Give a Girl a Blog

project life 2018 | week #52

It's done, my 2018 family album is complete, woot woot!  I was aiming for end of 2018, but if you read about our week for 51, you'll understand where I dropped the ball on that one.  Kept it again a little plain Jane.  But I feel the photos of my gorgeous girls speak for the week.  This is our last week for 2018.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Digital card from Brandi Kincaid, HERE.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #51

The last few weeks of December were not the best.  Kira ended up in hospital due to her heart.  She's fine now and finally they have nailed down the appointment for her heart surgery.  About six years of waiting and being told so many things.  There was also a death in the family and so a funeral to attend right before Christmas.  It was all full steam ahead really.  Then all the Christmas prep work.  So this week is kept pretty simple and I've let the photos tell the story.  The card by Brandi Kincaid couldn't be more suiting.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Digital card from Brandi Kincaid, HERE.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #50

Can I just explain my coffee photo?  I started drinking black coffee.  Not something I thought I would like, but keto diet = black coffee.  First try and I actually didn't mind it.  About week in and I completely replaced my other coffee for just black.  Now that's the first part.  Second part of this story, is my mum and step where doing up their spare room and ripped up the carpet to this, amazing painted floor boards.  I loved it and asked why not keep it, I mean as a crafter my first thought was, amazing back drop photo....  Apparently I was the only one that saw the potential to my photo taking, as no one, not even my fam bam liked it.  No taste if you ask me, haha.  Since been covered with carpet.  Here is how week 50 looked.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Wood veneer and acrylic from Color Cast Designs, no longer sold.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #49

This week leading into the silly season was busy but quite on the photo taking front.  I find the busier I get the less I think to take photos of things/people.  I went and stayed with my sister for the weekend and got the rest of my Christmas shopping done and dusted, was so good to finally have it out of the way and Bashy was awesome with helping me pick.  I had the BEST time with my sister and it reminded me that we really should do it more often, so now we are looking to get away with each other a few times a year, which I'm already excited about.  Either way this is how week 49 looked.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Pull Here and Oh What Fun stamp sets and Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.  Color Cast Designs wood veneer no longer available.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #48

So look, there is going to be a few "no longer available" notes for things I've used in the last few weeks of my 2018 album and heck maybe in the beginning of my 2019 album.  I'm planning to STOP hoarding and use what I have.  I'm sick of the clutter from keeping things for the "just in case" moment.  Now that I've got that out of the way, after a few plain weeks before hand, I realty like how this one came together.  With a little insert to add to it.  Also the "hell no" is because that pole had a mass amount of BEES on it!  Crazy as they weren't there the next day?

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Pull Here stamp set and Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.  Color Cast Designs wood veneer no longer available.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #47

For some reason taking a photo of a mainly black and white project, wasn't working, it's was either too dark even after editing or slightly blurry, I couldn't win.  Either ways this is how week 47 looked in the family project life album = plain Jane. 

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #46

I don't know if it's because I'm aiming to get the weeks done so that I'm not completely behind in 2019 or what, but for some reason the mojo to add more than a few stamps and some stickers was not there for this week and with that said I still like the way it came together.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Pull Here stamp set and Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2019 cover | with freebies

I've done this style as the cover now since 2015.  Now being in a 6x8 album I wondered how I could make it work.  I wont lie, there was a lot of moving things around, typing, ripping it up and starting again.  In November 2018 I finally went back to my 2013 album, as 2014 was already done and added a cover in similar style that I've done for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, FINALLY after talking about it for a couple of years, I've done almost all my albums, haha.

DOWNLOAD FREEBIES : To download simply click on the image, the image will pop up in a new window, right click save to your system and you have it ready to use.  I would love to see what you do with them when you use them and if on instagram please hashtag #kelliestamps If you have issues I'm happy to email it to you, just pop me an email.  Best of all ENJOY!

