Whimsical Project Life

 

What to do when you fall of the Project Life wagon?  Well, get back on - and apparently go a little crazy with your layout!  I kept up taking photos and scrapping them through July (about the time I started creating the Creative Cardstock class) and then I faltered a bit.  I took photos more sporadically and didn't scrap any of those as PL layouts until now.

So here's August!  For this whimsical layout, I misted some Bazzill orange peel white cardstock with several mists to match my photos and the Pebbles Lakeside 6x6 papers used for the lettering.

For the lettering, I did something that really isn't like me at all.  These are hand cut (no kidding, right?) and outlined.  I tried this in an art journal page recently and liked it so I thought it went with this fun page.  I did sneak in a few Thickers for the numbers. Otherwise, I'd go into Thicker withdrawal and I can't imagine what that would be like!

Washi tape frames the page.  That fun polka dot one on the right is from Doodlebug.

Here's the process video on YouTube:


Thanks for stopping by!

Faux Polaroids on Travel or Project Life Page

These little Polaroid frames are everywhere and they are really easy to do.  All you need is something that will cut a square.  I used my Cricut and cut a 2 3/4" square leaving some border around the square.

Then I trimmed the paper with my paper trimmer to leave a 1/4" border around 3 sides and 3/4" on the bottom.  That's it, an instant Polaroid frame.

Then it was easy to glue it over a 3" photo.  You can make these any size you want.

For the rest of this overview page from our recent beach trip, I dug into my stash for some old stickers and some newer Washi tapes.  Before applying those, I stamped some circles but not with stamps or ink.  The video shows how to make these - really easy and fun.  I've seen other people do these but hadn't tried them.   I'll definitely do this again.

Next week, I'll start posting all the layouts from the 6x6 Scrapinar.  Some of these have process videos which go through more of the layout than was shown in the Scrapinar.  I still need to edit and voice over those.  I think I'll do a label for these posts so it will be easy to see them all at once.

Watch at YouTube


Here is a link to the sketch in PDF form.

Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life Page with Stamped Background

Back to Project Life this week with a page about early spring days.  I created a sketch based on the size photos I was printing.  I like the sketch; however, I didn't really like  it with these particular photos.  These were taken the first week of April when it felt like Spring had finally arrived.  We had camellia blooming, were taking walks and just getting outdoors some, finally.  I wanted a softer look than all the lines I'd included in the sketch.

So instead of the stitching lines on the corners, I've used some stamped leaves and flowers that match one of the Pebbles Family Ties papers on the page. Also, to keep it all light and springy, I went with yellow as a contrasting color rather than the red in my husband's shirt - which is sort of a pet peeve of mine.

(Coincidentally while this video was uploading, I was cleaning out his side of the closet.  I'm back to it this afternoon.  When I find that red shirt, it may get buried far, far back.  I swear he has that thing on every time I want to take his photo and I end up doing a lot of red layouts just because of that t-shirt.  Every other shirt seems to get stained eventually, but not that one.  I don't think he cares about it so much yet he really doesn't want to ever throw away any of his clothes.  I had to talk him into letting me give some sweaters not worn in years to Goodwill.  Oh, well, venting over :-)

Anyway, back to the layout... I colored in the flowers with a 'secret ingredient' you'll see in the video.  I didn't have the right color marker and found something else in my stash that worked out nicely.

The Cricut got a little work on this one, too for some simple embellishment.

Watch at YouTube


Here is the PDF with Sketch and tips.

Back to closet cleaning...thanks for watching today!

One Month, Two Pages

All through the month of March, I kept clicking photos.  Confession:  I missed a day here and there but made it up with multiple photos on other days.  So here are my 31 photos on one 2 page spread!

For this layout, I used Photoshop Elements to crop and arrange my photos with 6 2" squares on each 4x6 print.  Then I cut them in strips and arranged over my typed journaling.

