How To Make The Memories Last

Life sure has a way of getting full, and getting busy, and getting away from us doesn't it?  That is exactly how it has felt around our home for the past several weeks, ever since February to be exact.  The combination of going back to work part time, after 8 years at home, and 3 kids in 16 competitive dances with our Dance Studio made for a fun-filled, jam-packed, constantly on-the-go last 4 months.

My Moments In Between Album needs some serious catch up.  I decided that since I am 12 weeks off schedule that I would start with the most recent week, and work my way back from there.  Maybe.  Another thought I had was that, ultimately I would prefer to have each week chronologically documented in my album, but NOT if I start to feel burdened by getting it all done. I have all my photos organized and ready to go, but if I don't ever make it back the the 2nd week of March, I've decided that I am going to be okay with it.  Documenting our life as a family is so much more about "the moments in between" that it is about any rules I'm tempted to make about the process.

Left side

Here is a snapshot of our week: June 8-14, using craft supplies from the Scraptastic Club June This Life Noted Kit. From hijacked iPhone selfies, to Dance Recital and Year End carnival, a friend's Art Show for her students, to Eden's 11th birthday, and even a little home "tattoo" session, it's all here, documented to last.

The sweet encouragement note I received from my friend after performing with my Adult Tap group, just had to have a place in this weeks pages.

Right side

I intentionally include a lot of handwritten journaling in my album, I think it really adds a personal touch for those who may enjoy looking at these snapshots of our life long after I'm gone.  

Adding details like stitching to my pocket pages makes them feel more like me, I like the dimension, and visual interest it adds, just like in my regular scrapbooking pages.

I love that Eden filled out her own "right now" card listing a few of her current favourites.

Because there was so much going on during this week, there were many photos to fit in.  To get them all in, I added a little insert (using some Simple Stories page page protectors) especially for Eden's birthday photos.

Not pictured here, is the second insert I added that hold the Dance Recital program from the last performance.  I think it will be fun to look back in a few years and remember the dances they did this year, and the friends with whom they performed.

It's weeks like this that make me wonder about putting together another Shutterfly photo book like the ones I did here, of our trip to Steamboat Colorado a fews years ago, and a Summer one I created back in 2009.

I've been thinking especially about putting together a Dance specific book. I literally have hundreds of photos from this year alone.  Three competitions, and 3 recitals in 2 months naturally result in a lot of photos of each of the girls in all of their Dance costumes, performing, and candids of them hanging out with their friends pre/post performance.  I really think they deserve a special place all their own.

I'll have more Moments In Between pages to share with you all soon.  Until then, thanks so much for stopping by today friends. Pin It

Because of You

I finally used up this background paper I have been hoarding for at least 2 months.

Of course Isabelle is not the only young lady in our lives making in wonderful, and beautiful but she does happen to be wearing a colour coordinating shirt in this photo.  After several silly shots (to come on a later layout), we finally managed to get a natural looking shot of this girl just before leaving for her Hip Hop Duo Dance at Competition.

I love that the acetate letters of the Let's Go Collection barely show the adhesive through them.

So many great pieces in this collection, it was hard not to include a little bit of everything on this layout.  That's actually how the layout came together.  First, I chose the background, then the photo, and then every little veneer piece, and paper tag that I wanted to incorporate on the layout.

I don't think my urge to layer, and layer this fabulous little tags will ever die.  The pops of colour peeking out, and teeny phrases on several elements are just addictive and must be used with abandon I say.

Thanks for stopping by today friends! Pin It

Capture Life

This is the first layout I've ever created using only stickers as the bulk of my embellishments.

The Capture Life sticker sheet is packed full of colourful charming stickers.

Echo Park collections may not come with a lot of 3-dimensional elements but they sure make up with that with the number, and variation of stickers they include in their sticker sheets.

I used a lot of 3D adhesive to pop various stickers off the page, giving the page my usual layered style look.

I liked the look of that label maker sticker and decided to add a little more to it, using it as my journaling.

You can grab the Capture Life Collection for yourself here in the Paper Issues store. You may want to also check out the July Swag Bag, it's full of fun elements to add to your projects.  

If you use code:SHERRI at checkout you'll save yourself 20% on your entire order.

You can also check out our newest Issue right here.  Linking up could earn you a fabulous Echo Park prize pack.

Thanks for stopping by friends!

