Currently || April Edition

I AM CURRENTLY...

Journaling and loving it. I bought a notebook from Nuuna while I was in Salzburg. I got it at this home concept store and I am such a sucker for shops with unneeded but incredibly adorable things.


Relaxing after traveling. Have you ever been to Salzburg? It's magical.


Enjoying the flower obsession on Instagram. Spring is wonderful.


And doing random Project Life spreads from past photos, but sadly NOT working on my 2016 album.

Day in the Life™ || 29 March 2016

 

This was my first year joining Ali Edwards in documenting a day in my life. I decided on a whim the night before and gave myself a couple "rules" to follow so that it wouldn't be too much work.

ONE: I took all the photos with my phone. My phone doesn't take that great of photos, but I cared more about convenience.

TWO: No retakes. No matter how crappy the photo. See above that I have a terrible phone and just know that I got a lot of bad shots. And I'm ok with it because it's all a part of my new mantra that perfection is overrated.

THREE: All the photos had the same Vscocam filter (A5). Of course, if the filter didn't fit the photo I just made it black and white and called it good.

I got my pictures printed through Rossman here in Germany. They have the option to print 4"x4" photos and the quality isn't bad.

I just started on the album today and decided on a 4x4 gold WRMK album and kraft paper. I'll also be stamping numbers using PAPIERPROJEKT stamps because I absolutely love how the chronological day layout I did in my Budapest album.

Here are a few photos from my day using my "rules":

I will post the rest of the album here on the blog as soon as it is finished.

Hope you enjoyed the first pages xo,

Kais

52 Project: April Update

Yes, I'm still doing the 52 Project I mentioned back in January. You would think that taking pictures once a week would be easy, but LIFE HAPPENS. No problem, though. (Remember I said before that perfection was overrated). Well, I just rearranged a few photos so that I have a picture a week.

And I decided to add weekly photos of me and Zo. Don't worry, she's smiling on the inside in these pictures.




I'm going to try and post these photos every week on Mondays to hold myself accountable. We'll see how it goes.
                    

xo,

Kais

Spring Appreciation

Spring has sprung. We have been to the park more times already this spring than all of last year. Take that 2015.

Budapest Travel Album

I went to Budapest in October of 2013 with two friends that have traveled the world with me. The photos from the trip were spread across Instagram, Facebook, and an old SIM card. I'm so glad I brought the photos together in this album so that I can actually enjoy them. Budapest is such an incredible city and the photos were vibrant. It really made the album one of my favorites to make.

I thought it would be difficult to make an album from photos that weren't recent. I also had absolutely no additional bits and pieces (this album was pure photos). I decided on a 6x8 handbook by Studio Calico. And by "decided"... I mean "had to because I didn't want to buy anything else". It turned out perfectly.

THE SUPPLIES: This album uses 3 new stamps sets by PAPIER PROJEKT and an older patterned set: the Brentano alpha , the Kopernikus numbers,  the Details set, and Mustermix . They are all 4x4" high quality, clear Photopolymer stamps and are now available in the shop. I chose two colors of Versa Color ink throughout the album. These were Sage and Bronze. I wanted to try to keep it color coordinated. Of course, I also used my black Stazon (the best ever). For the patterened journal cards, I used leftover paper from my December Daily 2015 kits, plus a few other pieces by Life Love Paper and Ashley Goldberg.

Here is my title page. I love to repeat words when stamping (as you will definitely see throughout the album).

My first spread is my favorite. I love the stamping and that painted Budapest window in the picture.

The next spread is from our first adventure when we walked from our hostel in Pest over to the Buda side of the city. This seriously took us all day because we all had our cameras and were pure photo snobs. It was wonderful.

The third spread was from the same day, but I put them in chronological order and stamped the time using the Kopernikus numbers. Of course, the times are purely guesstimates because I didn't keep a journal of everything we did during the trip and this was from 3 years ago. That colorful card was a Thank You card by Life Love Paper when I ordered a stamp set from her site. Note: I am not a perfectionist when stamping as you can see from the "Morgens, Mittags, Abends" card. Stazon ink dries REALLY fast. I was way too slow stamping the card so it dried before I could get a clear image. I decided I didn't care to do it over again. Then I wrote my statements and "fueling for the evening" was a bit offset. Again, I decided it was too much effort to redo so I just added a star on the left. Perfection is overrated.

And the next spread is more stamping and a sequined 6x8 page.

Here is a close up of that page. I have a Fuse tool, but it is the US version and I am in Germany. So instead I used my tiny attacher and called it fabulous. The card is from an Ali Makes Mail from 2015

Here's my next spread. I might change the 2x2 pockets on the right side. Everyone loves that page protector size, but I have such a hard time using the tiny pockets. 

