Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

'Song on Loop' free planner printable

A new month, a new set of freebies I designed for me & my BIG ideas. I'm excited to share this free printable that documents the song that plays on repeat during the week. You know what I'm talking about -- sometimes it's the brand new Summer single you can't hear enough of, and sometimes it's one of your favorite oldies that your iPod brings back in shuffle (for me that song is "Dreams" by The Cranberries). Whichever song you're listening to on loop that week, you now have a design to stick in your planner and document it on!   They are available for FREE DOWNLOAD on the mambi blog HERE.

Head over, click the link, print the page, and cut them out! It's that simple! As you can see above, they're made to especially fit a box inside of the weekly columns of The Happy Planner™, but so cute to include on any jazzed up planner page. I also made the design in a variety of different colors, so they can easily coordinate with other embellishments. Enjoy!

'CURRENTLY' free planner printables

A new month, a new set of freebies I designed for me & my BIG ideas. I'm excited to share this free printable with a 'CURRENTLY' theme to use in your planner.  I imagine myself filling one of these out every month and then looking back on them at the end of the year to reflect on the different things I was up to.   They are available for FREE DOWNLOAD on the mambi blog HERE.

Head over, click the links for each, print the pages, and cut them out! It's that simple! As you can see above, they're made to especially fit the weekly (or monthly) sidebar columns of The Happy Planner™, but so cute to include on any jazzed up planner page. I also made the design in a variety of different colors, so they can easily coordinate with other embellishments. Enjoy!

prepping May in my Happy Planner™

I've shared that my new planner had arrived and what I did with the first page.  I also shared the first three weeks of March in my Happy Planner™ and talked about how I'm using the planner as a mini Project Life -- documenting a week at a time by printing out pictures and journaling about the day. I've shared the green-themed pages documenting the last full week in March and the weekly spread that included the four day long trip to Florida I lovingly hashtagged #partyatGrams2015.

Today I'm share with you all how I prepped my Special Events page and my monthly pages for May.

I kept to the seafoam green theme for the Special Events page to play off the 'May' tab when choosing which Happy Planner™ embellishments I wanted to use.

I added seafoam colored stickers next to and underneath the titles of the different sections of the Special Events page. Season ink and a date stamp marked the birthdays and important dates.  For the 'goals' section, I stuck three mambiSTICKS that made for good monthly goals (and kept my color scheme).  I filled the 'Don't Forget' section with Happy Planner™ sticky notes of three assignments due this month. Lastly, I added the 'TOAST' jumbo mambiSTICK sticker tot it perfectly in the strip at the top of the page, and I like the celebratory vibe about it being May that it gives off.

For my monthly spread, I embellished the left hand column with some inspirational quotes stickers I want to read every day this month.  I also continued the use of my seafoam date stamp. The "my life is rich & full" inspirational card is the attitude with which I'm entering next month, and on the back (since it's blank) I'll probably adhere a favorite photo I take in May at some point.

See my past planner posts HERE.

'Be Brave' scrapbook page

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that some of the papers from my Love Notes collection with We R Memory Keepers were going to be featured in Clique Kits March kit titled J'ADORE. They sent me the kit and I created a few scrapbook pages with it -- this being one of them. (Others can be seen here & here.)

I was still feeling a bit broken over the whole thing ('the whole thing' that I've yet to share on this space) and this scrapbook page about being brave resulted from it. The message 'Go Wild & Be Brave in happiness • friendship • love' is sooo what I know I need to do, but often substitute with taking a nap instead.

That 'BRAVE' shoulder tattoo in the photo is one of me & my BIG ideas Fancy Tats™ Metallic Tattoos. They are a lot of fun to play with, and I used them recently on this year's Easter eggs.

The supplies I used on this layout can be seen below. Clique Kits J'ADORE kit, me & my BIG ideas silver glitter alphas for the word 'BRAVE', Ombre Fence paper from my LOVE NOTES collection with We R Memory Keepers, and the pink transparency frame came from We R Memory Keepers CLEARLY BOLD collection.

