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Project Life: Getting Ready

I'm pretty bad at long, drawn out projects, like December Dailies, 365 photos, and other popular projects. I have a difficult time setting aside time every day, week or month for documentation. That's why it's March 6th and I have yet to finish my second page of Project Life.

Part of me is disappointed, bummed that most people are on week eight and I've barely stuck my toe into the water. Then I stop and realize that it's not my style to craft every day, or get a project done simply to check it off my list. For me, these projects are how I feel about scrapbooking in general---quality, not quantity.

So this post isn't about my fifth, sixth or seventh week into Project Life, it's about my beginning.

I hoarded the silhouette tag from the Vignette line, and used it on my cover page:

And I'm sprinkling in a few Fact or Fiction Flappers, and Fact or Fiction Dots n' Spots:

And I think this is a great opportunity to throw in a few Fact or Fiction Flair Buttons:

And I'm fully planning on using a few Fact or Fiction Storytellers from the digital downloads section of the shop. This will make it easier to have a cohesive look and be able to print off as many tags as I want.

So don't get discouraged when it comes to project timelines. Take it easy and enjoy the process!

xoxo,
Stephanie

InLinkz.com

Project Life Time Saver

Like many scrapbookers, I decided to jump on the Project Life bandwagon this year.  I wondered if I was crazy...I have a full time job, two kids under the age of three, and a husband who is rarely home before nine at night.  When in the world was I going to get this done?!  Well, I'm happy to report that as of today I am right on track and keeping up with Project Life.  I am lucky to have the support of four very good friends who have also taken on the project this year. We are constantly emailing each other with encouragement, questions, suggestions, etc.  The other night, a few of us with younger children were lamenting the whole "there is no time!!" issue that seems to be a common theme among us. We talked about possibly making some journaling cards to have all ready to just grab and go when you have a spare moment. I loved this idea!!  

I don't actually have a current Becky Higgins Project Life kit, which features some awesome premade cards and journalers, but I do have a set from a few years ago, when I was a big old failure using her Project 365 kit. These journaling cards are a tad bit smaller than the current kit, but I'm okay with it.  The designs, however, are not really my style...so I grabbed a bunch of them and dazzled them all up em-style! I am so happy with the results, and I'm excited to have them ready to use whenever I may need them!  Here is a look at some of them.  (*Please note these cards use some now retired Ormolu product, as well as some great products which are currently available in the shop.)

How are you approaching Project Life? Are you "caught up"?  Do you have any great time saving tips? I'd love to hear them!  Have a great day!

InLinkz.com

Scrapping with Instagram shots

Since finally getting an iPhone last Spring, I've been bitten by the Instagram bug, and I'm thoroughly hooked on it. I was an avid Flickr user before I discovered IG, and even went so far as to try and complete a 365 by posting there everyday. However, that fell by the wayside sometime around mid-May,  and I decided to give it up, as I just didn't have time to sit and edit photos on a daily basis. Enter IG- it was a perfect alternative to my big DSLR, and so easy to snap a quick photo and edit it  in camera using the various overlays. Also, since my kids are at an age where they are strongly *ahem* opposed to me taking their photo, this seems to be a more subtle approach, as they sometimes don't even realize they're having their photo taken. ;)  I'm enjoying the 'everyday' type shots I get, and the absolute practicality of not having to drag the big camera everywhere I go. The print quality is obviously not as good as my Nikon, but I don't mind sacrificing that as a trade off. Here's a layout I did last week, using a favourite shot of my son and his BFF ( I like to call him my 3rd son, as he's here pretty much 24/7) hanging out on a summer afternoon. This is such a typical scene in my home, and I'm happy I had my phone handy. ( Although, if you're anything like me, your iphone rarely leaves your side, LOL).

Post your link to a page you've done using your IG shots ( or any phone shot, if you don't happen to have an iPhone) and I'll draw a name for a chance to win a package of these sweet '2-Day Hooray' buttons that I have doubles of:

These are perfect for everyday shots like mine, or for those of you who have embarked on PL, n'est pas? :)

 Good luck, I can't wait to see your layouts! I'll post the ( random) winner on Wednesday, February 8th.

* It is not necessary to use Ormolu products to participate in the challenge :) 

 

**** Updated with my random.org pick... Kristy G, you're the lucky recipient of those cute buttons! Please email me at melaniedotlouetteatgmaildotcom with your mailing info. Thanks to all who played along!

 -Melanie

InLinkz.com

Pam | Project Life

Are you, like many many others, doing Project Life?

