Featuring Kelly Purkey Shop │ July Travelers Notebook Kit

I wanted to pop in with a quick post to let you know that the Kelly Purkey July shop update went live today. Along with the latest kits and stamps Kelly is having a Summer Stamp Sale, all stamps are 20% off with the code SUMMER20. The sale is valid thru 11:59pm EST on 7/29.

I have one project to share with you now and another will be coming shortly. The shop update contained the two kits and three additional stamp sets.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below. There is no additional cost to you if you use these links.

The first project I made was a spread in my Summers Travelers Notebook. This spread featured the I Ate This Travelers Notebook Kit as well as the Bowery uppercase alpha stamp set. I love this stamp set, and I love that there is also a companion lower case set called Broome which also includes numbers.

For this spread I knew I wanted to add more photos than the space would allow so I used one of the paper sheets to create a pocket that would hold all of the photos. It was a very simple pocket to make, I just trimmed an angle shape and then turned back about 1/2" of the edges on the right side and along the bottom. This is how I adhered the pocket down to my page. I added in one of the paper strips to the edge to dress it up and add in a pop of green. Inside the pocket I added in four additional photos and one of the journaling cards from the main kit with some text.

On the left side I added in my title using the Bowery alpha set. Having the grid lines on my notebook pages definitely helps keep things lined up nice and straight and stamping each letter individually helps a lot too. I can never get multiple letters lined up all at once and I find I spend way to much time trying to get it right. It may seem tedious but its actually quicker to stamp letters one at a time.

I dressed up the rest of the page with stamps from the stamp set, that fork being my favorite and added in a green puffy star to balance the green of the paper strip.

I have another project in process right now and its using the main kit, Summer Time Eats kit, I love that its all about our favorite summer time foods. I'll be back to share that post later this week when its all done but here are some cards and photos that I started to make for it.

There is also another super cool stamp set called See the World to help document your travels. I have a pretty big trip coming in a few months so I know this one will get used for that.

The last thing I wanted to share is that Kelly announced her new Creative Team today. The team has grown which is awesome and she has added some amazingly talented ladies to the group. Kelly will also be launching a blog for the shop and that should be starting very soon. I'll be sure to share when that goes live so you can follow. I have linked to everyone's Instagram accounts below if you want to follow along.

Me // Heather Meeson // Heba Alsibai // Jaime Waters

Jennifer Chapin // Jen Carlson // Krista Wells // Laura Hager

Nicole Reaves // Theresa Doan // Kelly Purkey // KP Shop Instagram

Have a wonderful weekend,

Micro Mini Travel Album │ Evergreen Lodge Yosemite

My families love of Evergreen Lodge has been well documented over the years here on this blog. We go there year round and its just as good in the winter as it is in the summer but summer has a special place in my heart because we get to hang out at the pool. If you ever have a chance to visit Yosemite National Park and need a place to stay, we highly recommend it.

My husband and I went this past March just the two of us and I made a mini album of that trip for a special class over at Elle's Studio. I spoke about that project in this post here. That album ended up being a favorite of mine so I knew it would be fun to do another one that I could share completely here on the blog. About a week before we left I got an email from Field Notes Brand sharing the new Campfire notebook set. The notebooks are 3.5" x 5.5" tall and have 48 grid pages in each notebook. I immediately thought of this trip and decided to order them to use as my album base. It ended up being the perfect size to document a quick trip. I decided to use the middle album called Night. Each album has a different color inside and the grid matches that color. The color inside Night is orange and since I'm on an orange kick lately it ended up being the perfect match.

My supplies for this project were pretty minimal. I built a lot of the pages around a set of digital printable cards from an older Studio Calico collection called Adventure. And I also added in some cards from In A Creative Bubble, gold dot washi tape, assorted puffy stickers, some rubber elements, some gold glittery stars, a few clips and that's about it. I'll link up to anything that I can as I go page by page.

Here is a look at the inside of the notebook. I love the attention to detail Field Notes Brand has. Their humor is pretty spot on too. For the first page I printed one of the cards from the Studio Calico set onto vellum and traced over one of the inset lines with a Heidi Swapp Minc pen and ran it thru the Minc machine to add in a little bit of gold foiling.

Here's a better look at the gold foiling.

For the first spread I used a journaling card from the Spring Break set from In A Creative Bubble. I used another card from this set later in the album too. I added in the washi tape, an old rubber element that I think was from Studio Calico and a large photo.

