Project Life 2014 - Weeks 11, 12 & 13

Well, Aloha! I wonder if anyone's still out there reading this blog? I took the entire summer off from blogging and it was wonderful! I just wasn't feeling it and needed a break. I'm going to try again and just see how it goes and see if my heart's still in it at all. I'll start with trying to catch up on sharing my Project Life layouts and go from there. I've still been creating Project Life and am mostly caught up, as you probably know if you follow me on Instagram (@JenTapler).  So my plan is for the next several posts I'll be posting multiple weeks at a time to attempt to get somewhat caught up with sharing and keep the chit chat to a minimum. If there are questions about product used, please post a comment and I'll come back and add that information as it's requested. Thanks for sticking with me!

Week 11: March 9 - March 15, 2014

Around here, Dean had a tourist friend back on island, we started watching the series Cosmos (Dean loved it), I finished up another awesome Clay class at the Hui, and we got lots of rain.

Week 12: March 16 - March 22, 2014:

Around here, the weather continued to be awesome - nice and cool! Joel played golf in Pukalani with Vince and Tina. St. Patrick's Day was this week. Dean and I used our season passes and spent a morning at the Maui Ocean Center. Joel and Dean went to see the new Muppets movie. Lots of Mario Kart.

Week 13: March 23 - March 29, 2014:

Around here, Dean went golfing with Joel at the Dunes at Maui Lani. I did lots of crocheting and made my first batch of all-natural lip balm. Dean and I tried Wow Wow Lemonade for the first time. Dean made an awesome diorama about the book The Secret Zoo for a school assignment.

And that's it. I previously shared Week 14 HERE, so be sure to check that out if you missed it. I'll try to be back soon with Weeks 15, 16 & 17 and more.

Project Life 2014 - Week 14 - with Reverse Confetti

March 30 - April 5, 2014:

Hello April and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along again with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and Special Guests in this month's Blog Hop! As has been my standard when I play along with the Confetti Crew, I created another Project Life layout this month - incorporating my favorite new and past stamp sets into my spread, both on journaling cards and directly on my photos to help tell the story of our daily lives. I used my new Class Act stamp set along with several of my older Reverse Confetti stamp sets in this week's layout. 

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog and you should have made it here from the amazing Amy Sheffer's blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti's amazing stamp sets!

Along with the new Class Act stamp set, I dug into my Reverse Confetti stash and used a few of my old favorites, including Take Note, Lighthearted Letters, and Celebrate Cake as well as the flag-ended banner die from the Tag Me Confetti Cuts die set. All of these stamp sets are perfect for using on Project Life Pages and went well with The Good Life Emily Merritt printables I used this week along with a few random Becky Higgins journal cards I added in.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with us on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to Sarah Gough's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog. Also, for you cardmakers, don't forget...April’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY is open for you to play along.

How would you like to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your very own? Leave a comment on each stop along the way for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to REVERSE CONFETTI. Comments are open until Thursday, April 10 at noon CST, and the winner will be announced on the Reverse Confetti Blog!

Classmate Valentine Gifts with Reverse Confetti

 

I'm so excited to be playing along in another Blog Hop this month with the fabulous Reverse Confetti Team! Today I'm veering a bit away from my standard Project Life post to share a fun little Valentine's Day project I mass produced for Dean to give to each of his 2nd Grade Classmates next week. A few Reverse Confetti stamp sets and dies made the mass production so easy! I'll get to all of the project details in a bit. First, the nitty gritty about the Blog Hop...

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's Blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using so many of Reverse Confetti's amazing products!

For school parties, I try to steer clear of candy as the kids get so much of that already. This year, I found these awesome recycled paper pencils from a fabulous Etsy Shop - MoxiePear - and placed a bulk order of pink, red and white.  I already had the perfect sized cellophane bags, so I just needed to make a cute little tag. Reverse Confetti made the job super quick and easy! I pulled out my Tag Me die set along with the Arrow die and got to work cutting. As for the stamping, I used Crushin' for the decorative bits and then added Dean's name with Lighthearted Letters (I love using this stamp set on my Project Life pages as well). Repeat 20 times and Dean is ready for his Valentine's Day party!

I hope you've enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more Reverse Confetti inspiration! Now it's time to hop on over to Stacey Schafer's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

How would you like to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your very own? Leave a comment on each stop along the hop for a chance to win a $15 Gift Certificate to Reverse Confetti! Comments are open until February 10th at noon CST!

Have a great weekend!

