Project Life, Weeks 17-19

I can't believe how fast we're approaching the halfway point! I'm also a teensy bit surprised that I've stuck with the project. My life, with three little boys at home, gets pretty crazy and it can be hard to find time to scrap. So I got thinking about some of the reasons I've made it to this point:

1. Fresh, fun supplies every month. Subscribing to Studio Calico's Project Life kit club was the best decision ever. I love getting a coordinated set of trendy products every month without the hassle and time of shopping around. Who doesn't love playing with new goodies?! 
2. Digital supplies to add variety and fill in the gaps. Another great investment was a pack of Epson Premium Matte Presentation paper - it prints digital journal cards and elements beautifully. 
3. Printing at home or Walgreens 1-hour. Sure, I would have better quality photos if I ordered through Persnickety Prints, but I know myself. Instant gratification = actually doing the project. 
4. Having a dedicated craft room. I can leave a spread in progress, leave supplies out, and not worry (well, not too much anyway!) about the boys destroying it. It's a place I can escape to, and recharge my mental/emotional batteries while watching TV on my laptop and scrapping. SO therapeutic!
5. Keeping the end goal and overall "reason" in mind - so my family has photos and stories to look at and remember. I chose to do Project Life in a paper format primarily so my family would have something tangible to look at. Toddlers and preschoolers are quite narcissistic, after all, and they love looking at pictures of themselves!

If you're a Project Lifer too, what are some of the reasons you've made it this far? 

Week 17

 I especially enjoyed creating this week's spread. I printed off some fun bits from Michelle Godin's Snarky Snippets: Books, and I masked, spritzed, and stamped a few cards. And, of course, there's that gloriously hilarious big photo! It totally deserved three full spots, right? The rest of the cards are either Studio Calico or Project Life: Jade kit, except for the blue striped one and the speech bubble one - those I received in a PL card swap. I have some pretty artistic fellow crafters.

Week 18

More fun with digital products this week. I printed out cards from Splendid Fiins' Love It and Washi Brights sets, and Traci Reed/Jenn Barrette's Get Artsy cards. Cathy Zielske generously gave away the iNSD card on her blog. (Speaking of Cathy Zielske, she has an amazing and poignant blog post about her personal view of the value of Project Life. Go read it.) Since it's one of my favorite holidays, I felt interNational Scrapbooking Day deserved not only its own card, but a whole insert! I took a bunch of Instagram photos for various photo challenges on iNSD.

Week 19

I'll be including lots of Traci Reed goodies on my spreads from now on, because (drum roll please) I'm on her newly created Project Life team as a hybrid artist!!! I am super excited and honored to join the illustrious Hawt Mamas, and incorporate her artsy, trendy, fun designs into my Project Life album. I may be doing a few digital inserts, too.
So this week I have cards from Traci's Get Artsy set and a previous Facebook freebie, Hashtag cards. The Epic Awesomeness word art is by Karla Dudley, from her Life cards, and the Silly Goofy Mine word art is from her Walter photo frames.
Paper cards from Studio Calico and Jade Project Life kit. Embellishments, as usual, from everywhere - Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn, Paper Issues, Two Peas in a Bucket.

Thanks for sharing in my life!

Project Life, Weeks 9 and 10

Another episode of Project Life 2013, still catching up! I got my April Studio Calico goodies last week and I'm excited to play with all the fun new journal cards, embellishments, stamps and papers. I love getting new supplies!
I also tentatively stepped into the physical-art-journaling world today, and started my first few pages. Not ready to share pictures yet, but I will soon. I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's fun to paint and get gesso on my fresh manicure!

Week Nine

Moving week! My picture quality went down the tube this week, we were so busy moving across the neighborhood (literally, a mile away). Oh, yeah, hubby and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on February 29, too. (What, you say? There's no 29th in February this year? Yeah, we only get a "real" anniversary every 4 years...) Sadly, we weren't able to do anything to celebrate with it falling in the middle of the move. Maybe once things settle down in a few months, and we find a sitter willing to take on three rowdy boys!

Week Ten

Slowly getting moved in and settling in to the new house this week. Super excited to set up my new craft room/office!
Supplies Used: Snarky Snippets Awesome by Michelle Godin, DIY: Collection by KCB and Shawna Clingerman, Neverland and Front Row Studio Calico Project Life kits, embellishments from Studio Calico kits and Paper Issues, various letter stickers.

Project Life, Weeks 5 and 6

Chugging right along, after this post I'll be caught up to the halfway point with posting! I'm staying current with my album so far, and love experimenting every week with new products and techniques. So much fun to play with paper stuff again!

Week Five 

On the left side, I started with a Seafoam title card, Dear Lizzy Fancy glitter foam Thickers, a Twine and Ink star (from a Studio Calico PL kit), and my Smash date stamp. The first 4x6 photo is all digital, with lovey-dovey goodies from The Lilypad's February BYOC. The little boy journal card is from This&That by Lori Whitlock. Then more digi embellishing, a Seafoam journal card, Smash stickies, washi, a little Chic Tag, vellum arrow from a Studio Calico kit, and a Pebbles word label.

Love this layout! This week I really delved into my digital supplies, inspired by the beautiful stuff in The Lilypad's February BYOC (Build Your Own Collection, a whole bunch of coordinating, mix-and-match digital supplies released every month). The top right 4x6 and the second 3x4 cards include digital elements printed right onto my photos. The top left 4x6 includes some more bits from This&That line by Lori Whitlock. I'm super proud of the hidden journaling pocket I created with my favorite washi on the top right! See that little tab? Cute, right?! I stuck a vellum arrow, Dear Lizzy brad, and Tim&Beck alpha stickers on top of my pocket. 

