But I'm gonna organize my paper drawers today cuz' I can do that sitting down...I have a drawer of 8x8 paper pads from 5 years ago that I NEVER use anymore geesh...why keep them? I'm gonna stack them and donate them to a local school, shelter or nursing home...they will get better use there AND make room for all my other billions of 6x6 paper pads I have. I have so much craft stuff I don't use anymore and I'm slowly clearing it out of my craftroom...its dumb to hang onto some things I haven't used. What's the saying..if you haven't used it in 2 years it should go...well I got LOTS then!! Next on my list is to pile up all the stamps I don't use...some new in their packages, yup you can smack me silly...and make a list and get rid of them by selling and/or donating. Nowadays I don't buy much that I know I won't use...I've gotten smarter (at times ha) about knowing what I will use. Course do I NEED more paper? NOOOOOO BUT I WANT MORE LOL! Tis a crafters issue me thinks :)
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Project Life Take #1
Ok so I have taken the plunge and ordered all the Project Life goodies after researching it & oogling it for a year LOL! Fifteen years ago I was a scrapbooker...back in the days of stickers, decorative scissors and stencils...yeah some of you remember those awesome supplies eh? LOL! I diligently scrapped Alexa & Riley's first few years and then got into digital scrapbooking before it was cool & it was so easy for me to do. I got all the way to age 6 with Riley & age 8 with Alexa. I also did mini ablums along the way...then I crashed and burned....fizzled out. I would stress sooooo much over my layouts, spend a ton of $$$ on traditional layouts and still not be pleased with anything so I just stopped.
*NOTE: I do not sell or get paid to promote this product, just a fan that is sharing*
So I use SnapFish to create my albums every year and leave it at that...it gets my pictures in a book along with journaling about the pics and they are nice mementos. I always do a year-long album and this year I did trip-albums for Alexa & Riley for their birthday trips last year. Easy peasy. But Project Life kept niggling at my ear saying....TRY ME...BUY ME...LOL! I liked how it was set up, easy to do and I have a slight case of OCD...I like symmetry...big time! And the way this is set up its symmetrical...appealing to me. In the beginning it was advertised as a DAILY to-do album...ummmm NO WAY JOSE could I ever commit to that. I am not even committing to weekly at this point. But I am doing MONTHLY pages...so 1-2 events, fun things I will put in the album. To me that is totally do-able...no stress...just fun.
So I knew what two events I wanted to cover for February: 1) Super Bowl Trip 2) Riley's Birthday so I sent the pics to Costco to be printed.
It literally only took me about 30 mins to create the 2 page spread...most of that was cutting a couple of the pics down and the journaling. I will journal on my cards in advance when I have time in front of the tv so they are done from now on cutting the time down even more. I'm all about fast, quick & easy lemme tell ya ;) Next up is Riley's birthday page and Feb is done!
So a problem with the album is photographing it...you've got the glare of the pocket pages and you can't take it out like a traditional 1 page cuz its in pieces KWIM. So I photographed multiple times & I'm still not 100% happy but this will have to do for now. Also my photos weren't ready at Costco when I went in because the photo machine was down..oy vey...so I printed them out for now so I could at least get my layouts where I wanted them. Then I will simply insert the photos when I get them.
So these 2 pages are our trip to Baltimore, MD for Super Bowl weekend. Our family does so many things together and I have them all documented on my iPhone in my photo gallery and on my blog usually but I wanted a real album with my notes/memories. So that is why I am doing this.
My daughter likes to take my iPhone and take "selfies" of herself LOL..even though she KNOWS I may use them! So the photo of her & James was taken while I was in the restroom and they were using my phone...oy hahaha! But I like the combo of pics and journaling. I added some fun Washi Tape and Heidi Swapp stickers to the journal cards too. Some of my journal cards did not have lines on them so I used some of my PTI stamp sets that have journaling/paper images and stamped right on the card.
For the "Ravens Win" I used my PTI alphabet stamps, and the "This is Life..." is a cutout from a Simple Stories paper pad "Snap Life" (its fab for Smashin' or Scrappin"). The Ravens Champions pic I downloaded from the Web and printed it out...easy peasy.
I don't profess to have the best handwriting anymore...to grip a pen & write is very difficult for me and my handwriting can get a bit out of hand LOL. For whatever reason I can paint & color, but the task of writing causes cramping in my hands terribly which makes my handwriting a bit messy. But I don't care...for these albums I will do my best..that's all I can ask for. It is more about documenting the event for my family than achieving handwriting-fabulousity LOL!
I have the Olive Edition of Project Life...there are of course other themes/colors to choose from. To start I ordered the binder, the Core Kit, a pack of matching papers, the big pack of photo sleeves (variety) and a mini kit all from Amazon. The Spring products come out soon and I have my eye on some other mini-kits to mix & match in this book. I'm not going to have the whole album be just this color story..I want a mish-mash :) (like meself) Pic above is my front page...I may change it to include titles and such but I haven't figured out what I want yet so I just put in a grouping of cards for now so you could see some of the fun prints included in the kit.
So if you were pondering on it, or wondering what it was...well now you know! I will post pages as I get them done each month...it will keep me on task!!
See ya back here on Friday!
Suzanne I love this! I'm doing one too.. I decided to do a Monthly one... not weekly. :)
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Mindy
Fab pages, Suzanne. Saw these on CHA videos and ordered some for my daughter who is not a scrapbooker. Thought these might be a little simpler for her to capture my grandson's childhood. Awesome inspiration.
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Cathy Lee
Love your Project Life pages Suzanne! Thanks for providing the link. I had never heard of this system; looks great. Like you, I have boxes and boxes of pictures and would really like to organize them. The only scrapbook I have done was the three years our daughter's fastball team won the Canadian championship and went on to play in the World Series in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The album turned out fantastic, if I do say so myself; but, it took so long cropping photographs and newspaper clippings and adding all of the embellishments. Project Life looks wonderful and so much faster and easier. My 35 to 40 years of photos are already dated, one step taken care of. My two kids,daughter now 31 yrs old and son 35 years old would love for me to do this as well as my one year old granddaughter and another granddaughter due at the end of May. I lost my Dad 20 years ago, my Mom 5 years ago; my Father-in-Law six years ago and Mother-in-Law last year. The kids would love albums of their grandparents! Two years before my Dad passed, we took my parents to Disneyworld. This alone would make a great Project Life album. Last fall, Our daughter, My husband, and I went to Tanzania, Africa, Zanzabar and Amsterdam and had the trip of a lifetime. What made it exceptional for me is that I had a stroke eleven years ago and have fairly severe mobility issues and left arm paralysis. The tour agent told my daughter who did all of the arrangements that Africa was no place for a disabled person; I went anyway and had a wonderful time. I couldn't have done it without my hubby and daughter who is a Registered Nurse and our incredible Safari guide. I'm sure You didn't want or expect practically my life history in the comments!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks so much for the Project Life information, you fun blog and Color Me Creative fun stuff and classes!
Barb O in Victoria, B.C.
So fun to see you posting about Project Life. I have also bought the sets but am still in the process of sorting and gathering all the pictures. This will motivate me to get going and start putting them in and journaling. I keep a calendar with notes of the pictures I take and what they were for to aid in my journaling. This is a great scrapbooking system!
ReplyDeleteLooks fantastic Suzanne!!
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