the daily X

2017

Oh man it's been awhile.

The Bean, Chicago, Millenium Park

Figured the 7th of January is the best time to restart this thing as 7 is my lucky number and well, it's just time to restart. I've missed this space. I've missed a lot. 

2016 was a pretty good year for us....we sold our townhome and bought a new home and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Talk about stressful and exciting all at the same time. Yes 2016 also had it's low points and I can see why so many people wanted 2016 to be over, but I think you have to focus on the good stuff that happened to you during the year. I have a ton to be thankful, I'm sure we all do. I do have to say I will never move again. Seriously, that was the craziest roller coaster I've ever been on. No thanks to doing it again.

Our New Home

Anyways, I'm excited to be back in this space and back to memory keeping. I have so much to catch up on and so many stories to tell. It's a little overwhelming but I am totally ready to dive in. Are you with me?

Fly the W

Gossamer Blue March Kits

 

Hello March!

Today the Gossamer Blue March kits are on sale and you can check them all out here!! Another great month of beautiful kits filled with some super cool products. I'm loving the Life Pages kit...the card designs are some of the best. I created this pocket pages spread documenting our Valentine's Day weekend.

Don't forget to check out the blog and gallery for some seriously good inspiration!

Hey friends and welcome to the February Gossamer Blue Blog Hop!

I made a video to show you how I used the February Life Pages kit to document my month of January.

Thank you so much for stopping by and on with the blog hop...

Andrea Gray
Chantal Philippe
Eunyoung Lee
Diane Payne
France Wisniewski
Heather Leopard
Jill Keller
Kellie Winnell
Kelly Xenos < YOU ARE HERE!
Michelle Wedertz
Patricia Roebuck
Rebecca Luminarias
Sandra Dietrich
Sian Fair

Scrapbook Layout | Around Here

I've been doing Around Here layouts for awhile now and they are some of my favorites. Snapshots and notes of our life, right now. I created this one using paper and embellishments from the February Gossamer Blue kits. I started with a Sharpie marker to write out the title "Around Here: Jan" and then worked around that. I think layouts like this are a super easy way to document your everyday life. Take a few pictures from your week, grab some cool paper and embellishments, and write down what's going on.

Gossamer Blue February Kits

Happy February friends! 

Today I want to share with you week 1 of my 2016 Project Life album using the February Gossamer Blue kits. Check them all out here. 

This year I switched to a 9"x12" album and so far I'm loving it. I know that has a lot to do with the cards in this month's Life Pages kit though. Every single one was just my style. 

Here is a closer look at the left side. Aren't the cards AMAZING? I love all the designs.

And the stamps. Oh I'm so happy to see custom Gossamer Blue stamps back in the kits. The above ampersand that says "warm + cozy" is crazy good and the little "love you" below is a favorite! Perfect for any type of scrapbooking.

And a closer look at the right. Check out that "Photo Notes" stamp on the bottom journaling card. I'm sure that will get a ton of use.

Project Life 2016 - Opening Page

Hello 2016 Project Life! I love a fresh start. And more so this year than any other year because I’m finally switching it up. For the past 5 years I have used a 12"x12" album and mostly the same format of page protectors (Design A). This year I will be using a 9"x12" album from Seven Paper. I bought 2 albums and plan on 6 months in one album and 6 months in the other.

For my opening pages I first created this one below using my FUSE tool (love it!) and items I had in my stash. The MEMORIES patch and the ampersand card are from Ali Edwards' Story Kits. I used my Fujifilm Instax camera to take a photo of Mr. X and myself and looking at them now I wish I would have added our ages at the bottom. Oh well, I may add them somewhere else.

If you haven't picked up a FUSE yet, you really should. It is so much fun and I love creating pages like this with little pockets. 

On the ampersand card I added a foam Thicker that says "go". I believe it's from Dear Lizzy.

For the other opening page I am using a 9"x12" page protector with 9 - 4"x3" pockets. I used cards from the January Gossamer Blue Kit and from Ali Edwards' Story Kits.

