Project Life 2012

So last year I started Project Life- and I can’t believe it, but I finished it. Every single week. Even when we were moving, on a 2 week road trip, had sick kids, you name it. I love looking through the finished album – and so do my kids. They look through it more than any other album.

I love it so much, I’m not sure I’ll be making much in the way of traditional layouts. I’ve simplified it enough to fit into my busy life, but still make it creatively satisfying.
Here’s some pics of my 1st two weeks of 2012. I haven’t finished the cover page yet- work in progress. Not stressing about it though

Love this silhouette file I used to cut the Happy 2012. Another favorite is Marcy Penner’s digital journaling cards. I ordered a bunch of her badges as well which I love. They aren’t as thick as some of the others I ordered, so will be much easier to fit into the album without making it too thick.

Ryan is suddenly very interested in learning to read, so much of these two weeks is documenting that process.

Used one of Liz Tamanaha’s 4x6 free templates to make this collage of Julia’s first finger painting experience. It seems like everyone these days is doing project life, but one of the great benefits of that is so many free downloads to use.

This week I had some extra pictures of a cooking class we went to and decided to throw them onto a 6×12 insert. Back side is some of Julia’s finger painting samples.

This week I had some longer journaling from a phone conversation Ryan and I had on my commute home. Wanted to capture all the fun things we talked about, so when I got home I typed what I could remember in my Day One journal on my computer. Copied it into word and printed on some patterned paper in the top left pocket. Love this app- it synchs all my journaling btw my computer, phone and ipad. And each day it pops up with a reminder. It has been well worth the $1.99 and a good way to write each day. Plus, when I’m ready to document my PL, I just pull out my phone and everything I want to document is right there.

Some other great finds:

Found these free journaling cards which I printed out to add to my stash

My husband set up through IFTTT.com a way for his and my instagram photos to download directly from our phones into a dropbox folder on my computer. Now I don’t have to go in and copy his iphone pics to add them to my week.  Don’t understand how it works or what he did, but it’s awesome.

Martha Stewart has just released some Avery office products. Ordered a ton of labels for PL from Staples- much cheaper than the scrapbook version and what I use a ton of. They are slightly lower in quality for sure (not as thick or as nice of a finish), but work great for my album. You can see one in the bottom right.

 

December Daily- the finished album

Yay! It’s done! I am so happy to have the whole album done – it feels like such an accomplishment. Even more so when I see 4 years of these albums lined up next to each other. Love looking through them and seeing our family in different stages, kids growing up, traditions evolving. So love this project and so happy I took the time.

Here are a few of my favorite pages. You can see the whole album in my flickr account here.

I rarely use black & white, but they’re always some of my favorite when I do. Added a small felt heart in the corner & some journaling on the photo before printing.

This one I added some words for each photo- would like to do that more next year.

Love these little page protectors.

I know you’ve seen this one before, but still one of my favorites

Used some of Ali Edward’s word art, colored red & put down to 80% transparency.

same here

and here – lots of the same theme & supplies, but helped a huge amount to streamline the process.

Love adding in little fun bits in these pocket protectors. Some of my favorite bits this year were Jennifer Pebbles etsy shop. I have always loved her work since she was involved with AMuse way back, and was so excited when she released some of her own products. The “Christmas” words on the chevron paper above came from her.

This year I decided to stop on the 25th, which I was very happy about. We spend a few days after Xmas with my husband’s family, & then have Julia’s birthday on New Year’s Eve, so last year I tried to stretch it to the end of the year- tooooooo much! Just say no Now I have project life to cover those things.

So, after finishing 4 years of this project, I love it even more now. Here are some things that I have learned work for me.

Simplify everything. Use digital templates whenever possible, then add some embellishments. I’m okay that they’re not my most original pages, or they look like other people’s.  Limit my choices- if I have too many embellishments, paper, punches, etc to choose from I get nothing done. I pull everything out in November, put aside the stuff I don’t like or know I won’t use. Everything I think I will use I put into a container that can sit out on my desk. I try not to spend a lot of time with fancy techniques or cutting files on my Silhouette- this isn’t the right project for me to do that (unless I do it ahead of time next year).

Things I want to remember next year:

-my favorite pages are the ones with one large photo & simple word art or embellishments. I need to remember that next year. I don’t need to get every cute photo in the album- just one or two.

-I’d like to try and get down more of the little stories too. more of the snippets of conversations, quirks, etc.

I also finished my Project Life album for 2011- woohoo! I’m amazed I was able to keep up with both. Will try to post some of those soon too.

Thanks for visiting!

December Daily

 

So, I haven’t forgotten about this little project- loving it more each year. Love love love how the cover came out. I was inspired by some others on the Studio Calico board that had used the chevron fabric paper from Amy Tangerine. I paired that with some charcoal acrylic paint (just mixed black & white), and then this $1 felt ornament found at Target. Love Target   It has a tiny bit of glitter to it too which adds a nice touch. Button from Ormalu. Haven’t decided what to do with the spine yet, and ordered more of the chevron fabric paper for the inside pages.

