My Mind's Eye Blog

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | March 2015

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with some Project LifeⓇ inspiration. I am jumping back into my stash to play with some of the Record It! Just Splendid Collection. It is such a soft versatile collection!  

Supplies: Record It! Just Splendid: Journaling Kit, Ready to Frame Word Art Prints; Record It! Charmed: Journaling Kit; Cut & Paste Flair “Today” Tiny Word Stickers; Other: Becky Higgins Design A Page Protector, We R Memory Keepers 4-6x4, 1-8x6 pocket design page protector, Date Stamp, Ink, Marker, Bohemian Typewriter Font.

This wasn’t just a normal week for me… well, it was normal. It was just that this week wasn’t going to be documented in my normal fashion. I chose to follow along with Week in the Life for this particular week. Even though I am working on documenting this week in depth with a mini album, I didn’t just want to leave an empty hole in my Project LifeⓇ album.

 

I decided to do something a little different and fun for me. Each night my husband reads a story (or part of one) to our kids before bedtime. I captured this each night and it just looked like the perfect time to showcase this special time in my yearly family album.

I loved the 2014 card from the time I laid eyes on it. I had already completed the title page for my 2014 album, but I knew there would be a fun use for this design along the way. This week was the perfect time to pull it out. I just added the “Week in the Life” along with the date; a great title to document this week with. I included a journal card for what this week was all about, and a journaling card sharing the story of how bedtime stories go each night.

 

I really love this page protector design. The 6x8 pocket has lots of fun potential. I pulled out the ever-so-fun Ready to Frame Word Art Prints. These are totally not just for frames. I trimmed down this one, and I slid it right into the pocket. Simple, cute, and done. I love that.

 

Between the different pocket page orientation and all black & white photos, it was a lot of fun to do something different in my Project LifeⓇ album this time around. Have you changed up your album lately? Sometimes it is nice to just get out of a rut and try something new. Please feel free to link us up, so that we can see! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Shelly

 

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | February 2015

Hi everyone! This is Shelly with some Project Life inspiration. I am sharing another average week in the life using the Jubilee “Wild Berry” Collection.  What a great collection of colors perfect for summer!

Supplies: Jubilee: Wild Berry – 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, “Hey You” Journal Cards, “Hey You” Rub-Ons, “Life” Mixed Bag; Other: Becky Higgins Design A Page Protectors, pen, date stamp, ink.

I am still plugging along with my 2014 album. I am happy to announce that with this week right here, I am half way through the year. This is week 26 of 2014. I am over the hump, and headed back down the hill. I am so excited to see my progress. Anybody else out there still working through 2014 memories? I have to say that it has been a very enjoyable process… this Jubilee Wild Berry Collection was just meant to be for warm summery weeks like this one!

 

For my title card, I trimmed down the paint strips. I really love when a sheet of pretty paper can hold its own when it comes to title cards. Those colorful stripes are perfect to hold my date or even journaling too.

As for the “Love” rub-on...I tried a little experiment.

I created my very own transparencies. I trimmed down a page protector to 4x6 size, and then rubbed away. It does take a little more time, but it worked! I know it is very possible to use those fun rub-ons right on top of your pictures, but I really like to keep my photos clean. When a photo is needed for a project, most o f the time with my children’s school projects, I just pull them out of this album. I don’t have to worry about ordering a picture last minute. I just write a note to myself to order another copy when I get around to ordering pictures.

I just placed them on top of my picture and slid them both into the pocket. They are crystal clear, but that added glare makes them very difficult to photograph. 

I added a few pieces from the Mixed Bag to label and add a little extra something to a few of my pictures. I never found a label I didn’t like and those Mixed Bags are full of them! They have such a great assortment.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful day!

Shelly

 

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | January 2015

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with some Project LifeⓇ inspiration. I am sharing another average week in the life using the Jubilee “Sherbet” Collection. 

