Project Life

I have struggled with the decision of what to do about my scrapbooking hobby for quite some time now. I have gone back and forth because while I absolutely love the creativity of scrapbooking- the time it takes is something I have not been enjoying. As of January 1st I was officially two years behind with my scrapbooking- 2013 and 2014- two years of scrapbooking to do. I also at some point would like to scrapbook everything from 2008 and earlier that I have in simple photo albums. I also would like to be caught up and scrapbook as I go.

Enter Project Life.

If you haven't heard of Project Life it's a simplified version of scrapbooking where you slip photos and memories into slots (scrapbooking when you have time) and easy to maintain. So I went out on New Years Day to Michaels and purchased my supplies.

I purchased a Project Life Starter kit...

A Project Life Album..

And of course Project Life scrapbooking pages.


I have started using them a little bit- but I will be sharing my Project Life journey as I get used to this new scrapbooking system and keep you updated on how I feel about it. So far, I like it and it takes significantly less time then traditional scrapbooking. I also plan on sharing some scrapbooking layouts and showing you how I am using the system!

Do you use Project Life?

My Disney World Vacation Scrapbook

Despite the frigid, snowy winter days we've been having in Rhode Island lately, I've been hanging out in Disney World- in my scrapbooking life!

Today I thought I would show you my Disney Vacation scrapbook that I recently completed. I may have mentioned before that I am not a fancy scrapbooker. I think of myself as a practical scrapbooker- I don't have the time, nor do I want to spend the time making each page perfect. I don't have the patience to work on one page for an hour. I'm more of a slap-together-those-pages-and-get-this-done-as-fast-as-possible kinda girl. Therefore, my scrapbooks will never be the most beautiful albums in the world, but they do a good job of preserving my photos and memories, and that is all I really need them to do.

This scrapbook was purchased in Downtown Disney during my last day in Florida. You can also purchase it online here. I ended up with extra pages in the back of my book since it was only a four day trip, I didn't have an overwhelming amount of things to book. I also liked the fact that there is a folder in the back of this scrapbook. I didn't end up using it, but it's nice to have that option.

So, without further ado, my July 2013 Disney World Vacation Scrapbook...

Hope you enjoyed this view of my scrapbook! Do you scrapbook?

When my picture print orders come in....

I thought today I would show you the process I go through when I get an order of picture prints in.

Last week I shared with you a photo deal that gave you 101 free prints, and I also received two codes for 50 free prints each. That's 201 photos that came through the mail to me this week... 201!

Now, if you know me, and know how many pictures I take you know that 201 pictures barely makes a dent in the number I take in a single month. However, dealing with 201 pictures at one time is a process, and I know that many people struggle with what to do with their pictures once they arrive at their home. In fact, someone I know has years of their family photos all still in the envelopes they came back in from the photo developing place. I'm talking- two HUGE bins full of envelopes of pictures. When I saw that my heart stopped for a moment because I know there are so many better ways to save those memories!

So here's what I do...

First I start off by laying out all the pictures by event. This particular set of pictures was from my trip to France, so I started off sorting by event, and then after finishing that particular arrangement, I put them in piles by day.

For normal, every day pictures I just place them by event, since I generally don't have more than one thing to scrapbook during a single day.

Once I'm done laying out all the pictures by event/day I put them in individual makeshift folders. I had a pack of paper that had been bought for event programs back in my dance company days, and still have a ton of paper left over so I fold each page in half, staple both sides and tada! My very own folder for each event.

Now, once the pictures are inside each folder, it's time to put the "other" stuff in there as well. For France I had quite a few items that I wanted to include in my scrapbook: ticket stubs, programs, maps, etc... So I sorted all of those out by day as well. (It's helpful to have your events written down somewhere so you can sort more efficiently)

Once everything is in it's individual folder altogether, it is time to file it away until I'm ready to work on that particular scrapbook.