For the rest of the layout I used some Simple Stories Summer Fresh collection to add circles and strips of pattern paper.

The clock faces are mistables from Prima.  One challenge was the mist colors.  In yesterday's post, I shared my new  mist storage so you can tell I have a lot of mists.  Yet most are neutrals or fairly bright colors.  Deep reds and navy aren't any more popular in mists than they are in paper.  I did some combining as you will see in the video and I think the blue one came out fine.  The red one ended up a bit rust - so now I know how to get rust.  I just haven't figured out dark red yet.








Watch at YouTube



Here's the PDF with the sketch and some tips on using PSE to crop and arrange the photos for printing.

For April, I'll go back to doing Project Life every week or two.

Thanks for visiting!

Project Life Title Page

Happy Spring!  March is rolling right along and I'm taking plenty of photos for a monthly Project Life layout in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime, I did our title page for the Project Life album.

For this page, I cheated just a bit and used a photo from Christmas Day 2012.  It was by far the best photo of us close to the first of this year.  Most of the page elements are on the right side of the page to draw the eye to the right and lead a reader into the album.

The sticker at the bottom isn't mentioned in the video.  It is from October Afternoon.  I just felt there was something missing and this finished off the paper and border grouping.

The video features how to customize the color and design of the chipboard numbers and also quite a bit of misting elements including some new border stickers by Pink Paislee.

Watch at YouTube


Here's the PDF with sketch.

The colorful papers are Simple Stories Summer Fresh collection which I've used some on other Project Life/Project 365 pages.  The background paper is a stitched paper from Amy Tangerine.  I won this as part of a wonderful giveaway at Pamela's World of Scrap where she has just posted a new sketch and giveaway opportunity.  Thanks, Pamela!

And thanks to you for stopping by today!

Project Life page from a sketch challenge

 

This week's Project Life/Project 365 layout is using the sketch from Pamela's World of Scrap.  She has a contest open through the 15th to win a great prize pack if you make a page or card using her sketch.  The sketch has room for 8 photos and was absolutely perfect for Project Life.  I've used 7 photos and the remaining space for a journaling block.

In my video, I show her sketch.  I share a tip for managing so many photos while trying to figure out what papers you are going to use.  The 'pinball' embellishments were created with some chipboard and embossing powder.

There aren't many embellishments on this one. With so many fairly busy photos and a super long title, I think the simple page design works well.

The focus this week was on my husband's many activities around his pinball business.  All of these are here at home.  The next time I accompany him on a service call or to do a delivery, I want to get photos of those so I can do a more comprehensive look at what goes into pinball repair and sales. Sometimes he gets frustrated that he isn't getting as much done as he wants.  I don't think he realizes what all he does get done!









Here's the video at YouTube:


Since I didn't do the sketch myself, I didn't do a PDF this week.

Thanks for joining me.  Be sure and come back tomorrow.  I have a special treat for Valentine's Day!

Two Pages and 15 Photos

 

For Project Life/Project 365, I saved up two weeks worth of every day events and put them on these two pages.  This was scraplifted from this page done in 2010.

The pages of the 2 page layout are sort of mirror images if one of the mirrors was upside down :-) I used the warm colors in the upper left corner of the title page and the lower right corner of the page with the journaling.  The stamped houses are from Hero Arts Whimsical Houses set.  I tried coloring them but that was just too busy with all those photos.

This ledger paper is stamped using a Technique Tuesday set and filled an empty corner.  The wood veneer and Washi tape update the look somewhat from the 2010 layout.

The details of the process are on my video on YouTube.


The sketch shown below is also in this PDF:  2 Week 2 Page Sketch

Feel free to use the sketch for your personal use.  A link back to this post would be appreciated.  

For the next couple of weeks, I'm focusing my photo taking on a typical day in our lives - capturing our routines in winter.  I thought I'd do the same in the summer and see what is different.  