I have jumped on the bandwagon and wanted to share my cover page since it uses so many Ormolu goodies! I have a feeling I will be using lots of them throughout my book, particularly the Fact or Fiction line. It is perfect for this type of documentation:)

I used some of my favorite photos from 2011 to open the book. I wanted to keep the cover page bright and fairly clean, so I just added a few little embellishments with the flappers and bits of flair:) I made the year with the negative numbers from the Negative Number Package Tags.

Here are a few close up shots:

Are you using Ormolu products in your Project Life album? If so, please link us up, we would love to see!!

 

InLinkz.com

Project Life Weeks 22 & 23

We got our baby chicks (actually on Saturday of the previous week but I am flexible with my photos from week to week). 

 

A few random photos on the other side of Jude doing what he does best and our receipt for our chicks :) 

For this week I used the left side to talk about the relationship of these two after noticing all of my photos seemed to be about things they do together (eat, play, make messes). They have been super interested in playing in the dirt in the section of our yard that refuses to grow grass. Justin is giving up trying to grow grass there and thinking about putting in a sand box (if you can't beat them, join them I guess). 

And you might even be able to spot some sneak peeks of items that will be going up into the shop tomorrow. If you are on the newsletter sign up list then you should be getting a newsletter sometime today with some more sneak peeks. 

I really love how this page came out. I have been using the Hipstamatic app on my phone quite a bit since I really am not taking my camera out as much as I used to anymore. After I load the photos onto my computer I put them onto a 4x6 spread in photoshop and have them developed like the rest. I prefer to do my printing at a lab because I hate buying printer ink and photo paper. I seem to spend anywhere from just under $2 to maybe $4 every couple of weeks when I order prints- depending on what sizes I order- and that is just fine with me. 

Another thing that I am doing lately is cutting up the extra papers and folded journaling cards that come with the Project Life kit. I am not a lengthy writer so I can't imagine using the folded cards for journaling too often- but they work great on this page cut to size and with some stamping along the edge. 

I'll be back tomorrow with some new items- yay!

 

 

 

Project Life Update

Although I have been keeping up pretty well with Project Life I have not shared it much on my blog as often as I would like for several reasons. One is of course, lack of remembering to photograph it- the other reasons are a combination of trying to get some things blurred or blocked out of it for uploading it (since it contains some personal information sometimes) and also because I have not spent tons of time on lately so it really is just thrown together. But something is better than nothing (I keep telling myself).  I decided I should at least share some of what I have done lately. 

That  brings me updated until about last week- which I am almost done with except for a bit of journaling. 

If you are interested in checking out my posts in the past you can do that here. 

I am very happy to see I have made it this far with this project. I mentioned before that at the end of last year I only had one layout done (besides Jude's baby album) and I was really upset to see I had not been documenting such an important year. I really enjoy looking back at past weeks and when we have people over they always want to check the album out also (I leave it out so I work on it throughout the week.) 

My favorite pages are always ones where I have a little bit of everything- some photos, some journaling and some pieces from everyday life. But I don't always have that at the end of the week so I use what I have. Sometimes I choose to focus on a single event that happened during the week and other times it is a mixture of many days. This method works much better than a photo a day for me. I don't feel constantly pressured to take a photo each day when I really don't have much to photograph. I also get to include more photos of an event rather than just one. 

I have been considering using this method for a few other albums that I have yet to start- mainly our honeymoon. I think it would work really well with what I have collected (a lot of papers and such from different places we went) and hope to get some time to get that organized soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Life: February (and a little bit of March)

Still keeping up with Project Life- yay me!

Week 6 : left side

Week 6 : right side

Week 6: backside of the center

Week  7: left side

Week 7: center

Week 7: right side

Week 7: center

Week 8: left

Week 8: right

Week 9: left

Week 9: right

 

Week 10: left

Week 10: center

Week 10: center back

Week 10: right

So that makes me caught up! Really I know a lot of people see these types of projects and think it's a lot of work- but it has not been a lot of work for me. I think how I am approaching it by just completing one layout per week is really easy. Actually there have been weeks that I think by the end oh, no- I didn't take enough photos only to find I do have enough photos.  I upload all of my photos one night and go pick them up the next day when I run errands. Because I leave my album out for the most part I end up working with it throughout the week and pile things I might use on top of it. Then when I have my photos I grab all the bits and pieces and pul it together. For the most part it takes up 30 minutes of my night. Easy. How cool will this be at the end of the year when it all comes together? Makes me so happy :)

Project Life: January (and a little bit of February)

Loving my Project Life album and am doing a great job with keeping up. I've attempted this before and lost interest after a few months. I think that is because I was trying to do the photo a day approach and I ended up taking photos I did not love just for the sake of taking a photo that day. This time around I am focusing on filling up a spread each week (not necessarily a photo each day) and I am LOVING it. I'm doing a combination of ordering prints and printing from home. I found that I like filling the smaller pockets that are for journaling cards with iPhone photos sometimes as well. Although I have it in the original album right now- I am thinking of switching it to an album  that will match the ones I already have. 

