Project Life Once Again:)

I began with Project Life when it first began in 2009.  I wasn't going to do the traditional kit this year but after seeing everyone post there's and watching the Becky Higgins Video a few times I could not resist.  I have been a BH fan for sooooo many years and have I believe all of her kits so how could I not order this one.
   This year though I am not planning to do a picture a day as I have in the past.  This month has been a very stressful one for me and I have not been in my normal nonstop picture taking mood.  However, stressful or not this is my life and that is what project life is all about. It's about the everyday things big or small that make our life ours.   In so many this Project Life concept has been a sort of therapy for me. I will try to share posts throughout the year showing my Project Life pages. 

For more info on Project Life be sure to visit www.beckyhiggins.com

More Digi Scrap Pages

Lately I've been spending less of my time surfing, checking my emails or on facebook. Instead I've been hanging out with the kids and getting caught up on Scrapbooking. You know it feels so great!!!!   I forget how much I enjoy it until I do it.  I Need to Make myself spend at least 15 minutes every night working on my books so I can record those precious moments that I know I will forget.   Right now I'm working on putting together a few small 7x7 albums to give as Christmas gifts and also updating the calendars on my family albums.  

Becky Higgins Project Life Gallery:)

http://beckyhiggins.com/projectlife/gallery/main.php

Saturday all day crop

Got to spend all day Saturday cropping with friends. I never would have imagined how very much I love crops. I always thought it just made more since to scrapbook at home with all my stuff. Why spend the time to pack up? Well after attending a few crops I have a new outlook. I love packing up and spending the day with other scrapbookers in our own little world.

These are a few layouts I did recently:

Scrapbook Poll, Give away drawing

Debby over at Debby's Dare has a scrapbook poll with questions about page kits. Please take a few seconds to do this and when you leave a comment tell her April Kelley sent you. And then you send your friends over to take it also. Okay! She will be having a fun drawing!

This is the link:
http://debbysdares.blogspot.com/2009/07/christmas-in-july-and-big-dare.html

Great Journal Starters

Just thought I'd share the link to some ideas for journaling your life in case anyone else was interested. She did a great job coming up with these": http://karenandkissablekids.blogspot.com/2009/01/journal-jar.html#comment-form

POTD Blog

Along with doing Becky's Project 365 Scrapbook kit I have also decided this year to do a Picture of the Day blog. I hope I can keep up with it, we will soon see.
This is a link to it if anyone wants to visit: http://www.aprilkelleypotd.blogspot.com/

Becky Higgins 365 day kit

Well as all the dedicated Becky fans know her new kit is the project 365. I goes on sale Jan 1st. I have been counting down since my CK magazine came around 2 weeks ago. Check out Becky's blog for videos showing the contents and how-to's of this kit: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2008/12/project-365-kit-contents.html

Things I love so far about there kits:

• There's extra in the kit so if I make a mistake it's okay, I was a little worried about that at first
• Everything is pre-coordinated for me(no need for me to stress if something matches or if it looks right together
• the kit comes with everything I need to complete my scrapbook, except for the album and the other basics like adhesive
  
• It ships right to my door
  
• I feel like I get a lot for my money, the kits average around $40 plus shipping which has been between $10-13
• Also I am saving money and time by not browsing and buying things I will not use, also I do not even have to drive across town(therefore saving gas, wear on my car and time) or go to 4 different scrapbook stores to find what I want/ need to complete my album, it's all right there in the kit for me. I have also began purchasing the We R Memory albums on line from Ritz Camera

The only cons to the kits have been some of the customer service employees and the mistakes made with shipping. Also some things such as spelling errors in the kit, But i think it's still some what new and that things will improve over time. Also If you decide later you want the kit or if you can not afford to buy the kit when it first releases you can not buy it later(unless you pay the increased Ebay price) But I guess by only making so many of the kits they do not have inventory sitting and they are able to come out with all the nice new kits each month. So I think this will be my new thing!

So my birthday present this month will be Project 365, I can't wait!

Becky Higgins School KOTM's--My Layouts

In response to a comment left for me asking to see pages I have made with the kits I thought I would take a moment to finally share:



OKAY so something is up with my computer or something....it's not letting me upload pictures. ugh I'm trying

ok so the problem appears to be with some of the blogger accounts from what I researched and found. So until I can post on here I went ahead and loaded my layouts to 2 peas: this is a link to them:
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1412750

I will upload them here as soon as blogger gets back to working.

Becky Higgins Expansion Kit

As we were pulling in the driveway after spending today at Swan Lake I looked and there on the porch I saw the 12x12 box waiting for me. I swear I was like a kid on Christmas morning!! I could not park and unload fast enough. Once inside Megan helped me cut into the box and she knew right away...I hear her yell "Mom, Becky Higgins!" I think I have her trained very well.