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Project Life, Project 365 Week 1 page and video

The thing I noticed while taking photos the first week of 2013  is how we seem to have the same resolutions as last year or the year before.  My husband is going to lose weight. I'm finally going to get my paperwork in order and keep it that way.  A little hint:  Do not go through bank statements on New Year's Day. If something isn't right, you can not call anyone and you end up with a sleepless first night of the year.  Fortunately, everything was fine the next day.

So, I took this idea to my page and captured what was new and what was not - or what was a bit of both.  Lenny had a new story to share from a vacation many years ago.  He always says I've heard all his adventures but I hadn't.  I have new/old clothes from the consignment store and so forth.

It was a pretty low key week and the photos definitely could hold up to some cropping.  Do we really need a 4x6 of the scales to know what they have to do with the new year?

This week's layout crops photos and pairs them with journaling and room for a fairly long title if you wish.  I created an embellishment area to the right of my photos with the year in stickers and some color to boost the page a bit.

The video will share tips on:

• cropping photos
• creating stamped embellishments that are similar but give some variety
• and what to do with a long title that doesn't quite fit.

Watch at YouTube

The PDF contains the sketch and some ideas on printing journaling on your background on either a  large format or a standard printer.  You can of course handwrite your journaling.

Here is the file ---  Sketch for 1-9-13 and Tips

If you aren't doing Project Life or are using a traditional PL album, this sketch works well for any subject that has a lot of photos.

Thanks for watching!   

Being a self-Santa

A few years ago my husband and I finally figured out that buying each other gifts was, for us, swapping money.  After over 20 years, we had given up trying to find the perfect 'surprise' gift and instead solicited what the other wanted and where to buy it.  Since there was no surprise, it seemed kind of silly to buy the other what they already knew they were going to get and then making them wait until Christmas.  

So now we just get ourselves a little special treat at Christmas.  I have at least one friend who thinks this is unimaginable not to have a gift to open on Christmas morning but for us it is working beautifully.

So this year, my gift to myself was a new, smaller camera.  I still like my regular digital camera but I wanted something I could easily carry with me.  I got this Canon on Amazon for $80 and it seems to have almost everything my other camera has and it fits in the palm of my hand.

Another 'odd' thing about us is that we don't have smart phones.  We actually share one cell phone - one simple flip phone that takes photos but you can't download them only text them to someone else.  We save a ton of money with this and again, it works for us.  I could have gotten a TracPhone smart phone but it cost twice what the camera cost!

Mainly I wanted the camera to capture the every day stuff particularly since I'm doing Project 365/Life next year. This one fits in my purse or pocket.  I'm still a bit self-conscious about taking photos in stores, for example.  But people with Smartphones do this all the time so why can't I with my little regular camera?

We, scrapbookers, know that you need photos of all kinds of things to tell your story.  I may look a little silly taking my Mother's photo when she is shopping for a new dress, but I'll be capturing her doing something she loves and I'll record the memory doing something I love.  That's $80 well spent.

Project Life - Ideas for Photos and Stories

In 2010, I did Project Life or as I knew it then, Project 365, which I read about in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. I took at least one photo per day and scrapbooked them.  It was a great experience and developed one of my favorite albums of all time. A couple of pages from that album are shown below.  I'm planning to do this again next year.

I want to be sure my 2013 version covers our day-to-day but isn't a repeat of 2010.  I've started by listing many of the topics I photographed and journaled from 2010.  Some will be repeated to show what has changed.

