Project Life 2014, weeks 1-13

I wasn't entirely sure I was going to do Project Life again this year; I still haven't completed last year's album and am not feeling a pressing need to work on it very fast. I like it when it's done, but it's somewhat time consuming (determining photo size and placement, printing photos, picking a 6x6 pad, cutting everything, journaling, decorating, etc)...basically killing the original concept of easy. Then again, I did easy (4x6 photos and plain journaling cards) and didn't like it any better.

In January I stumbled across a Youtube video of someone who had given up PL the previous year, but for 2013 decided to drop her photos into the Collect app (which puts a photo with a few lines of journaling all on a 3x4 card--although you can print them as 4x6) and just go with it. I found this immensely satisfying, as I take most of my everyday photos with my iPhone and I loved that I could do my journaling at the same time. Interest in PL renewed...for a few weeks. I have just had the hardest time with inspiration and mojo this year; the 50 Layout Challenge is really the only thing getting me to scrap right now, and I'm usually the last one to post on Saturday night, just before the deadline.

This week, I decided to pull out PL and get caught up. Thursday night, I spent an hour importing the Collect cards and dropping them in to the PicFrame app (changing it from 1:1 ratio [square] to 4:3 ration [rectangle]), then transferring them to my computer. After that, it was just printing them on my little photo printer. (As an aside, Sams Club and the Selphy totally mess them up, but my A646 works like a champ).

Friday I spent about an hour in the morning choosing cards for each week and then worked on it for a few minutes here and there until I had 11 weeks done by 9pm. With the Design F page protectors I am much more ok with saying "I only have enough photos for one page this week". As I type that it sounds silly, but I know that I would not be ok with doing that for Design A. I guess it's just one of those quirks.

Anyway, weeks 1-13; with some journaling still needed for week 1 and a photo in week 2.

Week 1--will do the journaling on my typewriter...as soon as I go buy a new ribbon. Cards are from PL Jade.

Week 2- The 3x4 cards are from PL Kraft and the 4x6 are cut from a MME pad.

Week 3-The 3x4 cards are from the PL Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party mini kit and the 4x6 are cut from the Fancy Pants Memories Captured pad.

Week 4-The 3x4 cards are from PL Cobalt (which I ended up not liking as much as I thought I would and sold 2/3 of the kit). One 4x6 is from Cobalt and the other is from a paper pad.

Week 5-I decided in the interest of time to just use cards (no paper from 6x6 pads because it takes some time to look through 100ish paper pads). This was probably my easiest spread, since there were only a couple cards and they were pretty enough without help. All cards are from WRMK Simply Happy.

Week 6. This is probably my favorite so far. The cards are PL Kiwi and I love the bright happiness of it. I added in a few things cut from the AT Plus One paper pad for fun.

Week 7. This one took the longest. Cards are from the PL Maggie Holmes kit, except the 4x6 on the right side. Turns out, I don't actually like most of the 4x6 cards, so I cut some stuff from the coordinating 6x6 pad. The Mint Heidi Swapp ink pad actually matches the MH greens pretty well.

Week 8. Entering the one page phase. I was so tired with Jacob not sleeping that I didn't even bother to take pictures most of the time and didn't want to fill it in with fake pictures or too much decoration. I think they all turned out well, though. Cards are from the PL Blush kit.

 

Week 9. One of the quicker ones. Cards are from PL Jade (which I am fast running out of) and the yellow banner is cut from a PL Seafoam card (the other kit I "had" to have and ended up not liking). 

 

Week 10.  I'm not usually fond of putting the week somewhere other than the 4x6 spot, but Design F is somewhat limiting if you have a 4x6 you want to use. I could have cut this one in half though. Cards are from WRMK Notable.

 A close-up of the letters, made with plain chipboard colored with a Bic Mark-it marker.

 

 Week 11--After I got weeks 10 and 11 done, I realized I had completely left out any pictures and mention of our trip to Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (fair, food, rodeo and concert), so I'll do an insert for that.) Spring Break...we did a whole lot of nothing, as evidenced by the daily card, lol. Cards are from PL Dear Lizzy 5th and Frolic.

 

 Week 12--This was the week I really wondered if I wanted to give up on PL, since I only took 3 pictures. Alas, there were other notable things and now I'm kind of enjoying it again. Cards are from PL Honey, which is one of my favorites (I actually bought a second box during Black Friday sales since I'm almost out and think it would work good for a Disney album, if we go).

Week 13--my favorite title card. I had a ton of photos from this week, but generally from 2 events--the bluebonnets and Brandon's birthday. Since I plan to do actual layouts for both events, I stuck to a couple pictures, thus just a one pager.

 

 

Caught up until this week now :)  I'll probably try not to let it go so long in the future, but I think a once a month session will work fine.

