Project Life: shopping my stash

The arrival of National Scrapbooking Day last weekend provided the impetus I needed to get the scrapbooking-related boxes unpacked from our house move and forge some semblance of a creative space in which to work! It's lovely to have a more dedicated space now, so I can leave projects out and work on them for just a few minutes at a time. This has really helped me in my quest to do more work on my Project Life album.

I started scrapping in 2008 and it's amazing how much stuff I have accumulated during that time. I'm more determined now than ever to use what I have in my stash - and I'm finding Project Life is breathing new life into products that I've otherwise been slow in using or not sure how to incorporate into my projects. I'm not banning myself from buying new things, but I am at least trying to "tame the beast" of my growing stash! Some ideas below:

Mixing old and new supplies is definitely one of the ways I'm using things that have somewhat fallen out of favour (I learned this from Noell on Paperclipping and also Glitter Girl on Two Peas) - top left you can see old stickers and new washi tape. On the journaling card beneath is a camera I cut with my Slice. I'm finding that I'm cutting a lot more shapes of actual objects when I have my "Project Life hat" on - and not just swirls and abstract designs. Below right, you can see some patterned paper I've had for a while that I really like (with a big compass on it) but wasn't sure how to use it. I'm finding cutting up large-patterned papers to fit in the pockets is a great way to showcase the ones I find hard to use on a "regular" scrapbook page.

The first photo below doesn't show up too well below (candlelit baths aren't too easy to photograph...) Beneath that I cut out the word "relax" three times from some older patterned paper that matches the watery theme of the photo. I really like the tone-on-tone look. On the adjacent journaling card is a tea cup (Grandma's Attic card again) cut from older patterned paper (tone-on-tone again) and coloured a little with chalk, plus a stamp from my Smash date stamp. In the other photo is another favourite of mine - printing words directly on my photos.

Thickers directly on a photo. Simple and I love it! Above that you can just make out some patterned paper with a button sewn on the top for some textural variety.

I bought these journaling cards from Making Memories (Noteworth line) with the specific intention of using them for PL. I love the fact that they are shaped. I mixed them with the older bow glitter embellishment, cut out the letters from my trusty Slice (Grandma's Attic card) and added some bling. Below that, I cut out "good eats" from the Bon Appetit card and just put it on the back of the journaling card from the previous page. In the next journaling spot is some old patterned paper that I still liked but wasn't sure how to use till now.

I cut "April" from one of the fonts on the Handwritten fonts design card. The green part of the flower is also cut using my Slice, layered with a small paper flower (with some texture) and a purple brad in the middle. I've had the border for a while, and finally found a home for it as the colours went well with everything else on the page. On the journaling card below that I made a word cloud for Easter using the Faith design card.

That's all for now, folks - have fun shopping your stash and finding new ways to use what you already have!

~Caroline~

The Slice and Project Life: journaling cards inspiration

I have been following other people's Project Life projects for a while now. Sometime toward the end of last year, I decided to jump on the PL wagon, but use it in a slightly different way. I have only been scrapping for a few years and yet I've been into photography for much longer. A light bulb went on when I first started to "get" Project Life because I realised it answered a lot of the questions I had about "how the heck will I ever get 'caught up'?!" Now, I know that "being caught up" is a bit of a myth and is also not necessarily something to aspire to. However, for a long while I've been wanting to document SOMEthing from my existence prior to becoming a scrapbooker, but hadn't been able to figure out how.

The way I've now started to use PL is simply to provide an overview - typically a double spread per month (or so) rather than per week. I'm adding in extra pages where I need to, for important events. Thankfully, my hoarding tendencies mean I have kept some memorabilia and ephemera "just in case" and can justify my actions now that I have the perfect place to put it! :)

I've discovered that the Slice is absolutely fantastic for using with Project Life. The designs are just the right size, and below I'm sharing some of the ways in which I've dressed up the basic journaling cards in different ways. I've used a bunch of different design cards here; if you have questions about a specific one, please feel free to ask! Not all the journaling cards use the Slice, but it definitely features heavily here.

These are some of my ideas, tips and inspiration on how to make journaling cards your own.

Repeating a theme (in this case, circles)

Add texture and dimension (this was made by embossing Core'dinations cardstock with the Cuttlebug)

Create a colour-coordinated cardset - even with different fonts, these look like they belong together.

Add a fun shape or embellishment - this would work great with a travel theme, for example.

Use a repeated shape in different ways - even though the colours, position and orientation changes, using the same shape brings some continuity.

