04 January 2015

How I stay up to date with my monthly Project Life



WARNING: Long Post LOL!!!
 Ok so I've wanted to do this blog post for a while now & thought it best to do
it now, as a lot of us are starting our 2015 Project Life albums.

This is my first year of doing PL. When the PL hype it our shores,
I was completely drawn into the frenzy & brought it all LOL. It then sat on my shelves
for months!! It was really really daunting & I had no idea where to even start!?
 I had made a few mini albums of my son's baby pics, but the bulk of his photos
where just chucked into those boring 6x4 photo albums
(pretty sad effort for a scrapbooker I thought).
So I decided to undertake over-hauling that & rather than re-printing photos,
I chopped & cropped & used as many as I could. Some I did have to reprint, but
I managed to repurpose most of them.

I had brought myself a core kit, big variety box of sleeves & an album (or 3).
I began putting all my photos into the sleeves in order & left gaps for cards.
That was a LONG process, but it meant I got all my photos in the right spots.

Then came the embellishing part - I really struggled with this!!
It took a while to find MY STYLE. We all have our own style & take on craft/art,
it's what's so special & makes us different. Once I found 'my happy place' with embellishing,
it all started to work together & come naturally.


Ok so I told you - LONG POST ha ha.
As a busy full-time working mum who also runs her own business from home,
I was always daunted by the task of doing Project Life weekly. There is just NO
physical way I could committ to that sort of undertaking. It wouldn't get done.
So I decided to do to it MONTHLY.
This I could committ to! I'm not a traditional Project Lifer - I like it different, busy & bulky!
I started off by getting a 12 x12 'work in progess' album from the lovely
 This made carrying my unfinished projects to crops & such MUCH easier!
(& I didn't damage my proper album, by lugging it around everywhere)
I then chucked in a mixed variety of sleeves:
- Becky Higgins Project Life
- Ones fron Harvey Norman
- WRMK
 - & some 12 x 12 sleeves.
I didn't like the quality of the American Crafts or Kaisercraft sleeves - but that's
just my personal preference.

I then grabbed some note paper & labeled each page with a month
& drew a rough sketch of the page protector (front & back).
This made it really easy to make notes & plan what photos I wanted to put in
there, without printing 100's of photos! I could also jot down on this if I knew
I wasn't going to get a chance to tackle a spread for this month.
Like below:


 Then as I do - I start with the photos in first. I then fill in the blanks with
LOTS of different card designs.
Some of my favourite cards to use are:
- Flutterby Designs 'Everyday Etc' cards (I am a bit bias LOL)
- Sn@p cards
- Project Life cards
- Handmade ones


 Then comes the decorating!!! Sometimes this may not happen
straight away - the spread may just sit with pics/cards & little bits of paper
with notes until I get a chance to get creative.

These are what I generally ALWAYS go for when embellishing my pages:

 WOOD VENEERS

 - Flutterby Designs
- Studio Calico
- or even 2Crafty Chipboard

 FLAIR BUTTONS 
 As the owner/designer of Flutterby Designs - I always have a
gazillion flair buttons on hand to use :)

BLACK COTTON 

I love to put a messy nest of this under my flair buttons for more texture.

 

POSCA PAINT PENS 

These little babies write on just about EVERYTHING!!!
Great for doodling/journalling on photos.

PAGE TABS
 
 These are from Flutterby Designs, & they are an inexpensive embellishment that
adds detail - without the bulk. Fussy cutting relaxes me, so I will often sitting in front of
the TV with a pair of scissors & cut a heap of these out to use down the track.

 LIQUID PAPER TAPE

 
 I 'borrowed' this idea from my good friend Lauren ;)
Just put down a few stips & journal away - easy peasy!!

HOLE REINFORCERS

These little babies are cheap as chips! You can find them in the cheap
shops & they make for super quick detail with a little bit of doodling around them.
As too are shipping tags great for adding layers without the bulk.


SMALL ALPHABET STICKERS

 I definately have a 'thing' for these little babies!!!
I have an abundance of them - in every shape, font & colour LOL
Brands I love to use are:
- Simple Stories 'Sn@p'
- Jellibean Soup
- Kasiercraft
- Tim Holtz
- even ones you find at cheap shops!

THICKERS

 I love thickers just about as much as the small alpha stickers...
Great for titles!

 ENAMEL DOTS

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE these little babies!!!
I put them on EVERYTHING ha ha.

 This is what's on my desk at the moment. Trying to get the last couple of months
finished in this years PL album. I'm on the home stretch WOO HOO!!!



Here are a few completed pages from earlier this year :)


 Yes as a traditional 12 x12 scrapper I put in a few layouts throughout
my album to find my 'happy place' & balance with doing this style of scrapbooking.





I hope I have helped anyone out there struggling with finding their 'mojo'
with Project Life. Thanks for taking the time to read my long-ass post - 
hope you enjoyed some of my tips & tricks.

6 comments:

  1. So great to get your insights, love your style and pages.
    Thanks for the long post, totally worth it!

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  2. gorgeous gorgeous inspiring flippin stunning funky work!!!!!! love love love

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  3. This is totally ACE Neet - love it and really enjoy your style!

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  4. Thanks - Love your work - some great tips there
    Ros C

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  5. Loved this post! Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Came over from FB.....oooooh....YES! Fabulous tips and tricks.....love that there is another 'monther' out there as well:):) Thanks sooo much for sharing. And being the lazy sod I am, the white out tape....fabbo idea. Save me cutting up paper strips. Told you I was lazy!!!!!!!!!! TFS):):)

    ReplyDelete

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