All the Memories | 10 embellishments for pocket scrapbooking

Ameliawrites-allthememories-10embellishments

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my favorite tools for memory keeping.

So today, I’m sharing my favorite embellishments that I use in my Project Life albums.

There is a huge variety of embellishments that you can include in your albums, but these are my favorites – the things that I find myself gravitating toward and using constantly week after week. The thing about embellishments is that you don’t need them for memory keeping, but they’re nice additional touches that make the pages extra special.

Although things have been a little slow on the Project Life front recently, I’m excited to see whether my tastes and style will change in the coming months as I continue to work on my album. (Yes, I’m planning to actually get it done.)

So in no particular order, here we go!

10 embellishments for pocket scrapbooking:

1. Washi tape

This is a long-time favorite embellishment. I even made some DIYs with it (see this and this). It’s cute and functional in attaching memorabilia or other papers.

2. Enamel dots

These add the perfect pop of color and dimension to any spreads.

3. Wood veneer

I love using these raw, so many different shapes, so much variety.

4. Paper clips

These are perfect for attaching memorabilia without damaging them, or creating flaps for additional information.

5. Stamps

Roller stamps, rubber stamps, date stamps, clear stamps – I love the variety and versatility of stamps and use at least one form of them in every spread.

(Some may consider stamps as tools instead, but since they aren’t actually essential to completing a Project Life album and you’re pretty spoilt for choice, I would consider them as embellishments.)

6. Inks

Again, there are many different types and so many colors to choose from to pair with the stamps.

7. Chipboard shapes

Like enamel dots, chipboard shapes are pretty flat but still have enough dimension to keep things interesting. And lots of options too!

8. Die cut pieces

Whether I die cut my own shapes or purchase them, I love customizing die cut pieces for my spreads.

9. Stickers

I especially love alpha stickers, but the American Crafts Remarks sticker books are a lot of fun too.

10. Sequins

When I need the perfect touch of bling, sequins are my go-to.

What are your favorite scrapbooking embellishments? Tell me in the comments!

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

—

All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!

Let’s look at February

February was such a short and sweet month. And I loved it.

I don’t typically remember myself loving February. But this time, I did.

Also, here’s what happened on the blog this month!

I added more posts to the All the Memories series: 15 memories to document in 2015 / Documenting with pocket scrapbooking / 10 must-have tools for memory keepers / 5 ways to make time for memory keeping

What are you documenting in 2015? Here are 15 memories to record.Thoughts on using pocket scrapbooking for memory keepingAmeliawrites-allthememories-10toolsAmeliawrites-allthememories-5waysmaketime

I whipped up some quick and easy Valentine’s Day cards to spread the love.

Ameliawrites-DIY-Valentines2015

I also finished Week 17 of Project Life 2014.

Ameliawrites-PL2014-week17

Since February is the month of love, I made these two love-themed art pages based on the Get Messy prompts.

Ameliawrites-Getmessy-love

And of course, good ol’ Friday Favorites (no. 056 / no. 057 / no. 058 / no. 059).

Ameliawrites-Fridayfaves-6Feb2015Ameliawrites-fridayfaves-13Feb15Ameliawrites-fridayfavorites-20Feb15

Thanks for being such a good month, February!

Friday Favorites no. 059 | links from the week

Ameliawrites-Fridayfavorites-27Feb15

Not much planned for this weekend, so I’m looking forward to just staying home and making stuff. Which sounds like a pretty perfect weekend to me.

Have a great one xx.

—

Life is often full and busy. But I like to take time to enjoy some of my favorite things. So Friday Favorites is a weekly series where I share my favorite(s) for the week. Check out my other Friday Favorites here.

Get Messy no. 015 | love prompts

Get Messy art journal | love inspired

I feel like I was in a bit of a creative rut this month. But I was eventually able to crank out these two pages based on the Get Messy prompts.

These prompts were so much fun – I wish I had more time and inspiration to work on them! But the nice thing is I can always let them inspire me over and over again.

For these pages, I experimented with my latest purchase of Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I really wanted to maximize the inks so I played around with them to get different effects.

Things I love

Get Messy art journal | love inspired

I drew a free hand heart in pencil before blending distress ink in milled lavender in the center, using the pencil lines to guide me. I tried adding some water to soften the lines and help the color blend a little better but it didn’t change much. Either way, the distress ink helped to create a soft background for me to write my list of current loves, which was so interesting to come up with.

Get Messy art journal | love inspired

Note to self

Get Messy art journal | love inspired

I chose A. A. Milne’s quote as part of my love note because sometimes I need reminders like that.

On the art prompt front, I also used distress ink in festive berries blended with water to paint these flowers with a watercolor effect. Then I stamped the middle with shabby shutters distress ink.

I definitely wouldn’t consider myself an artist but I love how these flowers turned out! Can’t wait to try more next time.

