Project Life | June 2013

          Welcome back - I'd like to share my Digital Project Life for the month of June with you today!  Take a look at all the beautiful cards that I was able to use and the multitude of pictures that I've included for our family memories... 
           The first week of June was a busy one (Figure 1):  we had a school field trip to see the floating Rubber Duck display in Tsim Sha Tsui at Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.  It's a 4 story rubber duck!  What a fun experience for the kids.  In addition, the girls had their gymnastics competition.  So much fun to capture them with their friends and 'in action' during the competition.  Congratulations to Annabelle for earning a Gold Medal in the floor competition and a Silver All-Around Medal.  What an amazing experience. 
          I loved using the Persnickety Prints Chalk Cards camera typography in combination with Becky Higgins gorgeous Honey PL cards.  We had a wonderful week and our cool underwater photos show how much we love our pool time!!! 
 

Figure 1

 

          The second week of June was all about Vacation Bible School (VBS) - we finished preparing our props and worked on our photos to send with our books for the children in India.  The Persnickety Prints Chalk Cards came in handy again - this time paired with one of my favorite fonts: sidewalk chalk.  Some of the super ideas for photos this week:  a picture of Annabelle cuddling her baby doll, her Mandarin class in session - using playdough to write Chinese characters, and typical breakfast...  some of our everyday magic (Figure 2).  

Figure 2

 

          The third week of June (Figure 3), our VBS Sundays continued - and I captured some fun photos of the relationships between the kids and their crew leaders.  I continued to use the beautiful Becky Higgins Honey PL cards - I love the primary colors.  This week we were all over the place:  VBS at church, grilling out with Dad, daytrip into Central HK, football awards, Aqua Luna junk boat trip, and squid fishing!  Amazing week in the life... 

Figure 3

 

          Our final week of June, we said a lot of good-byes...  the twins graduated from Sunshine House Kindergarten and we packed up to travel to the USA for 6 weeks...  During this process, I was able to capture some awesome contrasts between the modern DB ferry boat and the antique Bounty ship - amazing (Figure 4)!  A wonderful, busy month for our family.  I love that PL is capturing some of the details that might be lost otherwise.  

Figure 4

           Hope these photos and collections help you as you capture your memories.

Project Life | May 2013

           Our family has been in full swing and overbooked with social and school engagements the last few weeks - wheeeew...  it's been fun, but I'm ready for a little breather!  I have to say, posting on the blog has suffered because of this!!!  I have finished thru August in my digital Project Life...  even though I haven't posted it all - so hang on - I'll catch up over the next week or so.

          So let's take a look at May 2013:

          This week was a whirlwind of activity with a baseball homerun derby and awards, Mother's Day event at Sunshine House, and an exciting playdate (Figure 1).  I wanted to use bright fun colors to show how much fun they had...  I made my own title card using some striped paper and a digital stamp.  Something else that I have tried to sprinkle throughout our Project Life are some of the art that the kids and I have created.  This week, I have the invitations that Annabelle and I created for her birthday party, and my crazy (but fun!) painted footprints that we made at the Mother's Day event.  So glad I could capture this!

Figure 1

 

          For Week 20 I bought the digital version of Honey PL by Becky Higgins - I love, love, love the colors!  In addition, I had some cut files that worked out great as filler cards (Figure 2).  These faces make every second of time I spend on our scrapbook memories worth it!

Figure 2

 

          The next week was also full of birthday fun, a splash with friends in the pool, and football practice.  I created some of the filler cards - like Figure 3 - using the shape tool in Photoshop and repeating the 3.  Also added a white arrow shape to a digital paper and clipped it onto the bottom right-hand box to provide some journaling space.     

Figure 3

 

          In Figure 4, the final week of May captures the beginning of our VBS, the little ones meeting their teachers' for next year, and a few creations (canvas and lipgloss!).  It never ceases to amaze me how technology impacts our lives - just having my iPhone available all the time allows me to capture unique memories such as this photo of Annabelle getting a massage.  Awesome!

Figure 4

 

          Hope this inspires you to take more photos and capture your memories today!!

 

Project Life | April 2013

          How fun to share with you the month of April thru Project Life!  My digital project life has really been fun to maintain - although not always easy!  Since I do a lot of my photos on my phone, it has made it simple to capture everyday things...  but finding the time to sit down and put it together can sometimes be a challenge.  If I set aside specific time each week, I'm much more likely to get it all accomplished. 