For the next spread, I had that Ashley Goldberg paper from a calendar set she did for Studio Calico. It was cut down for a different project that I didn't use it for. So I cut down the 6x8 page protector, hole punched along the bottom, and hand stitched it with twine.

I put our night pictures on the next spread. 

And the next one has the pictures from our walk to the Széchenyi thermal baths.

And finally.... the end of the album includes the only photo from the bathhouse. We didn't take our cameras in since we were enjoying the water. I stamped WE WERE HERE and created the patterned background on the lower card using Mustermix.

I hope you enjoyed the album as much as I did making it. And go check out the new PAPIERPROJEKT shop!

xo,

Kaisa

PAPIERPROJEKT Creative Team 2016

This year is going to be great.

I am a part of the PAPIERPROJEKT blog and media team for 2016. 

If you are a lover of high quality photopolymer stamps, I dare you to check out their stamps and not be hooked. Just click HERE. It's that easy. If that isn't enough. Just go take a look at their Instagram feed.

You can also check out the blogs and Instagrams for the rest of the team. Get ready to be swooned. 

Andrea (Team Koordination) – Blog | Instagram

Anna – Blog | Instagram

Daphne 
– Blog | Instagram

Janine
 – Blog | Instagram

Jennifer
 – Blog | Instagram

Lisa
 – YouTube | Instagram

Renate – Blog | Instagram

Sandra
 – Blog | Instagram

PAPIERPROJEKT Links

website: www.papierprojekt.de

instagram: www.instagram.com/papierprojekt

52 Project: The Year of 30

I am not the best journaler.

But this is a grand year. It is the year I turn 30.

My inspiration comes from the Life: Captured blog. Please go through their journaling and memory keeping archives. They are drool worthy and will make you wish you started documenting your life earlier (or maybe that was just me).

What I'm doing is called the 52 Project. I plan to take a portrait of myself each week in 2016. I will also try to do at least 1 journaling entry per week. At the end of the year, I will have it professionally printed in a Moleskine notebook. After starting this project, I have come to realize that MANY people have done it before so I have loved looking at all of the inspiration, mainly on Instagram. If you want to follow along with my story, I will be using the hashtag #kaisasyearof30

We are 3 weeks into the year and I can honestly say that the picture taking isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I am not a selfie taker so I assumed it would be awkward for me. Side note: there are PLENTY of awkward photos,

Here is Week 1: I wanted the first picture in the book to have no gimmicks. I wanted to see ME. That is why I took this straight on. I edited the photo with VSCO cam on my phone. I have Radlab on my computer, but I couldn't get a good enough edit so I transferred the file to my phone. I do this often because those VSCO filters are just so good.

Here is Week 2: I wanted to show the wrinkles when I smile. I want smile wrinkles. When people look at me when I'm older, I want them to be able to see the happy life I've led. This photo was edited with Radlab.

So far, this project has been really incredible and it inspired me to also do weekly pictures with my daughter. I don't quite know what I will do with those pictures yet. A Moleskine notebook is pushing $100 so I'm contemplating using a different medium.

Again, if you'd like to follow along, I will be posting on Instagram @kaisacreates

Until next time.

xoxo,

Kaisa

Currently || January Edition

I am currently..

reading Everything I Never Told You

watching Making a Murderer

eating Baked Oatmeal

drinking Black Coffee. I miss lattes, but I'm trying to cut back on dairy.

listening to the Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify.. which has suddenly started to only play covers much to my disliking.

enjoying free time while Zo sleeps

finishing the rest of my 2015 Project Life album

loving that Zo is becoming more confident. She took 3 steps yesterday.

feeling actually really good. My mind is clear and we are going to start next month looking for places to rent in France.

wearing a structured cotton sweater from Mango. I love it so much that I bought it in 2 colors.

hearing Zo's chatter. She talks so much. Her current word is "cat".

baking Lemon Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I got a bunch of bananas for 50% off at the store. (edit: this was phenomenal)

using our new Fitbits. It has motivated me to also start doing home exercise videos like a boss mom.

My Life Documenting Plan for 2016 - Part 2 - Project Life 6x8

2016 is here and I am proud to say I have started my album already.

This is the plan:

ONE ALBUM
Yup, just one measly album and I'm going to do it. I have already prepped the album with 2 page protectors per month: 1 full page and 1 separated page. I know it can all fit in 1 album because I intend to document ME in a separate way. This 6x8 album will be just the family.

SIMPLIFICATION THROUGH REPETITION
Every month has only 2 page protectors. Each month will get a full page photo with this Paislee Press monthly template. Then on the back side of that full page will be this Snapshots template with the photos that didn't get enough love to go solo. I absolutely adore Paislee Press. The second page protector will have more freedom so my creative self won't be too restricted :)



MONTHLY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH
Each month, I want a photo with all three of us in it. I have an incredible amount of photos from 2015, but not many where we are ALL in the photo.


And that's that. I hope that this will help me take BETTER photos.