Project Life 2014 – Week Six | left side & right side

Here is the situation. I’m terribly behind on this year’s Project Life album. It’s causing me stress. I don’t like to be behind, and I don’t like to be stressed.

In the past, quite a few ladies have said they, too, were behind and didn’t know what to do. I always told them to start with the most current complete week (one where all seven days are over; not the literal current week, which is still in progress). Scrap it, and then, as you have time, go back and scrap the missed weeks.

That was really lousy advice, at least for the OCD. I can’t do the most recent week, then go back to earlier weeks, then come back to the present when another week is complete in real life, and so forth. That just is not orderly and tidy! I would lose my mind.

I’m all about tidy. Yesterday I had brunch with friends in one of their homes. We all got up to leave at the same time. The next thing I knew, I was going around the table, pushing in each chair that had not been pushed in by whomever sat on it. You can be sure I left the chair backs parallel to the table. I don’t even have to think about lining stuff up. It comes naturally.

By the way, I’m a really good house guest! I leave everything in its place, including stuff I didn’t use. =)

So, I can’t go back and forth from the past to the present on my scrapbook pages. Also, I am easily distracted and can’t stay on topic (such as scrapping), as evidenced by the chair-aligning story above. Obviously, I need to find some way to go faster on my pages.

For a while I’m not going to do detailed posts about each page each week. I think you’ll still be able to read the pages, though. I’ll still give credit to the designers for their materials I use, and I’ll still list the fonts used. But I won’t show and comment on each spot.

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below or email me.

Here is the left side of my two-page spread for Week Six:

Here is the right side of my two-page spread for Week Six:

Here’s the stuff I used to make these pages:

• digital kit: Plus One by Amy Tangerine
• digital template: Project Life Template A (get it FREE here)
• “week” stamp and “six” stamp: Ali Edwards
• date stamps: Digital Design Essentials (Gina Cabrera)
• photo-collage templates (some have been modified): Tracy Larsen
• “Sweet” word art: Penny Springmann
• “Beautiful Dreamer” word art on top of small photo of Evie: Rhonna Design app

On to Week Seven!! Thanks for visiting my corner of the blog world.

Project Life 2014 – Week Six

Here is my two-page spread for Week Six of my Project Life/pocket page album:

For Week Six I used Plus One, a digital mini kit by Amy Tangerine:

I thought I had fun doing Week Five. That was nothing compared to the joy I experienced doing Week Six! It’s probably not normal to get so excited about a digital scrapbooking kit, is it?

Amy Tangerine is astonishingly creative. This mini kit consisted only of 3x4 and 4x6 cards – no embellishments or stamps or smears or anything else. 

Although I modified some of the cards a bit, I basically used them as Amy designed them. They look like I’ve added stamps and embellishments and such, but they are part of the cards.

You would think I would have made these pages quickly, since I only used cards and photos. Didn’t happen. I am looking for my Project Life scrapping groove. (And looking and looking.)

It is helping a bit to have made some global (as in, going across all my pages, not all across the world*) decisions. For example, last year I decided to standardize my week cards in 2014. This year every week card will . . .

• feature a landscape photo,
• fill a 4x6 horizontal space,
• be in the upper left corner of the left page of my weekly two-page spread,
• include the word “week” and the number of the week made with word art by Ali Edwards, and
• include stamps by Gina Cabrera for the dates of the week.  

Whereas last year I stewed over the pesky week card for hours each week, this year I can whip out those suckers in a matter of minutes. The rest of the two pages does not come together so quickly, but I'm working on that.

There are two other time savers I’m employing this year that I also did last year.

• (except for very rare exceptions) I always use Template A (page protector Design A). Therefore, I know I need stuff to cover eight horizontal 4x6 spaces and eight vertical 3x4 spaces.
• I always use one kit. I might add word art or a few embellishments, like arrows, but I don’t bring in papers or cards from other kits.

Next post: Details about and close-ups from the left side of Week Six.

Project Life is the super-simple method of memory keeping created by Becky Higgins. Put photos and cards into pockets on pocket pages. Add journaling and/or embellishments on the cards. Put the completed pages in an album, and you’re finished (unless you enjoy overkill as I do)! Project Life can be done digitally or physically.

Thanks for visiting!

* If you're a Project Life/pocket page scrapbooker, you do know this method of scrapbooking is happening all over the globe, right? Materials are being translated into other languages and even being designed for those who are not English speaking. Workshops are being held all over the world. Please pass the word to your friends and family who have not yet joined the bandwagon. Encourage those who are PLers in their efforts, even by leaving comments on or "liking" their pages. This is important stuff, people! And it's fun, too!

