This month I had the opportunity to work with Studio Calico’s July’s kit stamp set. What is a primarily digital scrapbooker doing with stamps you might ask? Well embellishing my inserts of course!

I have been a subscriber to the Project Life Kit with Studio Calico for a few months now, and I must say I LOVE the quality and the variety I receive each month. The cards are featured in almost every insert I create, and now that I have had the opportunity to play with some stamps….well I can see a new obsession brewing!

I used the stamps to embellish my journaling cards, and I must say that this particular set is filled with stamps that are so versatile and so relevant to Project Life type scrapbooking. Particularly the “#projectlife” stamp–Love!! In just two weeks of inserts I used at least seven of the stamps, and when you consider that up until tonight I haven’t stamped–EVER–you know that this stamp set is awesome. Enjoy the sneaks!!

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: More summer stuff in full swing. Bike rides, garden planting, yard work, birthday parties, swimming pools–you name it!!!

Techniques used this week: I am feeling much more creative this week, and did a few things I haven’t done before. I really like how my title card turned out this week in particular. I got the look by creating multiple layers above the title card (from the Honey kit) in Photoshop and then brushing on each layer with the different days of the week. (The brush I used to “stamp” is the hearts days of the week set by Ali.) If a word ran too long I simply clicked on the eraser tool  and swiped the overage away on that particular layer.

I also had a lot of fun creating a map of our bike ride on mapmyride.com. I took a screenshot of it and pasted it into a 4×6 template. I suppose it’s not terribly creative, but I love what this adds to the album. Years from now I know that will help me remember so much more about the day. 

DSLR Photos Vs Iphone Photos: 4:10.

Favorite Photo of the Week: I love the instagram photo of Holly in the pool. That girl is happiest when she is in water. Or on stage.

Other thoughts:  Nothing other than I just love how full of life this week seems:)

Supplies used this week: Most of the items used are in the icons below. I went on a bit of a shopping spree this week–tons of neat new products in use this week–check the out!

But enough about that. Onto week twenty-three. But before I share my pages, I wanted to share a blog post I discovered this morning that seriously has a lot of great information in one spot. If your looking for Project Life Inspiration of all kinds, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: Getting our summer groove on. The weather is finally starting to warm up and we are visiting the yogurt shop, going for bike rides, playing at the park. All of our summer go-to activities. Now if we could just make some smores I would be a happy camper:)

Techniques used this week: Brushes and my trusty ghosted journaling box.

DSLR Photos Vs Iphone Photos: 5:3.

Favorite Photo of the Week: It has to be the black and white of Marie eating the donut. We walked down to the bakery on Saturday morning, and since it was early and she seemed in a good mood I brought the big camera with me. I love how little she looks next to the big window. Walking to the bakery is something we do often, and I hope it’s a childhood memory the girls look back on warmly.

Other thoughts:  I truly am in a rut. I really feel the need to do something more creative…but until I get a weekend (or heck even a day!) to myself it’s just not going to happen. 18 month olds are too active!!!

Supplies used this week: I can’t get the linky tool to work, so I will list it out. I used the Rain Edition of Project Life, brushes by Ali (all of which I have used before and will be in an old link up, the subway style word art is from Karen Lewis, and word arrows from the-lilypad.com.) I have used these brushes before too–quite often actually. They are one of my favorite elements. As always if you have a question, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: It was a week of celebration for Holly, wrapping up the school year with all sorts of fun activities. Lots of playing outside, despite the weather. Summer where are you?!?

Techniques used this week: Nothing but brushes. I am nothing if not predictable!

DSLR Photos Vs Iphone Photos: 3:6. I am still on the fence about the smartphone Big Picture class, but maybe I should take it. I do take a lot of photos with my iphone, and I have a feeling I really don’t have a clue as to what I can do with it. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I read Becky’s blog and learned that you can essentially spot meter with a touch of the finger. WHAT?!

Other thoughts:  I really love the Midnight Kit. The pop of yellow is gorgeous, and I love how the kit goes with everything. The weather being so poor, and having hardly any time outside, has really had an impact on my photo taking. I end up with very few photos each week–and am getting fairly uncreative with what I do take. Perhaps another good reason to take that class?!

Supplies used this week: Will update with a list soon. Very little used this week besides the Midnight Kit, and Ali brush, and Cathy Z.’s Week in Review card…my pages seem to be getting simpler and simpler!!

Week Twenty-One brought me back to the Jade Edition. I really love that kit!

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: Not too much out of the ordinary. This has been an incredibly late spring, an incredibly wet spring, an incredibly non-eventful spring. We hung around the house. I hardly took photos. I photographed another wedding. Pretty much the same as the week before.

