PL2019 - Week 13

I love that I have all these quirky stories to tell.

As an aside, I'm most likely going to follow along with Ali Edwards - A week in the life, this year. 

I think...  

Maybe... 

Well, probably... 

Last years was a bit of a bust. I don't think I shared it here on my blog... In fact, I'm not even totally convinced I finished it... I'll have to go see if I can track it down. I had a quick look for it, and it's not with all the other 'Week in the Life' albums I've done. Good grief... Where could it be? 

Come to think of it... I'm not even sure I ever shared 2018's December Daily. Did I? I'll have to check that out too.  [Update, yet, I did share that one, it can be found here if you're interested]

Any way, I think Ali is beginning her WITL on May 6th. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle that yet. But as usual, I know I'll regret it if I don't do something... 

For now, here is week 13 of my project life album.

• My birthday dinner,  not great photos, because it was dark, but at least I got them. 
• Barry in his element at Canadian Tire [or any home type store]
• Seeing Captain Marvel was a must before the new Avengers EndGame movie comes out!
• Gaming in the basement, on a headset, chatting and laughter with friends. 

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

PM - Movie Elements: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Movies-Elements.html

PM - Move J. Cards: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Movies-Journal-Cards.html

And now, I have to go track down last years Week in the Life mini album. 

Disney Memories

One of the things about being a creative team member for Sahlin Studio, is the awesome product she comes up with. All the time.

Some of my favourites are anything that has to do with Project Mouse. Project Mouse is Disney themed, and there are many different elements to this. All the Project Mouse products are listed in one convenient place, click this link to jump right there.

In the past, I have created quite a few Disney pages. I've also created quite a few pages that have nothing to do with Disney. So the product is very versatile.

For the latest Sahlin Studio release, I dug deep into some Disney memories. This was our one and only trip to Disneyland, back in [gasp] 2011.

The kids were so little! It was one of our best trips as a foursome. We had so much fun, to say I wasn't a bit melancholy while creating this pocket page, would be a lie... I mean come on... Mason now towers over me! And I expect by the time she's in grade nine, Madelyn and I will be looking eye to eye. Currently, she's only a couple inches shorter than I am.

I'm so glad that I have digital photos and can go back and create a page like this, that everyone in our family gets so much joy from.

And we definitely need to get busy and make plans for another trip as a foursome, to the Happiest Place on Earth...

Project Mouse - Main Street

PM Main Street - Enamel Pins: https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Main-Street-Enamel-Pins.html

PM Main Street - Artsy - https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Main-Street-Artsy.html

Project Mouse product, doesn't always have to coincide with a trip to Disneyland, here are a couple of pages I created, using Project Mouse elements, but had nothing to do with a trip to Disney.

Project Mouse - Adventure

Artsy -https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Adventure-Artsy.html

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Adventure-Enamel-Pins.html

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Adventure-Journal-Cards.html

Project Mouse - Wilderness
https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Wilderness-Elements.html

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Wilderness-Journal-Cards.html

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Wilderness-Word-Art.html

Here are some other layouts I've created using Project Mouse. Some from Disney, and others not. [This layout, from Thunder Mountain, remains one of my most favourites of all time]

Project Mouse - Frontier
https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Frontier-BUNDLE.html

Project Mouse - Tomorrow
http://sahlinstudio.com/project-mouse-tomorrow/

Project Mouse - Halloween
http://sahlinstudio.com/project-mouse-halloween-edition/

Project Mouse - Christmas 
http://sahlinstudio.com/project-mouse-christmas-edition-freebie/

More CZ Inspiration

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post about the fact that I was re-taking CZ Design Your Life class. It was a 'go at your own pace' type class. It was over a 4 week period, each week there were two new layouts introduced. 

I got busy, as life does, and didn't get the chance, or rather, have the time to watch the videos or complete the layouts. I had only completed 2 of 4 weeks.

Here are the two layouts I created from week 2, which I guess I forgot to post here on my blog:

These are both 8x8 sized layouts. I like them. I got a couple of stories down, which makes me happy. But I don't love them. Sometimes I feel a little like I'm 'reaching'. With these two layouts, that's how I felt. 

This past week I found I had some free time. So I went ahead and watched the week 3 videos and got right to work on my layouts. Now I'm not sure why... The pictures themselves... The subject matter... The layout size... [8.5 x 11 compared to 8 x 8 size] But I love how these two layouts turned out. Love, as in they make me absolutely giddy.

Here they are:

I'm looking forward to seeing what week 4 brings. Hopefully I can set some time aside sooner rather than later.

CZ Class - Getting Inspired

I recently took a class from CZ Design called Design Your Life 2.0.  I'd taken this class 9 years ago back when I was just dabbling in digital. All my layouts from that time period, are paper and embellishments. I now am mostly a digital scrapbooker, except for the odd crafty thing I do. 

