My 2014 album in review

Well, I decided this year to take on the task of photographing my entire 2014 album and putting it up on my Flickr account.  I thought this was the best way to get them put in chronological order and so they were all photographed in the same light.  (which, FYI, I finally figured out a good way to photograph my layouts. It is still a technique-in-progress but I am so much more pleased with how they look).

I am not 100% sure how these will come over via link so bear with me if this post gets changed up a few times.  Also, my album is not 100% complete.  All the layouts that are going in there are in there. BUT my project life is only done until Nov 10th.  It is prepped but I am saving it to take with me to a crop in early February.

So this made it really simple for me to do a count of my completed layouts and PL as well:

Layouts - 56
Project Life - 50 to date (8 to finish so a total of 58 - this is due to inserts)

Here is the entire album as it is in my binders (3 WRMK D-ring 12x12 faux leather Cinnamon binders):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157650404865521

Here are just the layouts (complete):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82963875@N04/sets/72157650003451468/

Here are just the Project Life (incomplete):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/82963875@N04/sets/72157650404865521/



I am still researching if there is a better way to do this but let me know how this goes!!

Jen

Check out my YouTube Channel!!

Second layout with the January Hip kit

Here is my 2nd layout using this month's kit.  I will be totally honest, I REALLY struggled with this layout!!  I did some misting, gesso, 3 discarded backgrounds, changed the orientation, changed BACK the orientation to finally land here.  And here I am good with.  It is not quite where I had wanted it but... it highlights the photo and that was really what I had wanted.  I think I was just struggling with the floral paper from Heidi Swapp.  It is stunningly beautiful and even though this has just one, relatively simple, photo... I was stuggling to keep the paper from being the star.  I ended up gessoing it a bit (a bit unevenly but think I kind of like that actually).  It softened it just a bit and let me move on to finishing it.

You can't tell from the photos, despite me really trying, that there is a very faint pink mist on the upper half.  It is white cardstock that looked just a bit too stark white so I actually sprayed Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Blush on a baby wipe and gently dabbed it on.  It is very soft and gave me the look I was going for (I had really wanted just a very soft pink cs but did not have any!).

Oh, I almost forgot to mention!! I used the current sketch (#424) from Scrapbook Challenges to get me started on this layout.  I only had 1 photo though so changed it up a bit that way.

Thanks for stopping by!!  I should be back tomorrow with a HUGE HUGE HUGE project I have been working... photographing my entire 2014 album series. Wow, if I even feel like I don't get to scrap enough... I will just go take photos of 3 albums full of creations again.

Jen

Check out my YouTube Channel!

First layout with the January Hip Kit

Here is my first layout using my January Hip Kit.  I have been a subscriber here since October (started with the November kit) and I could NOT be happier with them.  I find the kits always have so many amazing papers and coordinating products... I am never at a loss creatively and in fact, if you see my previous posts about how I killed my November and December kits you will see I used them to the max!!!

This layout I did with a photo I took in early May of 2014.  I was sitting on our comfy chairs on the front porch enjoying some "porch sitting" as we call it.  It is just our time to sit and be quiet or my husband and I will sit together and talk or read or whatever.  It is like our "adult room" so to speak. Our place to get a break and take a breath and think.  We love our boys to death but... with work, school, kids, activities and now the uglies of puberty starting ... a break is so necessary sometimes :)

Here is my layout:

Such soft pretty colours in this new Dear Lizzy Serendipity line. I could not resist immediately using this pink/rose gold background paper. The border along the top of the page was fussy cut from the B side of that paper which was a pink notebook-style page that had a pink scallop border on the top.  I layered it up with some other papers from that collection and the Kraft Hello Love paper from Amy Tangerine Stitched.  This was finished with that stunning Crate Paper "Kiss Kiss" chipboard tag (isn't that chunky gold glitter killer?!) The puffy pink scallop and "love this" stickers are also from Dear Lizzy as are the "shine" script word and gold hearts which were from the December kit (also from the same line).

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Check out my YouTube Channel!!

"Kill a Kit" using the December 2014 Hip Kit

Hi everyone!  I certainly had a heck of a good time playing with my December Hip Kit!!  I had such a good time that all I really had left were some branding strips.  And I actually have plans for those (check out this killer sketch, perfect for these!!)

So without further ado, here is my video showing you all my layouts and I will include stills here as well.

And there you have it. A kit successfully killed. I forgot to take a photo of what was left of my kit but do show it at the end of the video... so, you will have to go watch it!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Grid layout and process video

Good morning scrappy peeps!!  I have a layout and process video to share with you today.  This was made using the December Hip Kit.  Sorry, I think they are all sold out but the February ones are up and are fabulous!!

Here are some stills:

And here is the process video I just uploaded to YouTube:

Thanks for stopping by!!

Jen

Project Life - How "I" Do It

Let me start by saying this is my explanation for how I approach Project Life. I am by no means an expert nor telling anyone else how they should do it.  BUT... I always love to see how other people approach things like this and so thought I would share my process.

ALSO, I only do a 1 page spread per week - not a double spread - but I figure this pretty easily translates!

STEP 1: Upload photos.