 

2019 | project life plans

PLANS FOR PROJECT LIFE 2019

See that?  That stamp set peeking out is a little sneak of the release for Kellie Stamps in January 2019.  Every year right around Christmas and the New Year, I start to re-think how I want to document our lives in the new year.  Last year I changed it up around the month of May.  Does it bother me having a few months in another album? SURE does, will I go back and fix it?  Unlikely, haha.  I did the same the year before, changed around May from 9x12 to 6x12.  Must be something in the air about that time, or it's the chill that sets in, haha.  Here are my plans.

Here is the plan for 2019 :

• 2019 I'm going to continue to document in the format of a 6x8 album.
• I'm only using the one album for the whole year, but wont beat myself up if I use two.
• Blogging my pages and REALLY sticking to it.  I seem to either blog everyday or week for a few months and then nothing for months.
• I plan to go back to using the large number cards I designed in my store, HERE.  I did try a new style and it wasn't working for me and although big, still love them.
• SUPPLIES : Use what I've got.  I purchased a lot of the Messy Box kits before they stopped selling them and so I have a nice stock pile, still even now after almost two years.  I do plan to purchase the kit from The Paper Curator every now and then.  Brandi Kincaid has amazing digital kits she releases also, HERE.  For embellishments it's always going to be Color Cast Designs, HERE.  Of course Kellie Stamps will featured almost each and every time, it's a given.

I had a lot of thought to go back to 9x12, but my issue here is, last year I thought it would be fine, given Kira is older and has her own life with friends, dinner parties, festivals  and what not.  I didn't think it would really effect the album all that much, but because I do an album on myself also, it wasn't easy to keep the two separate when I didn't have a lot of photos for a particular week.  What's funny is that mid year my younger two started to go off most weekends with friends, so there was almost even less some weeks, unless you count the 50 odd photos of the pets.  Once I went with 6x8 it was so much better and so I will continue with the size in 2019, NO changing, try anyways.  I use to plan to try and use less embellishments/cards etc, but I'm just not even going to try anymore.  Some weeks I go all out and some I keep plain.  These albums really are for me, it's my therapy to craft.

PLANS FOR PROJECT 'MY' LIFE 2019

In 2019 I plan to continue to do the project based all on ME.  I take a lot of photos of my crafts, food, coffee, and more coffee and often they get pushed to the side when it comes to documenting our weekly memories and so I decided to start an album called project 'my' life back in 2014.  I've really enjoyed doing this in the 9x12 sized album using album featured above that I only started using last year.  I do monthly spreads and sometimes extra on a certain topics, I just go with the flow.

• What are your plans?  
• Have you got it set already?  
• Are you doing a album on yourself? 

Leave a comment, let's chat about it?

how do you document your life Q&A | with Sabrina

Today for the last, how do you document your life, Q and A, I have the creative and bubbly Sabrina from mrsscrapandplan.  I feel like I've known Sabrina for longer than I actually have.  Never meet being oceans apart, but love our chats and Sabrina is always finding new ways to do things and it's so very inspiring!  Let's find out all about how Sabrina documents her life.

 

How long have you been doing documenting your life?

I started documenting project life style when it first came out in 2009. I was excited to document our first year as new parents and have a fun way to document it in. 

What size format did you start with and what size do you do now?
I bought the first kit that Becky Higgins used to document our year. After that I bought several traditional kits over the years and continued to document in 12x12 pocket style until 2013. For 2013 through 2015 I documented our years in digital scrapbook form and printed the books out. At the end of 2015 the Project Life App came out so I thought for 2016 I would try that out. I documented a TON of pages using the Project Life App and printed those out in 8x8 pages. As you can see I've been trying out lots of formats. In 2017 I decided I wanted to mix things up and tried documenting our lives in planners which is called memory planning. And this year I used 8.5x11 albums to document our weeks which was a struggle because of reformatting of cards and photos. This format turned out to be quite a challenge and I won't try that size again. I have enjoyed trying out and documenting our lives in different formats. 

Do you document your life weekly, fortnightly or monthly?

