Cricut | Papercrafting with Kelly Janes

Hey friends! It’s been a good, long minute since I’ve posted any new content. To be honest, the pandemic zonked a lot of my mojo and I was struggling to be creative. Thankfully Project Life is a pretty simple process, so I have been able to keep up on my weekly documenting, but anything other than that has been slow going.

12x12 boy layout using the Crate Paper Cool Kid and Boys Rule Collection.

When it comes to documenting, I tend to have a one size fits all mentality. By that I mean that I don’t like to document my memories in multiple formats. I was struggling to fit 12×12 layouts into my memory keeping since I started Memory Planning and Project Life. This is a rule that I completely impose on myself and doesn’t apply to most people. I’m not sure why I find it to be such a struggle?! Because Project Life comes together so quickly, I was finding myself bored on the weekends. I can get my weekly spread done in just a few hours and then I’m left with nothing to do. <<<How many scrapbookers do you hear say that?! HA! I decided that I have YEARS of memories that still need documenting and there’s no reason why I can’t create 12×12 layouts for those photos.

I came across these photos from 2011 of when we took our son to his first movie in the theater. [I’m so impressed with how far photo quality has come in just these past few years! These pics were so washed out from my camera, but photo quality is always greatly improved by a simple switch to black and white.] One dilemma I faced with these pics was I didn’t have one where my both of my subjects [my husband and son] were looking at the camera. I used PicMonkey to do a bit of face swapping with my photos. [A full tutorial is shown in the video below.]

12x12 boy layout using the Crate Paper Cool Kid and Boys Rule Collection.

After my photo editing was complete, I used the Super Star Alpha Cut File from The Cut Shoppe. I cut my title on kraft cardstock and backed the cut file with numerous 6×6 patterned papers from the Crate Paper Cool Kid and Boys Rule scrapbook collections.

12x12 boy layout using the Crate Paper Cool Kid and Boys Rule Collection.

I used my sewing machine to add a bit of texture to the letters before adhering fun foam behind each of the letters. I then grabbed numerous embellishments from the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection including cardstock stickers, vinyl/epoxy stickers and chipboard stickers.

12x12 boy layout using the Crate Paper Cool Kid and Boys Rule Collection.

Before I adhered anything to the layout I used my We R Memory Keepers Typecast Typewriter to add journaling directly to my patterned paper background. After everything was adhered I added black splatters to add a bit of a messy, mixed media touch the layout.

Now you can take a look at my process video that includes the face swap PicMonkey tutorial.

Thanks so much for spending part of your day with me!

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Hey friends! It’s crazy to think that we almost 2 full months into 2020 already! Whenever a new year comes around, I start thinking of my scrapbooking goals for the year. To give you a quick recap of my papercrafting history: I started scrapbooking in 2006ish…I started a scrapbook for my wedding around that time, but quickly fell out of the hobby and then picked it back up when my son was born in 2008. I scrapbooked 12×12 layouts from that time until 2013. From 2013 to 2016 I focused on card making. Then I made the transition to 12×12 scrapbook layouts until about 6 months ago, when I started Memory Planning. There seems to be an ebb and flow with my creative ambitions and I was feeling a shift yet again.

WHY I STOPPED MEMORY PLANNING…

Memory Planning was such a fun way of documenting our memories. In 6 months I had documented over 200 photos in a small album, but I felt I was lacking something. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time then you know my scrapbook style involves lots of dimension, layers and texture. It was difficult to do any of these things in a memory planner since it involves a disc system. I REALLY MISSED DIMENSIONAL EMBELLISHMENTS, but I loved the daily/weekly documenting involved in memory planning.

I started binge watching Heba Alsibai’s YouTube Channel and absolutely loved her Project Life! She was using chipboard, puffy stickers (2 things I ABSOLUTELY love) and still documenting in a weekly format. Project Life had already seemed dooming to me. Staying on top of printing pictures, keeping track of our stories, etc, but I realized I was doing all of these things for my memory planner. I already have a plan in place for printing/organizing my photos, I know how to keep track of our memories…so why not give Project Life a try?

I had thought about continuing to document in my Happy Planner until it was finished (June 2020), but I had 6 months fully completed and I wasn’t loving it the same as before. Why keep going? 6 months seemed like a good time to break-up. HA!

Now let me share with you my first spread of 2020.