December Daily 2013 Beginnings - with Reverse Confetti

It's the 8th of the month and I'm so excited to be playing along in another Blog Hop with the Reverse Confetti team! Last month's release was full of holiday magic, as well as some gorgeous everyday sentiments - the perfect combination to help me get started on my 2013 December Daily Album! Today I'll be sharing the first few documentation pages of my album, and I shared the "opening pages" (like the one pictured above) last month using more Reverse Confetti stamps - if you missed that post, you can see it HERE. While I'll be showing ways to incorporate these fun stamps into your December Daily album or other holiday memory keeping projects, the rest of the Confetti Crew and special guests will help you start thinking of those small gifts, tags, treats, or just sweet notes to spread the "Merry" this season!

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog, and you should have made it here from the fabulous Amy Sheffer's Blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning, so you don't miss a thing! And don't forget to leave a little love along the way for a chance to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your own!

Now, on to my December Daily Album. If you're not familiar with December Daily, it's an album project - conceptualized by Ali Edwards - that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas (some people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer). This will be my 3rd year creating a December Daily Album and I absolutely love both the process and the final outcome. However, this year I decided to do something a little different. Instead of documenting my month on a true DAILY basis (photo-a-day style), I decided to be more laid back and just create more of a Holiday themed mini-album. I won't do a page per day, but will rather just capture an overview of our holiday memories for the month. So some days may have several pages of documentation and then there will be several days without any documentation. We'll see how this goes this year and then I'll decide which format I prefer going forward. 

The first page of documentation this year highlights the arrival of our family's Elf on the Shelf, Scout. (For all of the following photos, you should be able to click on them to pull up an enlargement to see them a little closer if you want to see any of the detail).

Scout usually brings Dean a special gift (a Lego Advent Calendar) along with a letter basically telling him to be good, or else. I used some fun digital goodies by Emily Merritt on this page, which paired perfectly with that "Special Delivery from the North Pole" stamp from the Reverse Confetti Tinsel 'n Trim set. I stamped that sentiment in Versamark ink and embossed it with silver glittery Zing embossing powder. It looks so fun! I added a few other embellishments and it was done!

The next page features an enlarged photo of Dean at the end of a long day of decorating, when I made him put on those elf ears and take a picture in front of the tree. He refused to smile. The "Don't get your tinsel in a tangle" sentiment from Tinsel 'n Trim seemed fitting! The facing page has four 3x4 pockets. I stamped the "Joy" sentiment inside the red star of an Emily Merritt printable and added the "Ho. Ho. Ho." sentiment to the top of a printable journal card and journaled about the photo of Dean in the elf ears. Both the "Joy" and "Ho. Ho. Ho." sentiments are from Tinsel 'n Trim as well. I added a few wood veneer speech bubble words to the top right pocket and sewed it closed, then added an instagram photo of Dean decorating the tree to a journal card and created the hashtag awesome sentiment with the Arrows 'n Elements set.

And the last layout I'm sharing today continues with our Tree Trimming. I created a simple and fun 3x4 journal card by adding the red diagonal stripes from the So Stripey set to the top of a preprinted "Who, What, When, Where, Why" card by Becky Higgins (it's hard to see in the photo, but those words are along the left side of the card), then filled it in. I also stamped the Picture Perfect sentiment from Tinsel 'n Trim onto another Emily Merritt printable to create a quick & easy filler card. And finally, I enlarged a photo of Dean and I putting some finishing touches on the tree (with a photo bomb from one of our cats - do you see her? LOL) and added a few simple embellishments along with the "bring on the Merry" sentiment I created using the Bring on the Merry set.

And that's it from me today. Now head on over to Sarah Gough's blog. And remember, leave a comment on each stop for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to Reverse Confetti. Comments are open until Tuesday, December 10th at 2pm CST, and the winner will be announced on the "Wednesday in the Works" post over on the Reverse Confetti blog!

Thanks for hopping along!

December Daily 2013 Foundation Pages with Reverse Confetti

 

I'm so excited to be joining the Reverse Confetti Design Team again for this month's New Release Blog Hop! I've used a few of the new Reverse Confetti stamps to help get started on a few of the foundation pages for my December Daily album this year. The rest of the Confetti Crew and special guests are using this month's release to inspire you in all sorts of amazing holiday cards and projects. Come and hop along as we share some creative ideas using all the new products from REVERSE CONFETTI, including five new trendy stamp sets and introducing CONFETTI CUTS. That’s right, Reverse Confetti now carries steel dies, and there are 2 sets to choose from this month. So exciting!

