2/21/15

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you're staying warm, where ever you are! The snow is coming down heavily here, so I'm stuck inside for the weekend. That's fine with me though.

Snow + Puppies + Blanket = Warm Snuggly Heaven

So, while I'm staying inside today, I thought I'd share my layout about the flight to Paris. I'm currently using this page as my cover page for the album. Once again, I haven't been able to take great pictures in a while. Please forgive me!

My Mind's Eye - Jubilee Collection - Tangerine -Honor Traveler  

 October Afternoon - Boarding Pass - Chip 'n' Stick

Recollections Travel Stamp Jar

Some of the items I used were from my scrap pile, so I'm not sure who they belong to anymore. It's been so liberating to try using only my scrap pile nowadays, but it does get frustrating when I'm trying to give credit. Either I've forgotten totally or the item is no longer around to link to.

I used brown string to show were I was coming from and going to, and then placed a chipboard airplane on top. I've been waiting to use the cute airplane chipboards that I have for a while now. We usually don't fly to places so they've sat in storage for quite some time. When traveling, I always try to take pictures that truly tell the story. Your plane ticket, favorite coffee, local cuisine, etc. These photos normally tell more about your trip than the average tourist picture. 

Oh, and don't forget to check out my Etsy shop! I've got some great printables in there for TRAVEL and Valentine's Day!

2/7/2015

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Since the weather was nice today, I decided to go out for a walk. We rarely seem to get a warm day around here. (I can't believe 50 degrees is what I consider warm nowadays!)  I suited up and took the puppies out with me. Hubbie says that I look silly in my workout gear, but here's a secret.... I feel sassy! LOL

Then I sat down to my Project Life album. I'm a little behind but I was so happy to be able to use my new set of journal cards that I made. You can see my Work Life Journal Cards and my NERDY Journal Cards. There's also a sneak peak at one of my future sets to come.

I just had to scrap my BLACKLIST obsession. I signed up for Hulu just to get caught up again on the most current episodes. Love that show!

I hope everyone is enjoying some sunny weather today. Get out there and make some memories to scrap!

Hello Again!

Hello again friends! I hope some of you are still reading.

Time sure does fly! We've managed to move to two different states and two completely different jobs. Hopefully life has settled down enough that I can get back to my blogging world. Here's some of what I've been up to.

I'm still scrapping my wedding album. I can't believe that it's been over 2 years and I'm still working on it. (Please excuse my photos for a little while. I'm having to use my phone's camera nowadays).

I had the opportunity to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris France with my hubbie. I'm probably going to be scrapping those pictures until the day that I die!

And now I'm making Project Life cards on the side for my Etsy shop. Make sure to stop by and check out some of my goodies! https://www.etsy.com/shop/VibrantValley
I'm slowly adding things as I can. Life sure is getting interesting. :)

I'm Moving

Summer Love

Can't wait to show you what I have coming up! Make sure check back with me soon.

Maya Road & October Afternoon Mini Album

I was browsing through my local Hobby Lobby when I came across the cutest mini album in the world. It was a three ring binder by Maya Road that had a removable canvas cover. As soon as I laid my eyes on the mini album, my MIL and I both grabbed one. You can see a similar one here, but my mini album doesn't have the jean pocket on the front. It came with 3 canvas pages and 3 chipboard pages. It was so nice that they mixed up the pages like that because it gave me plenty of surfaces to choose from.

Tattered Angels - Glimmer Mist - Electric Blue,  October Afternoon - Farmhouse Collection - Shape Stickers,  October Afternoon - Farmhouse Collection - Journaling Cards, October Afternoon - Farmhouse Collection - Gravel Road, October Afternoon - Sasparilla - Little Flyers

I decided to use my mini album for all the extra engagement photos that I knew I would never get around to scrapping (I have TONS of pictures everywhere). First things first, I took the canvas cover off my mini album and sprayed it with Electric Blue and let it dry. The color dried so pretty, not too dark and not too bright. Looking at the color blue, I decided to go with a simple prime color scheme (Blue, Red, and Yellow). The yellow doily sticker and the red rose sticker brought those colors to the cover of my mini album without being too childish. That's one of the main things I love about the Farmhouse collection; the colors are bright but mature. To ensure that everything stuck to the canvas cover, I used my sewing machine to sew them down.

