Project Life 2016 | Title page

I still have to share the remain of my Project Life album from 2015, it´s coming later this week, but I wanted to throw in my 2016 title page in here right away. 

I first had the plan to use the back of the very last page protector of the 2015 album to document the first part of week 53 and then skip the title page and use that first page of the first page protector in the 2016 album. But alas seeing all the title page inspiration around the interwebs made me cave and made a title page anyway :)

As you can see it is super simple with current photos of us mugshot style with just a few facts about each of us typed on white cardstock. I actually do love to see our photos of us at the beginning of each year as I go back and flip through our older albums, so I am very happy I have made them.

Did you make a title page this year? 

Project Life 2015 | Week 32-35

Hi there! I am happy to see a few of you actually pop in once in a while. I have been thinking alot about blogging lately. Many of my favorite bloggers have retired their blogs and even though I read many, many blogs I kind of know where they are coming from. Sharing your creative work is so much easier on Instagram for example where you might have many followers and you have the option to just share the photo with a short caption. I am not there just yet, I still want to have this space. I just wanted to let you know that posting will continue to be spare, but I still am very happy that you are here!

Today I wanted to share a few recent Project Life spreads. 

Week 32: Summer was still in full swing and we spend a lot of time outside. We took advantage of the good weather and picked wild raspberries and tomatoes. 

I had a few inserts this week. A card from a package we recieved and a postcard. On the backside of the card I made mini layouts of other stories.

Week 33: I focused on the first half of the week where we visited my sister and her family. We got to see our new niece for the first time and I used photos of us three holding her in an insert. 

Week 34: This was the week when Ali Edwards Week in the life happened. I didn´t do the project per say, but I used a collage app on my phone to make daily collages. This way I could fit a whole lot of photos in one spread! This is the route I am taking on ver busy weeks aswell with just one journaling card reviewing the week.

Week 35: First, I am sorry about the very washed out photos of the spread! Next, I see that used the week in review approach here too! I remember being so tired this week and it usually shows in my spreads with little to no journaling.

My daughter turned 16 the Monday after, but we had her party on Sunday. It was a greay day! And we went to the sunflower field for the first time this year #yes!

And there are 3 more weeks documented!

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One more minialbum layout

I wanted to share another mini album layout. I first made one for the April gallery at WCS, it was so much fun I made one more! 

This time I printed a few of my daughter's Snapchat photos. She usually is very photogenic, but on there she is known for her funny faces. 

I love how the colors go together on this! 

Pocket Letters

I first stumbled over Pocket Letters on Pinterest and thought: "Great! Like I need another hobby!" But the more I looked into it the more interested I became! So it is basically a creative way of pen-paling. You use one of those baseball card page protectors and make each pocket pretty with patterned paper, bits and pieces. Somewhere you tuck a letter to your friend and you can use a mail tag to ask more questions about them.

I jumped on the bandwagon, of course! Right now I have 2 Pocket Letter pals and that is ok for now. It is a delight to recieve some happy, fun mail once in a while and I find it super relaxing to make them. It is creative play without any "rules" of memory keeping, keeping up etc. And, which is a great plus, it is an awesome way to use up bits and pieces left over from other projects!

I have recieved two so far and send out three. It´s exciting! 

I have prepared some cards for my next few and made a biger painting on paper, cut it apart and will use that as my background cards. See, fun and a creative outlet! 

Project Life | Weeks 10-13

Hi there!

I have decided to bundle up my Project Life posts. I am fast at finishing the spreads each week, but I thought I´d share a few in each post and hopefully that way I will add more info to each.

Week 10 | I had a multiple pocket page from the week before, so I adapted my weekly card to a smaller size. It is a good challenge for me to have other sizes on the ockets to work with.
I also added in one of the best group messages I have ever got to an extra pocket this week. I just printed it in Word and cut to size.

On the backside of that message I added the handwritten note I got from my sweet friend Susanna! She sent me those lovely knitted handwarmers on the right. The best mail day ever! 

