Project Life October 2014

Believe it or not I'm actually caught up with Project Life. (Okay, well...I may be lying a tad. I haven't scrapped September yet. I was sick of being behind so I just started back up with October. I was more motivated to do a current month.)

I tried for a more "put together" look this month. I used my typewriter a lot. (I'm not the best at it and I pretty much left all mistakes "as-is.")

I also printed all my pictures with a white border. I always think it's pretty when people do that with their pages and I like the cleaner look it gives my own. 

I did a lot of Halloween colors. Even with non-Halloween related things. It was also Mr. 246's birthday this month so that means...birthday week!

I had a fair amount of pull out things for when I wanted to include just one more thing or a little tid-bit.

A half page insert for our Pumpkin Patch trip...

I've been debating about what to do with cards. I just can't keep keeping them. They take up a lot of space and I'm still relatively young. I've decided I'm going to keep the super special ones and photograph the rest. That's what these two pages are: pictures of birthday/Halloween cards. Some of them aren't the right orientation and the pictures aren't the best but it's all very readable and takes up considerably less space than the actual cards.

See...I did keep some stuff! These are some random inserts I'm including as well. The two little books of memories reside in the birthday envelope.

More birthday celebrations...

A little pull out with pictures of Luna poking the cake, a little memory about Luna wanting nothing but cake and for good measure...I included the recipe as well!

Another little pull-out of a picture I just couldn't NOT include. There was a rabbit at the Autism walk and Luna insisted that it was the Peter Rabbit. So cute!

 A 12x12 page highlighting Luna's costume! (The picture didn't turn out so well of this one. Oops!)

More everyday life....

And a half page insert just for Halloween!

That's about it...I've been super quiet lately on the blogging front. (It's actually been quite nice! I think it might be too much for working full time and having a life and blogging but I'm going to make it a point to check in every now and then.)

Hope you're all well! Please feel free to leave a link to any Halloween or October project life pages you've done. I'd love to see them! Thanks for stopping by!

-Mrs. 246

Days 6-12: 30 Days of Lists [September 2014]

30 Days of Lists is kind of like a "list-a-long" where all month long in September you write your list for the prompt of the day and share it with others to see! There are a ton of different ways people present their lists and this is mine:

• If you'd like a tour of this month's list book check out this post! 
• Check out days 1-5 of my book here. 

September 6th: This list is more like my/Luna's entire evening routine rather than what I do right before bed.

  
September 7th: Notice this is a short list. Lol. None of these do I actually enjoy...I just love the end result. Lol. Least favorite "chore": cooking, hands down. Thank goodness for Mr. 246.

September 8th: I am not a sophisticated person. And that's okay. This is more a list of all-time favorites. Just as I am terrible with remembering movies, I'm terrible at remembering books after I've read them.

September 9th: This was an odd prompt. I didn't quite know what direction to take it. Lol.

September 10th: Picture is actually from today but it showcases my current project which I am in LOVE with. 

September 11th: Mostly a craft list but with some random things thrown in. I couldn't think of very many "life" things I've finished with and projects seemed the easiest to list.

September 12th: Oh! A night in! Maybe it's the introvert in me but we pretty much spend all our nights in. I haven't tired of it yet! Haha. Oh, and what's that you spy in my picture...is it a Whirley Pop?! It sure is! (Bass Pro edition! Lol.) It's our newest exciting obsession. Best purchase ever!

If you're doing #30lists please feel free to leave your link! I love checking out the different ways people present their lists and the things they come up with!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

-Mrs. 246

Days 1-5: 30 Days of Lists [September 2014]

30 Days of Lists is kind of like a "list-a-long" where all month long in September you write your list for the prompt of the day and share it with others to see! There are a ton of different ways people present their lists and this is mine. If you'd like a tour of this month's list book check out this post!

I plan on posting my lists on Fridays so you know what that means...I've got my first week of lists done!  

September 1st: The picture is horrible cell phone quality but I still wanted to include it. It's Luna playing her first "board" game, Jumping Jack! A big first if I do say so myself and it was a super special day since Mr. 246 and I both had the day off.

September 2nd: Picture is of some awesome notebooks I found at TJ Maxx. Every 20 pages or so they have a whole page of quotes/picture. So cute I had to get three. What will I use them for? No clue!

September 3rd: Oh gosh. Time is one of those things I ALWAYS wish I had more of.

September 4th: I was about to list my projects I plan on finishing and then when I thought about it, I'm probably not going to be finishing much so I had to tweak the prompt a little. Lol. It's hard to do so many projects with working full time and attempting to have a life. I love the picture...it's little Halloween stuff Bean and I have been working on. We have to get started suuuuper early since it takes 2 year olds a while to do anything. Lol.