Project Life 2013 – Week 50 | right side

Here is the right side of my two-page spread for Week 50:

Project Life mini kit: Cut & Paste (digital version) by Amy Tangerine; Project Life digital template: Template A

Top row – left spot:

font: Orator Std; six-photo collage template: Designs by Lili

  

Top row – right spot:

font: Orator Std; five-photo collage template: Designs by Lili

All of the photos in the top two spots are from Graham’s week of studying for finals. She makes it a dramatic event. (But then again she makes everything a dramatic event.) She snacked with the dog on top of her, and she posted large quantities on Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes she even studied. End of story: she did great on her finals!

Middle row – first spot:

Middle row – second spot:

fonts: Century Gothic, Kingsthings Trypewriter (both words are spelled correctly)

This gray card originally contained the words “BEST DAY EVER.” I "cut" the words off this card and put them on the other card, which made everything fit better on both cards. I love Photoshop!

Middle row – third spot:

font: Orator Std

I love QR codes, too! They’re great for adding live photos to my Project Life pages. I can whip out my iPhone, scroll to NeoReader (my favorite QR code and barcode scanner), and see a short video. Usually they’re videos of Peter (my favorite grandson), and they always make me smile.

Go here to see this video of Peter, and share the joy of a toddler seeing the Christmas tree come to life.

Go here to make your own QR code. All you need is a link to website. You can even make your code match your page as I did.

Middle row – fourth spot:

This photo makes me laugh out loud because I’m the grandmother. (Grandmothers think everything is cute. They don't have to do damage control.) Seems my grandson stuck a Cheerio up his nose. Really far. How cute is that??

[walk down Memory Lane] This reminds me of the day some of the brothers (my sons) came to me trying to act calm, but looking terrified. One said, “Mom, come quick! [unnamed son] has a bomb in his nose!!!”

And he did. Such was life with five little ones. In this case it was a Lego bomb. I forgot if he sneezed it out or we had to use tweezers that time. Yes, he stuck numerous bombs up his nose over the years.

Bottom row – left spot:

font: Eras Demi ITC

Behold some of our pets, past and present. If you have young children and want a gentle, teddy bear of a dog, get an Old English sheepdog. We had four, and they were all wonderful. If you want an insane, but loving dog, get a Weimaraner.

Bottom row – right spot:

font: Eras Demi ITC

In less than a month Peter will be a big brother!

Technique note: I clipped this photo onto the mask in this corner of the page template. It was totally lost against the light gray background of the template. So, I made a copy of the mask. Then I reduced the photo and the original mask so that a border of the mask copy was showing. Finally I clipped a PL card to the mask copy.

In fact, I clipped several different cards to the mask, but they either didn’t make the photo stand out, or they didn’t work with the rest of the page colorwise. (I try to balance the colors across the two pages of my weekly spread.) So, I added a stroke around the photo. Problem solved.

I also added a stroke around the three photos on the bottom right side of this page so they’d stand out against the busy background.  

Thanks for visiting! Happy weekend!!

Project Life 2013 – Week 50 | Left Side

Here is the left side of my two-page spread for Week 50:

Project Life mini kit: Cut & Paste (digital version) by Amy Tangerine; Project Life digital template: Template A

Top row – left spot:

fonts: Mountains of Christmas (yet another font with a crazy name; I don’t see mountains or Christmas in it), Kingthings Trypewriter (both words are spelled correctly); white outline overlay: Project Life Just Add Color Photo Overlays

This photo of the open notebook is symbolic of this week. Graham was a studying machine as she prepared for finals for her second semester of nursing school.

She studied day and night, and yet she managed to take tons of photos of studying (such as this one), of food, of the animals, . . .. She inherited my ability to lose focus easily.

Top row – right spot:

fonts: Footlight MT Light, Arial; wordart: Rhonna Designs; two-photo collage template: Tracy Larsen

There was a large oak tree in the front yard across the street from us in our old house. I meant to take a photo of it each season to note how it changed. I don’t know what I would have done with the photos, but that wasn’t a problem, because I think I only remembered to take 2 or 3 photos of the tree in the 23 years and 5 days we lived in that house.

The photos above show the vacant fields across the street from our current home. I’ve thought about taking photos of them to show the changing seasons. Maybe someday. I do have a fascination with changing seasons. Anyone else share this attraction?