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Ephemera Accents

I decided to challenge myself with my most recent layout created with the Scraptastic June kit. The challenge was to create a layout using zero patterned paper (with the exception of the background sheet), only the add-ons from both kits, and mostly the gorgeous ephemera Heidi Swap, and Crate Paper ephemera pieces.

Also added some washi tape from the Add-On Kit

One of the things I love most about the Crate Paper ephemera pieces is that they are opaque allowing you to use regular adhesive without the adhesive showing through, making them quick and worry free to adhere.

I think the Oh Darling bows are adorable.  The bulkiness of them, however scared me from using them on my layout.  The solution was simply to remove half of the clip using adhesive on the remaining side and sticking it to the layout that way, problem solved.

Adhering acetate pieces can be tricky.  Here I've used a couple different techniques you can see with the butterfly that I've layered the acetate one onto a die cut shape butterfly, allowing me to use regular adhesive once again to adhere it to the page.  With the acetate pieces I used brads to adhere them to the page.  Efficient, cute, and effective.

These packs were so jam packed with pieces that I have a ton left over, despite using so many on this one layout.  I'm hoping to incorporate more of them into my Moments in Between Album.

Thanks for popping in today friends! Pin It

You & Me

Just had to document a quick little coffee Belle and I had a couple of weeks ago.  I used the new Cloud 9 Collection to do so.

We made a little stop at Tim Horton's to celebrate her 2nd last orthodontist appointment.  July 15 can't come soon enough for this girl, she's even got a countdown running on her iPhone.

I just love the look of white on white, and the pops of colour in this collection make it even more fun to design tone on tone layouts.

I am so happy that Albert & Veronica to decided to create flair for their new collections, as you know I'm a sucker for great flair buttons.

Using minimal patterned paper, also allows me to easily mix and match remnants from my stash helping me to try and use it up, something I think we can all use a little help with right?!  This little Fancy Pants pocket was perfect to hold my journaling tag, and matched so nicely with the rest of the collection.

I pulled out my neglected Tim Holtz blending tool, some pink distress ink, and my old Pink Paislee stencil, and went to town dressing up my naked cardstock. I really love this like, and sure would love to know how to layer more ink, and gesso on top of it.  Maybe one day I'll actually break out of my "clean" box, and go for it.

Thanks for stopping by today friends! Pin It

She's A Star (and a free cut file)

For weeks I had this idea for a welded start background in my head.  It took an evening to finally figure out exactly how I wanted it laid out, and then another few weeks to actually use it.  It's kinda how it goes during Dance Competition/Recital phase of our lives.

I do love the way it turned out, and as I was creating it, I knew this would be the photo I would use it with, backed with some Doodlebug vellum.

The photo is of Théa at the end of one her days at the Canadian National Dance Championship. She won a few things that day, including a judges choice award for her Hip Hop Solo, 2nd Place for said solo, and 2nd place for her Hip Hop Trio.  It was a good day for this kid.  The hidden journaling says all that.  The title is less of a quote of my personal opinion, and more a direct quote from none other than Mr Sean Cheesman himself when we attended a Dance Conference where he taught last november.

I thought perhaps some of you may like access to this fun background too.  Here is the background.  

I've also created the internal offsets for you too if you're interested.  You can find both here in my Dropbox.  Please use to your heart's content, I'd love it if you would simply link back to me though.  Enjoy!

Thanks so much for stopping in today friends!

ETA: as requested here is a V2 version of the file (I hope it works, as it was created in V3).

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Something Wonderful

I am loving the new Wonderful Collection by Teresa Collins.  I think it's the colour combination that I like best.  If you were to look through my most recent layouts you would discover that I scrap a lot of pink, aqua, white, cream, and yellow.  This collection has all of those colours, but also has bold reds, and blacks.

Aren't those enamel shapes the best?  I especially love the chevrons.  I need more of them in my life.  And that striped paper, just begged to be made into a giant chevron, I wish I would have ordered two pieces of that one.  In hindsight I see that the sticker journaling is a little hard to read along the bottom, it reads "they make me so very happy".

Still loving pinwheel emebllies.

I just love this photo of the girls.  So often we get asked if they are twins, and here I can see why people may think so.  I loved this costume, and this Jazz routine!

Love the collection too?  Use my code to save 20% off your next Paper Issues order.  Or any Paper Issues order for that matter, any time.

Happy shopping, and thanks for popping in today! Pin It