While the cover was off, I covered the inside chipboard of my mini album with a fun and simple stripe. I loved it because it reminded me of seersucker (which is a southern thing!). I can't say enough about this Maya Road album. It was so easy to maneuver and the binder rings are so fun. I wish I had grabbed another mini album like this. Hopefully they will still be at Hobby Lobby for a ways to come.

The journaling cards were just perfect for all of my journaling. The colors and sayings were fun and they were the perfect size for the pages in the mini album. I didn't have to trim them at all. I just said what I wanted to say and glued it down.

This picture is actually a funny story. I wanted to have my engagement photos outside purely for the fields and hay bales. After spending months looking up "engagement photo ideas" I had a specific look in mind. Unfortunately, God had other things in mind.... like rain. When we got to the farm, all the hay bales were soaked and we couldn't sit in front of them or on them. But I was hell bent on a photo with one, so I made Caleb lean against one with me. I got my hay bale after all. : D

I love this journaling card specifically because of the church on the hill. I thought it tied in with the theme of marriage and a wedding. So, to go with the rolling countryside, I chose a picture of us out in 'the country'. The good times sticker is actually a rub on from their 5 and Dime collection. I couldn't find a link for you since it's no longer available.

The 'My Best Friend' sticker on this spread is actually from Sasparilla's little flyers. It was meant to be put on a flag, but I just liked it alone. The chipboard pages lended themselves to photos very well. All I did was run my ATG on top of the chipboard and press my photo onto it. Then, I flipped it over and used an exacto knife to trim around the edges. Lastly, I rubbed the edges with a nail file to get a smooth finish.

This picture was so cute but the photographer waited until the very end of the photo shoot to do it. Why does that matter? Well, it's a very simple equation:

1 tired man + 1 cutesy pose = 1 extremely grumpy man. 

He did NOT want to do this picture, but I'm glad I forced it out of him. I think the heart that our hands make is very sweet. What can I say? I'm a mushy kind of girl.

And this is the very last page of my mini album. I thought it would only be fitting to end on the photo of Caleb and I looking towards the future and leaving everything behind. This is also very meaningful for me because this is how Caleb walks with me ever since our first date. Ever the gentleman, his hand is always firmly on the small of my back. 

I absolutely love this mini album and I hope I get a chance to make another one of these. And I also hope that you'll stop by to see me again soon. If you haven't already, make sure to follow my blog by choosing an option on the right side of the screen. I appreciate all my followers and you'll be updated if I post anything new! See you soon!

Tiny Bird with a Big Song - My Mind's Eye

When I laid my eyes on MME's paper, Songbird, I fell in love with the saying. "I feel like a tiny bird with a big song." It really struck a cord with me because when I got engaged I wanted to shout it from the rooftop. Even now, I can't help but weave wedding plans into any conversation. (I promise that I truly don't mean to. I just happens.) I just feel like I'm bursting with happiness and there's not aren't enough voices to sing it all. In my engagement photos, there was a succession of three photos. The one I loved the most was of me laughing. I know that it wasn't the most flattering of them all, but it really showed how I was feeling: happy, excited, and bursting with energy.

My Mind's Eye - Follow your Heart - Be Happy - Favorite Things, My Mind's Eye - Follow your Heart - Be Happy -  Happy Doily, My Mind's Eye - Follow your Heart - Be Happy - Striped Pink, My Mind's Eye - Follow your Heart - Be Happy - Songbird, The Paper Studio - Spare Parts - Doily Ribbon 3 pk, Spellbinders - Nestablities - Lacey Circles

The journaling reads: I had thought about cancelling our engagement photos because everyone said they were a waste of money. I'm so glad that we went ahead with them. They are so precious to me.

When in doubt, I can always fall back on simple design basics. You can't go wrong with a simple three photo layout with one photo enlarged. Your eyes automatically go to the enlarged image and then can wander equally between the outer two. This also works with color. If you want to draw attention to a specific photo, you can turn all the other photos Black and White and leave only one photo in color. To bring more attention to my center photo, I made sure to only mat that photo with white cardstock.

When I had finished my layout, I realized that I had an uneven page. The cluster at the bottom right seemed to weigh down that side of the paper. So, I knew I had to focus on the top left to even things back out. I cut out the doilies from Happy Doily using just regular scissors and not trying to be too accurate. I just went around the general shape. Then I used the Spellbinders die to cut them out. This gave me a very intricate cut and lots of detail. I placed them in between the papers to show the different layers.

I hope you enjoyed this layout and hopefully it gave you a little inspiration for your own projects. If you haven't already, make sure to follow my blog so you can get updates instantly!