Monday, January 21, 2013

Project Life: A New Year!

I am really excited to make a Project Life scrapbook again for 2013, after actually finishing 2012 on time.  It definitely fits my needs:
  • I can work on it 15 minutes at a time
  • The focus is on the photos
  • There's as much opportunity for craftiness as I need (or I can skip it entirely)
  • The finished album is pretty darn cool to look at
I'm using a very cool Amy Tangerine woodgrain chevron album.  I'm sure 10 years from now it'll look horribly dated, but I love its trendiness right now.


I wasn't planning on buying a Core Kit with all the little cards in it this year, since I still have plenty of last year's Cobalt Kit left, not to mention *tons* of patterned paper and kits I can use. I probably have enough for 10 years of Project Life, seriously.  But then Studio Calico came out with a monthly Project Life kit, and I am powerless when it comes to their lovely kits, so I signed up.  (I'm embarassed to say how quickly I signed up after I received the email from them.)

I used some of the lovely neutral paper I've been hoarding to make 4x6 title cards for each week in white, cream, grey and black so I could match them to the papers I'll choose each week. I stamped "2013" on all of them and added a label for the date to keep a consistent look, but left the rest blank so I could add bullet points and tidbits about our weeks like I did in 2012.

Fellow crafty gal (and tech company nerd!) Allison contacted me because we're both taking the Studio Calico Project Life class this month and she also lives in Seattle.  Well, let me rephrase that.  We're both signed up, and likely *she* is actually doing the lessons and following along.  I'm drowning in things I want to do and haven't done much with the class content yet. Fortunately I can access it anytime, so there's no deadline.

Anyway, she and I were chatting over email and she talked about wanting the Seafoam Core Kit, but she already has the Baby Edition, because she's, you know, *with child*.  I love the graphic modern style of that Seafoam kit, but can't justify yet another Project Life kit, so we decided to split it, which is the perfect number of cards to add into my existing stash of stuff.

So let's just say I'm well stocked, and leave it at that.

Here's my 2013 cover page.  (Click for larger versions.)

2013 Creath Family Project Life Cover Page
2013 Creath Family Project Life Cover Page

Most of it is from the Studio Calico kit and a few bits are individual cards I bought from the Photo Freedom line late last year when I realized I had very few "filler" 4x6 cards.  I'm drowning in 3x4 sized cards (and on a related note, why oh why are they all portrait orientation?!), but have very few cards to fit in the 4x6 slots.

There's a blank spot in the middle, because I'm waiting to get the photos back from our last family photo shoot. I'd like to put a photo of M and T together in their Halloween costumes.

My 2 page layouts are biweekly, running from Monday to the following Sunday.  I like to keep weekends together, which is why I start my weeks on Monday.  Since the new year started on a Tuesday, this first spread is from Jan 1-13.

Jan 1-13: TJ's parents visit, Museum of Flight, walk in the park

Jan 1-13: Fun at home, M's mad skillz, One Little Word

I had a lot of fun with the 'MINDFULNESS' card.  I used the super cute wood veneer alphabet letters from Studio Calico and stapled them down with my beloved Tiny Attacher stapler. If there were ever a stapler to incite love and devotion, it's this one, hands down, with its adorable tiny staples.  

I didn't buy it for ages because I thought it was stupid. What's so great about tiny staples?  But I finally caved after a friend raved about it. 

It's very nice to use - it just feels good in my hand, but more importantly, the staples are STRONG.  I stapled those little wood pieces to the paper and they hold really well. The length also lets me get pretty far into a page, unlike my regular little stapler.  The tiny staples are cute and unobtrusive, and also cheap.

Here's a slide show of my 2013 pages, including close-ups.  If you can't see it, click here to view my entire 2013 Project Life gallery.



So, my new PL-ing friends, how's it going?

25 comments:

  1. Your pages look wonderful. Excellent taste in album choice as I have picked the same one. We can bemoan them becoming the equivalent of corduroy bellbottoms together in the future! I have printed out my photos for the first three weeks and a selection of Geraldine Sy printables to work with the ubiquitous SC PL kit. I had pretty fast fingers for that one too. If my daughter goes to bed without drama tonight I hope to havethe first couple of weeks under my belt.

