The Best Place on Earth

Today we are making our way here:

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Our first ever visit to Disney.  None of us have been, and we are so very much looking forward to experiencing the so called magic they speak of.  We've got our list of don't miss rides, all our confirmation numbers, directions, and list of all sorts so we're ready for all that Orlando has to offer us.

The blog may be quiet during our week away, but you never know, I may get some time in to upload some photos for ya'll.

See you all in a week.

♥ Sherri



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Project Life wk 3

I'm thinking that I may have to stop sharing my Project Life with you, as it's turning out to be rather boring.  These baseball card pages are super fast, and convenient, hence my using them again this week.  I really think the issue is in my printer.  I've tried a few different things and not been able to print the appropriate size for the slot.  I'm having to cut everything down, or mount it on a second piece of card stock to get it to fit the pocket properly.  That's driving me crazy.  I'm not going to throw in the towel, but for now I'll just keep plugging away at it.

I had to sew an additional 4x6 pocket for the photos I wanted to highlight.  I just took a 12x12 protector, cut it to size, and sewed it shut.  I then sewed it to the center of the first page protector.  That way you can still flip it up to see the photos underneath.  This is what I mean.

But this is real life, is it not?  Not everything can go entirely as planned.  And so we put one foot in front of the other and do the best we know how.

Peace to you today my friends,
 ♥ S.

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Project Life Week 2

Happy Monday friends,

What a full weekend we had here.  Friends, sushi, football, shared meals, ice skating, working, church.  Feeling loved, and oh so very blessed.  I'm still not great at remembering  to take photos during all.  Really hoping to get better at it as the year goes on.  I've been using an App for my iPhone called Momento, that's been really handy for documenting moments in our days  and weeks.  It's pretty great actually it automatically draws any info you've shared on Twitter or Facebook, or  Instagram right into it's calendar.  It also allows you to keep notes that are important to you for that day, and upload photos that go with the day also.  So, if I forget to take a photo to serve as a memory I simply 'create an event' in Momento to remind me of it, when putting together my Project Life for that week.

For this week I decided to use two different style page protectors.  I had several photos, only a little time,and there really wasn't much out of the ordinary that had happened during the week, so quick and easy was what the album called for this week. 

You'll notice that not all the pictures flow in the same direction.  Normally that would drive me crazy.  I've decided not to sweat the small stuff with this project and  concentrate on why I'm doing it, and stick with that theme as I assemble my album.  The point of it all is to recognize, remember, and cherish, the moments in between the big events.  The fact that not everything is match-matchy, and that we're going to have to cock our heads from one side to the other from time to time, and the fact that some pages will just be plain boring is NOT the point, and will have zero lasting effect on how we enjoy the album in months, and years to come.  As long as I keep reminding myself of these things, I think I'll be able to see this project through to the end.

Thanks for peeking in to my corner of the world today,

♥ S. Pin It

Lifting myself

... well not literally.  The scrappy kind of lifting.

Challenges number three and four are up at My Scrapbook Nook.  Three can be found here.  I've not done this one yet.  Challenge number four is from Hilde, who challenged us to pick one of our favorite layouts from last year and lift it.  I chose this one of D.

Although the placement of the journaling bothers me (I think it throws the balance off somewhat), I love this layout overall, so I chose this one.  Plus I had this sweet little photo of Wilson that I knew I wanted to use for the challenge.  Here's what I came up with.

Using My Scrapbook Nook's October kit featuring My Mind's Eye

This time I kept the journaling tiny, and better placed.  It's been awhile since I've hand stitched on a project too, so this was a fun one.

That's it for me today.  Been getting things ready for our trip next week, spoiled myself with my first manicure in about 16 years yesterday, schellac, loving it so far, (we'll see if it really last 2-4 weeks), volunteered in the girls' school today for pizza lunch (loved that), caught up with a friend with whom I haven't spoken to in months, and the sun is beaming in through my window.  Overall feeling really blessed this week. 

What about you, what have you been up to this week? If you plan on scrapping this weekend, perhaps you want to tackle Challenge #12 over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles, or the January Sketch Challenge there.  Or perhaps Sketch 191 over at Creative Scrappers.  There's also the New Year Crop ongoing at My Scrapbook Nook.  No shortage of scrapping incentive this weekend, I'd say.  For those looking for a greater challenge, may I suggest the Creative Scrappers DT Call.  You have until Feb 20th to get your application in.  I just discovered this call this morning, and my heart leaped.  I love CS.  I love that the owner Kristine is a fellow Canadian, and uber talented, and was kind  enough to let me use one of her Sketches for my first ever Scrapping Everyday Miracles post.  And there's never, ever a shortage of inspiration to be found by those who submit to the challenges, nor by the wonderful sketches her team comes up with.  This will be my third time trying out for this team.  I'm really hoping this is the one for me.  If not, no worries, I'm gonna keep trying, she won't be able to shake me that easily, mwhahah.  I think it's good to keep putting myself out there, it helps me develop a think skin.  Something you very much need in this subjective world of creating, and putting emotions to paper.  Wish me luck, pretty please.

