How-to use multi-pocket sleeves in your Scrapbooking...

Hello! Today I want to show you how I've used some of my Multi-Pocket page protectors 'IN' my regular scrapbook albums...I started with the Becky Higgins page protectors but now that I've felt the difference between those and our new Close To My Heart multi-pocket page protectors...I have to say that the CTMH ones are AWESOME!!! so sturdy, they are exactly the same fabulous weight that our 12x12 page protectors are which is fantastic!

Last year's trip to Hawaii was perfect for 'multi-pocket' scrapbooking...I took so many photos but did not want to scrapbook all of them! There are several photos that I wanted to highlight in a layout and lots of other photos that have their place in the album but not in a double page or single page layout...so this is what I did with our visit to Pearl Harbour.

This is how the two pages look in the album (above) and here's some closer shots of the left and right pages...remember that these photos were taken in their page protectors so the quality isn't as good but you get the idea!

I used some of the Tommy papers which were perfect for this outing...I had some other cards from my Studio Calico Project Life kits as well...I like to mix up my products...I like the organic look when I mix up the manufacturers.

Now this is the next page...continuing on with the Tommy paper collection from CTMH, I used the complementary stamp set and embellishments to tie all these pages together...I like to embellish my 3x4 and 4x6 cards and I like to bring my layout papers into my multi-pocket scrapbook pages as well.

These next pages are also in my Hawaii vacation album...here's how the two pages look in the album:

On our first day we went to Walmart to buy a couple extra chairs (you have to pay for lounge chairs daily where we were staying!), a thermos bag (for keeping our contraband...aka. booze chilled) and some water toys/boards...I like to purchase stuff and then leave it for other vacationers when we leave!

The photos aren't always super pretty...like the one in the top right corner...but seeing as this was our last vacation before Jaime's dad passed away in June...I wanted to include all of the photos of his dad. You can see in the left page above that I've taken some of the papers and embellishments that I used in the single page layout and carried them into this multi-pocket layout, this is how you create a continual feel and look. The photos that I've included on the left page are not photos I would have scrapbooked all together in a layout, whether it be a single or double page as the events are from all over the first day...but in the multi-pocket page format it works!

These next two pages are at the very beginning of my album, after the title page (which you can see HERE if you'd like)...this is how it looks in the album:

The left single page layout was a great way to use up strips from a kit...also, I really wanted to create a layout with this photo...can you imagine a sandcastle sculpture in the middle of the hotel lobby!!! How cool was that!

The right multi-pocket page has a collection of photos of our hotel from the front and the back (beach view)...

I also had the one photo of Olivia enjoying the random rain showers while we were trying to enjoy the sunshine...I wanted to put some of the pictures of the Christmas decorations on this spread as well so that only left me with one spot to create a small journalling card which I embellished with leftover bits from the single layout...worked out well I think.

Organizing my album in an event/daily way from the start of our trip through to the end helps to create a cohesive/fluid album...which is more enjoyable to look through from my perspective!

All in all, using these fantastic multi-pocket pages in your albums makes recording your trips/events/year etc so much faster and easier...you can keep it simple or embellish as much as you'd like.

I hope you found this helpful, if you'd like any help with your project or have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me! If you'd like to see some of our various page protectors available please visit my website HERE or contact me for more information!

Happy Tuesday and thanks for stoppin' in!

 

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Momma...don't let your babies grow up to be JPEGs...

Picture My Life...it's the new scrapbooking program that CTMH has just released to help everyone get their photos out of those shoe boxes and into albums! If you are someone who is collecting photos instead of putting them into albums so you can view them, then this is just what you need...and you didn't even know it!

Do you have a computer full of photo memories? When was the last time you actually printed photos? Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be JPEGs.....as much as digital photography has revolutionized our photo taking, photo editing and preservation of our special moments...it is also our downfall!

How many of us rush to the store to get our photos printed now? I venture to guess, a limited few...we might rush to upload them to our computers...but then what? Do they sit there for a week, a month, a year...longer? Lets be realistic...if we don't actually make an effort to print our important photos and put them into albums...how often do we even look at them?

CTMH's new Picture My Life program is a complete package...44 - 4x6 cards (2 each of 22 designs), 78 - 3x4 cards (3 each of 26 designs), 1 - 12x12 cover page and 10 - 12x12 Memory Protectors (various designs).

