project life:: finishing 2012

Yep, I am the most sporadic blogger. Ever. But today I am back.

Below are my recently completed 2012 digital scrapbook pages. I took a Project Life-ish approach in that I am using the style, adapting it to digital and completing at least one page per month. I am closing in on the end of this project and I am excited because I love what I recorded for 2012 and am even more inspired to begin 2013. There are so many great products available.

November. 

December.

I have used product from all over the place. Cathy Zielske, Persnickety Prints, Ali Edward, AC Digitals and many more. 

The biggest update to these pages is that I bought pockets by Valorie Wibbens at the Lilypad. I LOVE these! 

How are your pages coming? Are you finished with 2012? I could choose to never be finished but I am instead choosing to be content with the 1-2 pages per month that I have completed.  

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a combination of good things

1. My mother in law gave me PhotoShop Elements 11 last week. I installed it on my new, Windows 8 laptop (this is a post for another time but to sum it up: learning curve is steep).

2. After Mass on Christmas Eve, we had our pictures taken quickly and got lucky with a few good ones.

3. I stumbled across a great assortment of Project Life quote freebies on Elise Blaha's blog.

1+2+3=a new timeline cover photo...

I hope you have had a great Holiday. We surely have. I cannot wait for a great 2013.

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getting my merry on-

There have been fancy parties for work...

plenty Elf on the Shelf shenanigans...

treat making of the sweet and savory variety...

 

Mason jars for sweets.

 

Tree shaped veggie pizzas for an annual ornament exchange...

Admittedly, since Friday it has been hard to find any spirit at all. The sadness over the shootings in CT is crippling. My girls and I have been speaking openly and praying fervently. I know of nothing else to do.


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2013 calendars for gifting

This is my 4th or 5th year for making calendars for my family members. My love of digi scrapbook stuff + picture taking always makes this a given. But this year I have worked more, taken most photos with my iphone instead of my DSLR and I find myself with less time to make this tradition happen. About 10 days ago, I thought this would be the year I did NOT do them.

And then I saw these awesome 4x6 printables from Eighteen25:

And we did an impromptu at-home photo shoot that resulted in a handful of worthy pictures of the girls, dog and family. 

Last year I gave simple 4x6 photos that contained a monthly calendar and were joined by a 4x6 magnetic frame and acrylic easel. Easy peasy.

So to capitalize on the Eighteen25 freebies and last year's framing options I devised this plan...

I retrofitted an 8x10 calendar template from Scrapflower to include one photo of my girls and to print at 4x6. Making this:

into this:

I printed all freebies from Eighteen 25 and included two more photos (one of just my girls and one of our family). I spent just under $15 for all of these at Costco and I will have a total of 10 sets to give (and 1-2 for myself!).

Today I quickly packaged them in a cello bag and added a bit of washi tape and they are ready for giving! Woot Woot and Merry Christmas!

Past calendars:

I hope this gives those of you who think it may be too late for handmade gifts an extra push. Pin It

I'm bringing Blogging back!

I miss it. I am not sure who will remain as followers after my very sporadic performance over the last few months but that doesn't matter {much}. Perhaps the biggest void is personal because when I sit down {so rarely these days} to work on recording memories, I do not have this digital diary to consult. As my kids get older it may be that I share less about them both because as a pre-teen, one may not want her photo and life details broadcast and secondly because I have a truly duel role now as a mom and a person fully back in the work force. The good news is that while the photos may not be of my kids specifically, that date stamp on the posts jogs my memory as does the meal I may have prepared or craft we created. That is enough of a creative boost for me to easily plug in details to our family scrapbook.  I also am immersed in social media and have interesting clients and colleagues who expose me to new information daily. I plan to share those kinds of tidbits here as well.

So as an attempt to finish off 2012 in strong fashion here are a few glimpses of what has been going on!

I am still a Pinterest enthusiast. I have added a board for items I actually make, bake, create or in some way complete. I add in a little commentary as well. Here's the latest:

Creamy Banana Sour Cream Cake. 

Very yummy. Easy to prepare. My downfall is that the cakes did not release well from the pans. Boo!

Another fun board that I add to regularly is Contests On Pinterest. I do this because I like to participate in some of them although I have yet to win. I also collect these because I am involved in planning and executing contests like this for clients and I like to see what others are doing and especially see what works well and what doesn't. 

My shameless plug...please participate in the Fresh Express Salads Sweepstakes on Pinterest. There is one running now through the end of November and another will begin December 1. Click ::HERE:: to enter. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

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