Have a great weekend, all!
♥ S.

eta: another 2Peas Fave - yay!

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Project Life: Week 1

Thank you all for your sweet and encouraging comments last week regarding my Project Life or as I'm calling it, my Moments In Between Album.  I'm sticking it out, and did manage to complete my Week One on Friday night.  I actually don't even mind it too much.  I had way more photos than I had space, so I had to decide which ones stayed and which did not, and be somewhat creative in getting everything in.  I won't lie, I did find it somewhat frustrating, but realize that that is very much the perfectionist in me acting out.  I realize that appreciating the moments in between the events is anything but perfect.  It's often the things that cause us grief and frustration that make us eventually stop and realize the blessing in them.  Granted that blessing is not always immediate.  The stuff of life is rarely perfect, rarely convenient, and often comes with some sort of price, sometimes good, sometimes, not so good.  That is the type of attitude with which I really need to begin to appreciate the album and what it will mean to us when it's complete.  I  have no doubt that we'll all enjoy looking back through it as the weeks progresses.  With that, let me reveal to you my very first two pages of my Moments In Between Album.

I've decided to use the We R Memory Keepers page protectors to keep the cost down.  They are available at The Scrapbook Cottage where I work, and I can get them anytime, versus ordering something from online.  Everything else I used here is from my stash, again, in an attempt to keep the cost down.  The patterned paper on the left is from Simple Stories Year-o-graphy line, the rest is all from my stash.

So, one week down 51 to go.  Hope I can find my groove.  I know some of you are doing this project also, how are you doing with it?  I'd love to know.

You can see my Craft Gossip feature here.

Thanks so much for popping in today,

♥ S. Pin It

New Year Crop

I've told you about the 5 week long crop happening over at My Scrapbook Nook.  Challenge 1 & 2 were posted last weekend, and closed this weekend.  I wanted to share with you the layouts I created for each of those.
Challenges 1 was a recipe challenge.  You needed to use the assigned number and specifications of products, and then follow the directions to create your layout.  This was an exercise for me that resulted in two layouts rather than just one.  I was so excited to get started on the challenge, that as soon as I read the product list I went off to create.  I should have scrolled down a little further to see that there were directions I was suppose to have followed.  Oops.

Here's the layout I created based on the product list.

My sister and brother in-law.  Using Studio Calico Jan kit.

And here's the layout I created based on the product list AND the directions.

Using My Scrapbook Nooks January kit featuring Lily Bee papers

If you look closely you'll notice they both have a lot of the same elements.  I am glad I managed to get both layouts, even if I did go about it the long way.

Challenge 2 was to use 10 different patterned papers.  I know that sounds like a ton, but there are some creative ways to use that many without overloading your page with colour.  I had 2 different ideas I thought would work well.  When I looked through the thread however, I discovered that 2 others had the same ideas also.  Hence this layout of my one of my dear friends and her daughter.

Using the Lily Bee papers again - no journaling required Maddy's expression says it all :)

There are two more challenges up for this week.  You can see them here.  There are some fun prizes up for grabs so if you decide to jump in, it may just be worth the effort to upload to the gallery too.  Tell them Sherri sent you :)

eta: look what I just saw...

Fun right?!  And I've been contacted by Francine Clouden once again to be featured in "Inspiration du Jour" over at Craft Gossip.  A scrappy good day thus far :)

Thanks for stopping by,

♥ S. Pin It

SEM Sketch Challenge

Lisa is up with a Sketch Challenge over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles today.  It's a great sketch, so hopefully you'll have a chance to play along.  We've also switched things up a bit over there, where now you'll have two chances a month at the RAK up for grabs.  One will be with the month long challenge, and the second will be with the mid-month sketch/technique challenge.  You could double your chances of winning just like that.  Here's the layout I created for the challenge.

A Christmas Community celebration at the girls' school

Want to know something funny?  I had four photos for this layout, but couldn't make them work with the sketch.  I decided the best solution would be for me to put them in a hidden pocket so that they could stay with the others and still be seen.  That tab at the top is actually a long hidden pocket.  i added an extra piece of patterned paper and glued the photos onto it.  After I got all the paper down I decided they needed some stitching around the edges for definition.  Because the piece with the photos on it is angled, but the piece of paper in the hidded pocket isn't I ended up accidentally stitching right through the hidden pictures, actually adhering them to the layout completely.  There was no way to fix the problem without ripping the entire layout apart and starting from scratch.  So there will forever be 2 hidden photos on this layout. Hope that gave you a good laugh on this Monday morning.

Be sure to pop over to Scrapping Everyday Miracles to check out Lisa's sketch, and the fun technique she has for you to try.  You can check out this month's sponsor and the prize up for grabs here.

Happy Monday friends,

♥ S. Pin It