Jot Magazine: Boston Pocket Page Spread

The next issue of Jot Magazine is due to release tomorrow, but before you have a brand-spankin' new issue to drool over (I've seen some of the projects from my DT members, and you will be so inspired!) I'm here to share a pocket-page spread from Issue 12 that may be my favorite in my 2015 album.

If you've ever had a look at my pocket pages before, you would see that I use a monthly format and the Collect App for my journaling. With this spread below, I'm documenting in more detail a trip that we took, so I tend to go with full-size photos and longer journaling. This isn't something that I can keep up with on a weekly, or monthly basis, but I love doing it for special events throughout the year when I have a lot of photos to document. 

Boston supplies | Ali Edwards Go Story Kit, Cards: Scraptastic Club ("today & days of the week); Embellishments: Scraptastic Club (labels), Pink Paislee (star, arrow & "itinerary"), Studio Calico (flair, chipboard hearts); Stamps: Elle's Studio ("love you and me" & cutlery), Scraptastic Club ("today's story").

This spread documents our trip to Boston in September, and I took cues from my photos when choosing my color scheme. It's quite photo-heavy, and embellishment light, which I prefer. I typically only embellish my filler cards and small amounts of the negative space in my photos. 

The Ali Edwards "Go" Story Kit was perfect for these photos- both in the color scheme and in the theme to document our long weekend away in a city that we loved. I also used a lot of labels to jot down specifics from my photos. I get coordinating labels with my Scraptastic Club kits each month, but you can also find some (for free!) from Kaitlin Sheaffer. 

To add embellishment to the "Go" kit, I used pieces from the Pink Paislee Atlas collection- it paired perfectly with the kit and worked well with the travel theme. 

Negative space in my photos were the perfect place to house small groupings of embellishment. This photo is one of my favorites from the entire trip, and printing it in black and white made it really stand out in the spread.

Be sure to check out the Jot Magazine home page tomorrow, when Issue 13 will be ready to peruse with a cup of coffee! You will be amazed at what the Jot Girls have in store for you! 

October/November Project Life Spread

I have to say, every time my This Life Noted kit from Scraptastic arrives, I'm so excited to flip through the cards to see what color combination I can use on my next spread! What's even more exciting is when two different kits coordinate to create a fantastic spread, like with the October (sold out) and November TLN kits.

This spread documents the end of October and beginning of our November, so I felt it was appropriate to mix both the October and November kits, and uses a gold, orange and teal color scheme. I really wanted to use the big pumpkin 3" x 4" card for our Halloween photo, and I stamped it with the This is Halloween stamp set from October.

My favorite card in the spread is this 4" x 6" leaf card from the October kit, which I added teal watercolor to, to tie into my color scheme. I also stamped "I want to remember these moments" with the November Ain't No Sunshine stamp set.

The right side of the spread continued the color scheme, as well as the watercolor and painted effects that I loved with both of these kits.

The exclusive embellishments in this month's kit were fantastic, especially the puffy stickers, which are also available a-la carte in the shop! 

It's crazy to think that with a few more spreads, this year will be completely wrapped up in my album! Thanks for stopping by & happy Wednesday! 

September - October Project Life

Life is super busy lately. If you missed my announcement on Instagram, I have an upcoming class in January at Big Picture Classes that I am hard at work on. With that added to the things that I already have going on, as well as general life, I'm finding the need to keep my Project Life pages simple even greater at the moment.

On this spread, which highlights the end of September and beginning of October, I used the October This Life Noted kit and stamp from Scraptastic Club.

Every month when I open my TLN kit, there are so many possibilities for a color scheme on my spread. This month, I chose navy, citrine yellow and grey. I love how clean and modern it feels. 

I completely allowed myself to have a few filler cards this month with minimal decoration, but I made up with it by adding more journaling to a couple of cards, like the "book review" card, and another which I made my own by stamping "enjoying" on a cut-apart and pasting at the top.  

With the switch to October on the right side of the spread, I created a new month card with the stamp and some grey alphas included in the kit. I put minimal decoration on this page again, just to keep the process quick and simple. 

That's it! Another spread in the books. It's amazing that I'm almost finished with my second year on this project, and I'm loving it more and more every month! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

July Project Life Spreads

Hello there! Today I’m sharing a TLN spread that I created with the Scraptastic Kit Club's August This Life Noted and Wednesday Night kits documenting the final days of our July. The green and turquoise cards and paper in the kits worked perfectly with the photos from our trip home to Kentucky. 

To bring attention to our trip to Kentucky, I created two customized cards in the center of my spread with my Silhouette Cameo and papers from the Wednesday Night kit & add-on. I topped the cards with a flair badge and "long way home” cutout from the TLN kit.

In between the left and right sides of my spread, I added a hand-sewn pocket, sized 3-1/4” x 8” to house a photo of my daughter and I from a day of hiking, as well as our hiking trail guide on the back.

The TLN stamp, which I stamped with Staz-On directly onto my photo worked perfectly with the “that was fun” cutout that I punched with a circle punch. To finish off my embellishment grouping, I added the “go somewhere new” banner and a wood veneer heart.