The product that I have squandered away... My husband never need know about... 

I love scrapbooking. Still. With a passion. It's never changed since I scrapbooked my wedding. 19 years ago!! Eeks! I love going through past albums. I love re-connecting with stories. I love remembering tidbits I'd forgotten. I love looking at my kids. One thing scrapbooking thing does, is freeze time. Forever more.

On occasion, I go through a dry spell. I'm not totally creative every day. On occasion weeks go by before I sit at the computer. When I saw this class was being offered again, and alumni got a bit of a discount, I decided to go for it. 

Sometimes it's exactly the kind of inspiration you need.  Here are two layouts that I made for the class. The templates were given, but photos, papers, embellishments and stories... Well, those are all mine. 

 

Two of my most favourite photos of Mason, taken 8 years apart. [Sigh] Another thing that taking all these photos does, is make your life flash right before your eyes.

Documented evidence of Madelyn's 12th birthday party. Such a fun time spent with her very best girlfriends. 

I had so much fun creating these pages, to suit my needs. It was just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing. 

Exciting News

So, I've taken a huge leap forward.

I downloaded PSE15 and I've been spending time familiarizing myself with the program. Some things are the same, some things are different. 

Plus, this time around I'm working on a Mac, which is different than the PC version I was used to. But... I'm getting it! [insert squeal here]

I started off by working on a template, it's actually free for the month of November only, on Sahlin Studio. Check it out here: free template for November.

But here is the final product!

I'm so excited. 

Just a super quick layout of our recent trip to the west coast. 

I also finally got the courage to plug in our external hard drive, and was rewarded with the fact that I do have access to all my photos, since switching over to a digital camera, in May 2005. Phew, that was a relief. I was so scared to do that, because 'what if' the pictures weren't there. 

So, I'm only missing stuff from January through August of this year, and I have all my iPhone photos since April, so I can breath a huge sigh of relief. 

And once I started tinkering around a little bit, it got less and less scary. [Though, my right arm and hand are most definitely feeling the after affects of too much mousing after a nearly 3 month hiatus]

I am fiddling with my project life pages again. I need to do a enormous 'catch up'. But I think I'm going to take a lot of stress off myself, and do a few months at a time, rather than weeks. 

Any way, to say I'm pleased, is an understatement. And naturally, I wish I'd gotten braver sooner. But I got brave when I had to. Looking forward to getting back to this method of memory keeping once again.

Sahlin Studio Product Used was: 

Pause Kit

Recent Layouts

I recently completed two layouts. I'm pretty well current with my scrapbooking, though I do have a load of pages to print off. To print 12x12 pages in Canada, it's gotten a little bit ridiculous cost-wise. In the past I have ordered from Persnickety, but they've increased their international shipping fee. The last time I ordered from them, I thought the product was just kind of 'meh'. Certainly not their best quality. Now, add our poor dollar and exchange rate. I simply can't justify paying for a product I'm not happy with.

I'm contemplating whether or not I should scrapbook my pages as usual, and then create a photo book with the pages once a year. It's not quite the same as looking through an album... But the memories come back, no matter what the format. Something to consider...

I have recently created a lot more 8x8 sized layouts. This size is a lot more reasonable to print off.

Both of these layouts are 8x8 size.

Both of these layouts are Sahlin Studio templates. Both originally 12x12 format. I just altered the sizing, and I'm happy with how they turned out.

This layout, Best Field Trips Ever, is Sahlin Studio Template Freebie, free for the month of November only. You can find it here: Sahlin Studio November Template.

I'm not kidding when I say these were the best field trips ever. It's taken until grade 5 and 8 to have 2 awesome field trips, both within a week of each other. They were also the best, because the weather was AWESOME. I doubt I would have enjoyed either as much, had the weather been foul.

For this layout, I used Sahlin Studio product Explore. Learn. Grow.

The next layout, Horse Camp is another template originally 12x12, that I altered to 8x8 size. It's from this bundle of templates.

I think templates are awesome. So simple when you want to capture a story quickly. The 8x8 size of this worked out well, because the photos I have were very small, and poor quality. Madelyn went camping with her uncle, and he took a ton of photos and sent them to me. I can't tell you how pleased I was to get these pictures of her having such a great time. Even through the pictures aren't great, I was still able to capture her first horse camping trip.

For this layout, I used Project Mouse Frontier Bundle. All the western elements tied in perfectly to her western weekend. Will she go camping again? I think so. Uncle on 'gave her' Lacy [the horse she's riding] She loves to tell everyone that she 'has a horse'. Poor horse though... She hasn't fed or groomed it since the first weekend in October.