          My goal for Project Life has always been to capture more stories about our everyday life.  Sometimes these things are little things that I know will change as the kiddos get older so I want to grab that memory.  A lot of times, it's relationships that can be hard to put into words...  and even harder as the years go by to remember the relationships as they were AND as they grow... neat to see how far we've come!!!  Let's see what was captured for April:

 

          The first week of April was Easter holidays for us, so we had some fun times hunting Easter eggs in the park and building LEGOs.  The girls even had a fun sleepover with their friends.  For the "title card" I used a gorgeous painted background from Nancy Rowe Janitz and a banner. 

 



Week 14

 

           The second week in April things got back to 'normal' with school and activities resuming.  However, most of the photos I've captured show how busy our lives are...  So sweet to see Annabelle fall asleep reading Sleeping Beauty - ha!  Too fun - I wonder how many times I've fallen asleep reading???  The most fun is to see how the girls dress Rosie up in crowns and long hair - sigh, she is soooo tolerant!  Or to capture innocent things that John says - "Dad can fix anything right?"

         

Week 15

 

          I love, love, love week 16!  I captured some fun stories this week - when the kiddos were creating their own band...  a super time at the baseball game and a scrapbook retreat.  Loads of words and photos - what a great way to remember moments!!!

 

Week 16

 

          Next, I decided to focus more on the faces of the family while I also captured more relationships...  relationships with siblings, with friends, and with people that help our family.  Tried out a few new ideas - letting the canvas heart 'float' on the layout...  and using some arrows to draw your attention...  And finished with an epic story of the letter to the tooth fairy - awesome!

Week 17

 

          Now for Week 18 I did a few new things...  even though John was traveling to the USA, I still was able to include him with a story and photo from my Mom!  Don't forget to use all of your resources when it comes to filling out your weekly story.  Sometimes it's extra pictures or tickets to a show, or in the case of our week:  Annabelle becomes a photographer.  Her photos were not glamorous landscape photos, but they do capture a great example of her first real attempt to be a photographer AND it shows some of the everyday places that we frequent...  that's PERFECT for our Project Life story! 

Week 18

 

          And that wraps up the month of April.  Happy scrapping! 

Project Life | March 2013

          Hello!  Welcome back to the next addition in my Project Life adventure - March 2013.  For March, I did a few new things:

• created some of my own PL cards to use
• added in more of our Mom & Dad's activities
• tweaked colors on the cards to match my layout
• used digital stamps and .png files

          I used a digital paper and banner to create the title card for each week in March.  We had an interesting week in our family - like Johnny's yummy pork loin & cracklin', along with John & Juli seeing me with a facial mask (Ha!).  I love that I was able to capture these images and stories!!!  Something new that I included was a top news story that was happening that week.  Plus, I have this photo of a new drawing that Annabelle created - each of us have different hair styles - hilarious!   

Week 10

 

          The right side holds a super cute picture of all of the girls at our bus stop dressed up for Book Week...  a gorgeous container ship...  my 'monkey' on the monkey bars...  a sneak peek at a layout completed for the HKMC scrapbooking retreat...  so much fun!  I love that with the digital kits you can sample colors and create something that matches perfectly.

          For Week 11, I repeated my title card for continuity.  One of my favorite new mixed media techniques is captured on a second HKMC retreat sneak peek - glass bead mixed medium gel spritzed with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in gold lame' - you've never seen such beautiful sand!!!  I also realized that I had a lot of photos of the kiddos but not that many of Mom & Dad or what we were doing.  So I tried to include some everyday type shots:  my new haircut, a fresh pedicure, and a picture of Johnny's new RC truck that we gave him for his birthday. 



Week 11

 

          We went out on a limb with this birthday gift - I wasn't sure if my husband would enjoy it.  But as the quote says, "Life is to be enjoyed, not endured." and this fun-loving gift has brought the kid out in him!!!  And the kiddos enjoyed it too.

          Week 12 begins with John as 'little bunny fu-fu' in an Easter play, then we began our Spring Break holiday to Australia and New Zealand.  I plan to create scrapbook pages around our trip, but thought these highlights worked out well to show a sampling of our explorations.