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from Stacey Schafer’s blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all the new Reverse Confetti stamp sets! 

If you're not familiar with December Daily, it's an album project - conceptualized by Ali Edwards - that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas (some people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer). This will be my 3rd year creating a December Daily Album and I absolutely love both the process and the final outcome. I'm excited to add these new Reverse Confetti stamps to my large stash of products that I'll be using throughout my album this year. I've found that it's helpful for me to create a few basic foundation pages that I tend to use each year before December begins to help get me both in the holiday spirit and get my mojo flowing. Below is what I've done so far. A few of these items were heavily influenced by Ali Edward's own foundation pages this year, but with my own twist using Reverse Confetti stamps.

For the "Title Page" of my album this year, I added gold glitter to a wood veneer "25", then stamped the adorable "Ho.Ho.Ho." sentiment from Tinsel 'N Trim to a strip of red cardstock to add underneath. I attached both of these to a piece of clear acetate and slipped it into the page protector. You'll notice I'm a fan of keeping some pockets of my album semi-open so you can see the fun elements in / on the next page peeking through.

The next page is just fun. It has a little Christmas Countdown card that I plan to let Dean check off each day as I work on my album (he's a fan of checking things off), then a few individual letters sewn into a pocket for each of our initials (Jennifer, Joel & Dean), and another filler card in the bottom right pocket. But the top right pocket is definitely my fave. I filled it with some sequins and sewed the top closed, then simply stapled what seemed like the perfect sentiment right to the outside of the page protector - "peace, love and sparkly stuff" from Tinsel 'N Trim.

My very first December Daily kit came with several of these fabulous Kraft blank calendar grids and I've used one at the beginning of each of my DD albums for a quick overview of our monthly activities - both Holiday and "normal". I cut down a 6x8 page protector and slipped the calendar in, then sewed up the bottom and side, leaving the top open to easily get it in and out for documenting throughout the month. I stamped the fun "dec. 25" circle from the Tinsel 'N Trim set in Versamark ink and heat embossed in red embossing powder on the 25th to highlight Christmas Day. 

Another DD tradition for me has been to include a "Bucket List" of Holiday-ish activities we plan to do throughout the month. Sometime before December 1, we'll sit down as a family and fill this page with a list of all the fun things we want to do leading up to Christmas this year. Yes, each year the list looks very similar to the previous year's list, but that's OK. We usually end up deleting a few things and adding a few new things. Having a list like this helps us stay focused and reminds us that for our family, the holidays are all about spending time together and spreading joy. I used several goodies from my stash and my Studio Calico December Daily kit along with the Bring on the Merry stamp set to create this blank page that's all ready to be filled in very soon. 

I also took some time to embellish a few blank journaling cards to have on hand to make putting together each day's documentation pages a bit easier during the month. I used different stamps from both the Tinsel 'N Trim and Bring on the Merry to create the cards above and will be making several more in the coming weeks. 

As I'm typing up this post, I'm realizing that I never got around to sharing my completed 2011 or 2012 albums on my blog. If you interested, you can see the cover of my 2012 album HERE and the cover and a few foundation pages of my 2011 album HERE. If there's any interested in seeing some photos of the completed album pages of these albums, please let me know and I'll try to do a blog post sometime in the next few weeks. I do definitely plan to share my 2013 album progress throughout the month of December here on my blog (I find that I usually put the finishing touches on my DD album sometime in mid-January).

So that's it for my project today. I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to Laurie Schmidlin’s blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 36

Week 36: September 1 - September 7, 2013

Around here, life was just good. We bought a new coffee table from West Elm, which I love. Our Living Room makeover is almost complete - It started in January with new flooring (replaced old carpet with bamboo). We painted in February. We installed board & batten in the entryway around the same time. This summer my MIL reupholstered our large sectional sofa and chair (LOVE it - it looks like brand new furniture - totally changed the whole look of our room!), we bought a new rug (I don't LOVE the rug, but we have very limited shopping options on Maui, so it will do for now), and now a new coffee table. I've gradually been purchasing artwork for the walls and just have to get up the nerve to install it all - we've been in this house for about 6 years now and my living room walls are still mostly blank because I can't commit to anything and I don't have the nerve to arrange my artwork in a gallery wall. November is the month I will GET. IT. DONE!!! I also have some new light fixtures that need to be installed, but I'm waiting for my electrician neighbor to have time to install them for me. It's all slowly coming together.

