Spiderman Dude | Cool Kid | Tarrah McLean

Hi Sassy Scrappers!
It's Tarrah McLean back with you today sharing a new layout created with the Cool Kid collection by Crate Paper!

This collection is perfect to document kids dress up parties or kids who just like to dress up! This is mostly a boy collection but you could also use it for girls too! Perfect if you have little Tomboy girls! This photo is of my youngest son who had his face painted at a birthday party a few years ago, to match his Spiderman outfit! We thought the face painting was amazing! 

I used lots of the pieces from the Cool Kid collection that reflected the Superhero theme. The number 4 is there because that is the age he is in the photo...I usually like to have a meaning for something to be included on a layout so in this case, everything has the Superhero theme...the B is there just because B for Boy!

I really like the mix of clear and cardstock ephemera pieces in this collection, the mix makes it easy to embellish a layout!

Thanks so much for stopping by the Sassy blog today!

Check out the Sassy store for this collection plus loads more for all your crafting needs!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

     

      

   

Love Paris | Shimelle | Tarrah McLean

Hi Sassy Scrappers!

It's Tarrah McLean back with you sharing another travel themed layout! I have used a mixture of Shimelle's Go Now Go and Starshine collections on this layout!

I decided to cut a title out from some red cardstock using my Silhouette Cameo. I then machine stitched through it to add some detail and to help keep it adhered! The cork 'Love' forms the beginning of my title, I overlapped the 'Love' onto a piece of the ephemera for a fun look!

I just love the transparent acrylic pieces of ephemera included in the Shimelle collections, they are perfect for adding embellishments near and around photos without taking away the focus of the photo! I find the best way to adhere these is to staple them down with my Tim Holtz tiny attacher!

Thank you so much for stopping by the Sassy blog today! Be sure to check out the Sassy store for all your scrapbooking needs!

Happy creating!

Tarrah x

          

Project Life | The catch up game...

Hello Sassy Friends! Over the last few weeks I've noticed a little trend in the Project Life world.  It usually starts about now and then overwhelms us for the rest of the year.  Yes.  I am talking about playing catch up!  Generally, I think most of us start out really strong.  We are organised and keen to take photos and document our stories. Slowly, as life takes over, some of us, myself included, tend to put our Project Life on the back burner.  What harm will it do if we leave our creative process for a week or *ahem* several!    In theory, Project Life was designed to be the simplest form of documenting life as a scrapbooker. We take our photos and add our journaling to premade cards and then slip them all into the perfect size pockets.  How great is that!  Simplicity at it's best.  But then, somewhere along the line, again... if you are like me, we tend to want to pretty up our pockets and add extra details.  We like to add those few layers and let's be honest...  Can you really walk away from that perfect embellishment that just screams exactly what is going on in your photos? *grin*  It does get overwhelming and we want our pocket pages to have a consistent look.. don't we?   So what happens when you step away from PL for a few weeks? Absolutely nothing. We don't need to stress about catching up.  You can just continue on from right now.  After all, in my opinion, something is better than nothing.   There is an alternative though if you really don't want to have gaps in your album.  Let's get reorganised.  We can be enthusiastic about PL once more and for me, it all comes down to the photos.   Step one:  Digitally Reorganise Your Photos.   

  It is all too easy to upload your photos onto your desktop computer and then forget about them.  But... it really is worth your while to set some time aside to assign dated, weekly files in a Project Life folder.  It does sound like a lot of work. But trust me.. this will restore your sanity in the long term! *grin*   I have organised my photos into the following system.  Pictures > 2015 > Project Life Photos > 01 Jan > Week 1_Jan 1-11. I always label my months with a number first. For example: 01 Jan, 02 Feb, 03 Mar.  This way the folders will stay in consecutive order rather than alphabetical.   

  Step two: Print.   Once we have our photos in weekly files, it becomes very easy to print out photos to suit the PL spread you are planning on catching up with.  Another helpful tip is that this method is quite cost effective.  My home printer likes to use ink quickly.  It can be very frustrating for someone who has weekly projects to work on.  I find it much easier to download my photos to a USB and take them to a discount department store to have them printed.  It saves me using excess ink at home and my weekly photos for the spread have been already sorted out for each pocket size I require.  A wonderful time saver too!  

    Step three: Add the Photos to the Pockets.   Simple right? I add my photos straight into their allocated pocket page week before I even go looking for paper and embellishments.  Once I have established where I want to display my photos on the spread, I save time on the next step.   When assigning my photos to certain pockets, I lay out two pocket pages side by side and look at colour and white space of the photo placement to balance the overall look of the spread.   

 

I keep these incomplete pocket pages in my album, right next to the completed ones.  As I flip through them, I am aware of which weeks I am working on as they are always filed in consecutive order; Week 15, Week 16 and so on. The blank spaces show me where I need to add my journaling and title cards.

 



Step four: Memory Stimulation/Journaling.   Remember when I said that catching up with PL for me is all about the photos. Well, in essence, this step helps jog my journaling memory.  When I have the photos in front of me, I automatically recall most of the details from the event I have photographed.  Sometimes I cannot remember the exact date, but thanks to digital photography our photos now come with a time and date stamp attached to them.  