I have always stuck to a weekly format because that has always made sense to me as far as Project Life goes. But, for 2019 I plan to try out monthly and adding in more stories if needed. 

What keeps you motivated?

Staying motivated on this year long project can be exhausting and daunting; but I try to remember why I'm taking the time to document our lives in the first place. I continue to scrapbook and document our lives because I feel its important to have record of our lives. I wanted to little, everyday stories to be remembered. 

 

Do you make a certain time to document or do you just do what you can when you can?

I have always just made for project life whenever I can fit it in. For 2019 I hope to establish a more concrete routine of picking photos, editing and jotting down stories at the end of the week. This way I don't get too behind on documenting, editing and journaling. 

 

How are you planning to document your 2019?

For 2019 I'm hoping to be much more successful with project life and trying out 9x12 size. This year I tried 8.5x11 and I really struggled with this size because of the reformatting and how that took even more time. So 2019 will be 9x12 and I will approach the year with a looser approach. I know I will continue to take a bunch of photos, but I plan on documenting monthly and adding in extra if I want too. Also, for the summer months I plan on doing a digital photo book to make documenting easier in those busy months. In addition to this family documenting I will continue to work on my personal albums, traveler's notebook projects and kid albums. 

 

FIND MORE FROM SABRINA HERE : INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK

project life 2018 | week #44

There isn't a lot to this week and yet I really like how it all came together.  Although we did go camping for the long weekend I didn't take near as many photos as I normally do.  I guess the girls are bigger now and when we go they have friends and they are off doing pre-teen things now.  Younger two went trick or treating for the first time and both enjoyed it.  So here is how our week 44 looked like in the album.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

project life 2018 | week #43

So close to being back on top to then fall slightly behind again.  In week 50 and here is week 43, 7 weeks behind ain't so bad, I can do this.  Week 43 I played with the stamp set, BIG DAY that is a bit of an oldie and I hadn't overly used it before, but had fun playing around with the set.  Here is how our week 43 looked in the family project life album.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Big Day stamp set and Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.

how do you document your life Q&A | with Cindy

Today for my, how do you document your life, Q and A, I have the creative Cindy from cinback.  I've been a long time admirer of Cindy's style and all her amazing handwriting!  Let's get to know more about Cindy and her way of documenting her everyday.

 

How long have you been documenting your life?

I have been documenting my life in some format or another since the early 2000s. Blogging was just becoming a thing and I somehow stumbled upon the blog of Ali Edwards. I immediately resonated with her philosophy and style of documenting and was completely inspired by her. From there I discovered other scrapbookers and signed up for every class that I could to learn about everything from photography, design, products and digital scrapbooking. 

 

What size format did you start with and what size do you do now?

I think I have tried every possible format for documenting my life. Initially, I started with 12x12 layouts, then 8.5x11, then the pocket page system became a thing and I did 12x12, 12x9 and 6x8 albums. As well I have documented in a variety of mini albums. Most recently I have been using the Traveler’s Notebook format. 

 

Do you document your life weekly, fortnightly or monthly?

This year I chose to do all my documenting in month by month traveler’s notebooks. Each month I filled a notebook with as many photos and stories as would fit. It is essentially a traditional layout format, but in a smaller size. However, even when I document in pocket pages, I generally stick to a monthly process and not worry about whether a spread starts at the beginning of a week or even a particular month. I just keep a running stream of photos and if a week or month ends in the middle of a spread, I just keep right on going. I also don’t worry about keeping the photos on a particular spread in chronological order, I just put them where they look best.

 

What keeps you motivated?

I am a curious person. I love to learn and try and perfect whatever I am working on. So I take a lot of courses and do a lot of playing and dabble in a lot of things and then I bring those skills back into whatever projects I am working on. The nice thing about the scrapbooking world is that it is always changing; from traditional to digital, the design of layouts, the multiple formats, new tools and products, and new people in the industry with fresh ideas to inspire me. I am motivated by and thoroughly enjoy the learning and creation process. 