Anyway, around Week 36, some "home work issues" also came to a head. We dealt with it and I'm happy to say it hasn't been an issue since (even though I'm apparently the "meanest Mommy EVER" - ha! Dean and I both had colds this week, we started wearing scrubs at work which meant buying a bunch of new clothes, and I started a fun new crochet project with the help of my good friend Sarah's Mom (Thanks Aunty Les!!). It was a good week!

Products used included lots of Seafoam cards as well as a few Honey 3x4 cards mixed in. I kept things very simple and added just a few embellishments in the form of alpha stickers (old old ones from my stash), an arrow and heart stamp from Reverse Confetti's Arrows & Elements set, and literally that's about it. SO EASY.

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so here ya go:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 7 to 2
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 9 to 0 (and 4 with the iMac desktop camera thing)

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 40 - Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

Week 40: September 29 - October 5, 2013

Hello October and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along again with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and Special Guests in this month's Blog Hop! Last month’s release was all about fall and spooks and today we are inspiring you with projects and cards using those stamps and any other previously released stamps from Reverse Confetti. As has been my standard when I play along with the Confetti Crew, I created another Project Life layout this month - incorporating my favorite new and past stamp sets into my spread, both on journaling cards and directly on my photos to help tell the story of our daily lives. I used my new Forever Fall and Lighthearted Letters along with several of my older Reverse Confetti stamp sets in this week's layout. 

 
The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's Blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti's amazing stamp sets!

Around here this week, we had lots of excitement with Dean losing his 3rd tooth, and participating in his school's annual Fun Run fundraiser. You can see on the left side of the layout how I combined the Lighthearted Letters set (the "tooth inside" on the envelope, "hero" on the movie journal card, and "pomaikai" on the 4x6 card about the fundraiser) with various images from my favorite Arrows & Elements set (the "take note" and "awesome" sentiments). I also added the cute woodgrain heart image from Forever Fall to the top right photo of Cookie the cat and that fun polka dot flag is actually the ice cream cone image from Celebrate Cake.

On the right side of the layout, more Lighthearted Letters ("oct 5" in the top right pocket and "clay class" in the far left 3x4 pocket), which I can tell is going to be one of my go-to stamp sets for Project Life!! The "Just Sayin'" sentiment and the blue arrows in the bottom left are from the Arrows n' Elements set. I also more of the Forever Fall set for the strip of woodgrain and "happy fall" sentiment on the 4x6 card about my fall decor. The "for the record, you rock" sentiment is from the Inner Rock Star set and seemed like a perfect fit for documenting a hard day of volunteering at the Bone Marrow Donor Registration booth at the Maui County Fair! Of course, as usual, I used lots of Becky Higgins Project Life products for my card bases this week - Seafoam, Midnight, Honey, and the Sunshine kits all made an appearance!

I hope you've enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more Reverse Confetti inspiration! Now it's time to hop on over to Kimberly Crawford's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

How would you like to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your very own? Leave a comment on each stop along the hop for a chance to win a $15 Gift Certificate to Reverse Confetti! Comments are open until Thursday, October 10th at 2pm CST and the winner will be announced on the Week in Reverse post on the 11th over on the Reverse Confetti Blog!

And now some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 12 to 3 (and 1 by a co-worker and 1 online stock movie promo photo)
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 11 to 4

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 Week 35 - Reverse Confetti September Release Blog Hop

Project Life 2013 Week 35 - Aug 25 - Aug 31, 2013:

Hello September and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along again with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and Special Guests in this month's New Release Blog Hop from Reverse Confetti! I received the Count Your Rainbows stamp set to play with this month and at the time of this post I've already placed my order for the Forever Fall, Lighthearted Letters, and Spooky Sentiments sets - all of which I think will work perfectly in my fall (and some other times) Project Life layouts! As usual for me with these Blog Hops, I'm sharing another Project Life layout - I'm loving how easy it is to incorporate the RC stamps into my weekly PL spreads. (To see other examples of how I've used the Reverse Confetti stamps in my Project Life album, see THIS POST and THIS POST). 

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti Blog and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's Blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop so you don't miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti's new stamp sets!