  Just by hovering the mouse/arrow over the photo in your folder or selecting the image, you will see when the photo was taken in the information strip below. Of course, this will only work to your advantage, if the time stamp has been correctly configured into your camera settings.   The blank spaces in the pocket page now lets me know exactly how much room I have for journaling and how many spaces I need to coordinate together with the photos. My journaling is typed/printed out in blocks or on those afore mentioned premade PL cards. They are then trimmed to fit the allocated pockets.  If you would like this process to be faster, forget trying to line up text boxes on the computer or typewriter.  Just grab a good journaling pen and jot down your notes directly to the filler cards or even on the photos.  

  Step five: Completing with Embellishments.   And this is where it all comes together for me very quickly. Photos. Check. Journaling. Check. Time to play with those pretty embellishments. Check.  

   Earlier this year, I shared here on the Sassy blog how I store and organise my bits and pieces. This has been a life changer in the catch up game. With my embellishments sorted and within easy access, the process of completing these weekly spreads becomes a snap!  Favourite embellishments include, stickers, labels, wood veneers and enamel dots.  Cut aparts from 12x12 patterned papers and diecut ephemera packs make coordination dreams come true. Products from the same collection are created to be matchy-matchy and leave the thinking to someone else. Perfect if you are time poor and don't want to source different products.   Here's my Project Life | Week 16, that came together in less than 20mins after getting myself organised with the steps mentioned above.   "Week 16"

The top pocket contains Amy Tangerine diecut ephemera and Crate Paper Poolside 12x12 cut apart patterned paper, layered on a Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy gold foil specialty paper.

This journaling has been typed directly onto a pre-made Project Life journaling card .

Including my son's Prep artwork for ANZAC Day makes for quick and easy filler card details.

Time savers also include leaving two 3x4" photos next to each other in a 4x6" pocket...

... and journaling cards can be combined with patterned paper layers to create hidden journaling.

Finally, my favourite method of using wood veneers fills gaps on photos creating interest where there was previously none.

  Having photo stacks, journaling blocks, embellishment items and organisational principles in front of me, always helps me catch up in next to no time.  I hope these simple ideas can help you too. Thanks for joining me today..x  

Project Life | Week One...

 Hello Sassy Friends!  It's Leanne here today, to share with you my first PL2015 spread for the year.  Week one | January 01 - 11.      This week I am playing with the gorgeous Amy Tangerine Stitched collection and it's perfect for documenting a wide variety of activities! The first week of the year is usually a very busy one for us. The kids are still on their school holidays and our middle son celebrates his birthday!  

 

I chose the bright and beautiful colours from the Amy Tan collection because it reminded me so much of Summer activities outdoors!  This week I've complemented the Stitched collection with pops of Studio Calico gold stars and the beautifully textured Prima alphas.

 



 

Last week I shared with you a step by step to creating a pocket title card. Here's how I added it to my PL2015..

 



 

This year I am attempting to add photos that have a crisp white border around the outside edge. This take a bit of pre-planning in Photoshop but I am happy with the results so far.

 



 

One of my pocket filler cards has been dedicated to my son's 9th birthday.  I trimmed a background patterned paper sheet to 3"x4" and then using my silhouette, cut a number nine from a similar coloured paper.  I made sure the number was large enough to fill the space on my filler card, so it would stand out.  To finish it off, I hand stitched around the inner edge of the "9" with white embroidery floss.

 



 

During school holidays, I tend to take series' of photos. When sharing them in my PL, I like to resize and have them printed onto a 4"x6" photo. It's a great space saver and really helps the story being documented.



The white space below is perfect for subtitles or embellishments.

 

This year I want to have more substance to my journaling.  I've been taking daily notes and then adding them, with the date, to journaling cards that slip straight the pockets.

 

My first week of PL2015 is really a week and a half long.  I wanted to document more than the first four days in my first PL spread.  For all that extra journaling (and the limited space because of extra photos), I've hidden it beneath a folded 4"x6" PL card.

 



 

When the card is removed from the pocket, it opens up to reveal more of our weekly details..

 



 

Where I wanted to document an event in detail, I've created a more specific space for the story to be shared. The Ice Skating story on page two is an example of this.

 



  Also on page two, I've played with photo size. Again, this takes some pre-planning in Photoshop or if you have a cropping app on your phone you can get quite creative.  

 

The cropping tool I use and the photo collage below were both created with an app on my iPhone called Diptic.  The collage element was extremely helpful in gathering and displaying most of my photos from my son's birthday. And it is coincidently matches the patterned paper adjacent to it!! Yay!

 



 

Finally, I've used the Prima Alpha in yellow to help document the dates and placed them on the Amy Tan Felted patterned paper.  This paper was trimmed via the months and into 3"x4" sizes.

 



And when it comes to embellishments, nothing screams like Summer (in our house) more than tropical fruit. The pineapple is ideal not only because my kids have been consuming it like crazy lately, but because this fruit is a prominent symbol in our local area.

 



  I hope you have enjoyed my first spread of PL2015 and that each of you attempting PL this year have started to relish the process.  Thanks for joining me...x   Sassy Supplies: