Crazy for Chipboard

PL2012 Weeks 4 & 5

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Weeks 4 & 5....Busy and fun weeks, but I left two mini photos off my order...again! =(

So disappointing when I'm excited to see the completed pages.

As I did with the last time, I will update with the completed pages when I get the new pictures.

Week 4 full:

Week 4 Page 1

Week 4 Page 2

Week 5 I had more photos than places to put them, so I took an American Crafts page protector that holds 6, 4x6 pages on each side and cut it in half, so it's a 12x6 page. It's the perfect insert for these photo heavy weeks.

Week 5:

Week 5 Page 1:

Half page insert:

Half page details:

Week 5 Page 2:

Project Life 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:47:00 +0000

In 2010 I did a photo a day and enjoyed it very much.

I chose not to do it in 2011 and when I look back now I wish I would have attempted something as I did not pick up my camera much at all in 2011.

I tried to do a monthly recap in 2011 but failed miserably.

I love the concept of Project Life and how you can really adapt it to suit your needs.

You can get crazy wild creative or keep it bare bones simple, to everything in between.

I have decided to not put the pressure of a photo every day onto myself, so I have chosen to take a week at a time approach to this project. There will some weeks I have a photo for everyday, others where I have only a few photos. I want to document our daily life, so I will accomplish this through photos and journaling. I have a good system in place for how I want to accomplish it and so far, so good.

Today I picked up my first order of prints for my album. When I got home I quickly pulled out the photos, cut them to size and started to insert them into their designated space. I was bummed when I realized I forgot to upload two photos to my order. =(

They will join the book with the next order of pictures.

The above photo is of my cover page. I kept is super simple and used the filler cards that came with my kit.

My pictures are a mixure of those from my digital SLR and my iPhone or instagram photos.

Next up is the full shot of week one:

Close up of week 1 page 1:

Week 1 page 2:

Full spread of Week 2:

Week 2 page 1:

Week 2 page 2:

Full Week 3:

Week 3 Page 1:

Week 3 page 2:

Celebrating Sarah @ 40

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Today we celebrate the 40th birthday of my best friend!

I have known Sarah for 33 years, since we were in 1st grade!

We weren't best friends as kids, she moved away after 7th grade only to return after we graduated high school. We kept in touch the way people did "back in the day" with good old pen to paper, snail mail letters! When she moved back our friendship blossomed into what it is today.

No matter our differences, fights or struggles, we are the best of friends!

We share our lives openly with each other, work through problems when they arise and can always count on the other being there when we need her.

It's not often to have a tried and true friendship such as this.

Since this special friend's birthday is also a holiday for kids to dress up and trick or treat, with her having 3 young kids, it's difficult to do something special on her actual birthday.

SO, I planned a lunch for just she and I on the 22nd.

Little did she know the lunch for us 2 was really lunch for 10!

I pulled together several of her closest friends for lunch in the city to celebrate her big day.

She was completely and delightedly surprised! =)

Today, as every birthday morning of hers, I showed up at her house with Starbucks in hand, and a finely wrapped present. In addition to a little gift I presented her with this mini album of her surprise birthday luncheon. I know the mini album wasn't a surprise, it would have been more of a surprise if I didn't give her one, she loves it dearly!

I toast you today Sarah, Happy Birthday!

I'm happy to share not only in your special day, but every day!

Cheers!

Scrap Weekend 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Another year, another girls scrap weekend.

We headed to Whidbey Island on Thrusday evening, enjoyed ourselves

immensely, then headed home Sunday afternoon.

As in years past, we had a lot of FUN!

Drinking, Dancing, Eating, Talking, Giggling and Scrapping.

Here are the pages I completed.

I am thrilled with how my fall colors layout ended up.

This Beverly Hills layout took WAY TOO long!

It was my creative block for the weekend...I think I spent almost half the day working and reworking this layout, starting with different papers, switching to something else and ended up with this.

I am happy with the simple elegance in how it turned out.

Love the color in this layout!

My last layout of the weekend and I feel like it's unfinished, so I will 'sit' on this one for a while before deciding what to add. I wasn't planning on giving it a title, but I'm thinking that's what it needs. It's just feeling a little naked at the moment.

Overall, it was a great and productive weekend!

Cheers!

Travel Journal July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:31:00 +0000

We took an amazing trip to Southern California mid July.

I made the journal prior to our departure so I could freshly document

my thoughts and add tickets, reciepts and such as we went.

I used some canvas 'paper' I had gotten in a monthly kit a while ago,

used it for the cover and back, used some tea dye Tim Holtz ink to

age it a bit and added some 7 gypsies bonding tape for the 'spine'.

The insides were made entirely of scraps, true scraps!

I have an accordian file folder where I keep my larger scraps and

picked through it to come up with the meat of my album.

