July Project Life

I started scrapbooking with my sisters several years ago. We tried to keep up with traditional scrapbooks but with school and work it became overwhelming. I always made pages here and there but could never keep up. Then I started scrapbooking using the Project Life Kit from Becky Higgins this year and I feel much better about scrapbooking this way.

From January to March I was documenting each day by taking a picture or including something about that particular day. Mid March I became very overwhelmed with work and often forgot to take a picture of something that day. April and May became a blur as well and I didn't keep up with my project life book. It wasn't until the end of May that I was able to go back to it but I decided to take a different approach. Instead of taking a picture each day I would document the week at a time. This way I wouldn't feel bad about not having something for each day and could add more things from more eventful days. This approach for me has worked the best and so far it has made things easier. So these are the layouts for this month. You can view the past ones on my flickr.

july mini book : completed!

In late June I had the idea to document the month of July using my Fuji Instax camera. You can see the original post here. Half way through the month the mini book was getting too fat and I had to change the o wire to a one inch o wire. This seemed to work for a while but then it started to bother me that the photos were facing each other and might get messed up in the long run.

I decided to change the format of the mini book by making it horizontal and putting two photos side by side. I kept the one inch o wire and it fits perfectly now. The new dimensions of the book are 4 inches by 5.5 inches. Oh, and I also used the new stamps that I recently carved since I figured the ones I previously used would look too small.

Sometimes it was hard to remind myself to bring my camera along or to find something to take a picture of on a slow day. I'm glad that I kept up with it though and now it's finally finished.

July 1: grass outside my house

July 2: gold glittery shoes

July 3: the trail at the state park

July 4: tree outside my house

July 5: brick from my house

July 6: light fixture at bcbg

July 7: new running shoes

July 8: my niece and I

July 9: palm tree from the neighborhood

July 10: resaca at the state park

July 11: city water tower

July 12: clouds

July 13: new haircut

July 14: graffiti in downtown

July 15: road trip to Austin

July 16: roller derby

July 17: friends dog, Hudson

July 18: boyfriend and I at Hamilton Pool

July 19: view of Travis lake

July 20: Lago Vista

July 21: Hey Cupcake!

July 22: my neice

July 23: boyfriend's dad's truck

July 24: shoe shot

July 25: local post office

July 26: city water tower

July 27: park sign

July 28: my niece and I

July 29: my niece and I

July 30: Ralph

July 31: my boyfriend :)

Hopefully I will remember to do this again next year!

type + stamps

Last week I combined two things that I love: typography and rubber stamps. I printed out an alphabet in helvetica font and transferred each letter onto rubber. Throughout the course of a day I carved on and off in between tv shows. It took me several hours to finish but I really liked how they came out! Each stamp is about 2 inches in height and I can already think of a few projects that I want to use these in.

This little red book in the pictures is my second stamp book. I test all the stamps I carve into these little books so that I can keep a record of the stamps I've made. I think by now I have made several hundred stamps some of which have been shipped across the world.

Next I will be working on the numbers!

austin mini book.

earlier this month my boyfriend and i took a small trip to austin. it was the last time that he would have any time off for the rest of the year so we wanted to make the most of it. we did a lot of outdoorsy things that we don't really get to do at home so that was fun.

i did all the prepping for the mini book before we left (i.e. the cover, all of the stamping, and sewing). on the trip i took a small "craft bag" that had my canon selphy printer, scissors, double stick tape, washi tape, markers, and pens. here is what the end result of the mini book.

the size of the book is 4 inches by 6 inches with 1.5 inch binder rings.

things that i love about this mini book:

- the size and simplicity.
- that i was able to keep up with it on the trip.

- how it came together.

things that i would change:

- try and do more journaling for each day

- keep track of more memorabilia.

july mini book

on july 1st, i had the idea of creating a mini book that would document the entire month through pictures. i decided that i would take one photo a day using my fuji instax camera.

this is how i created this mini book in case you want to make a similar one.

1. i cut two pieces of thick chipboard. the dimensions were 3 inches wide and 4.25 inches in height.

2. i cut 17 pieces of heavy kraft paper in the same dimensions. (i wanted to have a few extra pages just in case i wanted to journal or add other things)

3. i used my Bind It All to punch the holes and bind it together. i used a 1/2 inch wire but i'm going to have to switch it to at least an inch very soon because it's getting very big.

4. i used a date stamp to stamp each of the pages.

5. i used my hand carved stamps on the cover with staz on inks.

I am securing the pictures with double sided tape and then adding a strip of washi tape on the top.

mini book 1.

i think that i have become obsessed with mini books. they are the perfect way for me to use all of the paper i have. and i also love being able to use the stamps that i have carved over the years. the stamps can really add character to a plain piece of paper. i have several mini books in the works but i am planning to use this one for an upcoming trip to austin. we visited austin earlier this month but i didn't end up documenting the trip because i wasn't prepared. this time i'm bringing along my mini book and i'll be hoarding every piece of paper i can find while i'm there!

i will be randomly be prepping some of the pages and i'll post them here as i go along. first i will tackle the chipboard cover.

here's a look at all of the pages!

heart stamp

i have a lot of random shaped pieces of rubber that I can't seem to let go of. a sign of a hoarder, i know. but i knew i could use them for something! i decided to carve these little heart shaped stamps that 1/2" wide from all the scraps. i think they look really cute with the mini wooden spools. now i want to think of other mini stamps i can make :)

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