September 5th: Things to nurture this month....my family and myself. And appreciate this time in our lives.

If you're doing #30lists please feel free to leave your link! I love checking out the different ways people present their lists and the things they come up with!

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

-Mrs. 246

30 Days of Lists! My September 2014 Minibook!

It's that time again! 30 Days of Lists! I knew I would be super busy to do any sort of high-maintenance #30lists project for this month so I spent an afternoon last week getting my book all ready to just write my lists and be done!

Let me take you on a tour!
 

The front cover is kind of a yellow/gold vellum sheet laid over some yellow cardstock. I love being able to see things peeking through. I did this same sort of cover for my last minibook and loved it so I just had to do it again.

After the "Title Page"/Cover I made a little introduction type page. I thought maybe it would be a bit odd just to jump into lists without any sort of explanation included. Just picked out a couple Project Life cards to paste in.

Here's my little write up about 30 Days of Lists. I used a sketch pen in my Silhouette to do the writing. You'll see more of that in a bit...

And here's my layout plan for each day's list:

• On the left of each page: patterned side of paper with a 4x4 photo and a little strip of washi tape and a stamp of that day's date.  
• On the right of each page: Plain white with nothing but the prompt so it's all ready for me to fill out for that day's list.

See? Easy-peasy! Ready for me to fill out each day and not too much crafting at all so hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it. (Note: "Today's To-Do List" prompt taken from the 30 Days of Lists, March 2011 list!)

Picture, washi tape, and date on the left....

Prompt and space to list on the right...while assembling my book I already included all the prompts and used the Silhouette sketch function to draw out the prompt header for each page.

The book is 6x6 inches because I hit the easy button and used a bunch of paper from two 6x6 paper pads. I decided this was an awesome way to make a mini listing book because:

1. I already had a couple 6x6 pads to choose from. (I love when I can use supplies I already have!)
2. I didn't have to cut anything -- it was all 6x6 inches to start with.
3. I was able to have pretty paper on one side so I could pretty things up but I also was able to use the white backs of the scrapbook paper for a clean, easy-to-read list.
4. It looks so uniform! And put together! (Well, at least in my opinion, hehe.)

There you have it! I'm excited to start listing! I'm glad I took the time to put this book together. It just looks so official. I got the binding done at Office Max for around $3. Well worth it, I think. I got the super big coil because once I add the extra photo and matte on each page I expect it to fatten up quite a bit. If not, I can always get a smaller coil. :)

If you're a #30days lister and participating in the blog hop please feel free to leave your link! I would love to see what everyone else is coming up with for next month! Alternatively, check out the other posts on today's blog hop by visiting here. You can also find more listing goodness by searching #30lists on social media or visiting the Flickr group.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share!

- Mrs. 246

P.S. If you'd like to see my 30 Days of Lists from last September 2013 (Project Life Style), click here. Here's a quick peek of what I did for it:

30 Days of Lists!

Hey there! I've been MIA for a couple days but I've been busy with work and crafting, not wanting to take a blogging break, but I'm back! What have I been up to, you ask? Let me tell you about it!

I ran across "30 Days of Lists" on the internet and since I'm suddenly into paper-crafting type things lately I decided to join.

What is it? It's a site/group that you join that gives you a list prompt for every day for 30 days. You can make or group your lists in any way you please (digital, scrapbook, mini-books, ect) and there is a community aspect where you can share your lists and what you've created with other members of the 30 Days group through Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, or Twitter.

The creators "put on" the 30 days prompts twice a year. The next "session" is for September so members are revving up and getting their books and titles and everything set to start making lists for September. Past prompts having included things like "Weekly Rituals," "Least Favorite Words," or "Today I Saw..."

You can learn more by going to the site: 30 Days of Lists. 

If you'd like to see some other examples check out these boards on Pinterest or simply search for "#30lists" on Instagram.

----------------------------------------

How will I be making my #30 days lists? I have all the Project Life stuff so I'm going to incorporate mine into my PL book. I haven't decided whether I'll mix the lists within my September pictures and journaling or make a separate section for just the lists.

I'm trying not to buy anything additional for this project so I had a good look at my PL cards and decided I wanted something different. I had bought this 6x6 in mini pad of scrapbook papers on clearance last week (they're just so cheap and pretty!) so I decided I'd make cards out of that.