 

Do you make a certain time to document or do you just do what you can when you can?

My daytime job is very rigorous in terms of thinking and I mostly sit at my desk and work on a computer, so when I get home in the evening I need to do things with my hands! Most of my evenings I dedicate to scrapbooking or paper crafting of some sort. I am definitely a night person, so sometimes I have to force myself to get to bed because of work the next day, otherwise I would work all night on scrapbooking!

 

1-3 Instagram craft accounts that inspire you. If they are more PL based that would be better.

I love the inspiration found on Instagram and these are a few of my fave accounts:

• melblackburn05
• paperandspool
• circleplusarrow
• hebaalsibai

 

How are you planning to document your 2019?

I started out the year 2018 intending to keep up pocket page documentation. I subscribed to Ali Edwards Stories By The Month kits and they are awesome, just what I needed. I kept up with the pocket pages until about Easter, then my focus went to the traveler’s notebooks. However, at this point, my plan is to record 2019 with pocket pages (12x12) once again. Since I already have the monthly kits by Ali Edwards, I am set and ready to go!

 

FIND MORE FROM CINDY HERE : INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | BLOG

how do you document your life Q&A | with Diane

Today for my, how do you document your life, Q and A, I have the talented Diane from Dearly Dee.  I've been following along with Diane for years now and I notice that Diane's never changed her format and I love that.  Let's get to know more about Diane and her way of documenting her everyday.

How long have you been doing documenting your life?

I started Project Life in 2013 and haven't stopped since. But I was scrapbooking layouts for probably a decade before that.

What size format did you start with and what size do you do now?
I started doing weekly 12x12 spreads and haven't changed anything since! Probably a little bit because I have SO many page protectors to use and a little bit because I love seeing all the albums lined up on my shelf.

Do you document your life weekly, fortnightly or monthly?
I document weekly, always have. But I know that not everything always goes to plan and some weeks might only have 1-2 photos and I make no judgments on myself for that. There shouldn't be any guilt in this hobby, you have to be able to make it work for the life you have right now!

What keeps you motivated?
Not going to lie, being on design teams and having a Youtube channel with subscribers who rely on me having a Project Life process video up every Tuesday is a huge motivation. But I also love the time I spend creating and I notice a difference in my mental state if I don't for any extended period of time. I don't really need "motivation" because I enjoy what I do so much. 

Do you make a certain time to document or do you just do what you can when you can?

I work some very long hours so the only real time I have to create and film is on the weekends. But I don't have a set time for that. I'm usually hanging out for it after a long work week so I don't have to try very hard to fit it in!

3 people that document their life and their instagram inspires you : 
Struggled a bit with this one, I get inspired from a lot of types of crafts/images/accounts instead of from other people's Project Life projects! But my favourite Project Life style creators are lifelovepaper (https://www.instagram.com/lifelovepaper/), In a Creative Bubble (https://www.instagram.com/inacreativebubble/) and Laura Wonsik (https://www.instagram.com/laura_wonsik/)

How are you planning to document your 2019?

I'm not planning on changing anything really. I'll still be doing weekly 12x12 Project Life and adding any additional stories or photos into my Pocket Page Notebooks. I already have my album for 2019, although I've run out of shelf space so I'll need a new plan for storing my albums!

 

FIND MORE FROM DIANE HERE : INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | BLOG

project life 2018 | week #42

 

For week 42 I got out the old stamp set delicious from Kellie Stamps, no longer available in clear but in digital and retiring at the end of 2018.  Here is how our week 42 looked like in the family album.

KELLIE STAMPS USED :  Funday Week and Delicious [available in digital], stamp sets and Large Number Cards, all available HERE. 

SUPPLIES : Bits and bobs from kits from The Messy Box, no longer sold.

ALBUM : Using a 6x8 Simple Stories album, HERE.

PHOTOS :  I've used the collect app for the 3x4 photos. All photos printed at home using my epson picture mate.