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  2. Awesome pages Anandi! Glad to see you are back at it. Ugh, you are making me want that silly little.stapler now too!

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  3. Love your pages. I agree the tiny attacher is awesome.

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  4. Great pages! Love that you have adapted your pages to fit what you need. I have simplified my PL album to just one spread per month and will add in extra page protectors if I have a busy month. I still scrapbook normal layouts so I needed to cut PL back a bit. Love that PL is flexible for us to do exactly what we need to do! :)

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  5. I love your clean approach to your pages. You've got a lot done already! I'm doing PL with traditional scrapbook pages. I love catching those little everyday moments.

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  6. Aww, I just love your baby pictures so much! :) Very adorable. Great job on your Project Life - I enjoyed looking at it very much.

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  7. love it just awesome.. thanks for sharing..

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  8. It looks great. Are you really able to get an entire year in one album? If so, that is amazing!

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  9. Hello fellow nerd!! I am a nerd at a University just north of you in BC :) I am digi but I bought the digi Cobalt kit last year and hardly used any of it so I did not buy a kit this year. If Studio Calico offered the monthly kit in digital form I would be a goner for sure. Your baby is super cute - I want to reach through the screen and squeeze those chubby cheeks - lol.

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  10. your family is adorable. I want to try the SC PL kit and i'm hoping to get in from waiting list...I think your layouts are beautiful. I think its neat how ya'll are teaming up!! I think it helps keep us going when we can feel overwhelmed and get behind so that's awesome.
    I'm really excited this year and feel like I'm going to find my style this year through trial and error and am excited about that.
    Hugs
    Jen

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  11. I absolutely LOVE your pages!! You got so much done already!!! And I like this mysterious friend of yours who makes you buy more crafting tools ;)

    Which reminds me, I never got those thin wood veneer alphas- I ordered them, but they ran out of stock and they said they would mail it out to me later... I guess I have to follow up with SC...

    Love your OLW and the card u used for it here. oh, and I love that album toooooo!!!!!!

    I guess I should stop here :)

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  12. I love your pages I love how much you get onto them.

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  13. Great pages, and I think you've almost got me convinced that I need the tiny attacher. :) And I think you should embrace how trendy the album is (and remember that in 10 years); it's an album of your life RIGHT NOW - the trends are part of the story!

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  14. Your layouts are very cute! I wanted to get the studio calico kits also, but they sold out!! [I can't justify the subscription & I really like to see things before I buy them so I just want to buy them month by month if I like it].

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  15. Yay for Project Life (and nerds)! So fun. You convinced me to sign up for the Studio Calico PL kit, so hoping to get in on that in the next round or two! Why not? ;)

    At the very least look through the materials that came out on the first day of class. The extra stuff hasn't been informative to me. (I'm actually about a week behind at this point, so this may change as I get through all of the materials!)

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  16. Lovely layouts and post!! I had the same issue with the Tiny Attacher, but I'm really loving it too!!

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  17. Adorable photos, and terrific pages. I wish I hadn't gotten the Becky Higgins kits. I love the SC PL kit and the Simple Stories and the Echo Park PL items.

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  18. That album is pretty fantastic.
    I love your pages. Your title page is really great. Love the map with your home town marked out.

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  19. These are fabulous pages! I love the cover page and the map of the US!

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  20. Love love love your title page, especially the bottom left title card. Gorgeous!

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  21. Stumbled onto your blog through the post you left on my printer thread; so glad I did! I'm also in your area (Bellevue), so I'm hoping that you have a local source for that ADORABLE cloud and heart washi tape in your post!! I have to ask-where did you get it because I really need some! ;-).

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    1. Agghh! Sorry for the delayed reply! I meant to reply when I saw your comment! Not local. I believe I bought it online from 2Peas. I do love it.

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  22. I love your PL title page. Did you get the map online somewhere? I would love to include something like it! Thanks!

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    1. Hi Darcie! Sorry for the delayed response! That 4x6 card came from one of the Photo Freedom papers - I got it at our local Ben Franklin store. I stamped on the geotag and the city name, obviously. Hope you can find it - that line is super cute. I think it's Echo Park, but not completely sure. It was an individual sheet that I cut apart.

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