I use a basket that I found at Target a few years ago to hold all my "to-be-scrapbooked" folders.

Yeah... it's getting a little tight in there...might be time to get scrappin' again!

Scrapbooking Update

Happy Halloween!!!!

If you've been reading along for awhile now, you know that I'm an avid scrapbooker.

I love the idea of having a whole built-in wall unit lined with scrapbooks depicting different times of my life. I love to look back on past memories and having a scrapbook with fun backgrounds and embellishments just makes it even prettier.

I started heavily scrapbooking back in 2009, and have completed scrapbooks for 2009, 2010, and 2011.
My current project is completing my 2012 scrapbook....

...and I'm almost done!

I'm currently scrapbooking October of 2012, which means I only have 3 months of events to scrap until this book is done!

I love making layouts and figuring out where everything should be- but I'm so excited to have this book behind me!

After I finish this 2012 scrapbook, what's next?

Well, next up is to start my 2013 scrapbook. I want to have an annual scrapbook for each year, so I will start up with the next year, hopefully catching up eventually!

In addition to having a 2013 scrapbook, I plan on also doing a Disney World scrapbook for the trip I took there in July, and I also plan on completing a scrapbook for the trip I took to France in September. That's three scrapbooks for the year of 2013. Eek!

I'm a little nervous that I will never catch up...but *when* I someday have a ton of time and manage to catch up- I'm hoping to move backwards and scrap everything including family pictures through my childhood. Well that's the plan!

Have you been scrapbooking lately? Do you feel like you're constantly behind?!

Postcard Scrapbook

One of the projects I just completed recently is my Postcard Scrapbook. This will be volume 1, of what I'm sure will be many scrapbooks in the future. 

I decided to take every postcard that I have received and scan the backs into my computer and print off a copy of the message written. 

I started off by writing the names of  most of the locations of the postcards on the first page. I just used many colored sharpies and quickly wrote them in.

I wanted this to be a very simple scrapbook, not anything fancy. So I simply taped each piece in and that's what I stuck with throughout the entire album.

I think this was a fun idea, because I can now look back on all my postcards and see the actual postcard picture and the message written on the back. I like the idea of having a book I can flip through instead of having a pile of postcards to sift through.

What do you do with your postcards?

My Memories Suite Review and Giveaway!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are ready to tackle this week!

So I recently was contacted to host a giveaway and post a review here on the blog. At first I was a little hesitant because I am such a newbie at this blogging thing, but I honestly couldn't contain my excitement at the product being offered for review!

My Memories Suite is an awesome digital scrapbooking program that I have been playing with for a week now. As an avid scrapbooker I love the idea of being able to do simpler scrapbooking pages (the ones that don't involve the extra stuff like ticket stubs, ribbons and programs) on the computer and printing them to avoid all the taping and extra work.

While playing around with My Memories I really enjoyed playing around with all the different backgrounds. There are so many different color palettes to chose from, and very nice patterns as well.

I really enjoyed testing out the different backgrounds and putting my own pictures in and adding my own captions. Then I discovered the templates....

How cute is this back to school template?! There are so many back to school ones which would be great if you have kids!

In addition to all the different layouts you can use for free with the purchase of this program, there are a ton of different packages you can also purchase. Each package has a different theme meaning that you can use this program for every single event you could possibly want to scrapbook.

Either way, it is great that you can chose whether you want to start from scratch and create your own page or start with a layout and have a starting point. Who wouldn't like all these options? It also makes scrapbooking easy and that's always a plus in a busy life!

So thanks to the extremely generous folks over at My Memories Suite, I have an amazing deal for you!
Go to http://www.mymemories.com and use the code STMMMS36830 to receive $10 off the purchase of My Memories Suite. In order to get $10 off you must put the My Memories Suite program in your cart and then copy and paste the code into the field provided.

In addition to getting $10 off your purchase, My Memories is also allowing me to give one away here on the blog!