Week 11 | This was the week I took off work and tried to feel better personally. I rested, crafted, walked. I didn´t add words about it really, but the photos are of my peaceful moments.
I added an insert with a enlarged photo of a peace sign I saw on one of my walks.

Week 12 | This week was so spring like and I think it shows on the spread. This week I also wanted to try printing a bigger photo to span over two pockets. I think I have done this one or two times before and I love the look of it. I had a few scrap sheets of bigger photo papers and used one of those for this.

Week 13 | This week was mostly about putting our house on the market. Hence the card: " Moving is fun. said noone ever." :) We uncluttered the house for the photographer and boy is it hard to have a clean and simple look with all the stuff we have! 

I tried out printing a photo in a triangle shape and it makes for a fun accent. The blurred card/photo is from work and the last photo was made with the app A beautiful mess on my iphone. 

Well, that´s it! 

WCS | April gallery

Hello! Thank you for hanging around while I took a well needed blogging break! I'm back with a how-to post on my WCS contribution in this months gallery. Enjoy!

This month´s theme at WCS is minibooks. A year ago or so is the last time I did a mini. I really like seeing them and find big inspiration in them, but I don´t see a point for me to do them. I have my PL album and layouts where I think I get all the storys down. However, I haven´t missed one single gallery since I got on the team, so I really wanted to make something. I went about thinking of something that I would find useful, something that would work for me. I have done a ton of layouts with multiple photos on them before, I don´t see that as a problem. So, I came up with an idea to add a "minialbum" on to a layout. 

I had a bunch of photos of sunsets that I printed in a square format. I used pocket page protectors from Simple stories and cut the big sqaure pockets out and ended up with five of them which would make my "minialbum".

I wanted the pockets aligned so that I could easily flip them, so I had some washi tape hold them in position while I mounted everything with double sided tape ontop of my page protector. 

I really love how it turned out and have already made another version of this!

You can follow me on Instagram: instagram.com/lisaborbely 

Please update your links!

Hi!

I see that I still have readers here. As you might have noticed I don´t update here anymore. I transfered to a new blog in 2014. I would love to see you there!

Update your links and readers: http://craftsandmemorykeeping.blogspot.com

If you´d like to follow it in bloglovin, just follow this link!

10 things 15 years of motherhood taught me

My daughter turns 15 on Sunday. 15! Oh my! Each year around her birthday I think back on how time has gone by so fast and that I would like her to be my baby forever. Now as she is getting closer to adulthood, I am acctually also curious and looking forward to what she is going to become. Anyway, today I share 10 things motherhood has taught me these past 15 years. Enjoy!



1. A guilty conscience. Bam! right from the start! It´s like as soon as you hold your baby your head sets into a mode where you feel guilty about everything. Spending not enough time with the baby, or too much time (is she ever going to sleep on her own?!), wanting to sleep etc. And this just goes on as the baby grows. Get used to it!

2. Big love. Love that is nothing I have ever known ever before or after. It is indeed like having a piece of your heart walk around outside your body.

3. Enjoy it! I wish I would have enjoyed each age better. Someone once told me to remember that she (my daughter) will never be 3 again or 9 or 15.

4. Portability. You can bring along a child to most places. I had her with me everywhere; travels, shops, libraries and even at school. She just got used to it and learned how to behave in different social situations along the way.

5. Proud moments. There have been so many moments when I have felt so, so proud of her. It started with her first smile, step and clap of hands. But could also been her first word, art work and first time on stage.

6. Mama Bear is out. The mama bear feelings also comes right at birth, I think. That feeling of knowing you would pick up a car from her if neccessary. That feeling is so strong!

7. Not enough. The fear that I haven´t done enough, taught her enough life skills. Have I done enough so that she will do good in life? That question lies under the surface so many times.