I love using excess stuff for projects like this.

I used photoshop elements 7 to resize the photos and ordered them

through Costco. Since I wasn't that great about keeping up my

journaling on the trip I did most of it when we got home.

Thankfully I have a pretty good memory and it was still all pretty fresh

when I got to the album.

I used the Zutter Binder that my good friend E gave me.

I love this little machine to create these one of a kind mini books!

Thanks for looking! =)

Scrap-a-ganza 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Yesterday was my annual 'spring' scrap-a-ganza with my scrappy friends. We spend the entire day (9 am to usually 11pm) scrapping the day away. It's always a fun time! Here's the entire gang from this years event.....

This year I created a mini album of my 40th birthday. I am so happy with how it turned out...you can have a look below...

Right Now....

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:03:00 +0000

listening: to the cat purr next to me
eating: nothing
drinking: water
wearing: jeans, cute tee shirt and cardigan...thinking about heading up to change into my pj's.
feeling: content, my husband just returned from a business trip =)
weather: cold and wet
wanting: the funds to take an extravagant vacation this year
needing: to prepare a list of what i need to get done tomorrow in prep for my all day scrap with friends on saturday
thinking: how blessed i am
enjoying: how healthy i feel for running 3-5 days a week for the last 6 months.
wondering: what changes may be in store for us this year.

since no post is complete without a photo...here's one of me and my Valentine.

Xbox Green

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 04:19:00 +0000

Bailey has been wanting to add a bit to color to his room.

We had a good black and white theme going on in there, but he desired a splash of color.

Since he's keen on Lime Green these days, this was the color of choice.

After I painted the inside of the closet, added the stripe and dry brushed then removed the skater decal for some art, I realized the green looks a lot like the green of the Xbox cases for his games.

The boy loves his Xbox, so now he'll love his room!

I'm hoping to see it keep neat and tidy as it is now. I often wonder how his minimalistic room, of which houses his mattress (which he prefers on the floor, no bedframe) and one bookcase can get messy! His clothes are stored in 5 boxes in the cubes of his bookcase, leaving only 3 cubes to clutter with stuff.

Fingers crossed that it stayed nice and tidy.

December Daily 29

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:27:00 +0000

Day 29

Perfect page set up with what we woke up to today.

a nice large photo from my front window on the numbered page that I had previously accented with a snowman metal square. I did my journaling in Word, using the font Socially Awkward.

Printed it out on regular paper and adhered it to the page.

December Daily 28

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:24:00 +0000

Day 28

Dinner for two and a movie.

I planted the camera on the counter to take a 'table top' picture of us dining.

Kept the stubs from our movie, which cover the back of the journal page showing through on the clear page. Mounted the photo on a patterened paper and did my journaling directly on that.

December Daily 27

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:21:00 +0000

Day 27

No picture, just a reciept.

We had lunch with a friend and did a little shopping.

The reciept is attached to one page and a journal note page on the hambly overlay.

December Daily 26

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 19:11:00 +0000

Day 26 brings a day with friends.

The boys took to old boyhood habits and played some video games on the Xbox.

This page is an easy collage created in photoshop and journal done an the back of a Christmas tag.

December Daily 25

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 02:57:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!

Today brings the story of my Grandmother's tea cup along with the documentation of our day.

I simply printed the tea cup story out on matte paper and attached to the red page.

I added the photo of the tea cup to the back of the photo collage of our day.

I used some printed paper to cover the white space and added the happy holidays holly for some interest.

I did three photos in the collage, using the large space to type in the story.

Easy and done!

December Daily 24

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 02:48:00 +0000

Day 24 brings the story and celebration of Christmas Eve.

I took many photos and thought it best to highlight them in a collage.

Two collages to be exact.

I used journal blocks that I folded in half to tell the story of the night.

We had a lovely family celebration.

We hope your Christmas was a merry one.

December Daily 23

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:04:00 +0000

Day 23...are you ready?

I played around with my camera tonight to get the perfect dreamy picture of our tree.

LOVE!

Thanks to Ali for the link to how to achieve this!

I am in love with how this peek a boos through the velum page when you are looking at day 22.

For the back of the tree picture I backed it with a photo of the super cute reindeer cookies I made and added a remnant paper to tell my story.

The numbered day page showcases wrapped presents and I added a few embellishments to the bottom of that page for some balance.

We are getting excited at our house, as we do our big celebration with family on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Day just the three of us (now....still odd even though it's been 2 years since the eldest moved out!) relaxing, taking in a movie and enjoying a ham dinner.

December Daily 22

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 04:56:00 +0000

Day 22 brought about the story of how I waited until today to do any holiday shopping!

Six hours and I was DONE! Woot woot!