I find it hard when December finally gets here to find time for posting updates. I will get to sharing all of them- maybe just in January Still working on doing both December Daily & Project Life. I’ve found that my PL in December is a bit less detailed, and that’s okay. I’ve also found it much easier than I thought to find stories for both, which is great.

 

I’ve been traveling quite a bit for work and have found the weekends to be super busy with family & friends (which is always a great problem to have). So in order to keep things simple, I’ve used mainly the templates and digital pages from Ali Edwards. And I’m trying to keep the embellishments and perfectionism to a minimum. Some of them aren’t my favorite, but I can always go back later & adjust..although I know that will never happen- somehow it makes me feel better

Here’s one of Ali’s templates- I resized it a bit in Photoshop Elements to have it fit the space. Love this picture of the girls holding hands on the way home from the bus stop. Warms my heart - thought it was a perfect opening photo.

 

Ryan running to see Santa Another template from Ali & a tag from Bananafish studio’s etsy shop. Love her tags – my favorite stuff this year has come from her.

 

Ali’s post on the Silhouette inspired me to try my own. I just purchased a used Silhouette for a good price, and am still learning how to use it. Loved that tutorial b/c now I can use my favorite word art and cut it. Yay. Jenni Bowlin star tag- love these, wish I had 10 more   I added a conversation I overheard Ryan asking Tim about why the Santa from this year was different than last years (whew! Glad Daddy got that question instead of me!)

Going to add something fun to the top left pocket- a small picture of some of the fun places Elfie has been this month most likely (this page was about our Elf on the Shelf and the trouble she gets into).

Love this picture Tim caught of us watching Santa’s PNP video. This is something we started last year and is sooo fun. Ryan was even more captivated this year. Julia loved watching Ryan’s video, but the trauma of her Santa visit must have been too much because as soon as her video started and he said her name, she clung to me. At the end she said “I no like that Santa”. Oh the cuteness. Word art from Ali. Want to cut this one out with the Silhouette too when I get a chance to play.

 

You can see more photos & details in my Flickr Album here.

Sock Monkeys!

Finally finished up my sock monkeys and got them mailed off to Craft Hope just in time – whew! Here are the six that were sent to homes in Texas – yay!

Advent Calendar

So for a long time I have done all of my crafting without a digital die cut. I bought a cricut once at a craft yard sale for $50, used it never and then donated it to my daughter’s preschool. I bought a Slice, used it a few times, but became frustrated with the effort of setting it all up, etc. And to be honest, most of the cricut designs are just not my style. I’ve loved the idea of the Silhouette for a long time, but still not sure I’d actually use it – somehow die cuts I make just aren’t as appealing to me as purchased ones maybe??? who knows. Anyway, I stumbled upon a used Silhouette SD that someone was selling for cheap since they’d just upgraded to the Cameo. I jumped on it and have been so happy. I love the idea that you can make your own designs, and buy individual ones in the shop for $1. 

Here’s the advent calendar I made this year for the girls- took quite a while (and distracted me from finishing the December Daily pages for a bit) but so worth it. The girls love it. And I love that it’s got a wood base, and if the paper boxes ever rip or I become tired of them, I just cut new ones. Yay for that. And I’m happy to say most of my Xmas paper stash is now depleted. Or at least my favorites that match the green/red that I was going for.  If only I could find more of the old American Crafts merrymint collection – oh how I loved you….

Ryan goes running downstairs every morning so excited to open it – love that So far, we’ve had a mix of squinkies, littlest pet shop guys, and hershey’s kisses. All the little guys I catch them playing with every day.

December Daily- the guts

Yes, I know it’s December 2nd already. ha! That’s how we roll around here. Here are the guts of my album, the base pages- just finished them up today.  Still working on the cover, but I have ideas in my head- just need to find time to play. These are some of my favorites- you can see the complete pages in my flickr album here. I stuck with Ali’s basic layouts and used her templates, as well as the Studio Calico binder from the kit. Honestly I’m okay with that given how busy things are and that project life continues too – I’m just so happy to have some time to play, and to get some things documented.  Most of the paper, transparencies and ribbon were from my stash.

Used some of my project life pocket pages and trimmed them down. Then put a punched out star in a pocket with some Martha Stewart Snow glitter & sewed the top shut. One of my better ideas in a while  

Typed this on my new vintage typewriter that I’ve been wanting forever & finally just bought myself. Yes, it’s almost xmas- but really how can you ask someone for a vintage typewriter when you really are picky about the color, look, feel etc? I finally just went for it ! yay!  Works almost perfectly – space bar just sticks a bit but easily fixed. I’ll have to take a picture to share later.

Coasters from SC kit (sold out), Joy tag from Bananafish studio on Etsy- my favorite purchases for this album have come from her. Star tag from Jenni Bowlin, and silver star is a $1 ornament from Target. Love raiding their Xmas section for good finds to include!

Bought some cork at the craft store a million years ago, and put it through my die cut machine – love!

