2015: Week 1 is Done!

My Life Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Life's Little Moments by Hat of Bunny

I love the style of my 2014 Album, and I debated using those templates again. I decided I needed to try something fresh and new for 2015. Plus, according to a lot of you, you wanted more Project Life style templates. You asked. I answered.....in my own SwL Style, and I decided I should try scrapping with them too.

After scrapping this week's page I'm so glad that I'm embracing this new style (did I mention I also had a lot of fun making these templates?!). These templates were super quick and easy to use. I can fit a lot more photos on these pages, there's a handy QR code spot, it could look great with a lot or a few elements, and I can easily use those fun journal cards that are out there. Oh, and I love that it's easy to add little bits of journaling all over the page.

I honestly love it.

I did have to change up one spot on the template because the photo didn't fit quite right. See that food photo on the top left? I use the move tool to squeeze that clipping mask to make it landscape and then I duplicated it to make a second clipping mask. I took that second spot and sort of made my own journal card-looking spot with paper and word art. Easy-peasy.

To sum it up: I love the templates, and I love my 1st 2015 weekly page.

My Life Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Life's Little Moments by Hat of Bunny

My Life Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Life's Little Moments by Hat of Bunny

What are your plans for a 2015 album?

-Liz

When I Want to Scrap Fast!

Lately I've really been feeling the need to finish up Matthew's Album, and with my limited time (hello: 5 kids, homeschooling, running a business, etc.). I have just a couple of hours to scrap a week. In that time I NEED to scrap fast. I've come down with a system that helps me crank out the pages quickly. I thought I would share it with you in case you have the same problem with time that I do.

Using Time of My Life by Down This Road
Kraft Papers by Happy Scrap Girl

Here are my steps. I usually do one step a day, about 4 days a week.

1. Organize and edit pictures first (30 minutes).
For Matthew's Album, I'm focusing on one day worth of pictures at a time. I delete the pictures I know I won't use. I group them by event or outing into separate folders. Usually, those separate folders represent a single or double-page spread. That way when I'm ready to scrap I know what kind of template I need.

2. Place pictures in templates (30 minutes).
Then it's time to place a bunch of pictures into a bunch of templates. For Matthew's Album, I already know that I'm using my Double Monthly Challenge Template Bundle.  I scan those templates and pick one that works with the photos I'm using. I place the pictures in the template, save the file (with a different name of course) and then I move on to the next grouping of pictures. I usually do about 6-8 pages like this in one sitting, which is about one day's worth of pictures. I know, I know, that's a bunch of pages and pictures, but he's 5 and we have a lot of catching up to do. :)

3. Make sure I have kits to go with each page (10 minutes).
Then I'll scan the pages I put together and the kits I have to see if I might need anything new. There's always an excuse to go shopping. But truth be told, I save a lot of time if I use things I already have. And goodness knows I have enough! If I do buy anything new I download, unzip and organize it so it's ready to go.

4. Scrap, scrap, scrap and simplify the template! (1 hour) 
Now it's time to add all the fun stuff to the page. With Matthew's pages, I've actually been deleting a lot of the extra stuff on the template and telling myself I don't need a lot of extra elements (although they are very tempting).

Check out these two pages: Minimal elements and they are some of my latest favorites. I know some of you can scrap super fast using a lot of stuff, but I just can't. So I keep it simple. Do what works for you.  I'm just sharing what works for me.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 13 by Scrapping with Liz
Ninja Addict by Dream Big Designs and Laura Banasiak

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1 by Scrapping with Liz
Time of  My Life by Down This Road Designs

With these steps laid out like this, I can scrap about 6-8 pages a week in about 2-3 hours. Not too bad.

I have 6 templates with photos of Matthew in them just calling my name. It's time for a scrapping session.

-Liz

P.S. After searching on my blog I realized I've blogged about this before. Still using almost the same exact process 3 years later.