In the middle I wrote out my plan for this year. I'm not one to create a big list of goals or have a bunch of resolutions, but I like having my reflections on the previous year and my plans for this year at the beginning of this album.

Hey friends and welcome to the January Gossamer Blue Blog Hop!

I posted this layout on Instagram earlier this week and I wanted to show you an up close photo of the embellishment area. I hope this layout inspires you to use a big photo (mine is 8.5"x11") as your background OR use someone else's photo in your layout. My brother's girlfriend took this while they were at the Oregon coast for Christmas and she snapped this while my brother was talking on the phone with our mom Christmas day. It's part of our holiday story and the photo is too beautiful to NOT include in my album.

Here is a closer look. I painted the wood veneer memory piece white so it would pop a little more on the page.

I also made a video this week showing the last 5 weeks of my Project Life album. I used only items from the January kits. And I apologize for it being a little long! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by and on with the blog hop...  

Alex Hunter
Anabelle O'Malley
Andrea Gray
Brenda Weaver
Chantal Philippe
Diane Payne
Emily Spahn
Eyoung Lee
France Wisniewski
Heather Leopard
Jill Keller
Joy Taylor
Kasia "Antilight" Petrus
Kathleen Graumüller
Kellie Winnell
Kelly Xenos < YOU ARE HERE! 
Michelle Wedertz
Olatz Garaiyurrebaso
Sandra Dietrich
Sian Fair

Project Life - End of Year Catch Up

Happy scrapbook Sunday, friends! I spent most of last night watching snow fall out my window and working on my Project Life album. It felt great to dive back in. Most of December was spent focusing on my December Memories album so my pocket pages were severely neglected. Oh well, it happens, right? After last night I have just a few more spreads to finish up and the album will be complete. I am really looking forward to moving on to my 2016 album which will be 9"x12" instead of 12"x12". I hope to have a post up later this week sharing my plan. 

Below are the last five weeks of the year except for New Year's Eve. Everything I used is from the Gossamer Blue January kits. The kits were great this month!

Here starts the first week of December. Since I have an entire album dedicated to December stories I am only creating a one page spread for each week. This really helped me get through all these pages so quickly. I highly recommend doing half of what you would normally do if you are behind in your album. For example - if you normally do 2 page spreads, do a 1 page spread...if you normally do a 1 page spread, include 2 weeks on one page. Go easy on yourself and allow yourself to go with the flow.

For this week I added a 6"x12" insert to document a football game we went to.

Here is a look at the back of that insert...

And that coffee card from Seven Paper. Ahhhh....SOOOO GOOD! It's in the Bit's & Pieces kit which is probably my favorite this month.

December Memories - Days 15-25

Welcome to the second half of my December Memories album - days 15 through 25. I am so happy with how this entire album turned out and although I'm excited to get back to documenting everyday life, I will miss playing with all the holiday goodness that was in the Gossamer Blue December Memories Kit. This is the first year I did this project using only a kit and I honestly think it was the best way to go. It can be overwhelming working with all the amazing products out there, especially holiday product, but having a kit makes it super easy. 

One thing I wanted to add that I didn't show in the photos below but that I mentioned on Instagram is that I put all of our Christmas cards in the leftover page protectors in the back of the album. I LOVE it. I really thought the album was going to be too big for me but it fit everything perfectly.

So here's a look at the remainder of the album. There's quite a few photos so I'll skip the wordy details. If I can, I will put together a video later this week. 

 

Gossamer Blue January Kits

 HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I am so excited for 2016 AND the new Gossamer Blue kits! Head on over to the Gossamer Blue store to see what's new for January. And seriously, check out the blog because there is some great inspiration happening over there.

Today I want to share two layouts I made with the January kits. The first is one of my favorites because of those tags. They are from the Bits & Pieces kit which is pretty awesome. If I had to pick a favorite this month, it would probably be that one. The gold diamond paper clips are from the Main Life Pages kit and I could use about a hundred of those. I used some pop dots to lift the photo off the paper so the clip would rest nicely for the tags to hang. I did adhere the tags down with adhesive.