CLICK HERE FOR PAST SCRAPBOOK PAGES

CLICK HERE FOR MY Q&A WITH CLIQUE KITS

three weeks of March 2015 in my Happy Planner

I recently shared that my new planner had arrived and what I did with the first page. If you remember back when I had my Erin Condren Life Planner, I used it as a mini Project Life - documenting a week at a time by printing out pictures and journaling about the day. So far, I've used this planner the same way.

Compared to some of the beautiful minimalist weekly spreads I've seen with plenty of gorgeous white space, I tend to fill as much of the two pages a week as possible. I fill it like I would a collage and art journal hybrid, mixing images and journalling, and finishing with stickers and washi.

If I have a blank space I need to fill, I fill it with plants. I fill it with fun, quirky pretty little paper cut images. I fill it with recent things I've been wondering...

Sometimes a whole column is blank and it's nothing a couple of thick washi tapes can't handle. I love the look of the double washi tap in the left column of the below spread. I try to keep my colors as coordinated, and I like how the mint washi matches the mint striped note paper below.

I fill this planner after the fact. I have a bunch of other planners and listing pads that I use to keep myself organized in the present moment and to jot down future endeavors. My Happy Planner™, however, is a memory keeping tool.  

At the beginning of this weekly spread, I jotted down a pep talk to myself in the left side column because I was starting a design assignment for the company I work for, and it needed to be done by Friday.  I layered over the jotted down pep talk a trimmed to size transparency sheet and stuck three mambiSTICKS from this pack on it that summed up my pep talk: "do what you can, with what you have, where you are." I swear this job working for me & my BIG ideas came to me for a reason: because I so need all the positive reminders I get each time I use their products - at this point in my life more than ever. ;)

Another great thing about the planner is that you can remove the pages from the planner that your working on. That allows you to jot notes all the way to the edge of the seam without contorting your hand or double-jointing your finger and writing tool. You can see below that I was able to jot about my walk that evening in between the rings.

I mentioned above that I fill this planner after the fact. Every Sunday, I take time in the morning to gather my photos from the previous Sunday to Saturday and fill those days' columns. Below you can see the Sunday I've yet to fill. I'll jot in pencil quickly what photos I imagine I'll include, and I go from there.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PAST PLANNER PAGES

Easter eggs w/ Fancy Tats™ metallic tattoos

For those of you who don't know -- I work for the company me & my BIG ideas (mambi for short). When someone in the company e-mailed us images of Easter eggs decorated in metallic tattoos, it was a given that I was going to try it myself using mambi's new Fancy Tats™ Metallic Tattoos. I pretty much died over the end result.

Supplies needed:

• cooled hard boiled eggs
• a cup of warm water
• Fancy Tats™ metallic tattoos
• scissors
• towel

Once you've hard-boiled the eggs and cooled them in a refrigerator over night, they are ready to get fancy. Here are some helpful tips I discovered while working on this project: 

1. Soak the whole egg in water before applying your desired Fancy Tat™. This allows for easy application and repositioning if needed.
2. Peel the protective film off the tattoo and soak the entire tattoo before applying as well. By soaking the tattoo, it will contour better to the curved surface of the egg.
3. Smaller tattoos work best. If you could cut a large tattoo into smaller pieces and apply each piece separately, it will result in a smoother application.
4. Once you peel back the tattoo from the egg, smooth the edges and any bubbles with a wet fingertip.
5. It's a good idea to work on this project - start to finish - over a towel, to soak up all the drips.

There was a lot of trial and error, with a few tattoos lost in the making of these eggs.  However, once I got the hang of the medium and how to work the water on eggshell with the tatts, I was able to make them look good. Like, really good. I can't get over how LUX they look!