Supplies: Jubilee: Sherbet – “Pretty” Bubbly Paper, “You” Journal Cards, “You” Rub-ons, “Peace” Sticky Notes, “Peace” Transparency Frames. “Happy” Mixed Bag, “Happy” Enamel Dots; Other: Becky Higgins Design A Page Protectors, pen, date stamp, corner rounder, Bohemian Typewriter font

Yes, I am a little far behind in my family documenting for 2014. BUT I am totally okay with that. I got a little tied up with a very special bundle of joy, which was well worth it! The bonus is that I get to still play with fun spring colors of Jubilee’s Sherbet Collection in the dead of winter.

I started my title card off with the “Pretty” Bubbly Paper. Those cute little water colored circles were the perfect home for my dates. I also prettied them up with a few enamel dots.

The transparencies are such a great way to highlight your favorite pictures. I said this before, they do not photograph very well, but no need to worry they are crystal clear in real life.

The “Good Times” banner is kind of a sarcastic move on my part. Actually, it was my husband’s idea. Isn’t putting things together always a good time? The funny thing about this is that I had two more weeks before I was to be induced, but if you flip to the next page in my album you would see that my water broke and baby was on his way. It was quite the miracle that we finished off our last of our “must do” list before the baby came. 

To mimic the same transparency look on the right side, I added the “Lovely” transparency over my belly picture. I am kind of laughing at it, because it is a lovely thing… but at the time, I was saying it in a very sarcastic way. I was struggling to move most days and my belly was feeling like it was going to pop at any moment. I guess I was feeling a little sarcastic with this week.

The small sticky notes are the perfect touch to add in a little journaling over a picture. I also repeated the same water color dots, layered with enamel dots, which I did on my title card to bring the two sides together.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a fabulous new year!

Shelly

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | December 2014

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with some Project Life inspiration. With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I would share some Christmas inspiration Project Life style.

Let’s face it. We all take hundreds of pictures around the holidays. At least  I do! Each one containing lots and lots of action and colors, between that and the sheer number of photos, I get over whelmed. I tend to push documenting this festive holiday season all together. BUT… In came the invention of pocket page protectors. I discovered these fun things back in 2007 with the simple (6) 6x4 slots. Now, we have so many fun options to play with to make any picture work for our needs.

Supplies: Sleigh Bells Ring: 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, Gift Label Stickers, Alpha & Word Sticker Sheets, Mixed Bag, Enamel Shapes; Jubilee: Mint Julep “Live it Up” Transparent Frames; Other: Becky Higgins Design A & G page protectors, Bohemian Typewriter Font

When it comes to Christmas photos, there are a lot of things happening in each one of them, so I really like to stick with simplicity.  I want to let my pictures shine and tell the story. I chose just a few of the prints from the 6x6 pad that were calling to me.

I trimmed down the deer paper and added the banner sticker. I highlighted my favorite photo of my kids using the Jubilee Mint Julep Transparent Frames in gold. They were the perfect pairing with the Sleigh Bells Ring Collection. They don’t photograph well, but the look good in person! The picture shows just as bright as the others on this layout.

Have I professed my love for stripes lately? I have fallen into the striped paper trap lately with my pocket pages. I love that you can trim a piece down to 4x6, add some journaling, yet still look “fancy” in my eyes. They look like a pretty filler card, but serve a purpose.

I have wanted to incorporate a see-through pocket into my pages, but they never seem to make the cut. I always have too much journaling and pictures to use them. When putting together these pocket pages, I actually added an extra page protector to include a touch more instead of trying to cram everything in. I am so happy that I did, this gave me the extra fun space to be creative with.

This is actually the backside of the previous page. Like I said, I kept things VERY simple by repeating elements. I really love how cohesive it is.

To really make everything come together, I patched a few journaling cards all at once by trimming down the light wood grain paper to 3x4 and layering a strip of the plaid pattern. Those word phrases were the perfect little extra touch to bring them all together.

