Pocket Scrapping | March 2015

Hello sweet friends! It has been way too long! I feel like we have been sick around here FOREVER! I am hoping it's over now and we will be all tip top from here on out so we can enjoy the beautiful Spring! I *think* I am finally used to the new computer but some days I still get frustrated. I'm getting there though! 

I thought I would share with you my March pages! I am still completely in love with working on last year in this digital style! It's amazing!! 

For this month I ended up doing 2 double page spreads. It just worked better with the photos I had! It has been a bit bitter sweet going through last years photos and seeing my sweet boy this small. He is already so much bigger! Individual pages are linked for full credits. 

Hello | Updates

Hello there lovelies! Long time no see! My computer was slowly dying and I couldn't do anything. Every time I clicked a link, my computer froze. When I tried to open Photoshop Elements, it froze. Trying to open Lightroom?! Yeah right! SO! I am back with all new fresh equipment! New computer and a new printer and I am oh so happy! My old one was about 9 years old, so this new one seems so fancy and different. I always struggle with change, but I know that sometimes it's no only necessary, but works out for the best! 

This is the one that I got. It's not too crazy fancy or anything but it's much nicer than what I had before so I am really excited! Windows 10 is taking some time to get used to, but I like it!

I have started to work on my 2016 Project Life album and I am so excited about it! I decided to go with 9x12 and I think it's sooo much better! I can add a lot of photos but it's not quite as heavy or bulky. That 12x12 album was getting cumbersome to get in and out. The workspace of the 9x12 seems awesome. I can't wait to share with you all!

Also, I will have a new template freebie up next week. I have been rigorously downloading all my programs and things and transferring files, but I am getting there. Slowly but surely! I wanted to give you a super quick update and let you know that you will be seeing me much more! 

Pocket Scrapping | February 2015

Hello lovelies! I so hope you are all doing well! I wanted to pop in and share a couple more pages from my 2015 album pocket style! I am still really really loving this process. It is so fun and works so well for me! It has made me realize that I think working with digital cards for 2016 is going to be easiest for me. A printer will be coming home to me within the next week or two so I can get caught up and current! For now, I am still plugging away at last year and loving it so much!! 

Here are my February pages. Individual pages are linked to my gallery at The Lilypad for full linked credits.

Click for credits

Click for credits

I am still super in love with the black and whites against the colored cards and elements. I feel like it makes them stand out even more and gives them such a timeless look! February is another super cold and boring month here, so it is just another 2 page spread. March is already bigger so I am sure that throughout the Summer months when we are hiking and things, I am going to have to use 8 pages (4, 2 page spreads) so much more!

I hope you feel inspired! I used to be so scared of pocket scrapping and now I pretty much love it. I am for sure going to get these printed into a photo book. I have looked around at what would be the best, most cost effective way to do it and that is going to be the easiest and will be a lot of fun to look at I think. I will see you again soon! Get out there and create some more memories!

Photo Fun | Double Exposures

I am absolutely not a professional photographer. I wish that I was! I wish that I had the equipment of one as well. I am just a lowly stay at home mom, but thanks to my love of digital scrapbooking and memory keeping, taking better photos and having fun with photo editing has become a little hobby of mine. I thought maybe every now and again I would share some photo fun tips, techniques or tutorials. Sometimes these will be small things like a photo idea. Other times they might be an editing technique (like today!). All in all, I hope you enjoy them or they are a little bit helpful or inspire you to try some new things! I really want to encourage everyone who might come across this to take some time and document your memories with photos or stories or even both!

During the Month of Challenges @ The Lilypad in January, one of the challenges was to create a double exposure photograph and create a page with that. I had never thought about, tried or even really noticed this technique before then. HERE is the link to the challenge. I do not know how long it will be up but it has some super great info from my fellow Polly Farrah about doing double exposures! I thought that I would walk you through how I did my own. Which layer styles I used and all that jazz.

January Freebie

I am cutting it pretty close with this one, but I wanted to bring back the monthly freebies and I have January's all ready in the Freebies page! Be sure to check there regularly because I will get the freebies put there before I can get to blog posts about them.

If you are new around these parts, you might not know that I used to design templates for digital scrapbooking and sold them. These templates were almost always based after my own pages. I have always always always considered myself a scrapbooker and not a designer. I just never wanted to lose my momentum with pages and memory keeping. That's the kind of templates I offer as my freebies here on my blog as well. They are freebies based after my own pages and here is the first one for this year. I hope you like it!

Click for full credits

Pocket Scrapping Past Years | January 2015

So...I have been waffling back and forth with how to document past years and this current year. I think the family enjoys looking at the photos in a more clean and simple way as opposed to my more artsy regular scrapbooking style. Because of that I have been wanting to find a way to get the last few years at least done in a way that will be enjoyable for everyone! Enjoyable for me to create and and pleasing to look at from a design POV, because I do want it to look nice...and enjoyable for the family to look back and read the stories about. I *think* I have found my approach!