The following images are Later Sk8r, Babycakes, and Avonlea...just three of the available kits.

I purchased the Skylark, Balloon Ride, and Surf's Up kit and used some of them last weekend...I love that each Picture My Life kit includes a cover page and various Memory Protectors...I have purchased additional styles in the Memory Protectors that I know I'll go through. After spending a year doing 'Project Life' I know what sleeves I use more often...

If you are someone wanting to get your photos into albums or want more information about our Close To My Heart 'Picture My Life' scrapbook program, please contact me! I can't help but get excited about these kits seeing as I know how well they work at getting your albums complete!!!

 

thanks for stopping in!

 

Posted with Blogsy

This is by far my favourite time of the year...how about you?

January means more than the beginning of a New Year...although last year sucked so I'm totally looking forward to happier times in 2014, it also means re-organization, de-cluttering and perhaps for some of us, resolutions! Yeah, I'm sure I'm not alone with resolution incompletion...you? 

This year I will strive to be more organized, more health conscience and more active...but my 'word' for the year is going to be FOCUS...not sure if you are on the 'word-train' like so many other people seem to be these days but my goal of 2014 is to try to gain and maintain more FOCUS in my life...we can assume I feel the need to improve on this in all aspects of my life, personal, work and creative. So here I go!!! 

Wish me luck and good luck to you as well...we can all use it :)

So where have I been, what have I been doing...? 

Well not scrapbooking a lot I'll tell you that!

I am trying to focus right now on catching up on my 2013 Project Life album and at the same time trying to stay more current on the 2014 Project Life Album...so that means working on my computer, calendar and sending off photos to print...I don't print from home which maybe I should be considering once again but for now I send them to Costco, not expensive and fast.

Not that you can tell from this photo, but do you ever have those moments when you are super organized, have your scrappy stuff all sorted by colour or item etc.? Well this CTMH box, which is AWESOME to sort your PL card and photos by the way, happened to run into my leg!!! Ok,so maybe I ran into it...end result is that! I was so frustrated that I left it like that for two days...yeah I'm stubborn...luckily last night when I finally decided to pick it up it wasn't to mixed up, I was able to put the coloured cards together again without too much stress and effort :) 

So this morning I needed to make a list! Don't you love lists? I do, it really helps my focus and gives me a great feeling of accomplishment when I can cross items off! 

Today I worked on the laundry, vacuumed (one floor anyways), general tidy and dusting the Great Room and finally got the knick knacks moved around so it looks nice...tomorrow I'll add to that list and probably cross more items off...it's all good! 

So nice to be getting my poop in a group!

Thanks for stopping in!

 

Everything's Good!

Oh yeah..I'm safe and sound...just MIA!

I'm not sure what's happened there? I seem to go through phases every year where I'm super busy with DT stuff and Close To My Heart stuff and Project Life stuff and I'm so 'on top' of my Blog!

Seeing as I'm taking a break from my two previous Design Team's I seem to have fallen off the proverbial 'Bloggin' Wagon'...I apologize to those of you that like to see my artwork or for those of you that enjoy my banter ;)

Sooooo, what have I been up to you ask? Well since my last post the kids have returned to school of course which means I have been working more at my new job at my local Scrapbook Shoppe and re-organizing spaces in the house! Right? cause those two automatically go together. LOL

I have lots of updates to share this month but I thought I'd talk a little bit about my Project Life journey to date :)

I've been playing with my Project Life album, working on it means that I am constantly chipping away at organizing my photos, figuring out what I want to print and then ordering them...then once I've got them into their sleeves for the week I like to add my cards and journalling and embellies of course ;)

As you can see, I am working on several weeks...print some photos...add some cards and journalling...it's like a work in progress all the time but I'm OK with that...I'm currently printing photos for Weeks 31-44...I'm only 13 weeks behind!!! HaHaHa

You know the funny thing is that once I finish organizing 'what' photos I want to print and where they are going to go in my Project Life page spread...then send them off to print...It will only take me a few hours to corner round them and then put them into their proper spots in my page sleeves...I'll take several more hours to choose cards and embellish and journal on each weeks' spread...but I will have that many weeks worth of memories into an album...so it's all good!