1. Home improvement projects
2. Everyday meals
3. Favorite recipes
4. Hiking or other exercise
5. "Date" days
6. A favorite piece of jewelry or object in the house
7. What a family member (outside your household) is up to on any given day
8. Everyday things the cat (or dog or hamster or whatever) does
9. Board games or puzzles
10. Daily TV rituals (for us it is Jeopardy)
11. Everyday chores - dishes, laundry
12. Winter chores in the yard and garden
13. Snow chores and snow fun
14. How the routine is different when a spouse travels
15. Socializing, dining out with friends
16. Little luxuries we take for granted like the electric blanket
17. Shopping habits (so different now than a few years ago thanks to the Internet)
18. Signs of Spring
19. Spring cleaning
20. Spring planting
21. Scrapbooking and card making activities (crops, classes, etc.)
22. Our work activities
23. Family events such as weddings, baptisms, reunions
24. What's growing in the yard
25. Preparing for a vacation
26. Family vacation with the grandchildren
27. Vacation - just the two of us
28. Honey-do lists
29. Organizational projects
30. New clothes or shoes
31. Self-care rituals such as a pedicure
32. The night sky or a rainbow
33. Ergonomic adjustments (I had to make a lot of these that year)
34. Our technology
35. Favorite parts of Fall
36. Holiday rituals - tree trimming, egg decorating, baking, presents, etc.
37. How we spent our Anniversary, Valentine's Day

Figuring out what I haven't yet covered is a bit like staring at the pantry trying to decide what I don't have before going to the grocery store.  Here are some things I've thought of so far. I'm sure the list will expand:

1. New Year's Resolutions and plans for the year
2. Sunrise and sunset
3. Ways we help others
4. Running errands  (almost all my photos were made at home in 2010 or were taken on special trips)
5. The view from my front porch in different seasons
6. People who make our lives easier like our hair stylists  (The barber is seriously the only appointment my husband is ever on time for.)
7. More family and friend photos
8. More on how we use our technology in our daily lives both the old and the new stuff
9. Funny things my parents say
10. The little things that drive us crazy
11. The little things we can't live without but never appreciate
12. Progress updates on our New Year's Resolutions
13. The town we live in
14. What's the same or different about places we visit than where we live
15. Televisions shows and how we watch TV differently than even a couple of years ago  (Yeah for Hulu!)
16. Volunteer work
17. Work challenges and successes
18. New people we meet
19. Sample topics of conversation
20. Typical everyday outfit
21. Favorite item(s) of clothing
22. Talking on the phone or Skype-ing  (There's something new from 2010!)
23. What we love about where we live
24. What we hate about where we live
25. New things we learn by taking a class or by experience
26. That quirky little habit your spouse has that you adore
27. That annoying little habit your spouse has that drives you crazy
28. More photos of the two of us together
29. Morning routine
30. Books we read
31. Birthday traditions

These lists are just a guide in case I get stuck and can't come up with something to photograph or get in a rut.  I do remember in 2012 catching myself taking a lot of photos of food.  Hmm... I wonder if there is something else I need to examine there.  Nah, we'll just let that go :-)

Aparently, I can't quite let it go, I picked a food themed page as one of my favorites from 2010...

Often I found a theme to the photos I would take in a given week.  Diet and Exercise are usually hot topics in the new year.  I did a recipe card theme to the page using a small photo from each day.

This spread covers 2 weeks with unrelated photos about the everyday stuff in our lives.

Personally, I prefer traditional scrapbooking over the photo and journaling card pocket pages.  I think those have many benefits, I just like to use my photos in my regular scrapbooking.  Over the next couple of weeks, I'll share some other thoughts I have on Project Life/365 and my plans for doing this again in 2013 including a video.  If you are considering this project, I hope you'll visit often and find some inspiration here.

I'd love to hear your ideas and plans, too!  What would you like to capture in the new year?

Thanks for visiting!

Project 365 Wrap Up

In 2009, I kept my first New Year's resolutions ever!  One was to do something creatively new every day.  It was fun, sometimes challenging to fit in and I really expanded my creatively and knowledge.  I blogged about that more at the time in this post New Year's Cheers

Coming off that success, I tripled my expectations but unfortunately, not my efforts.  I again made three New Year's resolutions for 2010 and kept one of them.  The one kept was to do Project 365 this year.

