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Welcome Twenty Nineteen!

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I am so delighted to be returning to Elle’s Studio Creative Team for another year!! I am so proud of the work that I did for her in 2018 and I just adore her modern and playful products. This year, like last year, I will be documenting my family memories in 9×12 monthly format. Here is a look at my 2019 Project Life Title Page.

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To me, what really stood out in the January Elle’s Studio monthly kit, were the black, white and purple journaling cards as well the add on So Loved Shipping tags and Heart and Star acetate die cuts. Swoooooonnn!

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Like in all my Project Life title pages for the past number of year, I took shots of my kids with the DSLR. I included the best photos of each of the kids as well as group shot with just the three of us. I also included a selfie of me, as well as wrote down our family motto, our ages and our hopes for the year. I used the Black and White polka dot puffy stickers to highlight the person’s thoughts. Unfortunately my husband had to work when I took these photos. Although he is not in the pictures, he did help me come up with some of the journaling on the page. Progress over perfection! 

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This year, my one little word is connect. Recording our adventures / how we connect this year as a family, is also important to me.

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Here is a layout I created about our recent trip to the Royal Ontario Museum aka the ROM. Living in the city of Toronto, we are so lucky to have so many amazing museums to visit, right in our own backyard. Although Sam, my son, was a bit nervous of the dinosaur bones, he still enjoyed the our afternoon. Looky-looky! I did a little stamping on the bottom left hand journaling card using the Happy Heart Stamp.

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I was a fan of the simple phases on the Happiness Found stickers and simply added them to my photos to create visual interest.

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This visit was so much fun! I loved documenting this in a 9×12 format and including so many photos with the blue, white and grey products from Elle’s Studio! All new goodies are on sale now!

Thanks for looking!

Last week, my friend and scrapbooking guru, Ali Edwards announced that she will switching up her format for her 2019 Project life album. Specifically, she stated  that she would be moving to a 9×12 monthly format. I was excited to hear her plans, as I have been completing my own family pocket page layouts in a 9×12 monthly format since January 2018. Spoiler alert: I love that approach. I love the smaller size and with the passage of time, I had the ability to reflect on the meaning of my family stories. Here are a few of my favourite layouts from the past year.

My 2018 title page. This includes our ages at the start of the year as well as out family motto which is “Together we have adventures big and small”. For my album this year, I really wanted to focus on using photos of my kids, simply recounting family events and documenting the state of our relationships.

February 2018. I also wanted to challenge myself from a design perspective. If you know me and my work, you know that I love monochromatic colour schemes as well as black and white photos. This year I wanted to include lots of photos with colour. I think this is one of my more colourful layouts, which I love!  

April 2018. All of my 9×12 monthly pocket page layouts, include a monthly summary of what was happening in the household as well as documented “overheard” conversations of what my kids were saying. Super simple ways to journal. You can read more about my approach here.

August 2018.  Since I set the intention of documenting relationships at the beginning of the year, I was able to focus my photo taking approach through out the year. I just love the photo of my kids with their grandfather that is in the top right corner.  For the layout on the right, I cut down a 12×12 page protector and used the fuse tool to create 6×8, 4×6 + 3×4 pockets. I think you can still be very creative within a smaller pocket page format.  

September 2018. This is one of my favourite layouts I created this year. It doesn’t include everything that we did during the month, but it does include something. And for me, something is better than nothing. Here I include tips for more simple journaling approaches. 

Reflecting on my approach: I loved 9×12 this year and plan to continue the format in 2019. I enjoyed summarizing our month, documenting conversations and capturing relationships. I can’t wait to use Ali’s album and pocket pages!! 

What are your Project Life plans for 2019??

Thanks for looking!!

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Oh the weather outside is frightful! 

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I just love this photo of Sam from 2016. I knew that after seeing the Winter Puffy Stickers and the Let it Snow stamp from the December reveal, I wanted to document this moment in a 6×8 double page spread.  

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This page is about one of the most memorable snowfalls in Toronto. At the time, I took baby Sammy in a sled to pick up his older sister from school. I just love that 4×6 “Winter Snippets” card from the December 2018 Monthly Kit and I used it to tell 4 facts from the day.  

Is that a blue, purple and teal winter colour combo? Oh my!

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Just like my previously layout, I have been waiting for a specific set of products to document our 2016 Family Day excursion to Niagara Falls. I am a huge fan of purple and you don’t often find purple snowflakes on journaling cards. I loved that multi coloured snowflake card in the December Kit.

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Also I heart those puffy stickers 🙂 Like usual, I added this durable embellishments to create a visual triangle. I add some fact and feelings journaling to three, 3×4 cards and called it done!

I love the non traditional winter colour schemes in both layouts. Elle’s Studio Kits are on sale now! Thanks for looking!