This spread was for my son’s album. I opted for the pockets for his Christmas memories, but of course with using pockets comes the challenge of what to do with the empty 12x12 spaces before and after these pockets when adding them to an existing album. I will be tackling this next week with my Anatomy of a Double Page Layout series.

Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

Shelly

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | November 2014

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with some Project LifeⓇ inspiration. I am sharing another average week in the life using the Jubilee “Mint Julep” Collection. 

Supplies: Jubilee: Mint Julep – 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, “Journey” Journal Cards, “Ride” Decorative Brads, “Ride” Label Stickers, “Beautiful” Mixed Bag; Just Sayin’: Alpha & Word Stickers; Other: Becky Higgins Design A & D Page Protectors, black ink, pen, corner rounder, Bohemian Typewriter font.

 

I decided to roll with Mint Julep to document this week in the life. It has the perfect colors for spring. Not to mention, that little bicycle card was meant to be for this layout.

AND yes, I do know it is November, and I am currently working on April in my album. I guess life got the best of me. Although, I have complete faith that it won’t take me too long to catch back up with my family memories!

Anybody else out there a little further behind than what they would like to be? I can’t be the only one, right?

Every time I see my kids reading together, it just makes my heart skip a beat. Initially, I was going to put a heart on this photo, but with the coloring it didn’t stand out enough. That is when I pulled out the letters from the Just Sayin’ Collection. They popped right off that picture adding that little extra something.

The label stickers are one of my favorite accessories. So easy to add on top of anything!

To help draw continuity across the layout, I added in a couple more quick quotes on top of two more pictures. Repeating elements is the easiest way to bring two sides together.

For the title card, I simply trimmed down a 6x6 sheet and topped it off with an enamel dot from the top of a brad. I like to keep the bulk down in my Project LifeⓇ album, so I just use my finger nail to peel the dot right off the metal brad base. Easy peasy.

So there’s another week in the life documented with the ease of pocket pages and MME’s fabulous journaling cards. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | October 2014

Hey Everyone, Shelly here! I am back with this month’s Project LifeⓇ inspiration. Today, I am sharing a fall summary using the Jubilee Collection.

Supplies: Jubilee: Tangerine – 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, “Story” Journal Cards, “Awesome” Mixed Bag, “Awesome” Enamel Dots, “Fantastic” Transparent Frames, “Fantastic” Sticky Notes, “Honor” Decorative Brads, “Adventure” Flair Pins; Other: Becky Higgins Design G Page Protectors

For this layout, I was completely inspired by the triangle trend. It just seemed fitting to roll with a warm cozy quilt feel for this fall summary page.

I am really drawn to the fun “life is a daring adventure” paper! I just added a little extra fun with some diagonal cut patterned paper pieces and a few die-cuts from the mixed bag.

This layout included memories from my son’s first baseball game. I wanted to make sure I included his ticket, so I trimmed down an extra page protector and stitched it on my layout.

The “my kind of day” transparency happened to be sitting right next to me when I was ready to slide the ticket it, and it completely jumped out at me for an added fun element.

It was the perfect added element this layout needed. I was able to add the ticket and a picture from the day.

While pushing the mixed bag die-cuts around, I stumbled upon the little leaves; the perfect fall touch.

Have you been using the Jubilee Collection to document your Project Life pocket pages lately? If so, please link us up! I would love to see them. Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Shelly

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | September 2014

Hello everyone, Shelly here! I am back with this month’s Project LifeⓇ inspiration. Today, I am sharing a week in the life using the new Jubilee Collection.

Supplies: Jubilee: Tangerine – “Honor” Traveler Paper, “Story” Journaling Cards, “Story” Rub-Ons, “Fantastic” Sticky Notes, “Awesome” Enamel Dots, “Awesome” Mixed Bag; Wild Berry – “Today” Flair Pins; Other – Becky Higgins Design A page protectors, Date Stamp, Black Ink, Corner Rounder, Alphabet Stickers.