8. Friends. Fear that I haven´t bonded with her enough for her to know that she can tell me anything!

9. You forget. No, I don´t remember which tooth of hers that came first or the exact date that she took her first step, but I am ok with that because I remember so many other things! And scrapbooking helps a lot!

10. Confindence! I am guilty of talking bad about myself infront of my daughter. I know that it
 isn´t good, but it is done. I still hope that the many times I have told her that she is perfect has the overhand and has effected her more.

There you have it, 10 things of many things that this crazy ride of motherhood has taught me so far.

Happy Friday!

Project Life 2014 | Week 26

This is my week 26.

Here are some tips and tricks I have used for this spread:

Photos: Sometimes it is fun to use details of events as I did with the strawberries.
This week I took photos out the window early in the morning and then at night. It is fun to see what changes during the day.

Stories: I included stories about the garden, monthly events like my fiancé getting his MS medicine, our canning sessions, how light it is nowadays and a cat story :)

Tips! I have used a card I made myself using the Rhonna designs app on my iPhone, here is a link to how I did that.
Tags are the bomb!
Cut up PL cards and use details of them.
Use 1" circle punched embellsihments,

Thanks for stopping by!

WCS | July gallery

Happy July! I can´t believe that yet another month has passed by already! 

But the first of each month always has something fun in it, the new gallery at WCS.

The theme this month is The great outdoors. Oh and you know I could have made 100 layouts on this topic! But I just made 3 ;)

This is a 6x8" page and I really enjoy making pages in this size. I love how they look in my album among the bigger ones. 

I have had this peony for a few years and it started out pityful and didn´t bloom for a while. Then three years ago it finally got strong stems and grew one flower. Now it has become stronger and bigger and it brings me such joy seeing the process. 

This is my second page for the gallery.

Everyone that knows me, knows I love my garden. Being able to grow things is good for the soul and the process is so very cool. I love being able to plant a seed, care for it and then being able to harvest. 

I have said a hundred times before, we live on the most beautiful place on earth! 

Now hop on over to the WCS blog! 

Guestblogging | Featured on rukristin.com

I am super excited to share that I am featured on rukristin.com today as Currently card community member! I share a little about how I use her currently card/idea in my memorykeeping. Go check it out! 

The following is from the blog post!

Take five minutes to tell your 'right-now' story.

What are you currently reading, watching, and loving? Write it down!

The Story:

In late 2012, I was playing around with the idea of a weekly journaling introspective that was super easy to complete. I created a simple journaling card with the prompts already listed. Each week I grab a card and spend just a few minutes filling it out.

Over the past year, the #CurrentlyList community has exploded on instagram and in our brand newfacebook group. Today I am excited to have Lisa Borbély from Crafts and memorykeeping here to share her Currently List!

Community Member: Lisa Borbély

My name Lisa and I am a memorykeeper. Yep, I try to record our ( along with myself this also include my 15 year old daughter and my fiancé) lives as much as I can. I have always loved to see the everyday as special and so very important to record. These are indeed the days of our lives, the everyday moments are what forms who we become.

In the years that I have been doing this, I have learnt that I can´t record everything, clearly. But with some help from routine, practice and tools it is pretty easy to save the right now in our lives. The Currently card is a great example of this. It is such an easy and quick way to catch who you are at the moment! I have used this method for a good while in different forms. In my “regular” memorykeeping layouts I have included both the actual Currently card and also written my own list with inspiration from the card. Often these ages are about my daughter. I would have loved to have my teenage years more documented!

Most often I choose a regular weekday instead of say a birthday, since the everyday interests me the most. But to fill in a card every birthday would make an awesome minibook, right!

A few years ago I started Project Life and I am on my third year of weekly spreads. I have included a Currently card here and there in my album and it gives such a (with lack of a better word!) current feeling to the spread. I fill out a card during the week and add it in my album during my PL session during each weekend. But I share a photo of it on Instagram straight away! 

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Now go to Kristins blog and read more about this!

Project Life 2014 | Week 21

Week 21 and one of the last weeks I´ll put in this years first album. 