Anyway the kit is awesome! It is so versitle and what I did not know until I got to see the paper is that it is double-sided. Yes, the other side has more. This kit could easily be used for much more than just school days, which is what I had hoped for. This is great too though to add to the school days kit because as a homeschooler we get so many more pictures than what I would have if the kids were in public school. We now have extra paper so we could now easily dedicate an entire page to our field trips for that school year or whatever else we want to. Also we have extra ruled paper so now if me or the kids make a mistake on something we could redo it. I'm so excited!! I can't decide if I want to get right to work on it or spend a little longer looking over all the beautiful colors.

If you would like to see more check out Becky's Blog . Also after receiving my kit today I went and checked and they still had some available so I ordered another one. This is were you can order from(while they still have them, I'm sure they will not last): http://www.lisabearnson.com/kotm/

Scrapbooking Freedom

I read The Big Picture Scrapbooking cover to cover. It gave me the most inspiration ever to actually sit down and scrapbook. From this book I gained a new insight into scrapbooking. She shares such valuable information in it. Sure I love looking at other idea books and magazines and at online galleries but I do not produce from those. With Stacy's book I had so much to show for the time I spent reading her book. It's nice to let go of perfection and to remind myself that in 50 or 100 years the namebrand of paper I used will not matter, The only thing that will be important is the story I leave behind.

So I have been eyeballing her PhotoFreedom book and I finally broke down and bought it. I have only read a % of it. But I can already feel what she is saying in this book.

I know I have said it but again I am repeating this. Stacy Julian and Becky Higgins are my 2 favorite scrapbookers. They are so alike and yet so different. I am hoping that after finishing Stacy's latest book I will be able to take the best of what I love the most of these two very talented women and apply it to my scrapbooking. Wouldn't it be awesome if the 2 of them teamed up and put together a book!!! It's ok to dream right?

http://www.stacysbigpicture.typepad.com/

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/

I got to scrapbook...................

Last night after everyone headed to bed I stayed up and scrapbooked. I figured I really need to start putting to use the "room" that Todd helped me put together. I got a page done last night and then this morning I woke up and got another one done before we had to begin our school work for the day. It felt good to play. I have learned to let go of the things that once bothered me. I do not worry so much any more if all the papers and letters are straight or if the paper colors all match. While I love the look of Computer journaling it is faster for me to pick up a pen and go to town on the page. Yes, I make mistakes (as I also do on here, sometimes my brain gets ahead of my hands). I am not perfect and neither are my scrapbook pages. The sun will still come up tomorrow even if I have typos and misspelled words. The kids currently enjoy looking at them. They also like looking at the pictures of themselves online, but sometimes I like to take a step back from technology, and just feel like a kid with a pair of scissors and let the kids sit back with a real picture album.
Here is a list of some of my Must-haves:

• My Fiskars 12-ince paper trimmer



• a good pair of scissors



• my pens



• tombow adhesives



• An assortment of beautiful Bazzill Card stock ( I love this stuff)



• photo corners



• acrylic paint and brushes



• brads and other fasteners



• Xyron machine



• Becky Higgins' books



• Stacy Julian's books



• My calendars and journals to refer back to

I also like having:

• Stamps



• punches



• my Cricut(I really need to play with this to really figure it out)



• my sizzix (this one is easier for me)



• Rub-ons



• Letter sticker



• Jolee's



• patterned paper



• Photo Shop CS2

I really need to sit down and schedule time for myself to spend more time on this since it is something I enjoy. There were so many times I thought of packing it all up and typing up an ebay listing for it. But I sure would miss it. I just have to be sure I will always be able to have my albums moved with me and that they follow me to my nursing home so I will be able to look back over the years of my life and review it all again when everyone will be too busy to visit me or my memory becomes so that I do not remember the things I was certain I would not ever forget. I already see this happening everyday. Having kids really puts that memory to it's to most difficult challenge. At least with an anatomy test you get to study and review until you have it, that is not the case with children, as soon as you think oh my goodness this is adorable I will NEVER forgot this there is another one of those moments chasing at the heels of the last one. It's almost a vicious cycle I tell you.

Best of Becky book!!!

This was cutting it close. I placed my order on Oct 10th with Books-A-Million Online and have been watching for my order to arrive. I had been hoping to have these in time for our trip in Michigan we fly out in the morning at 9am. This morning I began to worry that I would have to leave without them but just a few minutes ago my books arrived!!!!! I was doing the happy dance when I looked out the window and saw my mailman heading up the sidewalk carrying my package. After my books-a-million discount, $10 off coupon, and the fact that they offer free shipping I only paid $50 for all 4 books. I hope I can hold off on looking at these under tomorrow. I glanced through them But I can't wait to sit down and just indulge myself. Books are one of my weaknesses I can't help myself. I just love them.

Well guess I better get back to cleaning and packing for now.......

