Monday, March 14, 2016

Friends Pocket Page

Today's post is all about friends. We have friends from all parts of our lives and they make up a big part of our day-to-day happenings. This day was Martin Luther King Day, so all the kids were out of school. We invited some old friends to our home that we don't get to see every day.
Photo Credits (top right, middle left and bottom right): Melissa Leigh Hansen Photography


It's inevitable that you will document friends in your Project Life albums which makes this "friends" card from the February Take 10 Kit so useful! (the cards only are still available in that link. Go here to subscribe and never miss another kit!) I love the script font and simple design. I added a little tag from the cut-aparts and one of my stamped sentiments that was already waiting to be used (see more on that in this post about kit subscriber tips). Lastly, I sprinkled some sequins across the card.



For this bottom left photo, I balanced out the layout with a few more sequins around the stamped sentiment. And, I stacked some word art from the stickers and washi sets in the kit.



How did you use that unique tag wood veneer? I added a simple star clip (with glue dots) and another word sticker. Then, I adhered it to the journal card. 


For the picture of the three adult friends (sometimes, or a lot of times, play dates are about who I want to see, too), I added the top half of one stamp to say "love these" and used some alphas from the December kit to spell out "girls". I used those same alphas to spell the date on top of another cut apart from the kit.

I hope you are enjoying your February Take 10 Kit as much as I am. Please share with me what you have been creating. I love seeing how unique everyone's layouts can be with the same kit.

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Go here to find more links to products I'm using.
Thanks,
Holly | www.paintedladiesjournal.com





Below are a few affiliate links to help you find some products that I used.
Of coarse the kits themselves are linked at the top of the post (the shop link).

Pink Paislee - C'est La Vie Collection - Washi Sheets with Foil Accents Pink Paislee - C'est La Vie Collection - Transparent Stickers with Foil Accents - Word Jumble
Doodlebug Design - Sequins - Rainbow Pack   
Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive (great for sequins or other small/skinny items)


Glossy Accents is another great product to use for adhering small items. It is also fun to use on top of products to add a little gloss to a die cut or stamped image, for example.

Ranger Ink - Glossy Accents - Clear Dimensional Embellishment - 2 ounces

Tombow are my favorite tape runners
Tombow - Mono Adhesive Dots Roller - Permanent - Refillable
Tonic Spring-Cut Detail Scissors. These are great and they are purple! I have two pairs.





My Go To Black Inks

Tsukineko - Memento - Fade Resistant Dye Ink Pad - Tuxedo Black Staz On Ink Pads - Jet Black
My Miny Attacher is used almost always. Love it.
Advantus - Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Tiny Attacher with 100 Tiny Staples
Sharpie Pens are archival safe. This set is great for journaling and planners.



My home printer and favorite 4x6 photo paper:

Monday, March 7, 2016

Daddy-Daughter Dance and Photo Fixes

I had a special night to document from last February of my husband and daughter going to their first Daddy-Daughter Valentine Dance. So sweet. And I think this layout turned out pretty sweet, too.

This was such a sweet moment to document, but the nighttime lighting in our home and my iPhone camera just didn't produce the best photos. What do you do when that happens? Settle for lousy pics and decide it doesn't matter because it's the memory that matters? This is true, but I really wanted better photos. A few edits and I was much happier.

The pictures were a little fuzzy, too. I did a combination of Photoshop Elements edits and PicTapGo (from my phone). If you use PicTapGo, my favorite combination is the "lights on" and "auto color", which helps 95% of the time. I also brought this one into PSE and applied a "Auto Smart Fix". I played around with "Reduce Noise" to fix a little of the blur, but too much can make it grainy.

I really loved the striped card with the teal green heart and wanted to pick up that green elsewhere in my layout. I took that card and started comparing it to papers and embellishments in my stash. I came across the word "love" on a PinkFresh Studio paper from my stash, and it was like I could hear angels singing. Yes, I fussy cut that big word out so that I could use it to fill that space on the pink journal card. I really like how it stretches across several cards and highly recommend trying this! I glued it to the middle card first, trimmed the sides and then lined them all up to adhere the side pieces.
I want to give you a closer look at what I did with that 3x4 wood card. First I grabbed a somewhat plain card from my stash of MAMBI cards that picked up the same pink. Then, I added the wood card to the left half. I like the idea of including that matching tag, but I decided to cut out the heart, so it wasn't too similar to the card. And, do you know what else I did? I trimmed off the beveled end to use as a tab! Perfect!
This is actually a 4x6 flip page. I had a cute picture of me and my two boys' "night in" that I wanted to include, but not necessarily take center stage on the layout. Again, not a great picture. In this case, I chose to make it black and white. That is another trick that I like to use. A not so great photo will usually look better as black and white. I tried fixing the color, but still didn't like it so much...b&w for the win.

There's the hidden picture with a internet image to represent the move we watched.

I sprinkled some silver and clear sequins from the kit on the top left photo and again on the bottom right photo. That pink tab highlighting the date is from my stash (Simple Stories Life Documented).

