#Thursday3 - changing it up...

Hello, how are you?  Keeping safe and well I hope.

Over the past month because of everything going on I have found my self with so much more time on my hands.  One thing I have missed this year is the physical side of memory keeping.  I decided that most of my projects this year would be photobooks and while I love photobooks I desperately miss the touch and feel of an album.  I miss not being about to look back over the year so far, reading about our lives and seeing our faces.  Of course I could always turn on the computer and look at my digital pages but it's just not the same.  With that in mind I am changing some of the ways I am doing projects and I am starting with my #thursday3 project.

To keep things simple (because once I make  them bigger than they need to be I won't finish it) I am using a travelers notebook, two colour ink pads (black and crumb cake), a single photo each day, date stamp and one washi tape.  The only thing that I am going to add to my pages is simple stamped images using only the two colour inks that I mentioned earlier.  Then I just add the words that I shared on IG. 

I have been working on this project for the last couple of days and I am nearly caught up.  I am sharing just a few pages here to give you an idea how it's all coming together.  Although it's repetitive adding the stamped images is giving me just enough creative play to keep the project fun.  I have already enjoyed going back over my previous words as I do each page and I am so glad I have decided to switch how I am going to put it together.  I am also having fun going back to basics and playing with my stamps.

Giving myself permission to change how I want this project to look has bought back the fun and passion that I think I have been missing this year.  So glad I have made the change.

Tracey xo

When you have no photo - part two...

I am back to share another way I document our stories when I don't have any photos.

Using scrapbooking supplies that compliment your story is such an easy way to add interest and a focal point when you don't have a photo.  For my page above (left hand side) I wanted to tell the story of my daughter and her feelings about moving out.  The day before, when she came home to tell us that she had been offered a place to rent for free, she was so excited.  But, after sleeping on it she was not so sure.  She had so many mixed feelings and emotions.  I obviously didn't have a photo to go with this story but I really wanted to capture her mood and how she was feeling.  

I used the "house" digital stamp from one of Ali Edwards Story Kits "Home" and enlarged it so that I could turn in into a pocket to hold the story.  I added a few small embellishments and my page was done.  I was so happy how it turned out and the house really represents the story well.

(Patterned paper from Felicity Jane)

Ideas to help you get started:-

1.   Think about the story you want to tell and then go through your supplies and see if you can find something that will compliment your story.

2.   Think outside the box and don't be afraid to use things differently to how they were intended to be used.

3.   I used a digital stamp here but I could easily have hand cut out a house  or used my silhouette cameo.

4.   If I particularly wanted a photo, I could have taken a photo of our home, the one she will be moving out of and used that to help tell my story.

I hope this  helps you to get more stories told.  Please let me know if you have any other great ideas.  I also want to say a big thank you to those of your who shared your ideas both here and on my IG feed.  I loved hearing all your ideas.

xox  Tracey

Paislee Press - January...

This month for Paislee Press I have created two projects in my 2019 travellers notebook (my new approach for memory keeping this year.  (You can read about my change from Project Life to a travellers notebook here) .  My first project is a hybrid layout and my second is a digital page which I printed out and added to my TN.

My first project "Let's Eat" is one of my favourite pages so far because I added a drawing (traced from a photo) that I did in Procreate.  This has been on something that I have wanted to do for ages, add my own drawings/designs to my memory keeping.  It worked so well for this story and the digital elements from Paislee Press just added that something special to my page.

Paislee Press products used  - Tour Guide, Around the Table

My second project used the new "Here We Go" digital kit which I just love.  This story about me, going swimming for the first time is a very personal and moving story for me.  I wanted my story to be the main focus of my page but I wanted to add elements that complimented my story while also making it look great and  allowing me to be creative.

That hand script element "just story" couldn't have been more prefect for this story.

Paislee Press products used - Here We Go Kit, Is it Friday, Messy Canvas

Memory Keeping Plans...

Hello and Happy New Year.

Yes believe me, I am just as shocked as you are.  Yep I am blogging again after a very long time away.  I won't get into the why's right now but I will say that I am going to try very hard to give this blogging thing a go.

There have been many changes for us as a family over the last two years, some good  but most not so good.  Keeping up with memory keeping and documenting our stories has been hard, I won't lie.  Mostly due to time restraints and me just not being into it that much.  There are several reasons but the biggest reason is that I am just not into project life anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I think its one of the best things that has ever happened to the scrapbooking industry but I have been doing project life for 6 years and I simply need a change.  I also want a format that is quick but still allows me to tell our story and to be creative.  My kids are getting older too, which means they are not around as much and not that keen at getting their photos taken.  I want something simple.