My sweet hubby took me to dinner at the Roadhouse, where you toss peanut shells on the floor and apparently your forks as well.

I used a journal page that I double backed so it wouldn't be a blank white on the opposite side.

I added a few holiday stickers to give it a bit more interest and called it good.

3 days and counting!

December Daily 21

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 04:50:00 +0000

Day 21 is all about my day with the little guy!

We had a great time baking and decorating cookies.

I used the backside of day 20's page to jot down the story by hand.

I did a picnik collage delibertly leaving two spaces blank to showcase the JOY.

I love how this turned out and using this large JOY paperclip I've had in my stash for a few years.

The perfect page for this accent...if I do say so myself!

December Daily 20

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:19:00 +0000

Dec 20, today I focused on my love of the Christmas Card!

They are stacking up nicely and allowing me to catch up with those near and far.

I house them in my metal sleigh, which found a home on the hearth this year.

I look forward to putting them into a book once the last one arrives.

So much fun to look back on the previous year cards and pictures.

Today's post is simple.....journal done in Milk & Cereal font and a picture adhered to the pp.

December Daily 19

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:13:00 +0000

Day 19 documents the story of my virtual ornament exchange with my online Mom's group I have been a part of for 15 years! This was our 12th year exchanging ornaments and it's such a treasured event.

These ladies are a HUGE part of my life, I treasure each and every one of them!

I made a collage in photoshop with my four pictures I took last night.

I cropped them to 2x2 to make a nice 4x4 block.

For my story, I covered the back of day 18's page with a velvet textured printed paper...love it!

I printed my story out on some cardstock using the font Joyful Juliana.

I used Jenni Bolin's chipboard frames to mount and highlight the story.

By using a larger frame for the base and a smaller cut out frame, it makes for a lovely display of the story. Don't you agree?

I also like the dimension layering the frames provides.

Finding the right red paper for the ink to show up was a chore...it took me 3 different reds to get the ink to show up well enough to read!

December Daily 18

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 04:49:00 +0000

December 18 brings the documentation of the aftermath from last nights windstorm.

When my husband and I headed out this morning for our Starbucks, we were shocked by the state of the neighborhood. Tree debris was everywhere, for sale signs missing from their posts, fence panels laying on the ground, it really looked like a war zone!

I have a picture I took of the tree debris oddly 'gathered' at the intersection near our house, added a tag for my journaling and called it good!

December Daily 17

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 04:43:00 +0000

Day 17 brings the Sofa Effect.

Two days, two kids, same sofa, same effect.

Love it!

I printed up the shot of took of my son that evening to a 5x7 and I'm so OK with it being 'on it's side'.

I did some grain, grit and black and white to the photo...I like it much better that way.

For the journaling I wanted to print it out on the transparent sheet for a nice clean look, but after doing a test run, I realize my computer ink is no slick writer ink..so I had to write my hand, using my slick writer, of course!

The number page I put a tiny picture of my cousin's little girl, who I watched yesterday, after she fell alseep watching TV. I decided I wanted to leave as much as the pattern paper visible as I could, it makes me think of them as counting reindeer! ;-)

December Daily 16

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 04:29:00 +0000

Day 16 brought Bunco Night!
I snapped a picture of the much coveted bejeweled bell, which only one of the ladies owns, and a picture of the festive scorecards our hostess made and set next to the glass of moola!
A picnik collage and remnant journal spot complete this page.
Ho, Ho, Ho!

December Daily 15

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:30:00 +0000

Day 15 brings another collage created in Picnik and journal done in Ali Edwards font.

Simple and easy!

December Daily 14

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:13:00 +0000

Day 14....errands. In the rain.

I used Picnik to create a collage of my outside photos, leaving one of the spots blank and coloring the background black so I could use white font (daniel) for my story.

My main page is a dashboard cam. shot while I was driving.

I used my slick writer pen to notate that on the 'washi' tape I used to border the picture.

I used that 'washi' tape on the collage page as well.

I didn't want to add paper to the white space and wanted to keep it 'clean'.

The blue color of that tape is perfect and I am in LOVE with how it looks when you layer it!

Seriously....l.o.v.e.

December Daily 13

noreply@blogger.com (Julie Brooks) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:06:00 +0000

Day 13 was a fantastic day of just being!

I snapped a picture of the stockings and the little penguin I added to Michel's stocking...love him peeking out of there.

This is a pretty straight forward layout.

Added the journal page for my notes, tucked the penguin picutre into the pocket of the clear page.

I backed the journal spot from the previous day with a patterened paper and trimmed it with the decorative edge on that paper to add some interest to the paper on this side.

I attached the stocking picture right on top of the clear page rather then scaling it down tucking it into the pockets. I like it this way. The wreath was also attached on top of the clear page, this adds further dimension for this accent.