Project Life 2013: Luxe Love

Yep, it's time for another Project Life layout already.  I was anxious to use my brand new Luxe items from my Pink Paislee warehouse box that arrived last week.  So shiny and pretty!

The gold papers were speaking to me this week so I figured I'd do a color scheme of gold and white. I wanted another pop of color, though, and remembered reading someone's message board post about neon pink with gold.  That is a color combo I had never, ever considered.  But it's genius. So I grabbed my Heidi Swapp neon pink gel pen and went to town with a lot of journaling.  (Click for larger photos.)

May 20 - June 2: Zoo, Folklife, Daddy Time

May 20 - June 2: Brunch with friends, Good Baby, YUM

Week title and summary card

I kept the rest of the spread very simple.  I wanted to retain the simple look of the 12x12 star and circle papers, so I cut the papers to match the slots in my page protectors and laid out the pieces the same way.  Since there were several slots with no pattern I had plenty of space to work with my photos, many of which I printed smaller than usual this week to let the background paper shine (pun fully intended!).

The embellishments were minimal as well - Luxe gold rub-ons, and these amazing, fantastic Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic tiny white and gold letter stickers I had been hoarding from my Studio Calico December Daily kit. And just so you know, I 1-clicked myself another pack of them on Amazon, because they are so lovely.

For emphasis I also used the larger gorgeous shiny gold Hardcover Thickers, which I think I also got in an SC kit. I was thrilled to find them recently in silver, too.  I love the simple font, and they are so shiny.  I'm a sucker for shiny things.

Because I didn't use many different products, it was really easy for me to load up what I needed on a shallow tray and work at the kitchen table while watching the girls play in the living room. Usually my crafty time only happens after they're in bed, so it was really nice to be able to work on this during the day.

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.

You would even say it glows: 2012 December Daily-ish album COMPLETED!

Back in the fall, I enthusiastically ordered the crazy expensive December Daily album kit from Studio Calico.  I was all set to Document Our Christmas and Participate in the Online Festivities.  But I quickly realized that making a page a day was NOT going to happen with a 2 month old baby and a 3 year old in the mix. So I focused on having a GREAT holiday season, aided by our Holiday Fun List, and decided to work on the album once the season was over.

That was so much easier.  I started in late December with a bang and made a bunch of pages for the Hello Forever journaling cards I had carefully written up during the holidays.

And then I got stuck.  Once I put all those 31 cards into the album, it was almost full.  And that was without ANY photos. And boy did I have photos.  So I stuffed the project into a clear Iris box and put it with my other unfinished projects.  It mocked me with every passing month.

I wondered whether I should rip it all apart and start over with a bigger album. I talked it over with two crafty friends, who gave me a bunch of helpful suggestions, so I didn't let that expensive kit go to waste.

I've been given the gift of time in this new life as a stay at home mama, so I am trying not to squander it.  I forced myself to tackle this project even though I felt really uninspired.  So a few weeks ago, I pulled out the box, and took stock of what I had.

My biggest job was to EDIT. Since I was creating this album about our holiday season, from the end of Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, not every day was magical and awesome. Many were downright mundane. I had journaling cards written where it was clear I was trying to find SOMETHING holiday-related to write about.  So I got rid of those and just kept the interesting ones.  I was pretty ruthless about it. I added a separate card to track all the books we read during our Book Advent so I didn't lose the information.

Printed on Studio Calico awesome grid card

Once I accepted that it didn't have to be a comprehensive listing of EVERY last thing we did in December, it was a lot easier to make progress and choose to highlight the best parts of the season. I cranked through it in just a few days and finished it easily.

My favorite part is this confetti pocket I made with a Flip Pocket and vellum that I printed on.  I knew I wanted to use this photo for the last page, and love how the vellum lets it peek through.

Last page - confetti Flip Pocket, Thickers, vellum

My favorite holiday photo

Here's a slide show of my entire album.  If you can't view it, here's the gallery.

I'm really glad I tackled this project.  This year, I'll incorporate it into my Project Life album, using the Design E (4 6x6) page protectors.  I love the 6x6 size, and that'll be more compact than a separate mini album.  Since I'm only doing Project Life every two weeks, I'll have plenty of room in the album for extra projects like this.  I'm really looking forward to it!

Did you do December Daily?  Did you finish?

Wordless Wednesday: Joyful

And my heart's numbered beats

The title is from one of my favorite songs ever.  Super extra bonus points if you can guess it :)

One of the delightful things I've discovered in my craft supply addiction is "warehouse sales" or "warehouse boxes".  Paper manufacturers seem to do this once or twice a year to clear out stock before new lines are released.  In many cases they have an open sale at their warehouse, which doesn't help me because I don't think any of the companies I love are in Seattle.  BUT many of them sell "warehouse boxes" online - a grab box of goodies for one flat price.