Making a Template Your Own | Vol 4

Today is the last day I will be talking about this one page. Are you all sick of seeing it yet?! I wanted to feature one page for the whole month, so that I could show you all how you really can take a template and change it so much! It didn't even take me a long time! The page came together in about 45 min. (not including photo editing). that's what I love about templates. They really do make my scrapbooking so much faster, even with a lot of modifications!

Making a Template Your own | Vol 3

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great January so far! January is by far my least favorite month. It is so cold and dreary here in Indiana. I am trying my very hardest to stay positive and uplifting though!

As you know, I am going through tutorials on how to make a template your own and we are ready for Volume 3. In case you have forgotten, I am working with Circular Templates by Cornelia Designs.

One of the first things You will notice about the template I use (Top left corner) is that it has 3 circle photo spots. For some reason, I struggle with circle photos. The angle of my pictures makes them hard sometimes. There really is no reason or excuse. Sometimes I just don't like the photo placements, sizes or shapes on a template. 

December Daily | An Update

As you have probably noticed I do not have any other December Daily photos or pics up yet. After the holidays, the week of New Years, the baby got roto virus! It was the worst, most disgusting bout of sickness ever. I so hope you guys don't have to deal with that if you haven't before!! It was a week of awfulness. It totally threw a wrench in my creating!

I did start on my album. As I was working on my pages, I decided i didn't like everything black and white like I thought I would. SO! I need to order some of the prints in color and order my last batch still. It is coming along though and I am so glad I am working on it, even at my snails pace. When it's done it's going to be lovely and I know that the children are going to love looking at it!

So this is my PSA to everyone who maybe has started but got side tracked and never finished, or never even started at all! Keep plugging away whenever you can! It will be worth it in the end and no one is judging your timeliness! We can do this!

Making a Template Your Own | Vol 2

Welcome back for another tip on how to make a template your own! I am so glad you are here!

As you saw last week, I am working the Circular Templates by Cornelia Designs this month. I so love Cornelia's templates because her style is similar to mine, but not exact. I still have a lot of freedom and wiggle room with her templates which is super fun!

Pocket Scrapping | February 2015

Hey guys! I am back with another share of my Pocket scrapping catch up of last years. If you don't remember, I am just scrapping monthly for my pocket pages. It is the easiest most stress free way for me to do it. This means that some months might be just a regular old two page spread and others might be 6-8 pages today (2 for every week). It just depends on how much we do and if there are any big events, etc. I also think I will add in some special pages for birthday's, big trips, etc. It is working really well for me so far and I am really excited about it!

You can find my Project Life pages up top under "My Work". I will be working on my 2016 Project Life very very soon! I am super excited about getting a new printer so I can work hybrid again finally! HERE are my 2015 pages all in one spot if you would like to see them together.

On to February! January and February are seriously the slowest months ever here in Indiana. It's just so cold and I get so depressed in the Winter. I bought those sunlight light bulbs and things and this year has been a bit better, so hopefully my 2016 pages will have more photos! Here are my February spreads. The individual pages are linked for full credits!

Click for full credits

Click for full credits

Jasper is seriously the cutest ever right?! I can't handle how adorable he is! All of my kids are cuties. I am one super lucky mama! Also, we had watched Big Hero 6 and that is still one of my favorite Pixar movies!! All the feels!!!! I loved it so much and nee a Baymax of my very own!

I hope you like them! If you are on the fence about pocket scrapping or think it looks time consuming, it is so not! It is amazing and I am LOVING it! Never hesitate to hit me up if you need help or product recommendations or any questions about my process! I would be happy to help! I will see you soon!

Making a Template Your Own | Vol 1

Once upon a time, on my old digital scrapbooking site, I did a series of posts and tutorials about altering templates to fit your style. That blog is long gone though, so I decided I would start the series over again here! If you happened to see the old posts, a few of these might be repetitive or similar. Those posts cannot even be found though because I couldn't afford the domain and hosting when it went up and I lost everything. So sad. It was the last thing on my radar at that time, so I didn't get a chance to back up my posts. You live and learn I suppose.

I love love love working with templates when I am digital scrapbooking. I don't always because sometimes I like to start with a completely blank canvas. However, more often than not, a template is just what I need to jumpstart my page. In the olden days of digital scrapbooking, there were very few templates and template designers. The ones you had were very very basic. I never even thought much about them. Things have evolved though, and you can find a template designer for every single style of page you could imagine. Sometimes that is overwhelming or you don't know where to start. You'll be browsing galleries and see pages with templates that are fab but aren't quite "you". I am here to tell you that you can make ANY template work for your scrapbooking style..