Get Messy art journal | love inspired

Have you signed up for the Get Messy membership yet? You should, because there’s so much good stuff there.

I can’t wait to keep doing this art journaling gig.

See my other Get Messy art journal pages here.

All the Memories | Making time for memory keeping

Short on time for memory keeping? Here are five ways to make time for it.

I love creating and memory keeping. But I’m at the phase in life where I constantly feel like there’s so much to do but so little time.

With how busy I am nowadays, I feel like memory keeping and creating always end up neglected at the bottom of my to do list, and it gets lost amidst another more pressing deadlines. So I can totally relate when friends lament how they don’t have enough time to rest, let alone do any sort of memory keeping.

But then I find myself feeling restless and itching to create when I haven’t made anything for awhile.

So unless I choose to make time, I won’t get round to creating for awhile.

In an effort to be more intentional with memory keeping and creating this year, I came up with a list of ways to fix my lack of creating and to make time for creativity and doing the things I love.

5 ways to make time for memory keeping/creating:

1. Set aside a period of time for creating every day.

This might be the hardest one for me, since time (actually the lack thereof) is the biggest obstacle for my creating and memory keeping. But I’m starting with at least 10 minutes a day. Then as time permits, I’ll spend more time creating.

2. Make your supplies easily accessible.

I tend to have an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality when it comes to supplies. But having my supplies easily accessible and readily available reminds me to use them whenever I see them.

3. Have a place for creating.

Sometimes, having to take things out and put things back can be a hassle and kind of puts me off from creating because of all the trouble that it takes. I currently don’t have much room in my house for a specific creating spot, but I’m exploring my options. For now, I will likely get a tray to keep all the supplies for the projects I am currently working on.

4. Look for someone to keep you accountable.

Last year, #letscatchuponprojectlife helped me to get out of a rut and back into memory keeping. Ask one or two of your best creative friends to keep you accountable in this area. Big things happen when you make yourself accountable.

5. Just do it.

It’s always easier to make excuses or procrastinate. But whatever it is, just make time for scrapbooking/creating/memory keeping. After all, if there’s a will, there’s a way!

Expanding creative energy helps me to create more. So I’m planning to try out these ways and be more intentional in memory keeping and creating this year.

How do you make time to create and document memories when your schedule is super busy? I’d love to hear how you do it!

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

—

All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!

Friday Favorites no. 058 | links from the week

Ameliawrites-fridayfavorites-20Feb15

It’s been quiet on the blog this week, but not without good reason. I’ve been busy celebrating the Lunar New Year and all its traditions with family and friends. I’ve learned to love this time of the year and I’m looking forward to the festivities spilling over to the weekend.

Have a great one guys xx.

—

Life is often full and busy. But I like to take time to enjoy some of my favorite things. So Friday Favorites is a weekly series where I share my favorite(s) for the week. Check out my other Friday Favorites here.

All the Memories | 10 tools for memory keepers

Essential tools for any memory keeper

As a memory-keeping system, Project Life can be as simple or as complicated as you need or want it to be. Becky says it’s as simple as just using an album, pocket pages, and a core kit with your photos. But as a scrapbooker turned Project Lifer, I still like to mix things up and add a creative aspect to my memory keeping.

Since we talked about using pocket scrapbooking to document memories last week, I thought it would be apt to share my favorite memory keeping tools which I use when doing pocket scrapbooking.

Aside from my camera which is (obviously) what I use to capture memories, here’s a list of my favorite essentials, the tools which help me to get stuff done. This list is different from my list of favorite embellishments, which I’ll share in another post.

Essential tools for any memory keeper

Top 10 tools for Memory Keepers:

1. Paper trimmer

Like what a trimmer is supposed to do, I use this to trim my photos and Project Life cards. I have the EK Success Cutterpede trimmer.

2. Cutter Bee scissors

This scissors is incredibly sharp. Since I don’t have a Silhouette (it’s on my wishlist though!), this Cuttlebee is my lifesaver for cutting whatever I need.

3. Tiny Attacher

I used a regular stapler for the longest time. But I’d heard so many good things about the Tiny Attacher that I finally decided to take the plunge when my local scrapbook store had them in stock. And I love it. It can staple through (almost) anything (including wood veneers!) and it’s so easy to use.

4. Punches

These give me the perfect circles in various sizes. The squeeze punches from Fiskars are my favorite, but I also have one from American Crafts which is also good.

5. Corner rounder

So far, my spreads have a mix of square and rounded corners. But when I decide that I want rounded corners, this is super handy.

6. Project Life cards/core kits

In addition to photos, Project Life cards help me to fill in the gaps and give me a place to include all my journaling.

7. White cardstock

I purchased a whole stack of these and use them regularly for printing my weekly title cards and digital cards.

8. Zig pen/Sharpie

These are my go-to pens for journaling and adding text to my photos.