$1.97! Good, right? It's an "artist" themed pack so the colors are kind of paint themed and bright and colorful, which I love. I made a good mess on the dining room table cutting the pages up into 4x6 and 3x4 in cards:

 Then of course I sat there with my corner cutter and rounded all the corners. (I love how the rounded corners look...so finished!) The most important part is to watching Merlin while you craft. (I'm on a Merlin kick! I'll be sad when it's over.)

Look at all the pretty papers! I made way more 4x6's so I could have them or cut them in half if I needed them to be 3x4.

I couldn't wait to get started so I made my "title" card for the project...

I love the mish-mashiness of it. Nothing I have for papercrafting matches much so it's good I like things mis-matched. (It's the Weasley in me, I'm sure.) I got all the letters from my surprise pack that I got from Luna's day care provider. There were a lot to choose from.

I've never done any online-crafting group other than Craftster so I'm kind of excited! I feel so comfy at Craftster it's like branching out into a different city or something to be crafting with other people.

So...expect lots of posts come September to show off my lists! And please do consider joining! Do I have any other list-lovers out there? Sometimes I even have lists for my lists. I've never considered them an "art" or activity like this before, though.


Hope you're all well!

-Mrs. 246

Second New Obsession: Smashbook!

So...as I was saying yesterday, I have two new obsesssions. Project Life was the first obsession, so what's the second one?

Obsession #2: Smashbook!

I'm sure a lot of you have seen Smashbook's in the stores and around the internet. There's so many different things you can do with them!

What is a Smashbook? "Smashbook" is a brand of paper products. The base is a notebook or small binder with two sided paper. A lot of the paper in the Smashbooks have themes. The Smashbook I have above is the Eco-themed one -- it has lots of nature-y themed papers.

What do you do? You go crazy! There really isn't a rule, you just kind of put whatever you want in there. "Smash it in!" as they like to say. I love the idea of putting whatever you want in there. Of course I like to Google and see what other people are up to. Here's what I've seen: lots of elaborate, specialized pages. (Like this, this, and this.) Yea...I'm not going to do that. I would, but I have that whole Project Life thing for organization. (But there are lots of really neat random ones that are more my style like this, this, and this.)

Smashbooks sells a lot of extra stuff that you can put in there: tabs, stickers, dividers, random embellishments, quotes, pretty much everything. This, to me, misses the point. In my mind, you're supposed to put random things in it. It's not very random if you buy their kits of "random stuff." Sure, some is fine, but I don't think the whole book should include this stuff. (Just my opinion! If you like to use only their products, go ahead! To each her own.) I'm not going to lie, I did buy some of the stuff (like tabs and pockets) that I found on clearance. I'm not going to miss a good sale!

How am I using my Smashbook? Random little things I'd like to keep...I just pop in there. Extra pictures? They go in! Buuuuut....

Here's what I mostly do: I have about 5 different magazine subscriptions and that adds up to a lot of magazines laying around. (Because I'm a girl and we keep them for no reason.) I started finding my favorite parts and snippets from magazines and clipping them out and gluing them in there. Let me tell you -- this is sooo therapeutic. It's such a small thing but it instantly brings me back to my 11 year old self....cutting out things to make magazine collages, messing with tiny scraps of pretty things, collecting. The first night I did it it was like the heavens opened up. I felt so relaxed. It was like for a little while I was really transported to another land for a while. So nice.

Okay, okay...show and tell time! (Obviously, it's all a work in progress. It's the type of progress that's always kind of a work in progress...)

Here's July's main page. It was Luna's birthday so I have some of her wrapping paper. It has an extra picture from the reunion taped in with some washi tape. The calender is a one of the Smashbook pockets. It has a card, some extra pictures, and a postcard. I'm sure there'll be more too. (The little pictures are all from the little cards they give you when you get pictures printed at Costco. It's a 4x6 with tiny thumbnails of all your pictures. I cut them up and taped them all in there.)

Here's my "Reading Room" page (mostly from Oprah magazines...) I put an envelope in there so if I come across a book I might want to read, I cut it out and put it in there, or write it on a piece of paper and put it in there.

Here's what I call my "Inspiration" page...mostly a lot of quotes, an article I cut out and stapled in there, some pictures (not pictured) of places I'd like to go (India!).

Part of a "random" page. Has a lot of craft things on it.

Here's my "Home and Garden" type page...

So, that's about it! For me, other than memory stuff it's like a real life Pinterest for anything you find in your day. I love this! And like I said before...it's so therapeutic.

Whew...now that I've officially "shared" I'll try to post new pictures from time to time! Does any else keep a journal like this or a Smashbook? If so I wanna see!

Oh yea...4 more days til the wedding! Goodnight!

- The soon-to-be Mrs. 246!