ago and Michaels no longer carried the mini album (I checked a couple of Michaels just in case).  

So the wheels in my head spun around.  Finally, I found a sample of cupcakes clipart online and enlarged the picture on my screen.  I took plain printer paper and traced the cupcake on it--using my monitor as a light box.  Then I transferred my tracing to some chipboard to use as my template which was then used to cut the cupcake in different colors.  There may have been an easier and better way, but I was on limited time.

The completed project:

Supplies used:  Basic Grey Blush Be Mine and Basic Grey Lollipop Shoppe Fruit Punch, Primary Colors cardstock by Recollections (Michaels), assorted ribbon, binder ring, EK Success-Binding edge punch and some colored reinforcement circles.  All older supplies from my overstocked stash.

I found the reinforcement circles at Staples quite a few years ago on clearance for 50 cents.  The clearance sticker says 2008 and this is the first time I have used them.  I use them to reinforce (duh) the holes punched for the binder ring.

As you can see there are normal circle ones and cute flowers ones.  In the flower pack, there are also some red heart ones--someday I may use those as well :)

Mini Album ~Prom~

I have not scrapbooked in a long time.  Scrapbooking was my first hobby!  I have so much stuff because I think shopping for supplies was my second hobby :-p  Whether it was time or my other hobbies getting in the way, I just haven't scrapbooked in a while.

Then, I bought the latest issue of Mini Albums.  I normally try to steer clear of buying these because 1. they are kinda pricy 2. I have too many idea books already and 3. I never use said idea books I already have!

But this issue, not only caught my eye, it was 10% off (ok, free tax) and my awesome Aunt had given me a gift certificate to Joann's...so really it was free--she rocks!

Well I have a ton of idea books that I like things, but never go back and actually do them.  But this time, I seen a mini album for a prom and the light went on!  Last month, I took pictures of my Goddaughter before her Senior Prom.  I was totally going to make her one.  Problem, it was already late Monday and I wanted to give it to her on Saturday.  Plenty of time for normal scrapbookers, but I usually take forever to get something together.

Timeline:

~Monday--only time to print some pictures (I really need to calibrate my monitor because all my pictures are so dark when I print them!).  I also pulled out the perfect chipboard book that my equally awesome Scrapbook Bestie gave me a while back.  It is now discounted, but I finally found something cool to do with it. Cloud9 Board Book 8 x 3.25

~Tuesday--we had plans and didn't get home until late :(

~Wednesday--I went "shopping" in my craft room to find the perfect papers (DCWV All Dressed Up--totally old, but perfect!), ribbon, and looked for anything I thought I would love to use!  I started the book and only finished the front and back covers.  I was kinda bummed I hadn't finished more.  I didn't think I was going to make the deadline.

~Thursday--Finished the box and a few more pages in the book.

~Friday--Got into a rhythm and finished it in no time (like in 2 hours!)  Then I was so excited that I had to share a sneak peek to my aunt...even though I wanted her to be surprised as well.

The book comes in a box, so here is the front    

and the back

 

The DCWV papers are pretty thick and luckily the box had some extra room, but the booklet snuggly fits inside

The front cover 

Showing off the details including her beautiful shoes and his comfy sneakers.  The journaling (the only journaling I did because I hate that part of the process) says "Important Details *Hair *Makeup *Shoes Beautiful Perfection".

Her and her girl friends

Her, her friends and their dates

Her and her boyfriend

More of her and her boyfriend

Last page is a picture of her boyfriend carrying her shoes and her and her parents

Back of the book.

I really had a great time doing this book.  And I was so excited that it didn't take me forever to do!  I hope she enjoys it as much as I do.