I kicked this spread off by creating my own title card with the yellow sticky note. It just made me happy to see the “week of:” phrase, so it was top on my list to use. Trimming down the sheet of the wood grain patterned paper from the 6x6 paper pad was the perfect compliment. I haven’t met a wood grain I didn’t like.

I am always a fan of the US maps. Living away from my hometown and family, I have plenty of uses for those. My parents had made their way to our neck of the woods for a visit. I trimmed down the 12x12 Traveler patterned paper to make my own 3x4 card and finished the look off with the rub-ons and a couple of enamel dots.

I kept the journaling simple by doing a quick summary on one journaling card. The “Hello Life” card worked perfect for my monthly belly shot with my stats from my check-up from that morning.

The group selfie shot wasn’t the highest quality. When prepping my pictures to print, I created its own canvas with some quick journaling leaving some space to insert a cute little enamel heart.

I am really becoming a fan of leaving one 4x6 pocket to have fun with. Stripes are definitely my go to lately. I jazzed this trimmed yellow stripe that came from the 6x6 designer paper pad with one of the tabs from the mixed bag and a flair pin. Yes! I used flair on my Project LifeⓇ layout!

Think those pins are just too big to use? Think again. After removing the pin from the back with my wire cutters, I made my way into my garage. I placed a rag on the concrete floor, laid the flair on top of that, and then topped it off with my self-healing mat. I grabbed a mallet and went to town - carefully hitting directly over the flair pin. Perfect. I love dimension for my traditional pages, but I really like to keep things flat in my project life album.

I may be falling behind with this year’s album, but I am not stressing out. These pages fall together so easily. The good news is that here is yet another week in the life documented with the ease of pocket pages and MME’s awesome journaling cards. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great day!

 

Rebecca Part 2

Yesterday we introduced Rebecca Keppel and shared some of her AMAZING projects. If you missed it you'll want to take a look...Click HERE!

Today Rebecca is back and she's providing another blog post full of eye candy. Enjoy!

 

Supplies: Market Street-Nob Hill:Foiled Mixed Bag, Decorative Stickers,Enamel Dots, 6x6 Pad,Brads,3x4 Journaling Card Pack,Washi Tape,Flair Pins,Chipboard Stickers;Necessities-Teal: vellum

Rebecca says: I loved using the Journal Card Pack as a base for a pocket page spread. I used some cards as is and others I embellished with enamel dots, chipboard, Mixed Bag pieces, Flair Pins, Brads and more. For my row of 3x4 slots I alternated photos and Journaling Cards.

For my 4x4 pockets I used photos in every other pocket. For the rest I cut down pages from the 6x6 pad, cut a piece of Teal Necessities Vellum into 4x4 and cut a Ready To Frame 8x10 into 2 4x4 pockets. Those 4x4 parts were also embellished.

 

 

Supplies: Necessities-Teal:all Papers,Glitter Monogram Alphas,Alpha and Word Stickers,Enamel Shapes,Washi Tape

 

Rebecca says:I used the large dots paper as the card base. I sewed a slightly smaller piece of vellum on top. I wrapped washi tape around 3 parts of the large alphas and adhered them to the vellum. I added a piece of washi, word sticker and several enamel shapes.

 

 

Supplies: Market Street-Nob Hill:"Sparkle" Foiled paper,"Starburst" Foiled Paper,Washi Tape,Flair Pins,Chipboard Stickers,Foiled Mixed Bag,Enamel Dots,6x6 Pad,Brads,Decorative Buttons,Decorative Stickers;Necessities-Wood: Wood Shapes; Misc: Silhouette Cameo,Therm O Web Adhesive,Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mist

 

Rebecca says: My FAVORITE layout with Market street is coincidentally called Favorite!I started with the Nob Hill "Sparkle" Foiled paper as the base of my layout. I cut a smaller piece of black cardstock and splattered it with gold mist. Then I took the Nob HIll "Starburst" Foiled Paper and using the new PixScan technology with my Silhouette Cameo I was able to cut out several starbursts from the patterned paper.