Numbers - who can go wrong with numbers? A very popular theme right now - great for embellishing and creating lists (which can help break through that "writer's block")

Create a whole matching set - easy peasy! Just pick some patterned paper that goes well with the photos for that spread.

~ Caroline ~

P.S. Yes, I've decided to stick to British spellings on here now; seeing as I'm English it seemed the right thing to do. :)

Off the page - Make a fuzzy name plate

The other day I decided that the time had come (long overdue, I might add) to tidy my scrapping area. Of course, my plans lasted all of about 10 minutes because I suddenly became super creative and just HAD to make something! So, this was made during my attempt to tidy.

It's a name plate for a dear friend who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl just before Christmas. The nursery is decorated in green and purple so I knew that's what I wanted for the background. Yes, the pipe cleaners were going to be straight. But I've decided to enjoy the uniqueness of the slightly wonky ones on the bottom left...:)

The bottom layer is chipboard. I used hot glue to adhere the pipe cleaners, alternating the green and purple. I laid out all the pipe cleaners and used a line of glue across all of them at several points along their lengths. This needed to be done in stages because the glue dries pretty quickly.

I used the Handwritten Fonts design card to cut out letters to spell out Ella Jo's name. I haven't had this design card very long, but I've already put it to good use on a variety of projects.The flower was cut from the Greetings design card.

I cut the letters and flower out of regular white cardstock, then sprayed them with Ranger Perfect Pearls mist which I just love! It adds a great shimmer to the shapes (although I found it tricky to capture it in a photo).

Adhering the the letters to the pipe cleaners was a bit tricky, but in the end I found Glossy Accents worked best.

I'll definitely be using these ideas and techniques on future projects!

~ Caroline ~

December Daily - second half

Here are the remaining posts for my DD album. For the first half, click here. I'm still feeling vindicated at getting this album finished! :)

~ Caroline ~

December Daily - first half

Well, it's taken me until the New Year to get this posted, but I did actually complete my DD in 2011 - yay! I'm going to post pictures of most days so you can see what I did. I'm keeping some of the pictures/journaling private which is why there are a few gaps. I'll put half in this post and half in another one, to follow shortly after this.

I'd been trying not to stress out about "getting behind" etc. and just enjoying the process as and when I can, fitting it in to the rest of my schedule. I was pretty good at taking photos each day, or having an idea of the topic for the day (if I didn't have a specific photo in mind), but actually putting the pages together has taken more time. However, I really enjoyed what I've done, and I'm pretty proud of myself for not only finishing, but also doing so within a reasonable timeframe. Woo hoo! :)

Sorry about some of the weird colours in the pictures... my camera is acting up (must be tired after my DD, hehe).

~ Caroline ~

December Daily - foundation pages and cover

Here are my foundation pages and cover, ready just in time for December. Yay!

 

Lots of firsts for me here - first DD album and also my first binding project with my Bind-It-All, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I thought about painting the chipboard cover but in the end decided I quite liked the unfinished look.

My pages are 8.5" x 5.5". I kept the base for each page really simple, just white cardstock, with a simple green frame that I printed on each one. (Actually I printed 2 to a page then cut them in half with my trimmer.) My basic layout for each page is pretty much the same, with the number in the corner. I used the general idea of frame + number from Ali Edwards' templates, but wanted to adapt them to incorporate my own ideas.

Most of the papers and chipboard accents are from My Mind's Eye, from the Snowed In collection (not available anymore, but just in case someone is curious!)

On the front cover I also used pearl accents and letter stickers from Making Memories. You'll see more of those letter stickers below, along with some blue glittery ones (also Making Memories). The numbers and the shapes were all cut using my Slice - mostly the Mistletoe and Fa La La design cards.

This post explains a bit more about how I approached my December Daily project.

So - here are my foundation pages. I stopped at 24 because I want to do something different for Christmas Day. You can click on any image to see a larger version.

~ Caroline ~

December Daily - a first attempt!

For the past couple of years I have watched various people's takes on Ali Edwards' December Daily album project (including Ali herself), and I've thought what a great project that would be to work on!

So this year, in spite of recently starting a new full-time job, I've (slightly insanely) decided that 2011 is The Year for me to step into the December Daily boat.

Due to my weakness for scrap-hoarding, I decided to shop my stash and build myself a DD kit that'll form the basis of what I'll use. This is what's in my kit so far:

I'm going to be slightly lenient with myself if I need to dip into anything else I have, but I'll try hard not to actually spend any money on anything new!

Of course, my trusty Slice is also accompanying me on this journey, in particular the Mistletoe and Fa La La design cards:

I'll post some pictures of my foundation pages in the next day or so - before the start of December! :)

~ Caroline ~