9. Printables

Although I have one core kit and several mini kits, I love using printables from Paislee Press and One Little Bird, which add another fun element to my spreads. I also like using free printables that I find online.

10. Adhesive

Each has a different purpose, but I generally use glue tape for photos and paper, glue dots or liquid glue for smaller elements, and foam dots for dimension.

While you obviously don’t need all these tools to document or be a memory keeper, these are my personal must-haves. These go-to tools definitely help me to get the job done a lot quicker and more efficiently, leaving me with more time to create memories for documenting!

What are your must-have tools for memory keeping? Let me know in the comments!

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

—

All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!

Friday Favorites no. 057 | links from the week

Ameliawrites-fridayfaves-13Feb15

What plans do you have for Valentine’s Day this weekend? I’m not much into the “holiday” per se, but I love spreading love. Either way, I’m looking forward to a not doing much this weekend and just seeing where the weekend takes me.

I hope your weekend is full of love and lots of good things xx.

—

Life is often full and busy. But I like to take time to enjoy some of my favorite things. So Friday Favorites is a weekly series where I share my favorite(s) for the week. Check out my other Friday Favorites here.

DIY | Quick & easy (last-minute) Valentine’s Day cards

DIY Quick & Easy Valentine's Day Cards

I’ll be honest and say that I’m typically not much into Valentine’s Day. I mean, why pay exorbitantly for flowers, chocolates, and dinner at a fancy restaurant, right?

But I’m definitely all about love – giving love, showing love, celebrating love, loving people. And Valentine’s Day is pretty much a perfect excuse to do that.

Since Valentine’s Day is now only a couple of days away, I made some simple Valentine’s Day cards, which you can quickly put together before Valentine’s Day arrives!

I love giving handmade notes. Because after all, love isn’t just about all the fancy stuff, but the stuff that comes from the heart.

DIY Quick & Easy Valentine's Day Cards

Valentine’s Day Card DIY:

  1. Trim kraft cardstock to 4×6 and score.

  2. Fold the cards (so you end up with 3×4 cards) and round the corners.

  3. Splatter with white mist.

  4. Punch out scalloped circles and die cut hearts (I used the Becky Higgins die set).

  5. Add foam dots and adhere.

  6. Stamp a sentiment (I used Heidi Swapp and Amy Tangerine stamps).

  7. Violá! You’re all ready to add your note and send love.

There are so many ways to add variety to these – you could stack the hearts in a row of three, or swap out kraft for white cardstock. But I wanted to make everything into a nice, neat set so I just used different patterned paper.

DIY Quick & Easy Valentine's Day Cards

I’ll be pairing these cards with homemade Valentine’s Day cookies and I’m excited to give these away this weekend!

All the Memories | Documenting with pocket scrapbooking

5 good reasons why you should document with pocket scrapbooking

I love making memories. I love documenting. I love being creative.

And I love that pocket scrapbooking combines all three elements together.

Like I mentioned in this post, Project Life is my method of choice for documenting memories nowadays. But whether you call it pocket scrapbooking or Project Life, I love so many things about this method of scrapbooking.

5 reasons I love documenting with pocket scrapbooking:

1. It’s fast and easy.

That’s the way pocket scrapbooking is supposed to be anyway. Sometimes, I might over-complicate things, but I can always go back to the basics with no problems at all – just slip photos into pockets, write journaling, and I’m done!

2. It lets me be creative without being overwhelmed.

With the various pockets and spreads, I can be as creative or as simple as I want. Pocket scrapbooking lets me channel my creative energy without taking up too much time or making me feel like I have the impossible task of memory keeping. And in the end, my memories still get documented while I’m being creative (yay!).

3. It lets me document consistently.

Because I have an album to fill and weekly spreads to create, pocket scrapbooking motivates me and keeps me accountable in documenting life, even the seemingly trivial and unimportant stories of our every day.

4. It’s flexible.

If a system isn’t flexible enough to meet my needs, then the system doesn’t work. But here’s the cool thing about pocket scrapbooking: You and I can use the same system in a completely different way that is unique for our needs. It’s all up to you, so just decide and choose what works best for you.

For example, while everyone has their own strategy for documenting (weekly/monthly/by events), I choose to document weekly because I love the consistency and regularity of that. Also, it’s just less confusing for me to do weekly documenting. But even if I change my mind and decide to document monthly instead of weekly, I can switch it up with no problems at all.

This also means you can also choose to go all paper, all digital or a combination of both (hybrid). Whether you use 12×12, 9×12, or 6×8, size is completely up to you too.

Whatever works for you, pick that.

5. It focuses on the things I love.

In the end, I love pocket scrapbooking because it combines everything I love (making memories + documenting + being creative) into one fun big project.

And I couldn’t enjoy it more. Enough said.

Are you using pocket scrapbooking to document your memories? What do you like about this method?

P.S. Still not convinced? I also liked this post on pocket scrapbooking.

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

—

All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!