As you will see I printed a lot of my photos large size, some span two pages and then I printed some small, just to vary up the sizes so it doesn't get boring. I set up a template in Photoshop Elements with the exact size measurement making it just a bit smaller so it didn't go all the way to the edge. This helps in two ways, 1) it kept me from agonizing if my edges were straight and perfect and 2) it allowed the pages to turn easier since they didn't fit tight into the binding of the notebook. I used a really old Teresa Collins Zutter Round It All to trim my corners. I love that cutter. I'm not sure if its still available but that thing cuts corners like a dream and I use it a lot. Plus it was a pretty good match to the rounded corners of the notebook.

Our love of road trip snacks had to be documented. This card is from an older free set from Digital Design Essentials and I don't think its available anymore but she is selling cards in an Etsy Store and her designs are some of my favorite. I added in some text before I printed it and then a puffy sticker from an old Amy Tangerine set. The gold clip is old from Studio Calico.

Here is another card from the In A Creative Bubble set that I linked to above. The puffy sticker is old from Studio Calico. I used two large wood veneer stickers in this album. They came from the gift shop at the Evergreen Lodge and they were made for them by a company called Dust City Wood Stickers. These things are so cool. They have super strong adhesive and you can even stick them to the outside of water bottles. These were custom made for the Lodge so you can only get them there but they have some other really awesome designs on their website.

I didn't want to dedicate a whole page to the sticker so I opted to make a little page of vellum that I cut to match the size of the photo underneath. I made sure to leave a little edge that I could fold behind my photo and then stick down. This way it flips open to expose the photo underneath as you can see in the next image.

Here is my first photo that spans two pages, I did this for a few images that I really wanted to call importance too. I added in some digital text before printing using a brush script digital alpha from Studio Calico. I added in a few gold glitter stars and it was done.

Another old journaling card that I modified a bit leaving room for a washi strip and a black puffy star and I used another one of the gold clips used like a flag to fill in some space.

I decided not to add text to every photo in the album so in a few cases I would type up my journaling on one card that referenced the photos that would come behind it and left it at that. It ended up being a perfect way to let the photos tell the story and keep it more simple.

Here is the other wood veneer sticker with the same folded vellum treatment. I really love this one because the nightly s'mores is such fun part of staying at this place.

Probably my favorite photo in the whole album. I added in a simple phrase sticker that is from an old A Beautiful Mess box and a gold star.

This is a journal card from the Studio Calico Adventure set that I linked above. More washi and a simple die cut. I wasn't sure how to work these four photos into this page so I printed one large, made a photo strip of the other three sized to fit inside the book and just clipped it in with a paper clip. I like the varying sizes here.

Simple spread with a tiny bit of journaling. I cut up the park map to add in a small section to the album.

I made this journaling card using a digital element from Paislee Press from the new Scenic Route collection and another old A Beautiful Mess word strip.

Here I added in a bit of text on the photo before printing and used more washi and an old Studio Calico die cut.

This is a really old Studio Calico journaling card cut in half and an old die cut. The word art I added to the photo is from the Studio Calico Fun in the Sun set.

Not all photos turn out the way you want them too so sometimes you have to just roll with it or find another way to tell the story. In this case my photos of the bear we saw were just a brown blob in a field of green so I decided to use a digital element to tell the story. This bear is from Studio Calico and I love him. And that poor dear looks hangry!

A really old Studio Calico card and some washi.

Another old rubber element from Studio Calico, I really love rubber banners.

A collage of pictures that I made, more washi and another old Studio Calico die cut.

Our cabin had the best sunset views and this photo has no filters on it at all. Its exactly what I saw with my eyes and I love it. It lost a bit of detail of the trees when I had to crop it to fit but it will get printed and framed for sure. The silhouette of the charred burned trees is just so cool. Just a little back story but the lodge was almost destroyed by a major forest fire a few years ago and the fire reached all the way to the very edge but was stopped, thankfully.

Another journaling card from the Adventure set, a gold glitter star and another old Studio Calico die cut. I trimmed this card slimmer that 3" wide just to mix it up.

This mountain card from the Adventure set is so cool. I added in some gold triangles from an old Heidi Swapp Project Life kit to play up the triangle trees.

I always sign and date my mini albums on the day I finish them and I used the new Art Stamp set from Life Love Paper for Studio Calico. I bought this stamp set just to use for signing and dating my projects.

And that it it! This little little album is chunky! Here is a look at how full it is.