Decorating eggs is an Easter tradition I've done since childhood.
You can see past eggs decorated HERE (2013) and HERE (2010).

first page in my happy planner

I recently shared that my new planner had arrived, and today I'm sharing what I did with the first page. If you remember back when I had my Erin Condren Life Planner, I used it as a mini Project Life - documenting a week at a time by printing out pictures and journaling about the day. I plan to use this planner the same way.

Fun part about The Happy Planner™ system that I'm using is that it comes with all kinds of fun extension packs, sticky notes, and planner stickers.  This allows for the planner to meet each person's individual needs. 

As of right now, I plan to use mine as a small scale memory keeping system. Printing photos from the week on the following Monday, and filling the pages after-the-fact, as opposed to day by day or beforehand. I'm not quite sure what I plan to do with the monthly spreads, but I supposed we'll see. New planner, new adventure!

Days of the Week free printable

A new month, a new set of freebies over at the me & my BIG ideas blog. I'm excited to share these black & white Days of the Week cards I designed that are available for FREE DOWNLOAD on their blog HERE.

Head over, click the links for each, print the pages, and cut them out! It's that simple!

I printed them out on watercolor paper because I wanted them textured. If I had a Laser printer - and knew the ink wouldn't run - I'd watercolor paint on top of these to add an extra pop. You can print them on regular card stock, matte or glossy photo paper, or any 8.5 x 11" paper.

I date stamped with my beloved neon pink ink pad, and journalled to match my 'open door' photo. I paired the freebie card and the photo with a palm tree image embellished with a me & my BIG ideas clear sticker from their 'Faith' mambiSTICKSpack. (That gorgeous pink and gold foil polka dot paper on the right from HERE.)

 

my new planner has arrived

I wrote a while ago about my thoughts on planning in 2015, and at the end of that post I hinted to what would be my new planner for this year. Last week a big ol' box from me & my BIG ideas landed on my doorstep, and inside I found my new gold foil polka dot planner, along with other stickers and add-ons from mambi's new planner system: Create 365™ The Happy Planner™.

I created the following five-minute video going through all of the products in the first generation of Create 365™ The Happy Planner™ system as I took them out the box. (head to vimeo.com to watch the video in HD)

Since the planner is set up to run from July 2015 through December 2016, I used the blank calendar extension pack to add March, April, May, and June and start today!

It feels good to have a legit planner back on my desk. I'm looking forward to sharing the pages I create with you fellow planner nerds! Cheers!

See my past planner posts HERE.

one little word 2015 : PROOF // january

In 2015, I shall be participating in Ali Edward's One Little Word™ exercise by actively looking for PROOF. PROOF is my one little word, and I've already blogged about why and the 8x8 board book I plan to use to document my year of finding PROOF. 

I started the book by clipping a me & my BIG ideas print that matches the silver foil sticker I used at the beginning of my PL album to the inside cover, and by washi-taping a note paper of my reasons why I chose PROOF. Then, because each page in the book represents a month, I created a January title page by sticking some mambi alpha stickers on a clear transparency. (Transparencies have been my thing so far this year.)

For January, I decided to create a paper strip list of good things and answered prayers that January proved to me. Also on the list were times the word "prove" or "proof" appeared in conversation.

For each item on the list, I created a 1.5 inch box in Photoshop to include a hot pink date stamp. I got this particular Heidi Swapp date stamp in Michael's.   

I had just enough jots to fill my page, and it was an interesting challenge for me to document sans images. To ready February's page, I've been jotting down on hot pink post-its the ways PROOF has been revealing itself in my life this month.

I don't know if I'll make the same paper strip list for February, or maybe just leave the post-its, or what. Maybe I'll incorporate photos somehow, maybe magazine cuttings? All I know is I want to find PROOF and I want to record it and I want to get a page a month in this mini done.  

Are you participating in one little word this year?
If so, what is your word?
How are you planning to document it?

See the cover to this minibook HERE. // Browse through all my past minibooks HERE.