Project Life

In 2011 my favorite local scrapbook store closed, effectively squashing any plans I had to scrap kid-free.  It was so lovely-I would go on a Friday night with a close friend of mine and we would eat dinner there, and socialize, and scrapbook for a few hours without worry about getting interrupted in the middle by a dirty diaper, a sibling tussle, or having to hang out with our husbands.

(Just kidding-I love hanging out with my husband)

In 2012 I am making a small weekly goal and a larger goal that doesn’t have a time limit.

I’m going to take one picture every day.  Sounds easy, right?  I normally do it anyway, with my iPhone.  With the other photo-capturing devices I own, I think it should be pretty easy.  (Nikon DSLR, Canon point-n-shoot, iMac…)

A few things I am allowing myself:

• My photos don’t have to be beautiful.  Project Life albums are all about capturing the mundane, every day details about our lives.  It could be a pic of the car thermometer on a particularly cold morning.  Or a snapshot of the baby sleeping.  Or my daily cup of coffee.
• My photos don’t have to be printed every week.  With the EXIF data in each picture, I don’t have to worry about dates since it’ll be saved and can be sorted with iPhoto.
• I am allowed an off week here and there!  Those weeks I will use FB updates to remember what I was doing that week.
• I will not make myself crazy or stressed out doing this.  It’s supposed to be fun!

I ordered the Clementine Project Life kit from Becky Higgins’ site.  I’m waiting on a few page inserts to arrive but other than that I am good to go!

Pretty up your Facebook Timeline

I am a digital scrapbooker.  I have lots of digital papers, elements, etc. stored on my hard drive (I’m a digital hoarder.  It’s a problem.  I’m working on it).

I thought the natural thing to do would be to make my Facebook cover pretty with them.  (If you are new to Timeline, check it out here)  I’ll show you how.

 

1. First, open a new project in Photoshop Elements (you can do this in any image editing program)

 

2. Then add your elements, photos, etc.  I used ones from the free kit at Persnickety Prints.

Image courtesy of Persnickety Prints

 

 

3. Save the file, then open your FB profile page.  On the lower right corner of your timeline cover photo, hover your cursor and the pull down menu will appear that says “Change Photo.  Select “Upload Photo”.

4. Sit back and smile smugly while your friends are impressed.

I hope to do more digi-scrapping this coming year.  Share some of your pages here please!

Handmade

For a crafty bitch like myself, I sure have fallen off the crafting wagon this year in terms of gifts.  Amazon is my best friend, as evidenced by the harried UPS delivery men that grace my door every day, sometimes twice.  This is one of only a few projects I have created.  I bought all the supplies at A.C. Moore and made them last night while the kids ate dinner.

The whole project cost less than 20 bucks and will end of making about 6 bars of soap.  I bought goats milk soap, shimmer powder, molds, and stamps.  From my stash at home, I used lemon sage essential oils to scent it and food coloring for color.

Cookie Swaps

I have a love/hate relationship with cookie swaps. In my head, I’m all Martha Stewart-y, creating beautiful recipe cards for each recipient of the batches I’ve painstakingly crafted and placed lovingly into handmade boxes with printed tissue paper.

Image from http://www.marthastewart.com

In reality, I’m slapping together a recipe I’ve only minutes-before Googled and throwing the cookies into Ziploc bags while they’re still warm and pliable and I end up with a misshapen mess.

(Still delicious with coffee, though!)

 

This year I was somewhere in the middle. I did bake a batch of Caramel Stuffed Sugar Cookies from My Kitchen Addiction for a girls’ night last week.  They were delicious.

I am currently waiting on some logs of cookie dough to chill before I slice into them. I used a recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I’m anxious to see how they turn out.

The recipe is here. The first batch I made will be plain sugar cookies and will be dipped into melted chocolate after being baked. The second batch has chopped dried cherries mixed in and the logs are rolled in sliced almonds. I’ll let you know how they came out!

Please share some of your recipes here…

So behind!

I am scrambling, as usual, to finish Christmas shopping.  I did make a few photo gifts…check out what I made for my grandmother…

Reusable Shopping Bag

View the entire collection of cards.

It says “We love you, Grandma B!”

What are you doing for last minute gifts?

Merry Christmas!

I’m almost done with my Christmas card mailing…I have about 2 dozen left to make.  Here is the design for this year:

 

I am happy with how they turned out but it’s been hard to get them all mailed out!  Little One is better since we stopped trying to sleep train him.  Everyone is much happier and I’m not forcing the issue for a while..

Crafting has taken a back seat…

…due to the fact that my Little One has decided he would like to attempt to crawl back into the womb.  Seriously, he’s been so freakin’ clingy I can’t get anything done.  Thank God for my mom or we would not have a stitch of clean laundry or a scrap of food other than “fruit chewies” and string cheese.  I hear it’s normal for kids to get separation anxiety after a surgery and being 10 months old, Little One is certainly at the age for it anyway.  But it’s making me mental and not being able to have my creative outlet is putting a damper on my spirits.

Anyway, here is a tiny little bit of craftiness…I bought these cheapie mugs with spoons for Christmas morning hot cocoa.  Recently heard about the Sharpie oil-based paint pens and thought I’d give it a whirl.

What do you do when you can’t be crafty?