One of the things that I've discovered works for me is I record each of my weeks activities into a calendar...sometimes I need to refer to my iPhoto Library to refresh my memory on dates and when I do I like to flag my photos so that they will be easy to find for future printing. The other resource I've found on the World Wide Web is Project Life planning sheets. I print them out to plan my pages, especially seeing as I'm so many weeks behind. This way I can plan my week spread, figure out photos and photo placement and I record it so that I know where to slide everything in once I have all my photos printed! Makes everything so much easier to sit and work through all those details first so that once I've got my photos in the sleeves I can start the creative part of recording our memories.

I like the planner pages I've found on these sites:
marcypenner.com
zoepearndesigns.com

The more you look around online, the more help AND inspiration AND motivation you find :)

Sizzlin' Summer Sketch #2

Welcome back! It's Scrapbook Challenges' Sizzlin' Summer sketch#2 today and I like this one...well I've liked all of the sketches so far this summer but this one got me thinking of all the 3x4 journalling and Project Life style cards that I have and so I wanted to try to incorporate one in the layout...as it turned out I used two!

I needed to move some of the design elements around a bit to work with this photo but I'd like to try this sketch again another day with a different photo as I really like the layout of it. 

My girlfriend and I were at a 'Use Your Own Product' workshop where we powered through making 20 layouts over 10 hours...we got a lunch and dinner break and I was almost able to complete all of them! I'm getting so much better at Jennifer's UYOP classes...this is my 4th time taking it!

I've grabbed some more of My Mind's Eye 'find your wings and fly' papers and stickers...this time I've trimmed a handful of the tickets from a 12x12 piece of paper from this collection...I thought it made a good embellishment and you know I'm all about using what I have!

I just picked up another Tim Holtz stamp set...was planning on using it with my Art Journal but pulled a couple thread spool stamps and added it to this layout...I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of that set!

The title was cut from my new CTMH Cricut cartridge 'Artbooking' which is exclusive to Close To My Heart and order-able through me if you LOVE it like I do! Only took a minute and I had a title ready to go...lovin' this new cartridge for scrapbooking, card making and mini-albums...just sayin'

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop in today!

Project Life integrated...

Hello! SO glad you've stopped in!!!

I have been sorting through my photos and I'm getting them into albums! I've decided that of all the plastic containers I have of certain events full of photos, I know that I have already scrapbooked my favourites. 

How do I know this? 

Well if I've printed these events out months and months ago, and I've already scrapbooked some of the photos from the event...then it stands to reason that while I might like the extra photos (because I chose them to print in the first place) I am done scrapbooking it in my mind already! So that being said...I've pulled out my Becky Higgins photo sleeves, trimmed my remaining photos and added bits of left over papers and stickers and now I have the whole event in an album! Yeah for me!!!

Want to see? ok...

Let me show you how these pages are going to sit in my 'Everyday Life' album for 2012...starting with page one of our trip to the Zoo. I took my nieces and my son and daughter and it was so much fun that I took waaaaay too many photos ;)

page 1&2 

page 3&4

page 5&6

page 7&8

and here's a few close ups:

Now after all that I still had a couple photos I wanted to created a page from! Imagine that! and I still had some scraps of paper from this great Echo Park 'Fall Fever' line to create this:

This layout will go into my 'All About Marissa' album...seeing as it's all about my daughter's relationship with her cousin, I thought it would be nice to add to her personal album.

It just so happens that this layout was created from today's sketch release from Scrapbook Challenges as well :) So after this really long post you are rewarded with a new sketch to play with!!! 

need inspiration?

So glad you've stopped in!

I have found another fantastic scrappy site! Great sketches and Design Team inspiration...some great prizes up for grabs too! Check out inspired Blueprints !

I know it may sound funny, but I love how they present their sketches...nice and clean with the basic skeleton of the sketch...I prefer this as I find I don't obsess over the paper patterns in the sketch or try to duplicate them...I just look at the basic design and find photos and papers I want to work with...this makes the design and assembly so much simpler for many scrapbookers!

I took my nieces and kids to the Greater Vancouver Zoo in September last year...took oodles of photos of course but this is what I made from the sketch...