Bottom Right Photo detail. I'm gonna tell you something. I used my Scotch Quick-Dry adhesive (photo-safe) and it's great for little items. Somehow, I made a mess of this photo gluing these sequins on. I mean, it looked like a preschooler got glue-happy. I set it aside and hoped it would dry clean. Amazing! I did nothing to fix it and it looks just fine! 
Bottom Left card. I used the PicStitch app to make this smaller photo. I used the extra stamp set that is available in the shop, here, to make the "happy" word. This stamp set is very versatile for Project Life pages.



Below are a few affiliate links to help you find some products that I used.
Of coarse the kits themselves are linked at the top of the post (the shop link).

Pink Paislee - C'est La Vie Collection - Washi Sheets with Foil Accents Pink Paislee - C'est La Vie Collection - Transparent Stickers with Foil Accents - Word Jumble
Doodlebug Design - Sequins - Rainbow Pack

Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive (great for small/skinny items)


Glossy Accents is another great product to use for adhering small items. It is also fun to use on top of products to add a little gloss to a die cut or stamped image, for example.

Ranger Ink - Glossy Accents - Clear Dimensional Embellishment - 2 ounces

Tombow are my favorite tape runners
Tombow - Mono Adhesive Dots Roller - Permanent - Refillable
Tonic Spring-Cut Detail Scissors. These are great and they are purple! I have two pairs.




VersaMagic Chalk Ink (it stamps much lighter than this)


My Go To Black Ink

Staz On Ink Pads - Jet Black
My Miny Attacher is used almost always. Love it.
Advantus - Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Tiny Attacher with 100 Tiny Staples
Sharpie Pens are archival safe. This set is great for journaling and planners.



My home printer and favorite 4x6 photo paper:

Thursday, March 3, 2016

February Round-up

So I really liked keeping myself accountable in January so I will follow along the same path in February and do a round up of all the digi goodness I completed this month... Although I was not quite as productive (I was crazy good at scrapping last month with over 40 pages completed!) I still got over 20 pages completed... I'd like to be somewhere in the middle I think although work and life sometimes gets in the way!

And don't forget about our giveaway for our 1 year blog-a-versary!!

For the Daily Digi CT team I got several layouts completed. Since we work ahead (yeah!) I've included the ones for the kits we released in Febraruy. I have love the Daily Digi way before I was on their CT - I love the variety and range of kits you get, with templates, classes and fonts thrown into the mix! Its a great value for $7.50 a month (or less) and you get a giant collab free every 4 months you are a member... (just a little plug...)

First page
Kit: Just Jaimee November 2015 storyteller
Font: You are Shaky Thin by Studio Wendy (which she created from my handwriting!)


Next my niece's first birth day documented with

Digilicious Designs: I Got You Babe (Sweet Shoppe Designs)
Template: Traci Reed Stitched Grids (Sweet Shoppe Designs)

Finally Sugary Fancy: You Complete Me (Sweet Shoppe Designs)
and a small size template Traci Reed: Stitched Grids (Sweet Shoppe Designs)


February was the 10th Anniversary month for Sweet Shoppe Designs - its quite an accomplishment in any industry but certainly with all the recent closings of some long time stores its an even bigger accomplishment!! There were lots of fun challenges, games as well as the Bingo game that happens every month at Sweet Shoppe. I have really been enjoying new challenges to expand my digi scrapping skills.  All of these can be found at Sweet Shoppe Designs unless otherwise noted! From Libby Pritchett's CT team here are some of my pages

My Funny Valentine - Collab with Erica Zane: SWAK
Template by Traci Reed: Stitched Grids


My True Love: Libby Pritchett and Amanda Yi: Celebrate Love
Template: Cindy Schneider Single Template 121 - 
This is probably one of my very favorite "theme' templates ever!



Libby Pritchett, Studio Flergs and Kristin Cronin-Barrows: Meadowlark
Template: Mommyish: Template Trio #10 (The Lilypad) 

A beautiful engagement photo of my maternal grandmother and grandfather.


A great page documenting the completion of a huge project I have been working on

Libby Pritchett and Captivated Visions: Making Memories
Template: Miss Mel

and last but not least




Libby Pritchett and Digital Scrapbook Ingredients: Life in Black and White
Template: Cindy Schneider Single 124

And following along with the SSD Bingo challenges



Dream Big Designs: Monsters Rule Add On (Freebie - each designer has 1 in the store - its a great way to try out a few new things!)
Template: Cindy Schneider Trio Pack (#2)


Jady Day: So Selfie
Template: Brook Magee


Studio Flergs and Studio Basics: Destination Vol. 1
Template: Cindy Schneider Single 121

And for my last layout - I got one of The Lilypad challenges for February done - the template challenge which is always one of my favorites! I was so pleased when it got selected for the Gallery Standouts for March 1st! Its my first time being selected and I was so honored that it wrapped up another creatively productive month for me!

Just Jaimee February Storyteller (& add-ons)
Little Butterfly Wings template (February template challenge at The Lilypad)

Hope you've enjoyed my roundup! Please join us on our Facebook page (and hit like!!) and IG - links on the right!