So my plan for 2019 is to document our everyday (whatever that is) in a travellers notebook.  I won't be doing weekly spreads as such, just documenting the stories that I think are important to us and I will  be using a mixture of paper and digital.  I will be keeping a TN for our family, a TN for just other stories that I want to tell (mostly about me) and a TN for documenting my OLW journey.  

... and I also intend to do the odd scrapbook page 😊

This is my title page for our family TN.  I used the digital kit "Habit forming" by Brandi Kincaid for Feed Your Craft.  I have added a "volume one" label because I am pretty sure that our whole year is not going to fit into one TN.  I also included a tag with our names and ages on it plus our current address (I have blanked those out for privacy reasons).  I am not sure if I will keep the same title pages for each TN but I have saved them just in case.  No sense in re-inventing the wheel right!

So lets get into 2019...

xox Tracey

Today's details - a trip to emergency...

One never wants to go to the emergency department, especially if it's heart related.

Back in June I was driving to work, all seemed normal and it was turning out to be just a normal day.  However, I was about half way to work when I got a sharp pain in the centre of my chest (right between my breasts).  At first I didn't think anything of if but it kept getting worse.  It would go away for a second or two but then it came back, worse each time.  I won't lie, I started to panic and considered pulling over but then it stopped as quick as it started.

By the time I got to work  everything was fine and I did not have any pain at all.  But I was nervous about it all so I decided to ring the hospital to make sure.  They asked me a few questions and then said that I needed to come in.  I then spent the next 5 hours in the emergency department getting a complete and thorough check of my heart.  Thankfully all seemed ok and they are pretty sure that it was just pain associated with the chemo.

I used the "details" digital story kit from Ali Edwards to document this story in my travellers notebook.  I completed the whole layout in photoshop elements, printed it out then added it to my notebook.  I am still loving the idea of creating a digital page then adding to my notebook.  So quck and so easy.

What details are you recording this month?

Love me :-)

Adventure - eating my way through the day...

Last week I was supposed to have my 4th Chemo session but unfortunately they had to cancel it because one of my blood tests came back too high.  I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I was.  You get yourself ready for these sessions and when they don't happen it's such a let down.  It also puts everything back, everything has to be pushed back.  Ok, so it's only got to be pushed back a week but a week is a week when you are undergoing treatment for cancer, every day matters.

My dear friend Linda came with me to be my support buddy so I was also upset that she had to take a day off work for no reason.  But in true Linda style (she keeps me positive) she suggested that we go out for a coffee.  It was nice of her to try and cheer me up so I couldn't say no.  We headed off to our new favourite cafe "Panda & Co".  We ordered coffee but then decided that we should order a light snack.  

We ended up spending the rest of the day driving around Perth and eating.  It was the perfect way to spend the day.

I chose the document the day using the new Travelogue templates from Paislee Press which are becoming my absolute favourite of all time.  Documenting in my travelers notebook is such an easy way to document this tough time in my life and doing it digitally makes it even easier.

You can find the templates here.

Happy documenting

Love me :-)

Travelogue templates by Paislee Press...

Documenting in Travellers Notebooks have become my "go to" when it comes to documenting our/my life.  I love the feel of them, the look of them and I love that I can do anything with them.

Liz Tamanaha from Paislee Press has just released new templates that are perfect for documenting in your travellers notebooks.  Another thing that I am that I find with these templates is that it allows me to use "digital scrapbooking" in my TN.  I simply print them off then add to my TN.  This form of documenting also allows me to add embellishments giving me the feel of traditional scrapbooking.

Here is how I used two of the templates...

Another huge bonus with these templates is that you can customise them to suit your project.  The page on the left hand side looked quite different before I started (see picture #3 in the first photo to give you an idea of how the template originally looked).  I removed the "scenic route" wording and added one of the elements from the "tour guide" elements so that I could some journalling.  I also made the two photo templates at the top a little wider so that my photos would fit better.

When you purchase templates, you get more than just templates because you can alter them, add things to them and in some cases even change the colours.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.  And, I would love to see your take on these templates, so please let me know so I can check them out.

Here are the links to the digital products that I have used:-
Travelogue 1
Tour Guide elements

Love me :-)

NSD - Challenge two & three...

Welcome to Kellie Stamps Creative Team 2nd challenge - Use three different ink colours...