Tip: Sometimes it's enough to just add ONE word to a photo! 

Tip: Use a whole photo as your background, journaling space and where you embellish. 

Tip: Practice taking self portraits so that you are in the photos too! Here are a link  to a post with selfie tips!

I am plugging away with Project life each week and have a few spreads to share throughout the week. 

DIY | Rhonna designs

I use my iPhone a lot. Like a lot! So whenever I learn a new trick I am happy to share! 

Today I'll show you how I made my own printable cards I'll use in my pocket pages! 

I use the app called Rhonna Designs which is an app where you can add text and overlays to your photos. You can also create quote cards etc using their backgrounds. There are a few to choose from and for what I am showing you today I used the white background choice. When you have picked that you'll set the size and for this you will want to pick the 3x4 size. 

The app is so easy to use! You simply select the text tool or the overlay tool, change the color and the size to your liking and voila you are done! 

I saved each of my cards at the High resolution option so that they would print good. 

And boy did they print good! I could print them on a full A4 (8.5x11) crystal clear! 

Just think of the possiblities! 

Just a friendly reminder that I have moved my blog! 

If you have me in your blogreader or follow otherwise you might have to do an update with the new URL: www.craftsandmemorykeeping.blogspot.com

I will be updating a few posts here during the day, just to make sure to lure you in to the new site :)

What makes me happy - a minibook

A month or so ago I showed you a PL week where I used the app Collect to create the cards with photos and journaling right in my iPhone. I really liked it and started this new project the same week. I had a Simple Stories 6x8" album at home and decided to make a minialbum with things/people/places that make me happy. 

The first few pocket pages hold a whole month of #makesmehappy cards I made with the Collect app. 

It was so easy to go back and get the photos and add just a few words for each day. I then just saved them on my phone and printed them. 

I have added to the mini since then and use just regular photos for some of the pockets aswell. Sometimes I add words, but often a photo says it all. 

I am looking forward to add happy things to this!

Ps. You know I have a new blog, right?! Don´t miss any posts! 

Memorykeeping | @ work

A few weeks ago Sue Althouse hosted the WCS blog with a week of go-to designs. She showed examples for a row of different designs and I found myself nodding while I read throw her posts. One of them was a band design (or grid) one I use frequently. 

I made this after reading that post about band designs. I have found that I often turn to squares when I want to work with grids. Perhaps it is because they have such an even size. 

These photos were all taken at work and I love to include pages about where I am at work right now. This is clearly not a lenghty and story centered layout, rather it shows a few glimpses into how it looks at the moment. I have done a few with more journaling before and I am sure I will do them later too. 

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Ps. Don´t forget to sign up for this self paced class! 

Memorykeeping | Liliacs (Sketch solutions)

I had the chance to join the BPC class Sketch Solutions. It is so much fun! Since I have begun to use more and more sketches over the last year the class has inspired me so much. I thought I´d share a few of my layouts throught the class. Here is one I did for lesson 2 where the sketch had 2 smaller photo elements and 1 larger.

I opted to have 2 smaller photos up in the corner, but they are the same photo printed twice and adhered with a 3D glue dot to create some dimension. I used the larger photo placement for my journaling instead. I love how it turned out and how easy it is to adapt most sketches to my needs and style. 

The journaling talks about my love for liliacs and that they remind me of summer leave from school. When I was younger we always celebrated end of school in the church and decorated it with summer blooms including liliacs. Nowadays they are already gone by the end of May sadly. 

I love that I got this done on paper! 

Do you use sketches?

Today is the day! New blog!

So, I decided to change my blogs name and URL! It is kind of fun to do a re-launch kinda thing :) 

Since this is mainly a place where I share my adventures in crafts and memorykeeping, what better name and just that! 

Do this before June 1st!

If you have me in your blogreader or follow otherwise you might have to do an update with the new URL: www.craftsandmemorykeeping.blogspot.com