Working On It: More of Matthew's PagesI

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
Best Place to Be by Juno Designs
Must Watch Templates by Scrapping with Liz

One of my personal scrapping goals for this year is to finish Matthew's Adoption Album. I got a little boost last week and pumped out 7 pages in a day and a half (when I say day in a half you should understand that this was in between taking care of 5 kids, 3 meals a day, laundry, and all the other household stuff). It probably took me a total of 3 hours to complete all of these pages. Not too bad. I'll be sharing, in a future blog post, how I pump out pages when I really want to get an album done.

But for now just enjoy looking at these pages. They are all from our first day with Matthew. I think he deserves 7 pages of his first day with his forever family. Right? Most of these will lay side by side in the album.

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 2 by Scrapping with Liz
High Aspirations by Hat of  Bunny
Hard Candy Alpha by Tickled Pink Studio

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1 by Scrapping with Liz
High Aspirations by Hat of  Bunny

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 13 by Scrapping with Liz
Ninja Addict by Dream Big Designs and Laura Banasiak

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1 by Scrapping with Liz
Ninja Addict by Dream Big Designs and Laura Banasiak

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 1 by Scrapping with Liz
Time of  My Life by Down This Road Designs

Double Monthly Challenge Templates 9 by Scrapping with Liz
Splash Zone by Dream Big Designs
Must Watch Templates by Scrapping with Liz

Hoping I'll be back next week to share some more pages!
-Liz

Pages Scrapped in 2014

Last year I shared how many page I had scrapped in 2013. I thought it might be fun to look back and see how 2014 compared to 2013.

Before I put together my graphic I thought I had 2014 in the bag. I figured since I scrapped a double pager each week and scrapped an extra 20 page vacation album that I would have far surpassed 2014. Boy was I wrong.

Take a look.

That's a difference of 37 pages. What happened? I think I know. It's called adding a 5th child to the mix (a boy to be exact - I have a lot to learn!), learning a new language, homeschooling and running a business. But it's all good. I wouldn't change any of those things just to scrap a few more pages.

Like I said last year, it's not about what I didn't accomplish but what I did accomplish. I finished my 2014 Daily Life Album, an extra vacation album and many other pages to other albums. I actually feel pretty good about that.

What DID you accomplish last year?

-Liz

Daily Life 2014: It is Finished!

Daily Life Templates 13 by Srapping with Liz
Everyday Life Bundle by Juno Designs

My 2014 Album is finished! I made my normal double page spread for last week and also created a one pager for the 1/2 of this week. Plus I created a title page. Now I just need to sit down, upload my pages and order my book. I think I'm going with the Layflat Shutterfly book since it allows for up to 110 pages and this bad boy is going to be 105 pages! Right now you can get 40% off orders over $50 and there's also a free shipping coupon. That should bring my album into a reasonable price. I just have to get it ordered by January 6th to get the savings.

Journaling: We have played SO MANY board games this week while the kids have had a break from school work.

   Another traditional Christmas Eve. Everyone came to our house for finger foods and to open presents. Then it was time for the Christmas Eve service at church.

Journaling: Christmas Eve we told the kids we weren’t opening presents until 8am and there was no point in coming out of their rooms before then. After a late night we thought maybe they would sleep in a little bit. Nope! 8 o’clock sharp we heard all the doors open and little footsteps coming to knock on our door. They all gathered on the couch before gifts for a photo. As you can see matching jammies are not a priority around here! After gifts and spending some time playing with everything we were off to Grandma and Grandpa’s for food and fun. Matthew and Kyla enjoyed playing football outside in the nice weather. Friday night three of the cousins came over for a sleepover. They had fun building pretty awesome towers with some new blocks that were a Christmas present from Nana.

Daily Life Templates 5 by Scrapping with Liz
So This Happened by Bella Gypsy

Journaling: This was the first year we let the kids stay up until midnight to ring in the new year. We watched Its a Wonderful Life and toasted with Sparkling Grape Juice.
   The last few days of 2014 consisted of lots of playing with new Christmas presents, completing a 1000 piece puzzle and thinking and planning for our new home. 


Title Page:

Template Revisited 30 by Scrapping with Liz
Everyday Life August by Juno Designs

I'll be sure to post about my printed album once I finally get it ordered.
-Liz