Techniques used this week: A ghosted journaling box and brushes. I enlarged a brush and reduced the opacity for the big photo (to get a big photo I just resized the template space to hold something close to a 5×7), which I had never done before and I really like. I had originally thought I would erase the part of the brush near their faces…but it’s so light in that area of the photo you can’t really see the brush so I left it alone. It was fun to try something different versus typing up some more text on the photo like I am prone to do.

DSLR Photos Vs Iphone Photos: 3:3. Even steven this week. I have family coming to visit very soon and I know there will be LOTS of picture taking so I am wisely taking it easy these past few weeks. It doesn’t help that we haven’t been able to go outside much either. The iphone photos were the ones at the doctor’s office, the trike shot, and the photo of the girls on the bench eating breakfast.

Other thoughts:  It’s not often we go to the doctor, but since we did (and I had all of the stats in my brain from filling out kindergarten forms) I used a baby kit card to record it all. Love how easy it is to combine different pieces of different kits in the Project Life family. I know we just got our hands on these…but boy….anyone else already excited for more?!?!

Supplies used this week: Most of the items are listed in the icons below. The geotag was a free download from Kelly Purkey’s blog awhile back, and the ordinary moment quote is from Paislee Press’ Diptych kit. Quite possibly one of my favorite kits from last year, if not ever! The “Remember This” and “The Best Thing about The Week” cards are both from Cindy Schneider. I can’t get them to link up today!

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: I decided against a Week in Review card this week because it really seemed like it would redundant to include it. I had more journaling than usual this week, so I really feel like the story had been told already throughout the layout. I feel this way about everything except the kindergarten orientation story….I did write a bit on the photo itself with another ghosted journaling box, but there is really so much more I want to say. I just have soooo much trouble with meaningful journaling. I really am seriously considering Ali’s Hello Story class. She has got to be one of the best journalers out there! But back to what we were up to….trips to the park, lots of playing upstairs, kindergarten orientation, Ree Ree shenanigans.

Techniques used this week: A ghosted journaling box and brushes. I go with what I know:)

DSLR Photos Vs Iphone Photos: 3:6. Definitely more iphone photos this week. The DSLR photos are the girls reading on the chair, the snack photo of Marie, and the bathtub photo. I did buy a few new photo apps recently, most notably pictapgo. REALLY loving that one. I did buy the A Beautiful Mess app, just haven’t had a huge chance to play with it yet.

Other thoughts:  This week, again, featured a whole lot of Marie. This isn’t intentional–I just have a lot more time with her during the day since Holly is in school. Last year’s book featured a lot more Holly since Marie was so young, and this summer? I am sure it will even out with both girls home all day driving me crazy, I mean having fun!!!!

Supplies used this week: Most of the items are listed in the icons below. The “love you” script around Holly was a product by Splendid Fiins I can’t locate anymore, and the “wonderful beautiful amazing” stamp is an Ali Edwards one available at designerdigitals.com.

I had originally placed photos from that day into my week eighteen layout that I shared last week, but this past weekend I redid my week eighteen because I was just not happy with it. I much prefer “special things,” like this project was to me, as inserts. In a later post, perhaps next week or something, I will share what my new week 18 looks like. There are some pictures of Marie in a tutu to die for!!!

I really liked what Elise did with her Day in the Life, so I used that as inspiration for my insert. I did not have a coin page protector, but I did have a Design F protector, so I resized all of my photos to 3×4 (most of my photos were taken horizontally so I had to get a bit creative there!) and got to work. Here is the front of my Day in the Life insert:

And here is the back:

I used the new Project Life pens (I bought them on HSN–I think these will be available on Amazon soon?) to write directly on many of the photos–that is my new favorite thing! Love how it looks, and the more I write the more comfortable I am getting with my handwriting. The little round labels were some I had from 2007 when I took a class from Ali at a big scrapbooking event in Virginia. (7 gypsies was the brand, that’s all I know.) On either side I left a 2-3 photos devoid of any sticker/writing just so there was somewhere for my eyes to rest. The Morning, Afternoon, and Evening cards are from the May Studio Calico kit. I love EVERYTHING about that subscription and am so glad I did it. Makes doing inserts that much more fun for me–I always like something different!

I even managed to work in a few do-dads from the  May kit. I had to borrow adhesives, and still don’t know what on earth I am doing–it’s so simple I hardly think it could be called embellishing, but I am having fun. That’s all that matters right?

What is going on with this Digital girl????

Would love to hear your thoughts. I look forward to doing this again this month. The Design F protector is just THE BEST for this!