I love, love, love the surprise element here.  Especially if I choose a manufacturer where I like most of their designs and products. Not to mention it's usually a screamin' deal per piece compared to retail prices.

Last week I ordered a box from Pink Paislee.  I actually wasn't very familiar with their recent products, except for the very excellent Portfolio line, but a quick search online gave me the impression that I'd like a lot of their stuff.  It was around $56 including shipping, and arrived in one of the USPS Medium Flat Rate boxes, packed full.

It was amazing!  In total, I got 34 items in the box, each with retail prices from $2.99 up to $28.  Nearly all of it was stuff I would use - there were just a few things that were a little too boho, floral, vintage, or cottage/shabby for my taste.  But the items were all from recent collections: City Sidewalks (Christmas), Christy Tomlinson, Luxe (yay!), Portfolio, Secret Crush (Valentine's), Artisan, and Heidi Swapp.

oh, my goodness, Pink Paislee.

The lot included a ton of paper - a 6x6 pack, two 8x8 packs, a 12x12 collection pack, and a stack of around 28 12x12 sheets from all of the collections. I also got a few mini albums, embellishments, stickers, rub-ons and masks for stenciling or misting.

The big surprise for me was discovering the Luxe line.  It is AMAZING.  Shiny, simple and geometric. I want all of it now, so maybe Pink Paislee will get me at retail price for the rest of the collection! The gold and silver paper pack is available with Amazon Prime, so I just 1-clicked it.  Woot.

I found someone who wanted a few of the things that were not my style so we arranged a trade, which means I'll get a few more items I can use.  I'm pretty excited about that, even if I'm not able to sell or trade the remaining few pieces that aren't my style.  (T can always use more crafting supplies, right?)

Here's a complete list of what I got in my box (be amazed, papercrafters!):

28 sheets of 12x12 papers from all collections

Secret Crush:
photograms frames
element stickers
photo frames
photo tabs

Luxe (swoon!):
12x12 paper pack in copper/black
2 packs of rub-ons
3 placemats/masks in gold and silver

City Sidewalks:
8x8 paper pack
paper garland
collage sheets

Artisan:
chipboard arrows
2 packs of mistable fabric trim
2 packs of puffy stickers
8x8 resist paper pack
canvas album covers
album tabs
photo corners
3d flowers
3d butterflies

Christy Tomlinson:
6x6 paper pack
2 masks
3 packs of rub-ons

Heidi Swapp:
3 wood mini albums (heart, star, scroll)

Hope Chest: (will be finding a new home for these)
burlap butterfly embellishments
journal cards

Cottage Farms: (will be finding a new home for these too)
photo frames
journal cards

This was definitely a great deal, and the anticipation of delivery and the fun of pulling tons of little things out of the box made my weekend even better.  I'd totally buy this again.

So, have you gotten one of these magic boxes?  From where?  Did you like it?

Project Life 2013: Orange You Happy, Mama?

I got my groove back for this Project Life spread, which included our low-key Mother's Day celebrations. We went out for an early breakfast at my favorite Portage Bay Cafe, and then my parents came over the following day for an official Mother's Day brunch. Bacon was enjoyed by all. Well, not T, because she doesn't like bacon. I think I'll keep her despite that.


(Click to see larger photos).

May 6-19: Mother's Day, solid food for BabyM, haircut & Redmond Saturday Market

May 6-19: Brunch, UW research study, manual labor, cuteness

Calendar bling marking our anniversary and Mother's Day

Small detail - almost what I wanted

The last photo is a closeup of one of the Studio Calico Project Life Kit cards.  I wanted to add a cute embellishment to the inside of the camera so I put in a tiny star sequin and used Glossy Accents to create a little dome over it.  Except that I didn't use enough, so it's not quite round. Oh well, better luck next time.

I tried hard this week to use only my growing collection of pre-cut Project Life cards. Most are from recent Studio Calico kits or my brand-new Project Life Midnight Core Kit.  I used a few scraps and embellishments salvaged from my December Daily album (which I reworked and finished-finally!  More on that later.)  

The black letter stickers spelling "SUPER CUTE" and "MARKET" are cast-offs from a friend and are over a decade old.  It was a fun game to figure out what I could spell with the remaining letters.  Once I completely run out of As and Es, the rest get turned over to T for use in her "crafting".

Something I've found helpful to making a cohesive layout is to use most embellishments, stamps and letter stickers twice on the spread. I was doing this subconsciously and just realized it while making this spread.  It's not a hard and fast rule, but it definitely helps me limit the number of "things" I'm bringing in, as well as making the different pockets "relate" to each other.  I'm sure this is some fancy graphic design principle that I missed out on during the art classes I never took.

So here we are at the beginning of June, almost halfway through the year, and I'm still living in the mythical land of "caught up".  Yay!

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.