Project Life 2013: Not Quite Chalkboard But Still

On Saturday I got to craft *all day*, thanks to a fundraiser crop for the Komen 3 Day Walk.  I went with my friend J and we shared a table for 9 hours. She made 35+ layouts, while I did 2.75.  I am really, really slow. But since I love the process, that's fine.

The first thing I tackled was this Project Life layout. I had visions of doing a "chalkboard" theme, with the chalkboard finish paper from an old DCWV paper stack.  I bought some awesome liquid chalk markers and was excited to use them for this layout, after drawing all over the mirrors and glass in our house.  However, I'm not much of a doodler and the markers were broader than I prefer for Project Life so I didn't quite get the chalkboard effect I wanted.  I still like the simple color palette, though.  Click for larger images.

July 15-28: pseudo chalkboard

July 15-28: Thatha time, crawling!, Date Night and water play

July 15-28: Making lemonade, Spanish story time, #nsale, food

Details, details

Aside from the black chalkboard paper, the printed 3x4 cards I used were from the Scraptastic Project Life kits. I picked the ones that fit the chalkboard or black, white and aqua theme.  The grey and white tiny letter stickers are from the Target $1 section. And they're even repositionable!!  I know, right?!  I bought two packs.

I also made liberal use of a Heidi Swapp embellishment pack I've had for ages - polaroid frames, rub-ons and little "liked" stickers. I also used a ton of adorable doily rub-ons from Christy Tomlinson, which I received in my Pink Paislee warehouse box. For some reason, I adore doilies, though I really am not into frilly, girly embellishments. I (mostly) hate flowers, lace, and anything vintage.  But doilies?  Sign me up! 

The "moments" puffy sticker, adorable chevron cloud and what I think is a lemon (?) are also Pink Paislee, from my box.  You can't see the washi tape too well on the black background, but it's a graph paper pattern, with the word love and little pink hearts in lowercase. It's from Freckled Fawn, and super-cute.  I also went to town with some Freckled Fawn grey, black and white enamel dots.  I love having those in neutral colors!

As you can tell, I love mixing and matching products, and that's probably what takes me so long to complete these layouts. This one took me 4 hours, but I was also chatting and snacking while working on it.  But it's almost a perfect representation of my style - consistent color scheme, lots of journaling, lots of photos and fun supplies to play with.

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

The Scrapbook Obsession Continues

Last year I started an 8x8 album for scrapbook layouts of favorite photos. I got the idea from (of course) one of Cathy Zielske's books.  I started with a cheap post-bound album I found on clearance somewhere. I soon realized I prefer the 3-ring binders, so I bought a gorgeous WRMK bright blue fake leather one from Target. It makes me happy every time I see it, and now there are 3 layouts in it!

Click for larger photos.

I was flipping through Clean and Simple Scrapbooking: The Sequel and found this layout I wanted to "scraplift":

p. 91 in Clean and Simple Scrapbooking: The Sequel, by Cathy Zielske

I loved the simple bands of color to the right of the photo and the small strip of patterned paper.  I started trying to copy this one with different papers, but it wasn't working for me.  After a lot of shuffling, cutting and trying different things, this is my result:

T at 10 months.

I learned that I *can* use a 12x12 layout as inspiration for an 8x8 as long as I'm cognizant of how much less space there is.  In this case, my photo was only 3.5x5", I made fewer "stripes" on the right side, and I used a thin strip of silver Martha Stewart tape instead of another piece of cardstock at the bottom.

I'm still learning about layering, but I love that the black and yellow papers are both subtly patterned, yet still seem to match even with that crazy hot pink floral strip.  (Others may beg to differ.)  

Acrylic star and Simple Stories SNAP! sticker

Star sequin (love them!) and Amy Tangerine Yes Please roller stamp

My journaling is often long-winded, like this blog, and I knew I couldn't get by with just a simple caption like in the layout above, so I turned the right side of the layout into a "pocket", a trick I learned from making a LOT of mini albums.  The journaling card is a cutout from my current paper obsession, Amy Tangerine's Yes Please 6x6 pad, so it's pretty small.  I made sure that the paperclip to pull it out is easy to get to from the top of the page protector.  My pet peeve is interactive elements hidden underneath a page protector - I definitely don't want people taking my layouts OUT of the album.

This photo is a favorite of mine, not just because it's cute and T is wearing an AC/DC shirt, but because it's the first time it occurred to me to do an impromptu "photo shoot" with her.  This was before my fancy DSLR camera, when I was using my Canon S90 point and shoot exclusively.  

While doing this shoot, I learned about making sure the background doesn't have anything distracting, seating her near good light, and understanding that small babies don't have infinite patience so I'd better get that photo quickly before she slithered off the chair and fell on her head. That was a pretty important day in my journey to becoming a decent photographer for my family and I was rewarded with a couple of awesome shots of my girl.