Week 12

 

          Finally, the end of March (week 13) finds us traveling to New Zealand.  I captured some gorgeous photos as we explored - so blessed to be able to share them!  I have some fun cards that I tweaked in Photoshop to make them my own digital project life cards.  I used one of the fabulous NZ landscape photos in two photo slots to try to capture the openness of the country.  So great to get to use a Libby Pritchett flair button to add in a little dimension.

 



Week 13

 

          We had an amazing adventure exploring the Hobbiton movie set on NZ North Island before finishing our trip in Auckland.  I even used a .png file from the Studio Calico Pop Off the Page cut files for one of my cards.  I finished off this double-page with two of Heidi Swapp's words 'beautiful' and 'awesome' - just how we felt about our holiday - it was beautiful and we had an awesome time!

Project Life | February

Let's talk about Project Life!  As some of you know I began Digital Project Life in January.  My first few weeks went well with Project Life...  it was new and exciting.  Then, I found that I kept forgetting to take photos & I was getting behind in my weekly creations.  One of the reasons I had not started Project Life sooner, was because I couldn't figure out how to work it into my life...  then digital project life came along!!!  I've found a few things (the hard way!) that might make it easier for you as you work on your own PL albums...

1. organize your photos:  there are many ways to organize by name, by theme, by activity, or by date.  We chose to organize by date, so all of my photos are labeled with the year-month and dumped into folders for each month...  even my scanned photos (from before digital) are labeled this way.  Once I catalogue my photos this way, when I am ready to create my PL weekly layout, I can easily pull the 5 - 10 photos for the week into my Photoshop double-page templates.   
2. plan your products: Do you have a particular theme or color scheme that you would like to stick to?  Are there certain designers that you prefer?  I find some really fun freebies on Pinterest, but often these are just a launching pad for my digital purchases.  I purchased two digital CORE kits from Becky Higgins, but I also have bits and pieces from other designers.
3. remember to take photos of the everyday things:  crying babies, school lunches, date night with your husband, favorite new shoes, a fun shopping day, a funny face full of ice cream, etc...  You can also have theme weeks or maybe you show all of the kids art that week.
4. find your rhythm...give yourself a few weeks to find what works best for you...  One of the things that helps me organize AND helped me find my 'rhythm' with Project Life was Instagram.  I love that you can share some of your photos with others from your phone!  Since my iPhone is usually with me however crazy my day, I find that ALOT (probably 85%) of my photos that I use for PL are from my iPhone.  These photos are date stamped and catalogued for me so I can load them on my computer and insert them into my templates when I get ready to create my week.
5. schedule time to create:  if I keep a regular time (this weekend I'll create for the previous week, etc...), I am much more likely to sit down and create.  Sometimes I miss the 'planned' time, but I don't stress about it - just pick it up when I can.  Maybe you only have one morning, once a month - then plan accordingly and get organized to maximize your time!!! 

Looking back on the photos, the journaling, and the memories captured in this everyday glimpse of life for 2013 will be so much fun!  I am so excited to continue and hope you'll join me - something I found in the blogosphere is:  Success Strategies for Project Life.  It is a fantastic post over at Simple Scrapper that gives a good idea of what to think about as you begin your own Project Life journey.

In the meantime, check out February captured for our family!

Week 6

 Week 7

Week 8 

Week 9

Project Life: end of January - The Adventure Continues

We are continuing the Digital Project Life adventure.  As we dive into the last two weeks of January, take a look at some of the elements I have used from the Clementine digital project life cards by Becky Higgins.  I love the bold colors that work so well for my children at their young age!  There are so many pieces in the complete collection that I am spoiled for choice!

 Week 4

 

Here I've captured pictures that I probably wouldn't scrapbook about typically, however, they are important milestones in our everyday life...  A scripture artwork that Annabelle created at church, a picture of the twins first school bus ride, and the bible study that I began that week.  All important things, but not something I would typically scrapbook.  Other bits & pieces:  Hong Kong city streets at dusk and the taxi line...  items that 20 years from now it will be so interesting to see and remember!