Project 365 is to take a photo each day and then scrapbook it.  Here is what I discovered along this journey:

• I took a photo almost every day and did makeup photos for the days I missed.  Does it really matter if I picked out paint swatches one day and then did the photo of me holding them up for selection the next day?
  
  
• My husband is now a little more involved in photography than before.  He'll ask me if I've taken my photo today and sometimes suggest something that would make a good shot.  He has even picked up the camera a few times himself to capture the day's photo.
  
  
• Many people scrapbook these photos in albums with photo pockets or use the same layout format for each week.  I preferred to experiment.  I did weekly single page and double page spreads.  I did some with two weeks together and a couple of monthly spreads.  For the third quarter we had lots of travel and big events so I did those and then 'everything else' layouts to capture the day to day.  And for the last few months, I've done layouts more by subject, like day trips, fall photos, and now some Christmas layouts.  These are still capturing the day to day stuff.
  
  



The Rest of April



Weekly Layout

• I love having a record of our everyday things - many of these things would never have been photographed otherwise.  I so wish I'd done this 10 or 15 years ago.  

Two Weeks in August

So I'm really glad I did Project 365.  Will I do it next year?  Yes and no.  I'll do more every day photos I'm sure.  Like creative thinking, it has become a habit and I'll scrapbook more routine stuff than before this project, I'm sure.  

And all this reminds me that I need to take today's photo and I know exactly what it will be - part of my year end 'got to get this done before the business year closes' list.  It's one of those every year things that will someday be a little memory tucked into my scrapbook.

Have you decided on any resolutions?
Hope you enjoy ringing in the New Year!

Why Remember November?

Most of November seemed like one problem after another.  Many of them minor or at least things we know will resolve themselves.  Others were important on-going issues that seemed to grow more challenging.  Some things were nuisances that just needed to be taken care of.  I started dreading hearing the phone ring - what now???

Because I was sick for over a week, I didn't bother with taking very many pictures for Project 365.  Who wants to capture all this trouble?  Despite a lack of photos, I still thought it was important to capture this month of our lives.  It won't always be November, 2010.  In fact, December has already been turning the tide in many cases.   When we look back on this page someday, it may be a month where everything is going great and we can remember how blessed we are.  Or it may be a worse month and we would give anything to hear my parents on the other end of the phone.  One thing is certain, it won't be this particular month again, and that is one of the many reasons why we scrapbook.


Project notes:

This page is for the Two Peas Challenge to capture a month.  I also used some suggestions from the Blogging for Scrapbookers class at shimelle.com.  The class reminds us that we may not want to reveal everything in our blog posts - protect privacy and add a little mystery.  I didn't go into details in either the page or the post about specific illnesses or personal business.  With both blogs and scrapbooks we have to respect the privacy of others in our lives.

The journaling is hidden in a pullout behind the photos of 'honey lemon' as my husband calls our 'miracle' cold cure and a photo of our stove resurrected from the dead.  16 days without a stove or oven is interminable!

A heavy coat of Vintage Photo distress ink toned down the bright colors in these Fancy Pants paper strips for the border.  All the chipboard is left bare so this was a quick page.

There will be one more November page in our book.  We had a very nice Thanksgiving and I'll do a page on that soon.  Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  DSP:  Fancy Pants Daily Grind 8" pad, Basic Grey Basics in Kraft
Chipboard:  On Board letters by Stampin' Up!; Offbeat collection by Basic Grey
Letter stickers:  American Crafts blackberry Puffy Thickers; October Afternoon Mini Market; Cosmo Cricket Mini
Brad:  Basic Grey
Buttons:  Fancy Pants with SU rub-on
Stamps:  Define Your Life by Stampin' Up!

Project 365 - Aug Sept

Much of the time in August and September was spent on events that are getting their own pages (a wedding, trips).  I decided to put all the every day stuff in a couple of pages of small photos.  This was a really fun layout to put together.  I enjoyed making my own embellishments.

