The Key to Artsy Papers

This week's release from Pretty Dutch Designs is The Key to Artsy Papers, five artsy papers with paint and gesso in shades of yellow, black, and purple. 

The Key to Artsy Papers by Pretty Dutch Designs

Get artsy in an easy way! Take a look at our CT creations:

by Chantal for Pretty Dutch Designs

by Geraldine for Pretty Dutch Designs

by Sharon for Pretty Dutch Designs

Artsy papers make art journaling pages so easy. Add The Key to Artsy papers to your stash for 40% off this week. And don't forget - Oscraps is celebrating its 10th Birthday, so most of the store is 40% off!

More Artful Planner Stuff

As I had figured earlier this year, I've ended up using my planner as my Project Life memory keeper. 

This week, I had a little bit of time to work on a few planner pages. I used the new Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01 and Planner: Painterly Template packs from Crafty Button Design. First, let's take a look at the new packs.

The dividers:

Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01 by Crafty Button Design

And the templates, complete with paint "doodles" and word art to use on your pages. 

Planner: Painterly Template Pack by Crafty Button Design

Both of these new packs are 20% off through Thursday (St. Patrick's Day!). Amber also has some select packs that she thinks would work great for planners on sale for 50% off. (Peruse the Crafty Button Design store to see those products.) One of my favorites is Viva La Vida Words, which is a great source for quotes to use on the planner divider pages. And, if you want to include some inspirational words on the pages to fill up the odd spaces, check out the Urban Whimsy Word Art Brushes. Journal card packs, like Arftul Everyday Cards Vol. 5, can also be pulled into your planner. (I showed an example in a previous planner post.)

Now, let's see the two new planner packs in action! What I loved about the dividers pack is the ability to customize it with quotes or whatever I wanted. I've wanted to include quotes in my planner, and the easy way to do this is to put them on the dividers. I did a couple of dividers with quotes:

Perfect - planner divider page by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Divider: Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01

Word art: She

Butterfly: Frost Fairies

Unique - planner divider page by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Divider: Planner: Melange Dividers Pack 01

Then, since I seem to be using my planner more as a Project Life keeper (haha!), I included a grocery list that I had originally typed up on my phone. I suppose the "easy" thing would have been to just grab a screenshot from my phone and include it on a journaling card, but what would be the fun in that? ;)  At least this way, I was also able to capture a few notes in the empty margin of the page of other errands and reminders that I had for the week. Mundane stuff, I know, but I know that even a year from now, I'll come across this and find it amusing to see what was going on in my life that week and what I bought at the grocery store. That is what I love about Project Life!

Shopping list planner page by cyranoscrap 

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Shopping List: Planner: Melange Inserts Pack 01

Checkboxes, arrrows, word art: Planner: Painterly Template Pack

Lastly, I created a two-page spread to summarize Week 9. In the pack, there is a printable PDF of the template, but I opted to use the digital version in Photoshop so I could print my pictures with it. To help me stay within the painted guidelines, I just created boxes on the layer below the template, then clipped photos and background papers to the boxes. Finally, I finished off the page with just a few elements since the pages were already busy. 

Week 9 Project Life planner pages by cyranoscrap

CREDITS
All products from Crafty Button Design

Template: Planner: Painterly Template Pack

Papers: Amber's Pages, Vol. 5, Watercolor Backgrounds Vol. 1, Cotton Candy Papers

Elements: Gypsy at Heart, Home, Lady-Tude, Sew Perfect

Another gal on the Crafty Button Design team prints out everything and then fills in things as the week progresses:

Planner pages by Jennifer for Crafty Button Design

If I were a little more on top of things (ha!),I could definitely do it this way. ;)

I was thinking more about how I could stretch my planner to do more creative things with it. I'll be sharing in the weeks to come - as life allows me the chance, that is!

Here's to a new week! Spread a little creativity when you can!

Photo a Day for February - COMPLETED!

Celebrating National Tortilla Chip
Day on Feb. 24

Amazing to believe, but I finally did it. One photo a day for a month - I finally completed a WHOLE month! 

Okay, so maybe it helped that February was a short month. And I'll even admit there was a day or two where I almost forgot to take a photo until it was already close to bedtime. But I went ahead and got my photo in. 

Whew. What an accomplishment. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been trying to get a photo a day for at least the last couple of years, if not more. I always missed a day somewhere, even if I took way more photos than the days in the month. 

I'm not sure why it was such a big deal to me to get a photo a day. I've read where other people will just substitute a pic from another day of that week to make up for the missed day. But I can't do that. No matter what, I knew that I had failed to capture a photo for each day. Darn that perfectionist streak in me. 

So, I will continue to strive to take a photo a day for another month. I don't know if 'll accomplish it, but it's worth a try. I'm trying to come up with tricks to remind myself to capture a daily photo. Aside from scheduling it on my calendar or setting an alarm on my phone, I'm not sure how to accomplish it. Even if I don't get one every day, I'll still have record of this one month. And I'm okay with that. :D