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

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?