Inside Ashley’s Album: Community Spotlight

Today, I'd love to introduce you to Ashley Urie. I stumbled on her gorgeous scrapbook pages on Instagram and I had to share them with you!

So let's give Ashley a warm welcome!

Melissa

I'm Ashley Urie. I live in Utah with my husband, our 2 boys Ford & Asher, and our golden retriever, Olivia. I've been a scrapbooker in one form or another for most of my life. I usually work full time in a medical clinic but with current coronavirus pandemic we're facing, I'm working very little and home most days.

What Inspires you to Create?

Honestly, ME! I like to scrapbook for me. It's my hobby and I enjoy it. I love documenting the big and little moments of our lives. My hope is that my boys and their eventual families will enjoy looking through the books I've created and read about our family. My boys do enjoy looking through their scrapbooks which makes my mama heart oh-so-happy. My Mom has dubbed me the official family scrapbooker, so it is a given that I will make scrapbooks for every family vacation we take.

Simply Project Life

Back in September of 2018, one of my internet scrapping friends asked me to join the Simply Project Life Facebook group as a moderator. It has been one of the funnest things I've done. I've developed fantastic friendships with these girls (Jenna @fort_disney, Meagan @thepracticalscrapper, & Teresa @totallycre8tive), you should see our Marco Polo convos, and we get to be inspired and encourage scrapbookers from all around the world in our 'little' (ok, not so little, we just hit 6k members!) FB group.

Sharing the Creativity

I started a separate Instagram account for my scrapbook pages and love to share my pages there, check me out at @ash_and_diz_scraps. I've been lucky to create for some amazing designers like Elif Sahin, The Digital Press, and Britt-ish Designs. The last one being a decade long pipe dream finally come to fruition. Seriously. It always amazes me how many talented scrappers are out there. I love scrolling Insta and finding layouts I want to scraplift, or seeing people in our FB group come up with tricks & workarounds to use in the Project Life App, and just make the most gorgeous layouts!

Ashley's Favorite Tools

I love the Project Life App. I still use Photoshop every once in a while and will embellish my Project Life App layouts in Photoshop when I'm feeling fancy. I have dabbled adding embellishments with the PixelLab and Over apps, but I really prefer doing that detail work on my computer. 

Keeping Things Simple

I am a super simple scrapper these days. Before I found the Project Life App I had begun using pocket style templates from Britt-ish Designs, I liked not having to think too hard about designing a page and just focus on getting the pictures and memories down. Pictures and cards into pockets & journal. Done. 

How Did You Start Scrapbooking?

I have been scrapbooking since I was a kid. My Mom and I used to rubber stamp and we started off making cards, but that evolved into scrapbooking. My Mom is a saint and let me cut up my baby photos and scrapbook them with rubber stamps, stickers, deco-scissors and more. I was a "traditional" paper scrapper for years. My entire childhood and college years are all traditionally paper scrapped. My cousin introduced me to a digital scrapbooking software called Scrapbook Deluxe (or something like that - it's been a LOT of years since I used it). It was fairly easy to use and I got hooked quickly. I loved being able to scrapbook on my laptop and not make a mess!

I was newly married and all my paper scrapbook supplies were at my parents house, it just made so much sense. But I disliked the lack of drop shadows and eventually broke down and tried Photoshop. I watched a few tutorials on how to use digital templates and off I went. Life got busy, I kept taking photos, but never found the time to scrap and I kept getting further and further behind.

In the fall of 2016, I downloaded the Project Life App. It sounds cliche, but it really was/is life-changing. I was very pregnant with my 2nd son, and I was about 7 years behind on my scrapbooking. Within 2 years of app-scrapping, I was current! It was an AMAZING feeling. When I initially downloaded the app, I told myself I would just catch up on the early years of our marriage, but I'd go back to Photoshop for the recent years. Little did I know how much I'd love it! I loved the ease of the app and the affordable kits! The updates to the app, like adding your own fonts, and free form text, have been absolute game-changers. I have a few pages left to make for 2019, and a few project albums for my Mom to make, but I have still been able to stay pretty much current. I was in a bit of a creative funk this Winter, but I'm getting my groove back and ready to tackle all those pages and projects

Thanks Ashley for sharing your story. Don't forget to follow her at @ash_and_diz_scraps or join Simply Project Life Facebook group if you love scrapping with the Project Life app too!

Happy Scrapping!