For the layout below I wanted to tell the story of this dish and how my mom fills it with stuffing for me everything Thanksgiving. It's the best. I used wood veneer pieces from the Life Pages Themed Add-On kit and the dotted strip at the bottom is washi tape from the Life Pages Add-On #3 kit.

I have one pocket pages spread up in the gallery and my plan is to work on more this weekend. I'm excited and anxious to finish up my 2015 album and dive right into 2106 memory keeping!

Happy scrapping!

December Memories - Days 11, 12, 13 & 14

Welcome to days 11, 12, 13 and 14 of my December Memories album! FIVE days until Christmas....can you believe it? I'm hoping to be caught up today so I can work on my Project Life album next week. The January kits from Gossamer Blue are on my desk and they are AMAZING and I really want to play with something else for a few days. 

Everything I am using is from the Gossamer Blue December Memories kit. 

I combined the story of days 11 and 12 into one. I started baking cookies and we were having unseasonably warm weather so I showed photos of both and told the story on the card. The photo on the right with the door open is about 5.5"x6".

This pretty much sums up the story....This December we will not build a snowman but we will make cookies.

I wasn't planning on baking cookies this year but then it just didn't feel right not having cookies to give to our family and friends. 

On day 13 we went to a Chicago Bears game with some friends and I just loved this photo of the Christmas tree I took in the parking lot before the game. Tailgaters are great and so creative! I told the story on the right side.

And for day 14 I took a photo of Mr. X leaving cookies at our friend's houses while they were at work. We both had the day off so we ran around town doing this and it was so much fun.

Scrapbook Layout | Moments

Ahhhh....6"x12" layouts are my favorite.

And that MOMENTS chipboard from Maggie Holmes...so good, right? You can find it in the Gossamer Blue December Add-On Kit #2. 

I actually created this layout in the reverse order that I normally create layouts. I started with the patterned paper, glitter plus signs and the word MOMENTS and THEN I went looking for a photo. Usually I have the photo and story and build around it, but everything else came first this time. I may try working in reverse more often. :)

Hey friends and welcome to the December Gossamer Blue Blog Hop!

Today I want to share with you a simple pocket pages layout I made with patterned papers from the December Main Kit. This is week 46 and I only had FOUR photos to work with. First thoughts were - how am I even going to create an entire spread with FOUR photos?? But these photos all had a story that I wanted to document and I had to make it work. So I printed my photos to fit the four center pockets and used the larger pockets for my journaling. I could have put the photos in the larger pockets but I wanted to use patterned paper to add something extra to the layout. I used plain white cardstock and my sewing machine to create a 4"x4" card and then attached a banner to each card with my Tiny Attacher to make it look cohesive. In the end I love how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by and on with the blog hop... 

Alex Hunter
Anabelle O'Malley
Brenda Smith
Brenda Weaver
Caylee Grey
Emily Spahn
Eunyoung Lee
Felicitas Mayer
France Wisniewski
Heather Leopard
Jill Keller
Kathleen Graumüller
Kellie Winnell
Kelly Xenos < YOU ARE HERE!
Michelle Wedertz
Sandra Dietrich
Sian Fair
Stephanie Buice

December Memories - Days 7, 8, 9 & 10

Welcome to days 7, 8, 9 and 10 of my December Memories album! So far I am having tons of fun working on this album. 

Everything I am using is from the Gossamer Blue December Memories kit.

For day 7 I went with the same numbers I used for day 6 and I'm using the dear head which I didn't even think I would use. I have no photo for day 7 so I documented some facts and feelings as we start week 2 of December.

Day 8 is dedicated to the Christmas cards. I had a couple cards left so I included one in the album.

Day 9 is on the left side and it's just a photo of my cat watching me as I'm watching the tree. Day 10 is on the right side and starts with a smaller card that says 'Merry and Bright'.

On the back I added a photo of some wrapping paper and cookie tins I picked up at the store. And on the right I told the story about volunteering to pack food for the Feed My Starving Children organization. 

December Memories - Video Update

I put together a short video of my December Memories album showing my last 6 days. Hoping to have days 7-9 up on Saturday. Thanks for watching!