Whole Spread:

Left Side:

Right Side:

What we were up to this week: I have to get better about writing in my “Week in Review” card as the week hums along. I used to do it that way, but as of late I sit down and try to do it at the end of the weekend. I can’t remember Saturday morning by that time, let alone Monday! I do know that we spent a lot of time outside last week enjoying the spring weather that took FOREVER to get here. Holly was gone from Thursday afternoon-Sunday, and I had 24 hours to myself! All in all a good week:)

Techniques used this week: Lots of recoloring, lots of brushes per my usual. I really liked using a different brush for my calendar card, it might be hard to see but there is a little stamp over the days of the month that says recorded. So cute! I realized that I never talk about iphone versus DSLR photos, so from now on I am going to try and make a point of it each week. The sandbox photo, looking through the leaves, is an iphone photo as well as the black and white photo of Grandma with the girls. (Oh and the little instagram of Marie in the chair–her dad’s chair believe it or not from the early 70′s!) The rest were taken with my Nikon D700 and 35mm f/1.4 lens. The instagram with the black border was sent to me by the gal in the photo–I am never shy about asking photos to be taken in my absence and/or asking for them to be sent along later when I find out there was one taken. Everyone contributes to this album!! (My husband is a rockstar at taking photos when I am not around–he was responsible for all of the Easter ones and the Grandma photo from this week.)

Other thoughts:  It just occurred to me that we are five weeks away from Week 26. That’s the mid-point of the year. What the?!?!

Supplies used this week: Most of the items are listed in the icons below. The #photooftheday brush was a free download at The Persnickety Prints blog, but for the life of me I cannot find it on their blog. The journaling strips are from a page template set I had in my stash, I just dragged them over and placed them in. (Incidentally, that’s a good tip to keep in mind. If you are a collector of digital page templates like I am, remember they are filled with elements and such that can you can add to your pages!)

When I first began putting this together I often became quite confused when categorizing what photo went with what month. My iphoto library had all of my photos labelled by how many weeks old Holly was…and it didn’t take long to get quite the headache as I tried to keep track of which week fell into which “month old” section. I finally threw in the towel and decided that since Holly’s birthday was practically on the 1st of the month (she was born October 2nd) that October 2007 = month one, November 2008 = month two…etc. It made everything soooo much easier!

Month three was her first Christmas:

It was also the first month I began making enlargements. You’ll notice as you go through these pages that I keep it extremely simple and stick to just photos and journaling cards. Save the two examples you see in the picture above, there are virtually no digital embellishments or brushes to speak of throughout this entire album. Truthfully, it’s just too overwhelming for me to go that deep into the design of the layouts as I am trying to “catch up” so to speak and get a book from the past complete.

For the most part each month is made up of four pages. One side of a Design A page protector serves as a title page on the left denoting the month of her age, followed by either a Design A or Design B page protector. (I used to shoot images vertically a lot more!) The month finishes up with another Design A page protector, which is the end page for one month on one side, and the title page for the next month on the other. Is that clear as mud?!

I love the impact of the 8×10 photo! I have been putting them in the album every so often–always highlighting a favorite photo. The back of this particular insert highlights Holly’s first Christmas, so I made the facing Design A page a collage of only Christmas photos and memories:

In my hurry to photograph these all on Sunday night (the sun was setting and I was literally out on the deck in my pajamas!), I somehow missed the title page of Month 4. I will be sure to update that soon! Here is the rest of Month 4:

Month Five. The first month I introduced a Design B page protector:

And added in another 8×10 insert:

Month Six I substituted a Design G protector for an A or B because I had so many Easter photos and not much else. Boy oh boy was I an “event” picture taker and not an everyday one!:

Month Seven I had two special inserts–a 6×12 insert and another 8×10 enlargement. The 6×12 insert houses a letter to Holly I wrote in January of 2008. I don’t believe I had them printed up on my initial posting of her baby album, but there are two other letters (both in the same 6×12 page protector) placed in month 2. I wish I had kept it up monthly, which was my original intention, but I only made it to three letters. Oh well. At least I have those!

Month Eight contained a special Design G insert about Holly’s first swimming lesson:

I have photos placed into Month Nine already, but the journaling cards were not filled out so I will save that month for my next post. I hope to be finishing this up sometime this summer–would love to hear what you think so far!

My first insert, week two. (I noticed the typo in my first black box after I uploaded this, sorry, too tired to correct it!) The Design H page protector works great when you have just a little bit extra to add in a week:

The following week I had an insert detailing our visit to the Children’s Museum here in Saint Paul. I did a few things worth noting on this insert–I used some digital embellishments to “jazz” up the photos (to date I think this might be the most complicated insert I have done in that regard) and I also used some of Cathy Z’s templates to journal with that I just printed as photo prints. Sure…they are glossy…but I don’t care. Saves time to put them all in with the Walgreens order–and truthfully I am all about saving time. Printing out photos, at least for me, adds more time than I have each week. (And I live less than a mile from the Walgreens I use to print!) I do use Persnickety prints to print my bigger items, like 6x12s and 12x12s, but the rest? All Walgreens. My Walgreens is pretty spot-on with my monitor as far as color and brightness goes. The left side in the photo below is the front of the insert, the right side the back.