For my layout, I used the previously mentioned Count your Rainbows set along with my old fave Arrows 'n Elements. Here are a few more photos of both sides of the layout so you can see how I combined these two stamp sets:

Of note, I also used some fun new Back to School printables (School Time and Graded) by Emily Merritt, which coordinated perfectly with the pictures from Open House at Dean's school. And in case it isn't obvious, I used the numbers from the Count your Rainbows stamp set to number a few of the photos and then created a sort of "Week in Review" card (below) to explain the details of these particular photos. I'll definitely be using this set again in the future for this! The arrows used throughout the layout as well as the "awesome" and "oh, hello" sentiments are from the Arrows 'n Elements set. (Don't worry PLers - I've already been bugging Jen to create a follow-up to this set with similar sentiments and element stamps!!).

You can also see another example of how well so many of the RC stamp sets coordinate for use in Project Life on this 4x6 card about Joel's new adventure into Grad School. I combined some element stamps from the Arrows 'n Elements set with sentiments from the Count your Rainbows set. And yes, I really did make my husband pose like that for a "First Day of Grad School" photo using the same chalkboard we use every year for Dean's First Day of School photos!! He's such a good sport...

And for those of you interested, here are graphics of the complete stamp sets I used on this week's layouts. Remember, the Count your Rainbows set is just 1 of FIVE new stamp sets releasing today - you'll definitely want to check out the other sets!

I hope you've enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more Reverse Confetti inspiration! Now it's time to hop on over to Kimberly Crawford's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

A few things before you hop along though, just to keep you "in the know"...

SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY (SFYTT) - Play along each month for your chance to win the ENTIRE NEXT RELEASE and to be invited to play along with the Confetti Crew as they sneak peek and hop with all the new stamps. Click HERE for more details and link list.

'FETTI FINDS - Link your Reverse Confetti creations to the link list posted on the Reverse Confetti blog each Monday (Note: Reverse Confetti stamps are required for 'Fetti Finds.) A 'Fetti Fave will be announced on the Reverse Confetti Blog from that month's entries. The 'Fetti Fave will receive the ENTIRE NEXT STAMP RELEASE and be invited to play along with the Confetti Crew as we sneak peek and hop with all the new stamps. Click HERE for more details and link list.

Celebrate the creative side of you!

*********************************************************************************************

And now for some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 6 to 1 (and 1 image downloaded from the internet)
Ratio of Galaxy S4 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 7 to 0
I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013 Week 31 - Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

Project Life 2013 Week 31: July 28 - Aug 3, 2013

 

Hello August and Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans!  I'm so excited to be hopping along today with the Reverse Confetti Design Team and a few other Special Guests in this month's creative Blog Hop from Reverse Confetti! Last month's release was fantastic and today we are inspiring you with projects and cards using those stamps and any other previously released stamps from Reverse Confetti. Of course, I'm sharing another Project Life layout - I just love how easy it is to incorporate the RC stamps into my weekly PL spreads. (To see another example of how I've used the Reverse Confetti stamps in my Project Life album, see THIS POST, where I share my Week 27 layout).

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from the amazing Heather Pulvirenti's blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using all of Reverse Confetti’s amazing stamp sets! (and a giveaway for one lucky hopper if you leave a little love along the way)

For my layout, I mostly used the Arrows 'n Elements set, but mixed in a few stamps from the Celebrate Cake and Peacock Pretties sets. Here's a closer look at the left side of the layout:

This was just last week, which was a pretty exciting week for us - we traveled off the island where we live (Maui) to Oahu for a little mini 5-day vacation. You can probably read the details on the journaling cards if you're interested, but basically when you live on a small island like Maui - getting to go do things like go shopping at a real mall and go to a Water Park are pretty big deals!! ;-) Traffic? Not so fun when you're used to a maximum speed limit of 45 mph and nothing but 2-lane highways! But we managed to survive. Starting in the top right corner of the left side of my layout, you can see that I used that round stamp from the Peacock Pretties set as a geotag - I know, sometimes my cleverness shocks even myself. LOL. The rest of the stamps used on this page are from the Arrows 'n Elements set - which I can't seem to get enough of! I love how all the little arrows and tags are absolutely perfect for Project Life!  

Now let's look a little closer at the right side of the layout:

Again, lots of Arrows 'n Elements on this side of the page. But if you take a look at the top right 4x6 pocket where I included our tickets from our tour of 'Iolani Palace - I used a couple of stamps from the Celebrate Cake set. I also added the "Good Times" stamp from the Celebrate Cake set to the striped label from Arrows 'n Elements in the bottom left 4x6 photo. Love being able to mix & match some of these sets! I used another one of those fun triangles (ice cream cones?) from Celebrate Cake on the bottom right 4x6 card. And can I just point out that CRAZY tree in that photo? Have you ever seen a tree like that? My husband is a pretty big guy (6'3" and about 230 lbs) and he looks TINY next to that ginormous tree! It's on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. I've never seen anything like it! And yes, it really is called a "Dead Rat Tree". There's your botany lesson of the day. You're welcome.

