Wednesday, August 31, 2011

OLW Blog Hop!

Hello Fellow OLW peeps! This post will be short today as I am writing it the night before the blog hop and I am super tired. My lil boy, who is soon to be 8 months old is still not sleeping through the night and now is teething to boot. He and his soon to be 3 year old sister are totally keeping me ACTIVE which is my word for the year. I feel like I am go go going, yet have no energy!

This month I finished July’s prompt of “make a playlist”. I knew from prior searches that I wasn’t going to find my actual word in a song. (I tried in the first month of the class) So I chose songs that really resonate with me right now. The artists are all very different as well as the songs....but it somehow works. :)

My playlist is….

“Here We Go” by the Fresh Beat Band

“The Kill” by 30 Seconds to Mars

“Knuckle Down” by Ani Difranco

“Within a Mile of Home” by Flogging Molly

“Closer to the Edge” by 30 Seconds to Mars

“Breathe Me” by Sia

“True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper

“Til We Die” by Slipknot

“32 Flavors” by Ani Difranco

When I was putting this together, I ran out of “s” in a certain color…hence missing an “s” on “bliss”. Lol I hope you and your word are growing together this year.




Lynn is next on the hop! If you get lost along the way, here is a list!
Chrissy


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Week in the Life ~ finished project!

Well...I've been done with this for a while now but I wan't able to get good photos of my project so I made a video. Then I had to figure out how to post a video....then my video was too large for blogger...then I uploaded to youtube.com....then a friend taught me all about embeding the code. Word up. WOW! Alas...here it is!


I love this project and I'm sure I will do it again. This has inspired me to also attempt Project Life which is similar to this but for an entire year. It isn't as in depth, more of an overview but it's a similar format with the page protectors. Ali is doing project life this year, if you want to check it out, go here.

Thanks for stopping by!
Peace and Love
Chrissy

Friday, August 12, 2011

Week In The Life ~ Step 3

After I chose my 7 favorites to enlarge, I had to move onto the smaller photos. I had a ton of photos to sort through because sometimes I had to take 10 photos to get one good one. So my next step started with going through the photos day by day and deleting the blurry and really bad photos that I would never use. After that it was still a lot of photos so for my overwhelmed mind, I worked 4 photos at a time. My inspiration for this came from Ali's post about bringing the photos together. In this she shows how to crop/resize and drag 4 lil photos to one 5x7, in order to save on printing costs. I print at home with my Epson R1900 and eventually ran out of ink and 5x7 paper. HEEHEE. I just got my ink yesterday, so I then put the lil photos on 8.5x11 photo paper, which worked out just as well. Below are the different page protectors I will be working with and some of the photos I have printed. I really lucked out and for each of my family, I was able to make a photo booth type strip...they are super funny. Those are printed on 8.5x11 and the photos are roughly 3x3. (some are a lil smaller to fit in the 11inch height) I'm going to trim them to the same width and cut a regular 8.5x11 page protector to fit, then sew the page protector to hold the strips in. I can't wait to start cutting up these photos! Only 2 more days to print!

Ali is done with her book already and you can check it out here. I'm really enjoying this project so much and I hope you are too!
Chrissy

Monday, August 8, 2011

Week In The Life ~ Step 2

For Step 2, I decided to pick out my favorite 7 photos and print them in either 8 x 10 or 8.5 x 11. Since this is an 8.5 x 11 book, I tried to find some vertical shots. The 3 that I liked that were horizontal, I printed in 8 x 10 and knew I could crop them to fit width wise. On one of the days, I had two shots I really like so one will go in front and one on the back of the page protector.


I wanted to create a simple layout I could use on all 7 pages that will open each day. I used 7 different border punches by various brands, Provence Capital Letter by Technique Tuesday (retired), A Date with Ali by Ali and Technique Tuesday, Echo Park Paper, and Birthstone brads (November).