I've used three (3) sheets of 'Fall Fever' by Echo Park, CTMH cardstock (Juniper and Colonial White) and one sheet of CTMH patterned paper (wood plank background), assorted Twinery twine

You'll have noticed that I used two 4x6 photos instead of the one larger 6x8...always use your sketch as your starting off point...it's intended to help you with general design...not hinder you...so don't worry about 'exact' when you are looking at sketches...look at it from the perspective of "Do I like this sketch?" and "Can I work with this?"

I know it was crazy...but I fussy cut each leaf and owl...I just had to because they were the perfect accent from the scraps of paper I had left. These pictures aren't the greatest as we've had rain and more rain these past couple of days which makes everything dark and gloomy.

I've also entered this page in the 'Scrap Your Story'  Animals Challenge for this week :) You'll remember that I posted about this new Challenge site last week, four challenges a month and prizes up for grabs as well!!! What better incentive do you need? Check them out too :)

Now I mentioned earlier that I took oodles of photos of our Zoo visit...to add more photos with this layout and to be able to still journal about the day, I've incorporated some Project Life sleeves into my 'Everyday Life' album along with this layout above...here's how they look together:

I worked on this layout and four (4) PL sleeves to add to this event in my album for about 2 hours last night! I still need to add some journalling, but I wanted to show you how I'm starting to add these sleeves to my regular albums...

The 'You're a Hoot' came from the reverse side of the papers, the benefit of picking patterned paper with sentiments and cards on them.

I just know that I can't scrapbook everything I take photos of...so instead I'm just scrapbooking some of my favourite pictures and using Project Life for the rest...this way I can take bits of paper and stickers etc. and add them as well...it all still ties it together and looks fantastic too! But best of all I'm getting these photos into albums for people to enjoy instead of sitting on my computer!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a scrap-tastic week full of goodness!

Too many photos, too little time!!!

How many of you have hundreds of photos you want to scrapbook but are getting frustrated because you just don't seem to have as much time? Perhaps you have oodles of photos from one event, you love many of them but are feeling overwhelmed to even think about starting to scrapbook them?

Great questions right? and not an easy one to answer...

In my daughter's Grad album, yes I said GRAD ALBUM ! because I took about 1000 photos of Convocation, Grad Cruise, Grad dress, Grad pool party, getting ready and photos of her and her date...etc... you get the idea!

Fortunately my kids are really photogenic , but unfortunatley that makes it so very hard to get rid of or weed out the bad ones...so I decided to scrapbook the photos I wanted to play with and then I slipped into the album photo sleeves with various sized photos and journalling cards...

This first photo is an example of how I scrapbooked some pictures of Olivia's girlfriends and their shoes...but the second page is just pics of her and her friends...and I KNEW that if I even considered scrapbooking all of these types of photos, I'd go crazy and get extremely BORED!


This page below is one of their Grad Cruise...all of the photos are fun, but also numerous and just too much to think I would scrapbook everything...but this way she can look through this album and see all her photos (well most) and add her own journalling and see some of my scrapbooking too...

These pictures below are an example of the hundreds I took, that I LOVE but couldn't possibly scrapbook even a quarter of...again too many photos, love them all and I wanted her to be able to flip through these photos and see most of the photos I took...

You can get great 4x6 and 2x3 size pre-printed cards now through Project Life or Echo Park's Photo Freedom or Memory Works Sn@p Life!...to name a few. There are many different 12x12 sheets of paper by paper companies, for this purpose...it makes getting your photos into albums and off the computer so much easier!!!

You can find page protector sleeves like these ones through me with Close To My Heart (4x6 Horizontal and Vertical pages only) or with Echo Park or We R Memory Keepers or Project Life to name a few...
The expression "Mama, don't let your babies grown up to be JPEGS!!!" I have recently been LIVING by...in a digital world we take lots of photos and don't seem to print them! I print the ones I love, scrapbook some of my favourites or the ones that have a story to tell and add the rest this way, to all my albums...I have made it way less overwhelming and if I find after that I want to take a photo or two out of any album to scrapbook...I can...but in the meantime, we have a finished album to look at when the events happen as apposed to a year or more later!

Hopefully you will spend some time flagging your special photos on your computer and sending them off to be printed...start by filing them into albums and then make some decisions about which ones are going to have a special place being 'scrapbooked' and which ones are just going to make it into the album You may even discover some photos on your computer that you completely forgot you took!