Here is a look at how it is coming along. There are still a few parts that need a bit of journaling here or there. 

January: week one |left side

 January: week one |right side

Notes on January,  week one: Because of winter break everyone was home. We spent a lot of time just hanging out and taking it easy. One morning Jude was sitting on the floor and then he just took off crawling. He had shown more interest in cruising furniture than crawling up until this point and I was certain he was going to skip crawling all together- but he proved me wrong.

January: week two | left side

January: week two | right side

January: week two |insert

Notes on January, week two: The beginning of the week was spent finishing up my new work room. I spent some Christmas money on some much needed clothes with a 40% off coupon at Gap (score!). Justin's brother came to visit- this was his first time meeting Jude. I documented Jude meeting his uncle on a separate 5x7 page protector and slipped that in. The little tab on top is a 2-Day Hooray Flapper. I love these because it keeps the pages from slipping out and adds a little something to the top.

Justin agreed to fill in those journaling blocks on the right page later where there are primarily photos of him and his brother. Reiley actually took all the pictures of them on the right side while they were playing pool one night and I was surprised how well they seemed to come out considering the lighting. She did a great job. 

January: week three | left side

January: week three | right side

Notes on January, week three: 

I noticed with Reiley back in school I take a lot of photos of Jude so I decided to focus on what we do each day. In the upper left corner of the right page I put a timeline of what our days look like. For the left side I included a piece from a Netflix and a pink slip from Reiley's school just telling her I would be picking her up in a different car since mine was in the shop. 

January: week 4 | left side

January: week 4 | left side

January: week four | right side

Notes on January, week four: Reiley got to go to Cirque Du Soleil with her ex-Girl Scout group at the beginning of the week. She went with her grandma as her guest so I had her journal about it. Jude also discovered the pantry this week and took full advantage of the box of Cheerios in there and even snuck an Oreo (the kid is no fool). Reiley also showed me a writing assignment her class did on the school website (it is almost like a mini message board for her classroom). I printed it off and placed that in here also. I liked how she wrote about her brother and how having a baby brother changes a lot of things. One thing she mentioned was how it changed her morning.

She wrote: "I have a baby brother. He changes a lot of things, like just today I wanted to read but I had to feed him, and that changed my plans" 

What is funny is I actually was making her lunch and just asked her to put some more pieces of toast on his highchair tray from the plate that I was feeding him from. Apparently that changed all of her plans for the morning. 

The right side is actually a We R Memory Keepers page protector (this pack). I am using those along with the Project Life kit.

February: week one | left side

February: week one | right side

February: week one | insert

Notes on February, week one:

Reiley had a couple of consecutive snow days due to cold temperatures. She spent a lot of time dancing to Taylor Swift in our future dining room (since it's empty right now she makes it her dance studio). I inserted a 6x12 page protector and used one side to document all of Jude's accomplishments this week (he learned two signs,  crawled up the stairs, waved bye and started giving kisses). On the other side I documented how Reiley spent her two days off of school (which was actually three because she didn't go on Monday as well). Both of those pages are just layouts I designed in InDesign. I also included a piece of paper that Reiley was teaching Jude to scribble on. I didn't journal on the journaling card yet...I will though. 

This is such a fun project and I am glad I am doing it because when I went to organize my layouts for 2010 I had only one page. One page. I did some for Reiley and some for Jude- but nothing documenting our family as a whole. In reality this is a perfect time for me to be documenting our family and I was pretty upset to find I had only one page.

I have the entire album laying out on my counter so I can work on it throughout the week and several times people have come over and looked through it.

One day Justin was looking at it and noticed I had printed off all of the pictures of his brother visiting and he said, "Oh, you printed these out? That is awesome! I just love that you are a scrapbooker" 

Last night Reiley was looking through it and she also said she really liked it and how it shows all of our family and what we do every day. I actually ended up giving her my older kit pieces I had left over so she could work on one along side with me. She is still picking out photos she wants to use in it and then we will go have them printed so she can start filling up hers. 

So with that I have a little more motivation to continue working on it because I know it is appreciated within our family and I like that everyone is wanting to participate as well. Makes me happy and at the end of this year I will have much more than I had last year.