I'm loving how everything is turning out! I'll be working on more today...step 3 will either include working on the smaller photos or the journaling. Go get crafty!
Chrissy

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Week In The Life ~ Step 1

When I looked through my hundreds of photos and high stack of receipts/tags/napkins/stuff of everyday life, I was a bit over whelmed at the thought of putting this project together. Since Photoshop and I don't get along, I decided to start with the "stuff" since I don't need to edit that. :D I cleared off a long fold out table and laid out my page protectors and put sticky notes above them with the days listed. I reviewed my PDF printouts (thank you so much Ali) and started putting items with the appropriate days. My "stuff" includes lots of clippings, receipts, tags, art by Audrey, napkins, and bottle caps.

It is very neat to see the project starting to come together and I haven't even added photos yet. I ordered a variety of page protectors and my album from http://www.scrapbook.com/. I was a bit disappointed with the album color because online it looks more of a bright yellow but in person it is actually a yellow/orange...a bit dingy looking compared to what I had envisioned but I'm going to make it work. My archival pen seems to be leaking all over me when I write so I will need to go pick up a new one today.

My next step is going to be printing out 7 enlarged photos, one for each day. Then I will open the dreaded PSE and start making collages and trying to work with the overlays.
Happy Crafting!
Chrissy

Week In The Life ~ all about day 7

I am working on putting together my Week in the Life album and realized I didn’t post anything about day 7! Sunday 7/31, might have been one of my favorite days in this project. I know I didn’t get all the photos I wanted but the memories that I recorded on paper are both amazing and hilarious at the same time.

Observations ~ Audrey is a “daddy’s girl” and Dominic is a “momma’s boy”. We talk about poop way too much in this house. (Dominic’s issues and Audrey’s slow potty training)

Gratitude ~ This was one of those days where humor was greatly welcomed. Nick and I have a sarcastic nature and sometimes our banter can get annoying or too much, but TODAY we were on a roll. Making each other laugh and laugh. It was awesome.

Overheard ~ There were so many things I wanted to write down today, so much that I started texting Nick the things he was saying and he told me that “we should just record our conversations today”. Nick said “I now know what stars feel like with the Paparatzi.” At one point Audrey handed him his belt and he put it on, she said “good job” and he said “That’s right, you don’t like boys who sag their pants.” Lol There is another funny one, but might be TMI. So I’ll save that one for the book. J I was talking to the baby and I said “hey handsome” and Audrey looked at Dominic and repeated me, “he hansome”. So cute.

Favorite Moment ~ I have a few for this day. I was tickling Dominic to get him to laugh his awesome laugh and Audrey joined in. She kept trying and trying to tickle him just right. I love that she is so into playing with him. The next favorite moment involves me and a stranger. I went to Best Buy looking for an ipod dock and the sales associate that was helping me was a teenager complete with lil zits. He was turning the music up on a few, then we got to one with a sub-woofer and he found a song on the radio with a good beat. We looked at each other and started bopping our heads, then before we knew it, we were dancing in the aisle with the woofer bumping. Great moment.

A few favorite photos of the day...

Sunrise in the trees.

New sunglasses rule.

Greek food is my favorite.

Nick and Audrey "clicking".

Audrey playing outside before it stormed.

Hope your project is coming along well. I plan to be working on it a lot today! Can't wait to see how it comes together.
Chrissy

Sunday, July 31, 2011

One Little Word Blog Hop (August 1st)

Hello fellow OLW peeps! It has been a few months since I’ve played along on the hop. I fell a bit behind on the prompts but I did keep up with my word ~ ACTIVE. We have been making changes around the house which include eating healthier and getting ACTIVE. Even when we are super tired because our 6 month old is still not sleeping through the night, we are making the attempts to do things. ACTIVE isn’t only about eating and exercise for me, it encompasses all things. I am being more ACTIVE with my creativity and reading more, which is really nourishing me. My husband and I are going out on more date nights and we are also talking about future plans to move out of Arizona to a place where we both will be happy. All this ACTIVITY is amazing. These are a few photos of how my book is coming along. I really enjoyed June’s prompt! I’m still working on July’s but music is a joy for me so it will be done soon.




I hope your word is still thriving in your life. If you are here randomly please check out Ali’s class at Big Picture Classes and you are more than welcome to come along on our hop. Thank you Margie for organizing this. Check out the list below for more inspiration. Jan is next on the hop!

Chrissy

Here is the list of the hop...Enjoy!