The right side of my spread included some tough days, which required hidden journaling, housed under the “refresh & renew” tag, which I attached with washi tape from my stash.

And that's a wrap with July in our Project Life album! Now, on to August. It feels great only being a month behind! 

June Pocket Page Spreads

Hi there and happy FRIDAY! Today on the Scraptastic Club blog, I shared the second half of my June pocket page spreads, using the This Life Noted kits, and I wanted to share my entire month of June here with you, too! 

The first half of my month started with our trip to Savannah, so I used a bit more color than I normally would on a spread. I used the June 2015 This Life Noted kit to complete the spread. 

My favorite card for the spread - possibly in the entire album so far - is this custom 4" x 6" card. To create it, I just cut large letters out with my Silhouette Cameo, twice, in color and in grey to create a shadow. After adhering them to the card, I cut it in half so that it fit in two 3" x 4" sleeves and then journaled at the bottom, finishing off with a stamped car from the June 2015 Can't Go Home stamp set (sold out.)

My second spread, created with the July 2015 This Life Noted kit, shows the second half of my month. In this spread, I included a few cards printed with typed journaling to give more information about the stories shown. I love the yellow, grey and tomato red color scheme on this spread.  

My favorite card on this spread was, once again, a 4" x 6" card, placed at the top of my spread. To create it, I added "June," stamped with the awesome July 2015 Sentiments Series v.10 alphabet stamp. To this, I added a tag with the "#summer" sticker, along with the yellow sunburst and cork quote embellishment.

I also loved the stamp set included in the July 2015 TLN kit. The "game changer" bubble couldn't have been more perfect for this card about new spin bikes at the gym. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my album. Be sure to check out the TLN kits if you're in the market for a pocket page kit subscription. They make documenting our everyday so much easier! 

Around the web...

Summer is busy around here. We have been enjoying time spent with family, going on adventures and taking it easy at the same time. I have been living in the moment, which means that I haven't shared everything that I've been doing around the scrapbooking web-o-sphere lately. So today, I'd just like to give you a head's up on a few places I've been featured.

Basic Grey June Guest Designer

I was so excited to be asked as the Basic Grey guest designer for the month of June! I created four different layouts using the Tea Garden collection, which at first I was afraid would be a bit busy for me. However, the beautiful colors drew me in and I created four projects that I absolutely love, not to mention am so proud of. Check out the original guest designer post on the Basic Grey blog to see my other projects. 

Pocket Talk Podcast

Layout featured in Jot Magazine, Issue 10.

Earlier this month, I sat down to have a chat with the lovely Jess Forster on her podcast, Pocket Talk. I have been a listener since episode one, and when she asked me to chat with her, I was so excited. In my episode, episode 12, we chat about my pocket page documentation failures and successes, as well as how I photograph and edit my pocket page photos for design team work. 

Traveler's Notebook for Scraptastic Club

Yesterday, I was featured on the Scraptastic Club blog using the packed, beautiful "Can't Go Home" kit and add-on to make a traveler's notebook insert that I plan to use on an upcoming trip to Boston. The process was so easy and I can't wait to use it to document my trip! 

If you want to be sure to catch everything I'm up to in my personal, as well as scrapbooking life, I update my Instagram account regularly, so be sure to follow me there! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a wonderful summer! 

Two Page Layout Challenge

Today on the Scraptastic Club blog, myself and some fellow design team members were challenged to create a two-page spread. After thinking about it (and dreading it!) I decided that a two page spread didn't have to be two 12"x12" layouts! I decided to document an event which I had several photos of and create one 12"x12" layout and one pocket page spread, so that I could share all of the other photos that complete the story of a family road trip to San Antonio in April 2014.

To say that I love this spread is an understatement. Everything about it makes me happy- from the beautiful colors in the Scraptastic Club's May 2015 Janglin' kit and add-on, to the perfect cards from the April 2015 TLN kit that worked so well with the photos. 

Since the Pinkfresh Studio background patterned paper that I used was quite busy (the bright colors called to me!) I kept the rest of the layout as simple as possible. To break up the vertical lines on the left, I added a manufacturer's strip just underneath the orange horizontal line, which also served as a place for my title AND helps to draw your eye from the photo to the pocket page spread on the right.

To break up all of the lines on the page, I added a triangle of three circles, punched from another Pinkfresh Studio In The Clouds paper in the kit. These circles housed additional embellishments and a part of my title.

On the right side, I chose cards from the April 2015 TLN kit that had the same colors as on the left. The three cards I chose were perfect accompaniments to my photos and the story. 

To create balance from the left to the right sides, I added circular elements to my pocket pages. On this card, I traced a dashed circle around the 'let's go' title and added mini alphas, vellum arrows and enamel dots. 

This 'weekend adventure' card was embellished with more circles- punched, from a die-cut pack, a sticker sheet and a flair badge. It's purely for embellishment & it is my favorite on the spread.

That's all from me today! Thanks for stopping by! How do you feel about double-page spreads? Do they intimidate you?