Also, one of you will win the My Memories Suite computer program!

If you are interested in winning this program, please enter through rafflecopter below. This giveaway will be open for one week, and I will be choosing a winner next Monday.

Good luck!




a Rafflecopter giveaway



***Disclaimer: My Memories gave me the chance to try out this program for free so I would be able to honestly review it. I have become a My Memories affiliate as well, which means I will make a small commission if my readers purchase My Memories Suite.  This review gives my 100% honest opinion on this product and I do not accept commission for a positive review. ***

A Beautiful Scrapbook Organization Station!

Happy Monday everyone!

So...I bought a little something this weekend...


Can you guess what it is?


No guesses? Well I guess I'll just have to show you!

This baby was on sale at Michaels for 50% off and I had been eyeing it for some time! In fact my mom and I both bought them, each of us ended up spending about $40 on these babies, including donations that we made to students who need back to school supplies. It was a great deal, and I figured it would be a great place to put all my scrapbooking supplies.

Once I got home, I started putting this bad boy together. I have to tell you that my mom and I got a little competitive to see who could finish putting theirs together first. There weren't a ton of pieces and luckily I'm pretty mechanically-oriented and don't have too much trouble putting things together.

About halfway done...

And all put together!

So excited, and by the way, I won. Even though once I finished and offered my mom help finishing hers, she rudely declined and said that we weren't racing to begin with. Whatever, I'm a little competitive I suppose...and I finished first.

Once it was together, it was time to start organizing.

I had three bins as my organization system previously. One for stickers, one for scrap papers, and one for all my pictures and things to scrap. I wanted to definitely get the paper organized in this container.

So I started sorting things into drawers...

All my scrap paper was inside one bin and it was getting rather annoying. Each time I scrapbooked I would just toss the scraps back in the bin. Even if I attempted to organize them by colors they would never stay that way. It was just plain annoying.

Finally, after quite a bit of sorting I managed to get everything just the way I wanted it. I will have to test out the way I organized these drawers to see if it will definitely stay like this, but for now I have room to grow and like to have my items sorted nicely.

The top drawer holds all my double sided tape, my corner cutter, a dancer punch, and all the little metal extenders that I have as spares.

The second drawer holds my hole punch and all my specialty scissors.

Next, I placed most of my stickers. These stickers range from winter to summer, birthdays to beach days, flowers to dancers.

The fourth drawer is all my stickers for specific scrapbook projects. I plan on doing a scrapbook for Disney, so I have purchased a bunch of Disney and Florida stickers to use for this project. I also have stickers from other trips I've taken or will be taking, such as NYC and France. I wanted these stickers in a separate drawer so when I work on those particular projects I can find them easily.

The first drawer with paper holds all my white paper since I use that more often than any other color.

Next, I have red and orange...

Then yellow and green...

Then blue, purple and pink.

The last paper drawer holds brown, grey and black.

And the last drawer holds....NOTHING. Yes, I have room to grow!

And these sad baskets?? Well don't you worry, I have an organizational plan in mind for them! =)

I left all my pictures and items to scrap inside the third basket. I think that system is working for me currently and I'm okay keeping it for now.

I also kept all my sharpies in the old candle jar, because I like the way they look in there and I use them for projects other than just scrapbooking...

So there it is, in all it's glory. I placed it just inside my closet and can wheel it out to my desk anytime I'm ready to start scrapbooking. Also there will be less supplies on my desk when I scrapbook making it easier for me to keep working on projects. There will also be less clean up which is something that I greatly appreciate.

I tend to shy away from scrapbooking when I don't have a ton of time because I don't want to take everything out to then put it away again, now I just have to roll the cart to my desk, scrapbook, and then roll it away when I'm done. Sounds good to me!

Did you work on any organizing projects this weekend?

What kind of crafting do you do? How do you organize your craft supplies?

I would love to hear how you organize your supplies, please let me know in the comments!


Have a great day everybody!