Also seen on this side: Seafoam journal card, Studio Calico labels and calendar card, more washi, and lots of alpha stickers! I'm kinda obsessed with them, especially the tiny ones. So perfect for Project Life! Oh, and I prettied up the calendar card with a stamp from Studio Calico's 34th Street kit. 

Week Six

 

I dabbled with spray ink and masks this week. Not entirely successfully, but I think the title card is pretty :). The number is American Crafts Jewelry Box Thickers, and the Week letters are Martha Stewart (hurrah for Michael's clearance!). A mix of Studio Calico February PL kit, Seafoam, and one printed-out journal card. Those sweet little circles are also printed out, from the Dotted: Love Edition by Amy Martin. I even managed to size them currently to use the only circle punch I own. I'm ridiculously proud of that hybrid accomplishment. The kitchen photo is decorated with elements from Karla Dudley's Damselle collection.

I thought those Facebook status cards by Peppermint Creative added the perfect touch! Added two more Studio Calico cards, some tags and badges from Evalicious, and of course the washi! 

I managed to include some actual ephemera this week, a discharge summary from the doctor for Riah, a birthday party invite, and a couple tickets from a men's dinner my husband took our oldest son to. The invitation lifts up to reveal a collage of photos from the party.

Thanks for looking!

Project Life, Set-up and Week One

So I decided, again, to get over my guilt and resurrect this blog. I want a place to post my Project Life pages, because I LOVE doing them and I want to talk about it!
No pressure on myself at this point, no big plans - just my own little corner of the web to share my crafty adventures.

My Project Life Setup

Cover Page

I know everyone has a different basic "plan" for Project Life, and I figured this is a good place to start. I'm using the Seafoam core kit, big pack of Design A page protectors, and a WRMK 12x12 Aqua album. 

I also subscribe to the Studio Calico Project Life kit. I've known since last fall that I wanted to start this project in 2013, so I jumped on the waiting list waaaay back when it was first announced (early November maybe?). I love getting a coordinated set of supplies every month with fun embellishments, matching alpha, and cute journal cards. 

Week 1 spread

I also usually work in a little hybrid fun each week, whether that's a whole journal card(s) or some word strips, tags, or other embellishments I print and cut out. I usually use Designs by Lili's photo collages to arrange my pictures, and sometimes I add a digital stamp or embellishment on a photo before printing. 

Most of my printing is done through Walgreens, I love the 1-hour convenience. I also print some at home, on my little photo printer. For hybrid stuff I use the awesome Epson Premium Matte Presentation paper. 

Week One

I decided to start with Monday, December 31st, to keep a full week together. Plus it was fun to document how we "closed out" 2012!

For my cover page and Week 1 spread, I used cards and embellishments from the Studio Calico kit and Seafoam, plus a couple other pieces of paper from my stash and digital items I printed. The NYE card uses Designs by Lili's Photo Collages 4. My favorite cards are the pieces I cut from my kids' art project! Oh - and lots of washi. I love washi tape. 

The potty people on my cover page are spritzed with various spray inks, and I designed my own little "you right now" cards for each of my kids. If I ever get a decent photo of me and my husband, I'll add that somewhere. 

So that's week one! I plan to catch up my blogging by posting a few weeks at a time until I'm current. 

Layouts from DSD and beyond!

Sorry for the cheesy title, I couldn't help myself. Remember I promised to share some more of my recent layouts? Well here you go - my creations from the past week or so! As always, each image is linked to the gallery for full credits.

The first three I created for the Scrap Orchard DSD challenges. Their theme was "Game On!" and each challenge borrowed its theme from a popular game.

For the Boggle challenge - we had to find our title in the Boggle dice. Tried my hand at the art journaling style, which is very new to me. It's pretty amateurish, but I like it anyway! If you can't read it, it says "I am loved because I am a princess," a reminder to myself that I am God's child.

This challenge was based on, you guessed it, Tic-Tac-Toe! I thought it was a pretty creative template idea.

For the Connect Four challenge, we had to choose four layouts to combine in one scraplift. I found this one quite challenging!

Ahh, the colors! I scrapped these layouts with The Lilypad's November BYOC goodies - I just love this month's color palette! And the products... swoon. A few of my favorites: 

Hometown papers and ellies from Lauren Reid

Magical Splatter 3 by Kitty Designs

Scrap Essentials No. 2 by Jenna Desai

Paint Stroke Chatter: Wee One by CD Muckosky

Finally finished a layout with the gorgeous Catscrap collab, My Life. It worked perfectly for this "Avyn at 15 months" layout!

This layout is for the Catscrap November Torn Up challenge. I used Creashens' Torn Bits 2 as photo masks for my torn element. I love these photos, taken on our first trip to the park this season to require jackets!

I managed to get two challenges done at Design House Digital this week, this one for their scraplift challenge. I love the bright colors of their DSD Blog Hop collab kit!

Che Yang Designs at Mscraps debuted her cute Night and Day kit last week, and it was just perfect for my snapshot of Riah all cuddled up in my blanket.

OK, last one! I didn't quite realize how prolific I've been this week! This one is with Anita Designs' newest kit, Christmas Joy, at Mscraps, showing off my family's Hallmark ornaments for this year.