I have changed things up a bit for this challenge - 

What if you don't have three different ink colours or you don't have three colours that you think work well together?  The good thing is that you don't need lots of different ink colours you only need one.  On this project here I chose one colour ink (blue) and used a very simple but  effective technique called "stamping off".  It's simple, ink your stamp then stamp your image, then stamp your image again but don't re-ink you stamp.  For my title "May" I inked and stamped the letter M .  Then I inked the letter A, stamped it onto a scrap piece of paper, then stamped the letter A onto my cardstock.  This made the letter a lighter blue than the first letter.  I repeated the same for the letter Y only I stamped it twice onto scrap paper before stamping onto my cardstock.

I was having so much fun with this technique that I decided to create a pattern in a speak bubble using the same stamping off technique.

This is such a simple way to get more out of your stamps and inks.  Try doing this with other colours, have some fun and remember to share your project on Instagram using the hashtag #nsdkelliestamps to go into the running for some fun prizes.

Have fun

Love me :-)

Smoothie life...

As I continue to enjoy my smoothie lifestyle I have also continued to enjoy different ways to document this journey.  I am surprised that after 6 weeks I am still enjoying a smoothie everyday and feeling better for it.  

The latest release from Kellie Stamps - digital "Good food" and "like a girl" gave me the inspiration I needed to create this fun page in my February 2017 travellers notebook.  Both these sets are also available in clear.

I used my silhouette cameo and the sketch pen to draw seven mason jars and to cut them out.  I then used watercolours to add the colour to each jar to match the smoothie that I had on that day.  I had some red/white striped pattern paper from Felicity Jane that was perfect to make the straws.  I then added strips of cardstock that I added the day of the week and what smoothie I had.  I finished off my page with a tag to add some extra details.

I think I might have to do this again, I just love those stickin cute masor jars.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love me :-)

Headspace - learning to meditate...

Recently while on IG a post came up about Headspace, an app for guided meditating.  I had seen this come up before but just swiped passed it.  When it came up again, I stopped, and thought about why this keeps coming up in my feed.  I am a great believer in that things happen for a reason,  so maybe I was supposed to check this app out.  

I headed over to check out the app and really liked what I was reading.  I even read the reviews (which is not me, I don't really like reviews as I believe them to be a personal account and what I like someone else may no and vice versa) and most of them seemed positive.  So I check it out further and decided to take up the free "take 10" challenge.  The idea is to do a short 10 minute guided meditation every day for 10 days.  This is to give you a sample of what the app is like and also to see if it is something you like before subscribing (yes, there is always a subscription LOL!).

This year my OLW or mantra as I like to call it is "365 new day, 365 new chances".  I wanted to have something to keep me focused for a whole year, something to encourage me to live life in a mindful and positive way.  I am always looking for new things to try, new things to experience and new things to make me appreciate this life.  I thought that learning (or re-learning) how to meditate might help me to achieve this.  I also wanted to document this new experience in my "April 2017" travellers notebook.

I took the theme from the app (the orange circle) as my design element.  I took some of the words from the app and added them to first page.  My thought then was to create a page with 10 orange circles on it and each day when I completed the 10 minute meditation I would tick it off by adding a day of the week tag.  The days of the week are digital stamps from Kellie Stamps called "today was".  I also wanted to add some information from the app about meditating but didn't have any more room left.  I decided to print the information onto vellum and attached it to my notebook with washi tape.

I am up to day four and still going strong.  I am meditating at night, just before going to bed and I must say it is helping me go to sleep straight away.  My initial thoughts is that I love it so far.  I like calming myself right down before going to bed.  The speaker on the app has the most wonderful tone and speaking voice, very soothing.  Lets see what the rest of the week brings.

love me :-)

March - Travellers notebook

It's a new month which means a new Travellers Notebook.  I love that I have a place to document and record all that motivates me, and those things that I struggle with.  Last month was a particularly hard month and documenting took a back seat.  But, I sometimes wonder that part of the reason thaty last month was so hard was because I stopped documenting.

I stopped writing down things that were happening.  I will admit that it was pretty hectic here, probably the main reason for no documenting but when I write things down its a way to debrief my brain.  It's a way to get things out of my head to free up space for other things.  I am going to make more effort this month to get things out of my head and onto paper.

Plus its always fun to play in a new notebook...

I loved the colours and papers from the new "High Five" kit from Paislee Press and added my favourite "monthly cards" from Kellie Stamps to my quotes page.

Hope you have had a good weekend.

Love me :-)