Design G page protectors might be my favorite for inserts–love the combo of horizontal and vertical photos you can get when you use it. Here is a close up of the journaling card and the Avery Index Tabs I use for labeling:

On Week Four I tried a 6×12 insert. I have a new favorite!

As you can read in my little text boxes, this insert was really all Holly’s doing. I thought it was a great way for her to contribute to the family book, and she just loved doing it. (And loves to point out this insert when she shows the album to someone else!) She can operate a point and shoot camera with no problem–seriously, give one to the kids and see what they come up with. It’s amazing! If you like the Design Editor template I used you can find it on etsy.

Week Five brought THREE inserts. I seriously get giddy when I look at all of the layers. I am really getting in the groove now! The top insert you see is a Design I page protector that can showcase six 4×4 photos. (My photos are all instagrams.) Behind that is a 6×12 page protector that I used to detail out my Day in the Life for January. And behind that? Another Design G page protector about our visit to the American Girl Doll store at the Mall of America.

Here is a bit more detail. If you like the products I mentioned, you can find Ali Edwards 6×12 templates at Designer Digitals and Rebecca Cooper’s FREE templates on her blog. The circle date tag is a template set from Cindy Schneider. Cindy Schneider’s templates are the coolest things EVER, I love all of her products. Everything is customizable–seriously check her out.

The backside of my 6×12 insert is, of course, another photo enlargement. Is that not an adorable father and daughter moment? You also get a glimpse of the Design G of our lunch date with friends.

I have used the brush and text technique you see in this insert at least three times now. (I am pretty sure I will be doing a video of it soon.) It was first used in week fourteen last year, and again in week fifty-one. I find it much easier to journal (particularly when I am trying to say something really meaningful) when I can repeat the same prompt over and over again. Ali Edwards is an expert at this, in fact that’s her brush I use to prompt me.

On Week Seven I had two inserts, one for our anniversary dinner (which happens to also be Valentine’s Day), and one containing a cute card Holly made for me in school. I had only my iphone with me at dinner so instagrams were my main way of recording. Instead of using a Design I page protector, I opted for some of Nettio Designs 4×6 Journalers so that I could include a bit of the story. My favorite is the bottom photo–I detailed out what each of us ordered at dinner. I guarantee you on our next date night to this restaurant we will order the EXACT same thing! Holly’s card is in a 12×12 page protector I trimmed down with a rotary cutter and ruler (from my sewing supplies) and then sewed a seam up the side. I had NO IDEA that was so easy. I now look for anything odd shaped so I can make my own size page protector–embracing the sewing machine really gives you freedom! I didn’t change needles, or stitch size, or anything. Just put the page protector under the pressure foot and away I went! Try it!

On Week Eleven I used a 5×7 page protector to enlarge a photo I thought was just too precious to get lost in the mix of the weekly two-page layout. To embellish I just used a brush and a text box:

For Week Twelve I again had more than one insert. I used the Design J protector for the first time to display some instagrams, and a Design G protector to tell the story of our first non-kiddo getaway since Marie was born. Here is a look at how it all looks in the album:

A look at the back of Design J (all three journaling cards are from the Studio Calico Project Life Kit) and a peek at the “getaway” insert:

One of my favorite things in this insert was a screenshot of my iphone’s GPS route as we drove away from the house. I consciously did that, knowing it would make a cute 3×4 addition to the page:

I had a lot of additional photos Week Thirteen because of Easter. Here is what I did to include them:

Can you see the other insert peeking out above the 8×8? FAVORITE ONE OF THE YEAR SO FAR! It was Marie’s first haircut, and I knew the moment Kid’s Hair handed me the little clear envelope with her lock of hair in it that it was going in a 3×4 slot.

I hope this shows some of you, that maybe have thought about going digital, how easy it is to have a hybrid approach to the project. The weekly spreads (if you choose to record that way) come together very quickly when they are done in Photoshop and if I have the urge to play around with physical products–well the inserts are giving me just enough of that to make me happy. Using Marie’s locks from her first haircut in a 3×4 slot–I so wouldn’t be able to do that in a Shutterfly photo book–has totally sold me on doing my albums this way even though I really don’t have the space for them in my house. (I am telling myself I am going to have custom shelves made someday!) My inserts aren’t too complicated (yet) but I am sure  as my confidence grows I will be doing some fun things in them. Right now, though, it’s mainly journaling cards, my writing, and photos. I am finally off of the waiting list for Studio Calico’s Project Life kits, and received my first full kit just the other day, so it will be interesting to see if I even know what to do with the little do-dads that come in the kit. If I can’t figure it out, look for a giveaway here as I unload them!

Let me know if there is something you are wondering about that I missed linking up. Would love to hear what you think about the inserts.

Have a great weekend!