• I try to upload once a month.  I do the entire month and print that all off together.  
• I use the folder system on my computer to help me.
1. All the photos go into a month folder for the correct year.
2. I create subfolders for each week and then separate the photos into those.
3. In the weekly folders I create another folder called "PL" and one called "Layouts"
• Into these go the photos I am actually going to use.  I try to do this process quickly and not over think it!!
• Here is a look at what I am talking about:

STEP 2: Photo interruption!

• At this point, I am ready to do a bit of planning. I print off Design A templates (I only use Design A for PL with occasional smaller inserts when needed, this keeps it REALLY simple for me)
• The spot I got my templates is no longer there but I am sure if you Google you will find some free ones.
• I open up my PL folder for that week and decide where I want each photo to go and get a rough idea on sizing - as you can see this is really rough!!  But it sure helps a lot.

STEP 3: Photoshop

• Once I have this planned out and am sure of what photos I am using, I copy and paste these into a folder on my desktop called "To Print"and inside that in my "To Prep" folder.  (The photos are copied into the "To Prep" folder.)
• I use photoshop to resize my photos and try to fit as many as I can onto a 4x6 canvas.  
• As I save these I rename them to the "week" they belong to: e.g. Jan 5-11 1, Jan 5-11 2, Jan 5-7 3, etc.(see photo)  
• I then save these in the "To Print" folder rather than back in the "To Prep" folder. When I am done with that week, I go back and delete all the originals from "To Prep" (remember I copied them over so I am only deleting a copy).
  
• (You can see I have a "Printed" folder too. I dump these edited photos in the "Printed" folder once I have actually picked them up. I empty it occasionally but keep them around for a while just in case I need to reprint something or need reminding where I have printed up to.)

STEP 4: Rinse and repeat

• Sorry, couldn't resist!  
• After I do one week, I just keep repeating this process.  I put the photos I want in my PL folder for that week, plan it out on a template, copy them to my "To Prep" folder, open and resize in Photoshop and save to my "To Print" folder.
• Once I am done the month (or however long it has been since I last did this process) I upload them for printing.  
• I personally print at London Drugs (I am in Canada) as I find their prints are far nicer than Costco and I like their index sheet.  It shows me the filename for each print.  Oh, method to my madness!!  I can use the index sheet to sort out my photos after I pick them up!! 
• (I also have a Selphy but as I am doing a month at a time I don't use it for that. I use the Selphy for layouts more as it's only a couple photos at a time)
  

STEP 5: Sort and stuff

• When I pick up all my photos I use the index sheet to help me sort them out. ^^^
• I then trim  all the photos down to size (remember I have more than one photo on a 4x6 sometimes).
• I then take these photos and put them into the page protectors they need to go in. (right into my album).  I usually take the time to also pick all the cards (you will see on my video).  I then cut up my templates (I have 4 on a sheet of 8.5 x 11) and tuck them into a free pocket in each page protector and I am ready to do these any time.
  

STEP 6: Get 'er done

1. For project life I tend to do it in fits and starts. Recently, I started leaving 1 week out on my work space (in the page protector prepped as I described and you can see above).  Having it in the page protector makes it is easy to move around if I need the space for something else.  But having it sit there reminds me I wanted to work on it and I will usually do 1 card at a time when I need a break from work, when I have a few minutes, etc.
2. I will sometimes sit down and just do a bunch of PL but as a busy mom who works from home and home schools 2 kids... if I have a huge chunk of time it usually is devoted to a layout.
3. Another thing I do is take these prepped spreads with me when I have to sit around waiting on my kids.  I have a PL bag with everything I need to do this - I just pop the prepped spreads in a box (use empty page protector box) and I am good to go.  I am going to do another post AND video about this soon.

And there you go... this is a SUPER long post and I promise I tried to make it as simple as possible!  Here is my process video on my most recent Project Life pages.

Please feel free to leave me comments or questions and I will try to answer them all.

Jen

November Hip Kit - "Kill a Kit"

Hi everyone!  I am back and have LOTS to share.  First off, I'm pretty excited to say I started doing You Tube videos.  I've been a chicken about doing them and now that I have a few done I can say they are not as hard as I thought... although editing the first couple was not pretty :)

My very first video was this "Kill a Kit" video for my November Hip Kit.

I have not yet gone back to my Project Life pages but can tell you I have barely any scraps left at all!  I actually did something I haven't done before and cut up the whole 12x12 sheets to fit the pockets and used the entire sheet on one layout (rather than individual cards).  Then I am going to just embellish each differently.

Here are the still shots of all the layouts I got done with this kit. I truly had so much fun playing with it.

Also a process video on this last layout (my very first process video, sorry, I KNOW I sound a wee bit frustrated with my voiceover issues... I'm over it now! LOL)

I will be back tomorrow with a Project Life blog post.  I did a couple of videos on "my" process for Project Life and also how I used up my December Hip Kit for the first couple weeks in January.  I love doing this as then my layouts and PL "match".  I also just did my "Kill The Kit" video for my December Hip Kit so watch for that soon.

(and let me tell you I REALLY do not care that much about the matching and only recently have started doing this.  But... I will admit it looks nice)

Thanks SO much for stopping by, please let me a comment or question!

Jen