Project Notes: 

• Once again I'm reaching for the Indian Summer Basic Grey collection papers.  There are also some Crate Paper Mia mixed in.  When buying paper, I've got to look for more reds and strong pinks.  We seem to wear those colors a lot around the house and they are often the color of flowers and things. 

• I marked the grid lines just on the edge of the paper at 3", 6" and 9" points all the way around and then sewed intentionally swerving the lines.  The photos were lined up using the new Basic Grey Magnetic Mat.  See this blog post for more info on this wonderful tool Tilted Magnetic Mat
• These hearts are hand cut and then some are sewn with applique stitching on the machine.
• The base of the flower is hand cut from October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper and the inset is cut on the Cricut also from some OA and Basic Grey Nook and Pantry paper.  I didn't want to use too much of the same collection.  I wanted the flower to look like I'd purchased it separately and mixed it in with another collection.

The journaling is just a phrase typed on each photo.

There have been a few days I didn't get a photo taken and some days that I just chose not to scrap the photo I did take yet I'm finding Project 365 helps us catch little moments we would normally let go.  These are the things I think we will most enjoy seeing later on.

DSP Day will be back tomorrow!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Kindred Spirits by Stampin' Up!

Ink:  Dune by Colorbox

DSP:  Indian Summer by Basic Grey; Mia by Crate Paper

Chipboard:  Stampin' Up! and the numbers are from an unknown source

Brad and Twill Tape:  Stampin' Up!

sort of NOT according to Plan

When Lenny visits his family, I always have this list of stuff I'm going to get done.  Some of it chores, some fun things just for me.  I even did a "Me Time" scrapbook page about the things I did the last time he went to see his children and his sister earlier this year.

This summer though things didn't quite go as planned.  I developed some intense stress related pain in my neck and shoulders.  Basically, it hurt to tilt my head down for several weeks among other things.  Of course, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong and how to deal with it.  Thankfully, it is getting better.  And I've learned a lot about posture, about the right way to sit, work, craft, read, even stand while I'm doing dishes.  I'm trying meditation again.  Did you know there are all these 'guided meditation' videos on YouTube?  It's sort of like being in Yoga class without having to travel or bend yourself in funny positions.  You get to skip to the relaxing part and it really does help. 

During the two weeks he was away, I did do a few things on my list though more slowly than I planned and mananged to have some fun with friends.  I made myself special treats in the kitchen though different ones than I planned.  With my car in the shop part of the time - yeah, it was sick too - I couldn't go anywhere much and I noticed more pretty images out my own windows.  

Project Notes:

• All of the photos were printed with a brown background so I could trim them and they were self matted except for the large image of our stamp club.

• PLAN is chipboard painted yellow which came out too lemony so I went over with with sponged Crushed Curry ink - note:  be very careful to make sure the paint is fully dry or don't double dip your sponge.  You'll get paint on your ink pad - yuck!  Last step was to brush the edges with some Vintage Photo from Ranger.

• The heart is inked in Stucco pigment ink from Colorbox. 
• While the ingredient list below is long, the heavy lifter was Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection.  I bought this just because it was pretty but I've lost track now of the number of layouts and cards I've used it one.  Apparently I like orange, yellow and magenta more than I thought.  Those little stickers that come with the kits often come in great for 'touch-up' embellishments to cover slight flaws in your design.

• The design in the lower right corner is a journaling card from Fancy pants that seemed to capture some of the experience. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Office Accoutrement by Stampin' Up!
Ink:  Dark Brown, Stucco by Colorbox; Vintage Photo by Ranger, Crushed Curry by SU!
DSP, brad and Stickers:  Indian Summery by Basic Grey;  So Sophie ledger by My Minds Eye
Journaling Card:  Delight by Fancy Pants
Stickers:  Basic Grey Euphoria, Marrakesh and Two Scoops; Mini Market Ledger by October Afternoon
Ribbon:   Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie
Font:  Bookman Old Style