 

2014 in 2014 total: 502/2014

50 projects, weeks 6-10

I never know what to do with pool pics, so I dug out my SS I [heart] summer line. Not 100% pleased with it, but I like it well enough. (20 points)

My birthday cutie. I loved this DCWV Birthday stack so much, I bought it twice...but this is the first time I used it, lol. (30 points)

Kind of plain, but I really could not figure out what else I wanted to add. (6 points)

I originally took a pass for this week (you can take 5 passes; basically, you have to post 2 layouts the following week to avoid being knocked out of money contention). Jacob was not sleeping, so I as averaging 2 hours of sleep a night and I could not concentrate on anything to save my life. Anyway, I like it, but wish I had done something to make "wrangler" stand out a little more. (14 points)

I figured since we had just taken the 2014 bluebonnet pictures that maybe I should scrap the 2013 ones :)  I really like how this one turned out, just wish I had placed the pink paper over to the left a little more. The one downside to all the layering? The brad on the left hand side had to go through a sticker, 2 photos, the doily sticker, 4 sheets of patterned paper and a cardstock base. I was about to give up when my piercer finally made it through. (24 points)

 

2014 in 2014 total: 344/2014

50 Week Layout Challenge, weeks 1-5 and 2014 in 2014

I am really, really behind on posting things, partly because I haven't done a whole lot of scrapping lately :(  
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A couple of the layouts from the Tennessee album I worked on during our crop in November still need journaling, but I think I'm going to photograph and post them anyway.

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PL 2013--I'm behind. I still kept taking pictures and writing everything down, but otherwise, until the January crop I hadn't worked on it since August. I have a few layouts mostly done, but I really need to make myself work on it.

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PL2014--I wasn't even sure I was going to do it again this year, but I stumbled on a Youtube video that showed what is turning out to be a pretty easy way to stay caught up with it. I am current on photo printing and journaling through last week.

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2014 in 2014--one of the challenges on the message board is to use 2014 things in 2014. At first it sounds hard, but then you consider that you count everything. How I'm choosing to count:

1 point for each piece of pattern paper
1 point for each embellishment (i.e. 5 enamel dots = 5 points)
1 point for each alpha type (one alpha sticker set = 1 point, 2 sets =2 points, etc.)
1 point for each Silhouette cut
1 point for each stamp set
1 point for each punch
1 point for each sketch
etc

What I'm not counting
cardstock
paper scraps

new product does not count against me and purging/selling items does not help me

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50 week layout challenge

Several of us kicked in $15 each to join the challenge of creating a layout every week for 50 weeks. There is over $600 up for grabs last time I paid attention, plus weekly prizes (which I've already won one of). Each person gets up to 5 "passes" where you can delay posting your layout for a week if you are out of town or ill or whatever. So far I haven't used any.

Week #1

This is the only layout I've done so far from my last Studio Calico kit. I jus can't get excited to use kits right now. (11 points)

Week #2

Our Greek Festival adventure. The little dancing guys on the bottom of the right page are cut from two copies of wallet photos. (18 points)

Week #3

Still not entirely pleased with how this one turned out. (16 points)



Week #4

I bought this Carta Bella paper kit at Hobby Lobby just to use with these pictures. (21 points)

Week #5

Pretty pleased with this one. (20 points). Home is cut from the Silhouette using the free Pacifico font.

2014 in 2014 total: 250/2014 (includes some PL spreads I've been working on)

December Daily/Snapshots of the Seasons album, 2013

Geez, am I ever behind on posting projects! I guess I'll have to make some time to photograph the PL spreads, layouts, layout bases and SC kits I've completed since I last posted.

 

For now, here is the 2013 Snapshot of the Season albums.

 

Mid process:

 

The completed albums. Red spine (brighter colors) is mine, green spine (muted colors) is for Terri.

My album. I used an AC card album I found  at Target and a combination of OA Very Merry, Silent Night and City Sidewalks, AC Peppermint Express, older MM, a little CP Peppermint and a smidge of SS December Documented. The SS Snap divided page protectors are new for me and kind of fun. Since the holes were different than the AC album, I covered the spine of all of them with washi tape and then punched new holes.

 I went ahead and already added in some peppermint bark and sugar cookie PopTart packaging so I don't have to remember where I put them later.

 A page from an old storybook.

 I love using Doodlebug cards that flip open/up for extra journaling and photos.

Terri's album.
I used a green Simple Storeis Snap binder and a mix of OA City Sidewalks, CP Peppermint, Glitz Hello December, HS Believe and some SS December Documented.

 

I love how they turned out and can't wait to fill them up!

Labor Day weekend online crop

At the scrapbooking message board I hang out at now, a bunch of us decided to have an online crop over the holiday weekend, complete with live chats, a hilarious and fast paced game of scrapbook bingo and challenges. Anyone who wanted to could "host" a challenge and provide a small prize. My challenge was to use the colors of the rainbow and the prize was a rainbow selection of Thickers stickers. I couldn't win my own prize, but this is a layout I did for it.



And the rest of my pages:

Challenge: football (or any sport)

Challenge: use hexagons

Love that it combined one of my favorite paper lines (Simple Stories 100 Days of Summer) and the hexagon nesting die set that Terri got me for Christmas :)  I also used a sketch that I pinned on Pinterest.

 

Challenge: scraplift the given layout:

It was almost a direct lift; same background paper, same placement, and a mat made of ribbon.

Challenge: pink and bling:

Challenge: pick 6 (from a list of 11). I chose patterned paper background, thickers title, block sticker subtitle, wood veneers, handwritten journaling and enamel dots.

Challenge: use up leftovers

I had originally cut out the heart for the pink and bling page, and the pink paper for cupcakes is leftover from the same layout. I've been waiting to use the Silhouette title cut for awhile :)

Challenge: Patriotic

I actually one this challenge, by virtue of being the only one to submit. Oh well, I like the layout and received a lovely SG page kit set from my friend Debbie (challenge host).


100 projects total: 61/100