Journaling on Vacation

In my last post, I showed you how I planned to journal my vacation.  Well we are home from vacation and this is how it worked.  I carried the book with me everywhere.  When I had a few minutes, i.e. while I was waiting for a table at a restaurant, I jotted down notes for the day, keeping in mind what I had photographed.  I either dated or wrote the day number of our trip on each page. 

If you know me well at all, you will realize that there is no way that I remembered to document everything.  So I made good use of my time on our flight home to scroll through all the photos that I took on my camera.  I made a list of what we did each day from the photos. 

Since we arrived home, I have been taking time to go through the cards that I wrote up on vacation and have tried to fill in the things I missed while it is still fresh in my mind.  I plan to use some version of Becky Higgin's Project Life Kit to finish documenting our trip. 

Thanks for stopping by the Green House on the Hill today.  I hope to have some examples of my book together soon.  I will post my progress!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that today finds you surrounded by friends and family, enjoying a delicious meal.

Travel Journaling. Keeping it Simple.

Last week, I was rummaging through a box in which I keep blank mini books.  The box is full of books that I have bought with the idea that they would make a fun mini album.  Sometimes I do something with them quickly, but often they just sit in the box, waiting for a project.  Some of the books are clearly designed with scrapbooking in mind, but others were intended for something else. 

While looking through the box, I came across a Real Simple book (it is called an index card wheel) that I picked up a Target a few years ago.  At first I thought it would make a neat autograph book for our upcoming vacation.  But I came across a more tradition book for that purpose.  Today, it dawned on me that it will make the perfect book to take with me on vacation to record all of the stuff that happens.  The whole book is just 4x6 inches by about an inch deep, so a perfect size to throw in a handbag.  There are lines already printed on the pages, to keep my writing straight!  Since the pages are perforated, I can just pull the cards out of the book and use them on a layout.    

Now all I have to do is remember to pack it … oh yeah, and write in it!

Keeping Copies of My Cards

Welcome back into the Green House on the Hill.  Last week I shared 5 cards from Christmas’s past.  Today, I am going to show you what I do with my cards.  I almost always miscalculate the number of cards that I will need, so I end up with leftovers.  Since each card is a labor of love, I decided a few years back to create an album that is dedicated to my cards.  Each year, I create a 2-page, 8x8 layout featuring that year’s card and any memories that I have of the process of creating the card.  Sometimes it is a story about the card itself.  Other years it has something to do with capturing the picture that I use.  Below are a few photos of the album and some of the layouts. 

And I Have a Winner....

Thanks for all the kind words this week.  I enjoyed reading them all.  I picked a winner from the comments on Monday's blog post .... and .... the ... winner ... is ....

Caroleb

Please send me a convo on Club CK with your mailing info and I will get the magazine out to you!  Thanks to all for reading!

Striving for Perfection

I am so glad that you have joined me in the Green House on the Hill this week.  Today, I will be sharing the last of my old Christmas cards with you.  I hope that you have enjoyed looking at our cards over the years. Today’s card is all about capturing the perfect photo and using the perfect Christmas themed product.  So often when we start a papercrafting project we first look for the perfect photo and then for the perfect product to match the occasion.  On this card I threw that all out the window. 

First let’s start with the photo shoot.  I don’t know how photo shoots with children go in your world, but in mine two things happen.  The girls happily pose for about 20 or so photos and then one or all of them get tired.  Out of those photos, there are a bunch with glare on their glasses, closed eyes and funny expressions.  But that doesn’t stop my quest for the perfect photo … ok, so it does.  At some point, I have to make the decision to just go with the best of the bunch.  This particular year, two of the three girls were looking at the camera, which for me was good enough!

The next decision I needed to make was the product that I was going to use for the card.  Usually, I start with the cutest Christmas themed paper I can find.  Instead, I found a really cute pad of K & Company paper by Amy Butler that worked well with the red in my daughters’ shirts.  It wasn’t Christmas themed and didn’t contain a bit of red.  In fact it was loaded with pink, green and brown, but it was perfect for my purposes.  On the inside, I printed the dreaded Christmas letter!  I kept it short and sweet, since space was limited.  The finished card measures 4 ¼” by 5 ½”, which fits perfectly in an invitation size envelope.

So embrace the non-traditional and just be happy with the process.  Thanks for joining me this week … I will post the winner of the copy of Scrapbooking Holidays and Celebrations at 12 EST!

Day Four ... Simplifying Life

Welcome back into the Green House on the Hill.  Today is all about simplifying.  My daughters love the Disney show, Good Luck Charlie.  One of their favorite scenes is where the older kids ask their mom why she had 4 children.  Her response is that three was too easy, three is for quitters.  Well, if that is true then I am truly a quitter!  The year my third daughter was born our lives became pretty darn busy.  The older girls had lots of activities and we had a new person in our house who wanted our constant attention. 

So this is the year I decided to really embrace an easy to mass produce card.  No x-acto knives, no paper piecing, not even a decorative punch.  The fact that a few of my friends had suggested an intervention following the pop up card, threatening to take away my x-acto knife, might have played a role in this decision.  Sheer exhaustion may also have had something to do with it. 

I designed a card that had nothing but straight cuts … all made with my trusty paper trimmer.  I used Printshop Deluxe (by Broderbund) to create my photo collage, add the sentiment and signature to the card.  I printed 2 cards per page on cardstock and then mounted this on a half sheet of 8 ½ by 11” cardstock.  I love this size because Staples sells a box of 100 greeting card envelopes that a 5 ½ by 8” card fits in perfectly.  Since I selected photos from throughout the year, I converted everything to black and white to make the photos work together.  The row of tiny photos (most are about 1” x 1”) highlighted our adventures that year. 

Stop back tomorrow for the last of my Christmas card walk down memory lane!  And don’t forget to leave on a comment on Monday’s blog post to be entered to win a copy of Scrapbooking Holidays and Celebrations!  I will be picking a winner tomorrow afternoon!