Are you feeling the magic of the season??

This month I used the November kit from Elle’s Studio to create two Christmas themed, 6×8 double page layouts. Documenting these layouts, has made me really really excited for the holidays. I may have started to listen to Christmas music! Ha!

I used the red labeled card to tell the story of the annual Hunter family gingerbread bake off. I first recorded this story in my December Daily project, but decided to add more details and include it in my daughter’s story album.

I loved layering the wood veneer snow globes, this season phrase stickers, red Jane alphabet stickers and various die cuts from the monthly kit on my photo. I just love that red!

As soon as I saw the green “Good Cheer” card from the November kit, I knew I wanted to document the story of baby Sam at Christmas.

I use the green label card to record Sam’s growth and development. My goodness, he looks so small in these photos!!

I then cut up green papers from the Merry & Bright 6×6 paper pack to create journaling cards and layered die cuts from the monthly kit. I really love the greens, blues and whites in this kit.

Such a fun monochromatic layout! Are you in the mood to scrapbook the holidays??

Thanks for looking!

I can’t enough of little boys “driving plastic cars”!

It’s June 10th which means that the new monthly kit from Elle’s Studio is now on sale now! Inspired by the vibrant color in this month’s kit, I choose to use cobalt blue, green, yellow and orange for this layout of my son, driving his plastic car.

The color combo was inspired by top 3×4 journaling card. The “Fun in the Sun” card is from the printable collection which you can buy here. Both cards have a simple modern design and reflects Elle’s fun and play aesthetic, which I love!

Using the journaling card as inspiration, I mimicked the color in the tags, by clustering them together here…

And here! Placing tags on top of photos is one of my go to techniques these days!

Thanks for looking!

Is is popsicle season yet?

Here is a quick peek at the layout I created for Elle’s Studio using the May Monthly kit. The kit is now on sale and can be purchased here.

I wanted to document the story of my girl selling popsicles over the long weekend last August. I saw the yellow journaling cards and knew that I want to pair them with the photos of Rowan in her purple shirt. Its an unconventional colour combo but I like it! It use the “girl” stamp from the Title Builder Vol. 2 stamp set and those awesome spring puffy hearts, which are apart of this month’s add ons.

Looking forward to more popsicle stands this summer!

Thanks for looking!

On today’s special “on the road” episode, Jess talks with attendees and organizers of the June 2017 Ali Edwards’ Story Camp. Held on Friday June 2 and Saturday June 3, 30 attendees and 9 creative team members traveled across the US and Canada to Eugene OR. This once in a lifetime opportunity / small memory keeping event was organize by Ali’s right hand woman, Katie Jaeger. Over the of the weekend, Ali taught three classes which include sessions on design and storytelling. Enjoy the reflections on the weekend that was!

Listen Here

On today’s roundtable I am speaking with Ali Edwards, Brandi Kincaid and Pam Baldwin about all things Week In The Life! In this conversation we chat about streamlining our process, how a project like this can help you reflect on the life you want to live and how to be “successful”. This is a great conversation for anyone interested in completing an intensive project like this.

Enjoy the show!

Show notes:

Ali’s 2017 Prep Post

Jess’ 2010 Week In the Life Album

Jess ‘ 2012 Week In the Life Album

Jess’ 2016 WITL Photos & Words

I heart self timers and cooking in the kitchen with my girl

During Ali Edwards’ February Story Kit main presentation,  she asked the viewer to think not only about the people we bond with but also the places  that are close to our heart. For me, bonding with Rowan in the kitchen over the weekends seems to be apart of our regular routine. I loved baking with my mother when I was young and I am so thrilled to share this with my girl. Here is the full view of my layout:

Although I am the family documenter, I don’t always get in the photos. Maybe you can relate? Ha! I could have easily made a page about Rowan and my dad, but this month, I wanted to challenge myself a little. Although the photo is blurry, I still love having the details of this story documented.

Speaking of that blurry photo, it also matched the navy journaling card that came in the kit. Combine it with the other orange and white journaling cards in the kit and my design scenes are tingling!  Here is a closer view of my journaling cards:

Do you bond in the kitchen? If so, who with?

Happy Weekend!

On today’s roundtable show, I speak with Jen Chapin, Crafty Jen Schow & Tracy Banks about their experience creating process videos. Whether you are new to process videos or are looking to enhance your skills / equipment, this conversation has something for everyone.

Enjoy the show!

Show Notes:

Jen Chapin’s Youtube Video

Jen Chapin’s Favourite Video

Crafty Jen Schow’s Youtube Channel

Crafty Jen Schow’s Favourite Video

Tracy Bank’s Youtube Channel

Tracy Bank’s Scraproom Video Tour