The more I go through this album, the more I love it- although it’s starting to get a little tight and I’m thinking 3″ binders might not be enough? yikes! I stuck with my favorite classic red and limey green, with a little black thrown in, and stars- lots of stars.  I’m thinking next year a new theme is emerging- creams, whites and silver with a touch of red- and snowflakes. My favorite page so far is this one…

Tinsel ribbon was one of my favorite finds that I’ve been hoarding- red & silver from my LSS. Love this but it adds some bulk.

I’m not sure I will need or keep the pages and patterned paper strips- may end up using some full page photos, etc. but it’s easier to have them done and have less to do later on.

Love that my husband is humoring me with this project- look what he posted to instagram yesterday with the comment “hello december”

December Daily Album

I love this project. This year I was thinking Christmas before Halloween was even over- which was a real problem when we had a huge storm and lost power for a couple days, and Trick Or Treating was postponed until tonight. I ordered the kit from Studio Calico- mainly for the binder. To be honest, I have enough stash to do the entire album without the kit, but the binder alone made it worth it. Plus I knew once it sold out that’s when I’d really want one

My kit won’t arrive until next week, but I decided to get started early- I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about what I want to include. I started by going through my Holiday stash and pulling out things that I might want to use. And then I made a mess with it all over the floor

I love Ali’s album (as usual), and given the fact that I work full time and have two kids, plus wanting to actually enjoy the holidays- I tend to stick pretty much to her foundation. Last week I purchased her new digital templates for my photo pages – I’ll likely use a mix of these and paper pages. I love the design, and they’re already sized to exactly what I need. Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day, so there’s a sale over at DesignerDigitals.com, so I purchased the dated pages and printed those to cut out sometime this week.

I liked Ali’s version of her cover with the large embossed numbers, but right now I’m loving kraft and red so was experimenting with what different combinations would look like using a scrap of cardboard.

I think this one’s the winner so far- American Crafts Zing in Rouge, and Versamark Ink. Still thinking about whether or not that much bright red is going to be too much.

Here’s some of the other combos I tried:

 

Jenni Bowlin Cough Syrup Ink w/ clear embossing powder- came out darker than I had wanted.

Amuse Studio Diamond embossing powder is very pretty / glittery, but a bit much on a large scale.

Here’s all my transparency pages laid out:

And the first few pieces that I’m working on. Martha Stewart Snow Glitter & a star I punched with silver glitter sticker paper (sewed the top of the pocket shut). Phrase stickers from Girl’s Paperie last year’s Christmas release – stuck inside the pocket, then sewed on top so they wouldn’t move around. Felt star punched with Papertrey Star dies and Papertrey felt. Jenni Bowlin peace card & October Afternoon red sticker.

Star & Clock transparency by Teresa Collins. Chicken Wire -Hambly, and Christmas circles is from 2 years ago- can’t remember the name. Looking forward to getting the kit and having all the pages in the binder, ready to go!

Project Life Update

So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted any Project Life pictures, but I’ve been keeping up and so very happy for that. I recently went back & looked at the first half of the year and was so grateful that I had stuck with it. This has been a huge year of change for us- new house, new state, Julia about to turn 2 and Ryan in kindergarten. There were so many little things that I had forgotten already. Can’t wait to do it again next year.

(email Ryan asked me to draft to her grandparents

 

Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the May/June pages – but that was busy for us -putting the house up, moving, etc. Will post more of my 2nd album, which I started in July.

I am also going to be working on my December Daily album – for the 4th year in a row. Can’t believe it’s been that long. Love love love this project. I will be posting my pictures from that here and in the Flickr group. I ended up buying the Studio Calico kit – mainly because I love the idea of having an album. I will most likely use a lot of my stash and the album. Last year’s album is still unbound in a plastic bag because I never could find any rings big enough to bind it – I just need to use some twine & be done with it….

Repurposed Magnet Board

I had this old metal magnet board that isn’t being used. It was covered in a lime green paper that just did not go with my green desk (wrong green).

I’d been trying to figure out what to do with it forever. I finally decided to re-cover it in my all time favorite paper from Paper Source. Kraft paper with gorgeous colors & type- what’s not to love?

Here it is when still wet. I put a coat of modge-podge down, then while still wet put the paper on, then 2 more coats on top. I didn’t do such a great job of working out the wrinkles/bubbles, but modge-podge is pretty forgiving. Once the coat dries, it becomes clear.

 

Here’s the finished magnet board hanging up on the wall. It’s not perfect- but so happy that I get to look at my favorite paper every day.

Sock Monkeys for Craft Hope

All week I’ve been busy making sock monkeys for kids in Texas.  Craft Hope puts together these projects for kids periodically. I’m not that great at sewing so I haven’t yet participated, but this project looked easy enough, and they have tutorials on their site. We found some cute socks at Target and gave it a try.

I made a couple monkeys that I tested out on my own monkeys first (actually, they hijacked them), but it helped me realize my first ones were not strong enough to survive the abuse that kids will put on toys After re-attaching some limbs we were back in business!