Amanda O'Banion

I love little brown boxes!

I am so excited! When I got home today from work, after almost slipping and busting my face on the sidewalk (I'm good like that), I saw it...a little brown box sitting on my porch!

This little brown box to be exact:

Woot woot!

A couple of days ago I watched a really neat video on one of the blogs I follow at Cherish the Ordinary Everyday about creating custom page protectors for your Project Life albums. She uses a sewing machine to literally stitch around the edge of whatever she is putting in the album whether its a card, a small photo, etc. GENIUS! You can watch her video here and make sure to check out the videos she has done of her own Project Life albums. They are absolutely AMAZING!

So I decided that I had to try it out! Except for one small thing...

I have absolutely NO idea how to use a sewing machine.

So I started doing some searching and I ran across this little thing and I knew I had to have it.

(notice my nicely painted nails from my manicure trip with Lindsay? Shaweet!)

Plus I found it at an incredible price for only $15 on Overstock.com.

I am sooo excited to try it out and the only reason I haven't yet is because I need some batteries. Bummer.

BUT, once I do I plan on making a video that shows you how you use it to create your own custom page protectors.

Shazam!

Now if only my other brown little box will arrive that holds my 6x12 page protectors I will be even more stoked!

While I was out I also picked up some additions for my PL album. I grabbed up some 8x8 protectors, 5x7 page protectors, some springy flower things, some extra 4x6 album sleeves, and I printed off a few of my digital layouts that I am incorporating into my album as well. Can't wait to show you guys my progress on Tuesday!

I also thought I would share this yummy recipe we are trying out tonight from thehungrymouse.

Can't wait to put that into my mouth.

(we're using chicken breasts instead of legs though so we'll see!)

I hope your Friday has found you happy and blessed! Don't forget to check out my Made to Crave Giveaway that is going on now and get in on the action!

Chao!

It's that time again...

It's Project Life Tuesday again I am stoked about this weeks post because I am completely caught up!

The last time I posted I still lacked a few photos for January but I finally got all of them printed off and all of my journaling done and I am ready to begin next weeks layout!

I am so excited to share with you what I have finished so far:

First of all, let's back up a bit to January. Now if you remember from my last posts I mentioned that I had finally decided that instead of doing this as a week-to-week thing, I am doing it more on a month-to-month basis. This is why I love Becky Higgins Project Life system. You can do whatever you want!

I also discovered Allie Edwards journaling overlays this week! They are available for purchase over at Designer Digitals and I am using them like crazy! If you check out her blog here you can find a link to download the journalers as well as instructions for how to use them in both Photoshop and Word. Loving them!

Here is an example of how I used it in my album.

They are so versatile. You could print them on any color of cardstock, change the color of the text, and being that they are overlays, even place them on top of photos. She even included overlays for specific days of the week. Perfection!

Here are a couple of my layouts that rounded out the month of January:

and then I began February:

In these layouts I started incorporating 8.5 x 11 page protectors into my album as well. This let me include a print out of my 14 Days of Love Challenge blog post as well as some of my gifts that I gave Landen during the Challenge and our Valentine's cards to each other. I am going to be purchasing the baseball card protectors this week to add all of my Valentine's day cards from the kiddos at school!

And more layouts:

and this weeks layout:

the bigger my album gets I am enjoying it more and more! It is so much fun looking through it and reading about things that happened not so long ago! I'm sure my love affair with all things Becky Higgins is only going to get bigger as the year goes on!

Have any of you been inspired to start Project Life this year? Maybe you are an experienced Project Lifer? I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on staying ahead of the game or creative things you've incorporated into your own albums!

Happy Tuesday!

And check back this evening: I'm hosting another giveaway!!

I'm linking up over at

Project Life...

So around Thanksgiving of last year I decided to take the plunge and purchase my very own Project Life kit from the incredible Becky Higgins.

If you've never seen it you really need to check it out. It is genius in a box. There are all these cute little cards for journaling and decorating, a spot for a picture a day, a date stamp, page protectors, a beautiful binder. EVERYTHING.

The main concept is to take a photo a day and then journal about them.

I thought about doing that.

And then realized that I really sucked at it.

So I decided to use the materials as just a generic annual family album.

One of my favorite things about the album is that is has these beautiful month dividers, so if I want to look at February pictures I just turn to the February section of the scrapbook via the nifty divider tabs. It is also in a 3-ring binder so nothing is stopping me from adding my own traditional scrapbook pages throughout the book. Like I said, genius.

So I finally got around to printing off my photos from January-Valentine's Day. I used mostly 4x6 photos but I followed this tutorial from one of my favorite bloggers, Erin at Sunny Side Up. She does a fabulous job of explaining how to create 2 wallets from a 4x6. You get 2 2x3 pictures out of each 4x6 which cuts down on printing cost. And I found that if I just selected wallet size in the printing options they were much too small. Erin's technique works perfectly. They are the perfect size for the spots in the middle.

I just trace a journaling card around the photo to round the edges and stick it in the album.

I am almost caught up through January with the journaling. I hope to get totally caught up this weekend, but I wanted to show you a little bit of what I have been working on.

(this is what my living room table has been looking like this week)

Here are the pages that I have completed so far for this year:

(album and cover page)

(pages 1 & 2, but I collaged them backwards for some reason)

(pages 3 & 4 . again, backwards, oh well)

(pages 5 & 6...why are all my collages backwards!! epic fail!)

I love that Becky provides a date stamp in the kit. It makes it so much easier to remember exactly what day something happened!

Since I didn't take a lot of pictures in January, and I didn't get to take any of when I wrecked my car, I scrounged up some coordinating scrapbook paper, cut it to size, and used it as a background for the business card of the collision center that worked on my car. I then used one of the tabbed journaling cards to journal about the wreck itself. Worked perfect. This is a great example of how versatile this kit is.

I am really pleased at how it is coming along!

DON'T FORGET! The give-away for the Valentine's mini closes at midnight TONIGHT! Check out my post here to read the rules and to comment and qualify!

Happy Friday everyone!

The weekend has arrived!

I am linking up here today to showcase my sweet-tea idea from my 14 Days of Love.