I also cut several small circles from within other starbursts using the same technique. I printed small favorite photos in black and white and placed them behind the cut outs.

Once all that was adhered down I just had fun embellishing! I popped up some of the cut out starbursts on top of others. I used Brads and Flair Pins, chipboard, Enamel Dots. I had a blast!

 

You did it again, Rebecca- left us speechless. Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us this month, you really made MME shine!

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | August 2014

Hello everyone, Shelly here! I am back with this month’s Project LifeⓇ inspiration. Today, I am sharing a week in the life using mostly Market Street along with a touch of the Record It! Charmed Collection.

Supplies :Market Street: Ashbury Hill – “Framed” Pattern Paper, 3x4 Journaling Cards, Mixed Bag, Decorative Brads, Designer Tapes; Ashbury Heights – 3x4 Journaling Cards, Label Stickers; Record it! Charmed Journaling Kit; Other – Becky Higgins Design A page protectors, Date Stamp, Black Ink, Corner Rounder

I am finding that the Charmed Collection is the perfect accessory. I mean, what doesn’t need a pop of extra gold? And Market Street is the ultimate companion for it.

I kicked off my inspiration for this layout with that striped “A Week in the Life” card. Oh stripes, how I love thee. With that in place, I knew I needed something with a little less color. That’s when I pulled out Record it! Charmed journaling kit and found the perfect fit for a title card.

The green striped paper has been calling my name since I first laid eyes on it. Like I said, stripes are my thing right now. I trimmed down a 4x6 piece for some added interest along with some short journaling.

The decorative tape was a nice added touch over my picture. I finished it off with an enamel dot that I easily separated from a decorative brad.

The weather actually gave us a little break from the extreme cold and snow, which was great for letting my kids actually get outside to play! The “Happy Days are Here” banner was just meant to be for that open space on that photo.

So there’s another week in the life documented with the ease of pocket pages and MME’s awesome journaling cards. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Shelly

 

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | July 2014

Hello, Shelly here! I am back with this month’s Project LifeⓇ inspiration. Today, I documented our family photo shoot using a mix of Market Street and the Record it! Charmed Collections along with some pocket pages to make it quick and easy.

Once I got Market Street in my hands, I knew I wanted to do something with our family photos that I took for our Christmas card. I make it a point each year to capture a family shot for our Christmas card with a few extra shots of the kids too. I know it would be so much easier to just get a shot of the kids, but I feel it is so important to have a nice shot of all of us… at least once a year, right!?! These mini photo shoots almost always occur outside during the fall season, and I think that those divine colors from Market Street are the perfect match for any fall pictures. I know we are sitting smack dab in the middle of summer for us here in this part of the world, but I just couldn’t resist a fall layout.

Supplies: Market Street  “Ashbury Heights”:  Metallic & Enamel Dots, Chipboard Buttons, Label Stickers, Shimmer Pattern Paper, 3x4 Journaling Cards; Market Street “Nob Hill”: Mixed Bag, Decorative Brads; Record It! Charmed: Journaling kit; Other: Becky Higgins Design G page protectors, string, corner rounder

I really wanted to keep things super simple with this layout. I wanted my pictures to shine and those pretty papers and cards to complement each one of them.

I think mixing Market Street’s rich colors along with Record It! Charm’s bold black, white, and gold did the trick of doing just that.

I added in a touch of embellishing here and there for a little extra excitement.

I am always a fan of tone-on-tone color action. I love that it blends in, yet stands out too. These phrase stickers from the label sheet where the perfect thing to add that extra something to this trimmed 4x6 striped paper.

To bring in some more of the floral, I added in this brad along with a couple of enamel dots for a cluster of three. I am all about repeating elements to bring a layout together.

So how do you feel about documenting using the ease of pocket pages and journaling cards? I have been documenting everyday life through the “typical” weekly project life format since 2009, but just recently started to venture into documenting events and seasons. I truly love that you can make project life anything you want it to be even mixing in traditional pages too.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!