Young Professionals Council

There are never enough hours in a day. If I had more, I would like to spend more of my time doing things I enjoy like scrapbooking and volunteering. I definitely have not been doing much of either lately. But I have been decent about staying connected with a few good people. It’s Steph’s birthday today and I want to wish her a happy birthday. She has really helped me branch out to try different things like the event above. It was refreshing to volunteer and help the community when at the time I had no job and was still searching for my life’s purpose.

Vanessa & Me

This is the last one for the Double Scoop kit. These pictures are quite recent. My Godfather had couple of days off and we made plans to take a trip to Boston. I have a few friends there that I haven’t seen in years and Vanessa is one of them. We met in Chinese school over a decade ago. The last time I saw her was at my Chinese school graduation. She moved to Boston for school and had stayed there. It was so nice catching up and meeting her boyfriend. 

There were overlays in the kit and I wasn’t sure what to do with them because I didn’t have any photos that fit in the sizes they had included. So I used them for layering. The most difficult part of the layout was to write my journaling under that orange overlay. I didn’t want to write on top in case the marker smeared on the plastic. I also use the branding strip from a My Mind’s Eye Cut & Paste collection paper as the anchor for the photo placement. I love using all my scraps to get the most out of my supplies.

#Waikiki

Brace your eyes because I subconsciously I must have been dying from the neutral pastel colors that I had to throw up color all over this one. Third one made from Double Scoop kits – it explodes with the brighter colors of the kit. I never thought myself as a beach person, but occasionally I do enjoy a nice tan. I dragged Martin to the beach a few times when we were in Hawaii. What else are you supposed to do other than relax on a beach haven? I brought in a circle punch in to cut punch out some cloud pattern paper to remind myself of the gorgeous Waikiki sky having fluffy clouds.

Gerrit's Visit

This was a comfortable step moving back to having more color on my page. I still tried to have a subtle color background. To add the color, I used strips from one of the 12x12 sheets that had a horizontal strip pattern. I cut along the rough lines it had and had cut the ones that would not span past the photo width and had them peak out on the sides and hid the divides underneath the photo. I notched the ends with a banner cut and stacked the strips one on top of the other. It created a photo mat to lay the picture over. Add a couple of stars, and I called it done!

Zori's 32nd Birthday

Did anyone else take advantage of the massive Black Friday sale at Studio Calico? Because I sure did! They were offering five dollar scrapbook kits. Next year I think I may buy more; but, it depends on how I progress with the five kits I purchased myself. Hopefully, Studio Calico does it again next year. I wanted to make a ton of layouts with one kit; after four pages with the Double Scoop kit, I was out of alpha stickers to make titles. The test run was to limit myself to using only what the kit included. Besides the ink I needed in order to use the stamp, everything else was in the kits. Four pages is not as many as I hoped it would produce, but once I pick a new set of alpha stickers to use with the kit, I am sure I will be able to create a few more.

This was the very first one I made. It took me awhile to feel comfortable cutting right into a full 12x12 sheet to use as smaller pieces for the full page. When I made this, I was also trying to go for simplistic and neutral color combo. It was at this point I realized it wasn’t my style. I admire people that can create gorgeous pages with a lot of white space and minimal supplies and make it look amazing. For the life of me, I did not feel my page is complete if it doesn’t have enough stuff or color. I love color. To go from lots of color and patterns to just white and neutral may have been a giant leap my creativity was not ready for. Overall, I think it turned out well and it fulfills my need to cover the page. The next few layouts will look more like me. There is a lot more color!

Project Life: February 2013

I am playing catch up with blogging. As of right now, I am up to date on Project Life. My pace is different than most scrapper that participate. Studio Calico sends me the kit at the beginning of the month. However, I do not scrap the month until the next month. After the month is over, I gathered all my last month's photos and print the ones that I want to use in my Project Life album and my standard twelve by twelve pages. Sam's Club is my go to for printing at thirteen cents a photo, which is a darn good rate.

Credit: Studio Calico

Blogs that I read of scrappers like to scrap everyday life; sometimes, I do too. But, usually I only document more concrete memories. Studio Calico's February Project Life Kit was called Front Row. Every now and then, I will sneak an everyday photo in: one can see a picture of my desk and a nice sunset from my balcony in these spreads.

Project Life: January 2013

I decided to sign up for the Studio Calico Project Life Kit when it first was available for pre-registration  last year. Luckily, when it started selling in January; I already had signed up for the subscription. Since day one, they have been sold out every time; there is still a waiting list.

The very first Project Life kit was called Block Party. I had decided to have the majority of my project life kit from Studio Calico to be the supplies I used for this year's Project Life. All left overs are being used for my full twelve by twelve pages and last year's project life album.

Credit: Studio Calico

It was a tough decision as to where to start my 2013 album because I celebrated my New Year in the middle of my vacation to Germany. I took it literally and started with the pictures of when the clock struck twelve. I do not follow the week by week process that many do. I find it super silly that people think it has to be used a certain way. When I read or listen to other scrappers stress over it, it confuses me. It is just recording memories, relax...