I'm realizing that I work best in stages instead of one long session. The first night I chose the photo, papers and a few embellishments and laid them out roughly together then went to bed. My brain was working on it overnight, apparently, because the next morning I had some good ideas. I finished this on the 3rd day, with the journaling, stamping and the lone star sequin. Next time I'll do the stamping *before* assembling the layout, so I don't have to hold my breath hoping I don't mess up the whole thing at the end.

Obviously I'm having a lot of fun with this, and I'm looking forward to filling up this album with more 8x8 layouts of my favorite photos.  (There are a LOT.) Sorry, non-crafty blog readers!

Sanford: 8.5 x 11 Scrapbook Layout

After making that last scrapbook page, I wanted to do more.

I had a story to tell about Sanford, our little fox friend from IKEA who was purchased to be T's lovey (and solution to her sleep problems). Alas, that didn't work, but she liked him. He came to Ireland with us last year and became my first ever Instagram photo subject.

T gave him (well, all 3 of "him") to BabyM earlier this year to help her sleep. M loves chewing on his nose as she's falling asleep and I got a great picture of her sleeping with him.

Click to see larger photos.

Sanford, 8.5 x 11 layout

I had a vision of putting the three photos in a strip but the orientations wouldn't quite allow for that. I tried to create visual triangles with the gold items and the black accents.

Tab cut from American Crafts gold foil cardstock

My favorite Dear Lizzy paper makes another appearance!

I like playing around with the elements on the pages - it's like solving a puzzle about where things should go and what should be added or removed. I don't always know why I'm doing it, but I have a Spidey-sense of what looks right or wrong.

This started with the bright and lovely Citrus Twist May scrapbook kit along with a few items from my own stash - the black and white script washi tape to match the awesome Snippets Thickers letter stickers, and the gold foil "hello" tab and paper doll strip I cut on my Silhouette Cameo (love!).  I also used the cute Blinks of Life gold-foil journaling card from the June Studio Calico Project Life kit.

Learning to layer was my goal here, and I had to consult some online galleries to see how different people approached it - what do you do when everything starts looking too square and blocky, or what happens when corners don't quite match up.

I don't love this as much as my previous scraplifted layout. I'm discovering that I like a lot of whitespace and repeating elements. I have trouble with asymmetry and things not being straight, though I need to work through that to avoid making really boring pages.

But the cool thing is I'm starting to figure out my preferred style. And the only way to get there is to practice, aka, make more.  Yay!

Traditional scrapbooking scares me

My friend Jenn is an avid scrapbooker.  She has TONS of albums completed, and is one of those people who actually reaches the mythical state of being "caught up".  I've been eyeing her craftiness for a couple of years now, but could not bring myself to take the leap and do traditional scrapbooking.  You know, making one and two page layouts, either 12x12" or 8.5x11".  Selecting pictures, coming up with a title, finding embellishments to match and telling a story.

When I think about a blank page in front of me, especially a 12x12" size page, I freeze up.  Too many decisions to make.  Too much creative freedom paralyzes me.  I don't know where to start.

The projects I like are more constrained.  Mini albums from a kit, with assembly instructions.  Simple mini albums of my own design, but with a repeating design theme throughout.  Project Life with its convenient grid-like slots to fill. Cards for specific occasions and people.

I read about a "Favorite Photos" scrapbook album in one of Cathy Zielske's books.  I love the idea because it's non-chronological and I can keep adding to it.  Plus, it consolidates all of my favorite photos ever into one physical album we will always enjoy looking through.  Right now some are framed and the rest are hidden away on our hard drive.

I took an online class a few months ago at Studio Calico to explore current trends in papercrafting.  There were weekly assignments to make cards and scrapbook layouts.  I figured this was as good a time as any to get over my fear and jump right in.

The album I wanted to store these in is 8x8", so I didn't have to face a blank 12x12" page.  I made one layout which I'm not terribly excited about and need to redo.  

But I did a second one for the lesson on ombre and like it enough to show you.  

I stumbled on the color combo of light blue and hot pink, and am officially in love.  I used my extensive collection of washi tape to make the circle grid card and my brand new Hero Arts neon pink ink to stamp the little envelope and color the doily.  I'm not usually a doily kind of person, but thought it was ok here.  (Now I'm the crazy person who takes clean doilies home from restaurants when we get them!)

When I posted this layout in the gallery for my class, it was slightly different, with big stickers for the date that were not the right proportion.  I knew it wasn't pleasing, but wasn't sure how to fix it.  And then a wonderful classmate suggested stamping the date with an office date stamp instead.  I thought it might look nice on a piece of washi tape (you know I love me some washi tape).  I love being able to crowdsource crafty ideas!

The photo was taken by the most excellent Kristi Lloyd at T's 2.5-year photo shoot.  It's in one of the lounges at Microsoft.  The funky couch pattern and her expression make this one of my favorites.  I also love that we're in the background but you have to look hard to notice.

It took me a long time to put this together, but I'm still happy with it every time I look at it.  This gives me hope that I might actually be able to put together a decent "Favorite Photos" album.  I've got 2 more photos waiting for me to make pages, and the original layout to redo, so plenty of fun things to work on!  Now, if only I could find the time...