Cute T-shirts

Have you seen this site? They have all kinds of t-shirts, including ones with scrapbooking and homeschooling. Now I just have to decide which ones I want to order the most.
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/scrapbooking/-/pg_3/go_0

http://www.cafepress.com/buy/homeschooling/-/pg_3/go_1

Becky's Blogging!!!

I had been watching her site for awhile and did not think it would ever have an update and then today I check it and there it is. Where have I been??? I am so excited that Becky is now blogging. She is one of my favorite scrapbook celebs(Stacy Julian is the other, among others; of course). I have trouble deciding which one of these 2 wonderful ladies is my favorite so it remains a tie. There are so many things I love about both of them.
Here is a link to her blog: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2007_04_01_archive.html

Photo Organizing

I followed the Creative Organizing link that Kelli Crowe has on her blog and there was a great link for organizing your photos. This was information I felt I should pass on. http://kandas-adventures.typepad.com/kandas_adventures/2007/02/photo_organizat.html
The hardest part of scrapbooking sometimes is having everything organized in a way that I can quickly locate when I need it. If anyone has any another links to great organizing helps please feel free to share them with me. I love getting inspiration from you guys.

National Scrapbook Day

Happy National Scrapbook Day to all the scrappers out there. I know you guys are out there scrapping your hearts out and not here reading this but I wanted you to know I was thinking about you and hope everyone has alot of fun at there crops and get alot of layouts completed. Don't forget to check in at Creating Keepsakes , QVC and Two peas to see all the fun stuff that I am sure will be happening there today.
http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/

http://www.qvc.com/videoBanner/index.html?clip=4&rewrite=no&cm_re=HP-_-VIDEOS-_-4:SCRAPBOOKINGDAY

I will probably celebrate NSB by getting my recent pictures put on my Winkflash cd to have printed.

Camera Bad luck

For my birthday I got the works a new Canon 30d, a couple of lens(100 Macro 2.8, a 50mm 1.8 and the 28-135mmwith IS) as well as 2 Alien Bees 400 and a softbox. I was so excited because I had been battling the err99 on my old original EOS rebel for so long. I sent it to canon and the repair center was a pain and said that it would cost me 195 with shipping to have it checked. So I got all new camera equipment.
Since then I have exchanged the 28-135mm IS lens to B&H twice. The first one was messed up and the 2nd one they sent me they had dropped before shipping it. So I sent it back to them again for exchange, I'm waiting to receive it back. And my new 30D I sent to Canon this week for repairs. The pictures I've gotten for the past 2 months with it have been terrible, my old Rebel and my P&S are taking better pictures. So I figured I would use my old Rebel Body while the 30D was out for repairs but last night I was outside taking pictures of Todd and the kids playing "baseball" and "tennis" and it locked up. I couldn't believe it. We went though troubleshooting and got it to take 1/2 a picture. I spent another 40 minutes on the phone with canon and another sleepless night. So It looks like I may be without my SLR for Easter and the neighborhood egg hunt. I'm so praying that I will got luckly and have it back before easter though. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I'm so lost without the camera in my hand. I have had a camera in my hand for the past 5 years, now I'm like the hunter without a gun, and the fisherman without a fishing rod. Tyler was his usual thoughtful self and said "you can use my camera, it takes great pictures"(he has a little sony point and shoot) and so I thanked him and said I could use my point and shoot. And then later he told me " Mom, you could use the video camera and take video at Easter" I told him that is a great idea. I do not use it nearly as much as I should. Thank goodness for kids like Tyler he is 1 in a million.

My review of Scrapbook bags

Out of the 3 bags pictured my favorite to date is All My Memories - Tote-ally Cool On-The-Go Craft Bag I read the hype on the two peas message board for some time but when AC Moore began carring them I decided to use a coupon and try it out just to see. Well..... Picture 2 shows all the stuff I have in it. All this and I still have plenty of room! The scrappers purse is what I used before the AMM Tote-ally tote and I did like it but It didn't hold as much. And then I bought the other bag in the picture at Micheal's because it looked as though it would hold more and be easier to access but this was not the case either. Nope so far none of the other bags compared to the AAM Tote. This really is a great bag for the money.

I got to Scrapbook today!!!

Today Todd was in Michigan, it was raining outside, and most of my housework was caught up. The kids were begging to paint. So I set them up to paint which they took over my entire table. So I sat on the floor next to them I got a page done. I was so happy, especially since my order of 447 pictures arrived last night from Winkflash. I spent an hour sorting though and looking at them. I love winkflash. They make picture printing so affordable. .12 per 4x6 and a flat rate .99 shipping. It's the best deal I've found so far. And i think the quality has been great with each order I've received from them. Now I have to see if I can squeeze in some more time to scrap a few of the other 443 pictures I received. I haven't made the extra time for scrapbooking since school started back. It seems there's always so many other things to do or I'm to tired(lazy) or there's always so many other things needing my time more. But this 1 layout felt good today...

http://www.winkflash.com/