Well, that's about it from me today. I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us. Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to the talented Kimberly Crawford's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

How would you like to win some Reverse Confetti goodies of your very own?  Leave a comment on each stop along the way for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to REVERSE CONFETTI. Comments are open until Monday night, August 12^th at 11pm CST, and the winner will be announced on the Time for a Card Tuesday post on the 13^th over on the Reverse Confetti Blog!

And now for some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 12 to 3
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 15 to 0

I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.

Project Life 2013, Week 27 - Reverse Confetti Blog Hop

Hello REVERSE CONFETTI Fans! I was so excited when my friend Jen asked if I'd like to play along as a special guest for this month's new release! The wait is finally over, and it's time for another new release from your favorite new company!  That's right, it's time for Reverse Confetti's second release and it's even better than the first one.  Another 4 new stamp sets are being released TODAY!  We know you all are excited to see what's new, so start by hopping along with the Confetti Crew, along with some other special guests.

If you're one of my regular blog readers, I'm skipping ahead a few weeks in sharing my Project Life because today I'm participating in a special Blog Hop with the Reverse Confetti Design Team. I've been loving ALL of their stamps, but this new Arrows 'n Elements set in particular is absolutely PERFECT for Project Life!! Take a look at how I used it throughout my entire layout this week..

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from Heather's blog.  It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing.  We have tons of inspiration for you to see using Reverse Confetti’s second release of 4 brand new stamp sets!

Here's a look at that amazing Arrows 'n Elements stamp set that I used so much of this week (and I just know I'll be using throughout my Project Life layouts in weeks to come!). Today is Release Day, so that means this set, along with 3 other fun new stamp sets, are available NOW in the Reverse Confetti store:

And how about some closer looks at my layout? Week 27 covered last week (June 30-July 6), which was a busy week around here. One of my good friends from high school, Alanna, was here visiting (most of her trip fell during Week 26, which I'll be sharing in the near future) and the first few days of the week covered the end of her visit. Our kids had a blast at the beach together! Then mid-week Joel and Dean enjoyed a fun day at the pool.

You might notice that my date card is hand stamped this week with a fun background stamp - that stamp is also a Reverse Confetti stamp releasing today - Whole Lotta Dots. So fun to create that 4x6 date card myself! And that Arrows 'n Elements set is seriously so versatile. So many mix & match stamps and I had a blast creating a few 3x4 journal cards.

And here's a closer look at a few of the pockets where you can see how I used some of the other stamps. The sentiments fit perfectly into the striped rectangle, but I also used that rectangle as a little journal tag - something I never seem to have enough of! It's the PERFECT size to add to a corner of a 4x6 photo as you can see on that beautiful photo Alanna captured of a green sea turtle at Ho'okipa Beach Sunday afternoon. I also stamped directly onto that photo, something I've decided I don't do enough of. As you can see on my "just sayin'" 3x4 journal card, the striped flag-ended stamp is designed to align perfectly with the striped rectangle stamp, but it also looks super cute as an extra little embellishment (seen at the top left of the "pool time" 4x6 card).

The right side of the layout mostly covers the 4th of July. And it's mostly self-explanatory I think. The top right pocket holds a trimmed down piece of artwork my son Dean made for the 4th (that may or may not have been purposefully color-coordinated specifically for my PL layout. {wink}).

I mixed in a few cork circle stickers from Studio Calico as well as the printable "life is in session" card from Emily Merritt's True Statement Cards No. 1 (recolored). The Summer 2013 card on the left side of the layout is from Elle's Studio. I absolutely love how effortlessly this stamp set coordinated with all the other products I reach for when working on my Project Life layouts each week. It's definitely earned a permanent spot in my "go to" pile on my desk!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today.  Be sure and hop with the Confetti Crew on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration!  Now it’s time to hop on over to Kimberly's blog.  If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog. Celebrate the creative side of you!

Some stats, because I think it's fun when Elise Cripe does this, so I thought I'd start as well:

Ratio of photos taken by Jen to photos taken by Joel: 4 to 3 (and 2 taken by my sweet friend Alanna Bird, 1 taken by my Mom)
Ratio of Galaxy S3 Phone Photos to "real camera" photos: 8 to 2
I will be sharing a link to this post on The Mom Creative blog.