Pocket Scrapbooking - Watercolored Filler Cards

I'm over on the Reverse Confetti blog today with a set of watercolored filler cards for pocket scrapbooking. Hope you'll join me there today!

Countdown to Confetti: Here's the Story, Right Here Right Now, & Documented

Be still my ever-loving (but lazy) Project Life heart! On Thursday, Reverse Confetti will be releasing two new stamp sets and a Confetti Cuts die set that are absolutely perfect for Project Life,  scrapbooking in general, and even card making, too. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

Today is Day Two of Reverse Confetti's Countdown to Confetti. Be sure to visit the Reverse Confetti blog for a list of all of today's peeks. Leave comments on the different blogs for a chance to win a $15 Reverse Confetti gift certificate. After that, head on over to the Reverse Confetti Facebook page and look for this graphic: 

Leave a comment on the Facebook page too for another chance to win a $15 gift certificate.

As I was saying, today's featured stamps and dies are perfect for Project Life. I created a set of journaling and filler cards, and even though I've kind of dropped the ball on my project life albums, I can't wait to start again and put these to good use. 

Each card started with a 3x4 rounded rectangle base cut with one of the dies in the DOCUMENTED Confetti Cuts set. On most of the cards, I did a lot of stamping and sponging in order to minimize layers and thickness. All of the designer papers are from the Amy Tangerine Stitched 6x6 collection by American Crafts.

These first two are filler cards. The Love filler card features some of the fabulous new Confetti Cuts dies: the SQUARE TAG, an inlaid heart from PUPPY LOVE, and the word "love" from the HEART LOVE PRETTY PANELS. The Ampersand filler card features STRAIGHT STRIPES PRETTY PANELS and the ampersand from DOCUMENTED.

All of the journaling cards feature HERE'S THE STORY and RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW stamp sets. Some of them show the other dies in DOCUMENTED -- the darling geotag with the stitched inner circle, and the arrow flag.

These are the new release products:

And below is the supporting cast of previously released sets and dies:

STAMPS: HERE'S THE STORY, RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW, I LIKE YOU, WHOLE LOTTA DOTS

DIES: DOCUMENTED, PUPPY LOVE, SQUARE TAG, HEART LOVE PRETTY PANELS, STRAIGHT STRIPES PRETTY PANELS, TRIPLE CHEVIES

INK: Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin' Up So Saffron, Hero Arts Mint Julep, Hero Arts Pale Tomato, Hero Arts Tide Pool

PAPER: medium gray and white card stock,  SU So Saffron card stock, Amy Tangerine Stitched 6x6 collection by American Crafts

OTHER: twine, thread, enamel dots, sequins, white embossing powder, blending tool, washi tape, wood veneer camera, foam squares

---

If you're still with me, thank you! I'm really loving today's products, and hope you will too! Remember to leave comments on blogs and on Facebook for more chances to win two $15 Reverse Confetti gift certificates.

Have a GREAT day!

Project Life, Week 24

Your comments on my first Project Life post a little while ago were so sweet and encouraging (thank you, you know I was nervous!) that I thought I'd post more. Today, I'll share my Week 24 spread, which covers June 10-16.

The colorful paper choices (from a retired Pink Paislee collection, Soiree), were inspired by my daughter's bathing suit in the photo to the right of the title card. The bright colors are WAY out of my comfort zone, but I ended up having a lot of fun with them (despite the fact that the hot pink may not have been the perfect color for my son's baseball pictures in the second half of the week!). Other than the papers, there's not a lot on the title card. The letters and numbers are chipboard. I added a spiral notebook border using MFT's Notebook Edge Die-namics die. The scalloped turquoise pieces were done with MFT's Medium Scallop Border die.

This is the photo to the right of the title card, a sequence of my daughter jumping into the pool. (I put the three photos together in Photoshop Elements using a free template from Persnikety Prints,  6x4 Tiny Templates.) 

I love seeing the nose-holding and her "all-elbows-and-knees" entry in the third photo. Today, less than two months later, the girl in these photos has been replaced by a much more comfortable, much more graceful, much more competent swimmer. And that observation is fresh fuel for my whole Project Life album (which I'll admit has faltered these last two weeks). I can't wait to have this whole year to look back on next year and the year after that and the year after that. Kind of reminds me of the saying, "the days are long but the years are short." Project Life is really helping me pay more attention to the days. 

My older two were at our church's Vacation BIble School all week long, so that activity got a chunk of real estate this particular week. I didn't have any good photos since I wasn't there, so I searched on the internet for a photo of the VBS program the church used, Sonrise National Park VBS. I embellished one not-so-great photo of the opening one day and added an embellished 3x4 journal card to round it out.

The next two journaling cards go with the photos that are above and below.

On the left is some brief journaling expressing gratitude for our neighbors' generosity with their pool. The butterfly embellishment was done with more MFT dies plus some fuchsia baker's twine. At the top is a strip of black polka-dot washi tape.

On the right side is a Chevron Bitty Bag from i{heart}papers embellished with a partial Project Life Turquoise journaling card, more black chipboard letters, and a washi tape arrow. Inside the bitty bag is a tag with some journaling about my son's home run. (I should mention that the pockets for these pages open on the front side. In order to have access that tag inside the bitty bag, I had to slice a small opening on the back side of that pocket.