 

Week 4 left side

 

 



Week 4 right side

 

 

I love the saying on the orange card above:  Part of cultivating a good life, is celebrating the little things. - Becky Higgins.  SO TRUE!  One of those "little things" is this beautiful doodle drawing by my daughter - age 7.  I took a photo with my iPhone of her drawing and uploaded it to my computer so that I could include it in this week's memories - I love the doodled curls in the girl's hair and all of the flowers and stars - so sweet!

 

Next, for January, Week 5 - I tried to capture something about each person (including our Golden Retriever!)  I realized that I had mostly focused on the children's activities in the first three weeks and I wanted to be sure to include the adults also! 



Week 5

 

There may only be a few more years of 'snuggle' pictures - so I try to capture them every chance I get!  She is a Daddy's girl through and through.  In addition, I captured one page of the iPad apps that the kids are loving this week (yes, I do mean this week - since they will want to download something else new next week!!!) and Annabelle's song that she wrote.  We have to record those things for when she is a superstar :)



Week 5 left side

Finally, as the gorgeous green card below says:  Love these everyday moments!  That's what I've gathered together for the second half of Week 5...  swim lesson, monkey bars at school, Rosie and her best puppy friend, J&J on safari day at school, and John with his friend at football...  all-in-all a wonderful week.  Also, a few digital stamps were used to personalize these cards and two flags were created for a small journaling note.

Week 5 right side

 

I hope you take some time this week to capture the everyday things!

Welcome to Bella Mix!

It’s been ages since I posted – however I am excited to share some of the things that I’ve been busy working on!!!  First - a new blog look.  How exciting to always be in the process of learning - and blogging is no exception.  I would love feedback on how it looks!  When Jessica offered a class "Bloom Your Blog" - I jumped at the chance to learn more and add to my skills... 

Next, in January, I began a new adventure: Digital Project Life.  I love the digital information available over at Jessica Sprague’s website www.jessicasprague.com.  There are new classes offered each month on everything from Photoshop, photography, or digital scrapbooking, along with some fantastic digital scrapbook collections. 

I love how project life captures the everyday life.  Sometimes those small things add up to a BIG life, but may get lost along the way in memory keeping.  And the digital element makes it something easy for me to duplicate for grandparents or for all three children when they are older. 

Check out how January turned out:

 

January Week One

 

 

I love, love, love mixing the photos, graphic cards and text - so fun!!!  I'll show a close up of each page so you can check out the journaling also...  

 

January Week One left side

 







 What a fun memory of our first week in 2013!  John and Juli started a new football (aka soccer) team.  Annabelle is so sweet to read to the little ones sometimes - she's becoming quite the little lady.  How fun is the chevrons and arrows??  LOVE IT!  And below on the right side, I've captured a sweet photo of the two girls, added an awesome transparent 'rub-on', and ta-da!

January Week One right side

 

I choose to keep the first block the same for the whole month for consistency.  The second week looks like this:

January Week Two

 

 

Take a closer look at what I captured this week...  Johnny and I are trying some new healthy recipes...  brand new swim classes began for John and Juli...  plus the everyday things like school and playing with Rosie our golden retriever. 

January Week Two left side

 

 

Sometimes with the iphone photos, either the quality or the size cannot be used by itself in the larger 4x6 sections...  so what I used for my bottom right card above is a diagonal striped paper + my photo - to create a unique card...  The diagonals give a dynamic action feel that seems to work well with the action shot.

 

January Week Two right side

 



Now, take a look at the 3rd week of January.  I've continued with the same first digital card for consistency. 

January Week Three

 

I love that I can use digital papers and elements in new ways - and find a lot of free digital project life cards on Pinterest.  From there you can find links to different websites that sell additional supplies.



January Week Three left side

 

Now that I've been working on project life for a few weeks - I've begun to think more about what I want to capture and how to do just that.  Some of my photos are on my DSLR camera, but a lot of these are iphone photos!  Using my phone has given me a whole new opportunity to preserve our memories.  Two of my FAVORITE:  (1) this picture of Juli on her way to gymnastics...  I asked her to turn around and pose and I snapped a dynamic shot of her with our golf cart in the background!!! and (2) this shot of John's football, knees and trainers...  he is becoming such a tough little guy.  I'm so glad I have somewhere to capture these stories and photos. 

January Week Three right side

Hope you find some inspiration in some of these ideas - have a blessed week!

Angela