I ended up filling all but 2 of the 48 pages of the notebook and it was a bit of a happy accident. I did pre plan the album a bit, mainly just listing out what photos I wanted to go it what order, leaving room for journaling or elements that I knew I wanted to include. It wasn't super strict or rigid but it helps give me a guide lines as I'm working. My process is to print as I go, nothing get's printed in advance. It just how my brain works. I like to decided as I go what size things will be. Here is a look at what that planning looked like.

To store the album, since it won't stay closed on its own I'm using a thick rubber band that I found in my stash. Its not super tight so it won't break the spine of the album but its tight enough to keep it closed. I can't wait to add this to my mini album collection.

Thanks for sticking around for this super photo heavy post.

See you soon.

Winter is Here │ Game of Thrones

Sometimes we're a bit slow to rally around TV shows and I knew for awhile we were probably missing out on this one. I know that bingeing has its benefits so in early June my husband and I decided to start watching so we would be caught up for the return tonight. In a little less than three weeks we watched the first six seasons, that's 60 episodes if you're keeping track. Thankfully there are only 10 episodes per season so it made catching up easier. Which also kept me from feeling like a giant sloth at the end. The added benefit of everything being super fresh in our minds has us very excited to watch the return tonight.

I took a little break from my day to stamp out a sentiment so I would have something to document the day in my scrapbook. I used Kelly Purkey Shop alpha stamps in Kent and Roebling and added in some snowflakes from an older Clearly Kelly release.

Enjoy the show tonight. We'll be glued to our TV for sure.

Winter is Here!

Featuring Kelly Purkey │ June Release

Happy Summer! This is my second favorite season to scrapbook besides Christmas, I really think its the bright and happy colors. And, OMG wait until you see the Endless Summer stamp set that Kelly designed, its probably the cutest thing I've seen this summer. This June release is amazing! I know I say that every month, but damn if it doesn't just keep getting better and better.

Lets get down to it. Last summer I made a Travelers Notebook type album for all of our summer adventures and it was so much fun to work on. You can see all the posts right here. I loved the smaller space and I loved how quick the pages came together which was awesome in the summer. I decided to do it again this year and when I heard that Kelly was adding a Travelers Notebook sized kit to her shop each month I was super excited.

The kit is called Here's the Story and I was swooning over the paper designs when I saw them. This grid square ended up being the perfect cover option for my first journal. I added in some stamping using the Roebling Alpha stamp set. This set is the perfect companion to the Kent Alpha Stamp set. Roebling fits inside the Kent outlines perfectly. I love the dot pattern she added into the Roebling for the solid letters.

Here's a look at the full Here's the Story kit it's full of awesome papers, paper strips, stickers, an alpha sticker and a stamp set.

My first entry in my journal is our Summer Bucket List. This list is a combination of things my daughter wanted to do and things that I wanted to do. This is definitely not the sum total of the fun we plan to have this summer but its the high points that we both want to make sure to cover.

The blue book paper from the kit was the perfect place to add in my list entries and because the papers are always offered digitally it makes it so easy to do that in advance and just print it out.

I dressed up the spread using the Endless Summer Stamp set. That sunbather stamp is seriously the cutest thing I have ever seen. The sunnies and the ponytail, OMG so cute! The sentiments in general on this set are super versatile and I know it will get used a lot this summer.

One thing I decided to do differently in my journal this year was add in table of contents sheets for each month. I wanted to break up the entries just a little bit so they didn't all run together. I knew the stamp set and the cards from the main Document the Days kit would be perfect for that. 

I used on of the Here's the Story background sheets cut down into a smaller strip to ground my photos toward the center of the binding. I really like the white space edge this creates by grounding everything toward the middle. I added in two journal cards one with text and one with my photo printed directly on it. One tip I want to share is, if I know I'm going to want to stamp with white ink I always print the items I want to stamp onto on photo paper instead of cardstock. The white ink adheres better and really pops on the glossy surface. The stamps I used are from the Here's the Story kit and they fit perfectly in the blocks of this background paper.

I also really love that Kelly created a companion stamp set for the Document the Days stamp set. The companion stamp set is the same elements but in a different font so you have both the Serif and Sans Serif options for your stamping.

The last stamp set that I'm super excited about is the Girls Night Out stamp set. I cannot wait for some cocktail time with my friends so I can use this one. Those cocktails are super cute!

I hope you enjoyed the release, I have some more projects coming that will include these stamps and cards so I'll be back to share more soon.

See you soon,