And here's the photo of the home run. Cole had already hit a few home runs by this point in the season, but to my dismay, I had not seen a single one. I came with camera in hand just wanting to snap a few photos; I was thrilled to capture this moment! (I'm thankful no photo has surfaced of me doing the happy dance from the other side of the backstop! I may or may not have looked like a complete raving lunatic.) The "moment captured" was done with an Ali Edwards digital brush.

Here's the second page:

Along the top are a post-recital photo of my daughter and her piano teacher and my oldest son's baseball team with their runner-up trophy from the American League/National League championship game. Just straight-up 6x4's, no embellishing.

The left journal card goes with the recital photo above, and the right journal card goes with the photo below:

"What I want to remember about today" is another Ali Edwards digi brush, available at designerdigitals.com. In the album, I added a strip of designer paper along the bottom, just to tie it into the rest of the spread a little more.

This was the week Cole received his invitation to play on the All-Star team, so I had to do a little something for that. I added a digi sentiment to the photo using Karla Dudley's Stamp Sheet - Boy Brushes, available at Design House Digital) and colored the word "awesome" in red. On the right is a 3x4 card made with Soiree papers, black chipboard letters, and turquoise scallops to pick up on elements elsewhere in the week's spread.

At the end is a 6x4 week in review card done with a Cathy Zielske's Frame Journalers digi template. (Sorry no close-up, I can't find the file!) I changed the font to Traveling Typewriter and the color to a lime green. I've been using these week-in-review cards quite a bit. It's amazing how much of the everyday can fit on these!

That's it for Week 24. Thanks again for the Project Life feedback - it means a lot! I hope to keep sharing my album progress here and there.

Hugs,

Amy

Project Life, Week 25

Hi friends, I thought I'd pop in here and share something crafty that I've been spending a lot of time on this year -- Project Life. If you're not familiar with this scrapbook system, check it out at beckyhiggins.com.

I have to let you know I'm uncomfortable sharing my PL pages here on my blog, because a) they're not very good; b) I'm pretty boring; and c) I'm not much of a photographer. [Interestingly, I used to take much better family photos years ago, when I first got a DSLR and let the camera just do its thing in auto mode. Over the past few years, I've learned just enough about photography to be dangerous, but not enough to be any good (yet). Seriously!]

I intend to fix that, but until then, I'm not letting my familiar friend Perfectionism keep me from tackling this project!  I haven't really scrapbooked in years, and while I don't necessarily miss the scrapbooking itself (cards are a perfect size canvas for me, thank you!), I do wish I had more stories and memories recorded for my children to enjoy both now and in the future. Project Life, with its 4x6 and 3x4 pockets, is perfect for me!

Here's Week Twenty-Five, June 17-23:

And some close-ups:

(left side)

The Project Life Core Kits all come with pre-made title cards, but I thought this would be the perfect place for some creativity, so I'm doing my own thing for these. Even if I don't get very creative elsewhere on the weekly spreads, I think it's fun to make each of these unique and interesting. For Week 25, I've used the Echo Park This 'n' That Charming collection, both the papers and some sticker elements. The corrugated letters and numbers are by Jillibean Soup. I like how this one turned out.

Father's Day 2012 may get its own traditional scrapbook page someday, but I still wanted to include a snippet in this album. The base of the top left (3x4) card is by Echo Park (either Charming or For the Record?). I added the "Happy" sticker element and then an old "Father's Day" rub-on from my stash, as well as some yellow baker's twine. The right card is from the Project Life Clementine core kit. I added a photo, some washi tape, and handwritten journaling. (By the way,  my handwriting is definitely something that has deteriorated with age!) On the photo, the "we love" comes from Ali Edwards' We Word Art Brushes & Stamps (available at Designer Digitals). The letters are stickers.

"This photo tells a story" is another digi element by Ali Edwards: Little Bit of Messy.The journaling card is from one of the Echo Park Charming 12x12 patterns (I think).

More Ali Edwards digi elements (I may have combined brushes from two sets to create pool party) and more Charming papers and stickers. I need to switch out that smudged journaling label!

(right side)

A photo of my boys rough-housing. Behind the photo are two 3x4 Echo Park journaling cards, accented on the right with patterned papers. I used a craft knife to cut around those little flags on the left, then just tucked the photo behind them. Some Tim Holtz tiny staples hold everything together.

Another Charming journaling card, an oval punch/die-cut, and some yellow letters that I cut with my Silhouette (Postino font)

Two really bad iPhone photos of our first trip to a local ice skating rink, as well as our admission stickers and the receipt. The letters are stickers -- I think they maybe October Afternoon. (And I think I should take notes so I can I.D. this stuff better!)

A trio of random photos from the week. The numbers were punched from an Echo Park Charming pattern and correspond to items on the weekly summary card (included below). To make the trio, I used a free photo template from Persnickety Prints, 6x4 Tiny Templates.

Mr. Popper's Penguins was a free movie at the local theater this particular week. I just did an internet image search and saved the highest resolution movie image file I could find. The decorative card on the right is (I think) from the Project Life Clementine core kit.

Last is a week-in-review card that I pretty much loathe :) Just didn't turn out like I wanted, but I was too spent by this point to change it up. The numbers (again, punched from one of the Echo Park Charming patterns) correspond to the numbered photos elsewhere on the week's spread.

Whew! That's it. Let me know what you think!