Middle row – first spot:

Quote card: Elise Blaha Cripe (Download 54 of her quote cards here. Two sets are available – one in all type and one with a key word in cursive on each card.)

I like this quote. Happiness and joy are all about attitude, not circumstances.

Middle row – second spot:

Cool pink coat, no? It’s got bows, ruffles, and bling!

The yellow circle marks one of the deer Ellie Mae totally missed. Mind you, Weimaraners are bred to be hunters. It’s a good thing for Ellie Mae we bought her to be a couch sitter. She’s really good at finding the nearest sofa.

Middle row – third spot:

Arrows and ampersand:  Project Life Just Add Color Photo Overlays (All the overlays are white. I recolored these three elements using colors from Cut & Paste.) 

Middle row – fourth spot:

Here Ellie Mae got down off the sofa to try a few side-lying leg lifts with Graham.

Bottom row – left spot:

font: Eras Demi ITC; three-photo collage template (modified): Lori Whitlock

I really like Lori’s templates. Here I used a 4x6 one. They come with banners (like the blue one above) and such. Very handy for titles and journaling.

If I were doing square corners on the photos and cards on my Project Life pages, I would definitely use her 12x12 Life Templates – they're very precisely made and have lots of variety.

The middle photo doesn’t do justice to the cake Conrad made. It was quite a masterpiece, as were his intricately decorated cookies. I wish he had discovered he has amazing baking skills when he lived in Memphis.

Bottom row – right spot:

No comment needed. But I will point out the irony of not seeing this error, even though this is the year I had my cataracts removed and multi-FOCAL lenses inserted, so that I have perfect 20/20 vision. Perfect proofreading skills – not so much.

 

Next post: Details about and close-ups from the right side of Week 50.  

If you have questions or comments, leave them below. I love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2013 – Week 43 | Left Side

Here is the left side of my two-page spread for Week 43:

Top row – left spot:

fonts: Century Gothic, Bolton Titling Outline; “everyday STUFF” by Ali Edwards

Top row – right spot:

fonts: BodoniXT, CornFed; two-photo collage template by Tracy Larsen

Note the Weim Crime photo. Weimaraners are notorious for getting into trouble. There’s a hashtag on Instagram for WeimCrime.

Middle row – first spot:

font: BodoniXT; “hello fall” by Ali Edwards

Middle row – second spot:

Middle row – third spot:

font: BodoniXT

Two things about this photo . . .

I made this on my iPhone, using the Collect app. Choose (or take) a photo. Choose the date. Add a caption. Save the card for your Project Life album. My caption is {heart} Persnickety Prints {heart}. It’s easy to add little embellishments, like the hearts, with an iPhone.

The second thing about this photo is that it shows a box from Persnickety Prints. Be still, my heart. Their work is phenomenal. And so very quick!! I ordered a bunch of pages for my PL album on a Friday evening. The finished pages arrived on Monday. Seriously, is that possible?

For years I’ve been scrapping at 12x12, but printing at 8x8. Besides the fact that printing 8x8 at home is cheaper than having 12x12 printed, I couldn’t find a place that did quality work. Thank you, Becky Higgins, for introducing me to this company!

12x12 pages really bring Project Life to life! (haha) The 8x8 pages were fine when I was making ordinary pages with only a few photos. Now that I'm using scores of photos on each page, I need the larger size.

Middle row – fourth spot:

Bottom row – left spot:

font: BodoniXT

Here I used another card made with the Collect app. I probably should have done that with Conrad’s photo for a bit of continuity in this spot. But I didn’t.

Bottom row – right spot:

font: BodoniXT; three-photo collage template by Tracy Larsen

I blurred the first two photos for privacy. First, though, I made a copy of this collage and turned that layer off in Photoshop. In other words, it’s still there, but it’s not showing. After I get Week 43 posted, I’ll go back and turn off the layer with the blurred photos and turn on the other layer. I hope I remember to do it.

That’s the downside of having stuff printed vs. printing it myself. If I find a mistake later, I’m going to correct it and have it reprinted. That’s increases the cost of my album, but it’s cheaper than therapy. If I didn’t fix the error, I would dwell on it forever.

If you see an error on my pages, please tell me. Although I can spot someone else’s errors easily, I can look right over my own.  

Did you notice my new, really cool Amy Tangerine bag? It’s similar to her first limited edition one, but it has enough differences for me to justify buying it, too. Thanks, Peter! It was part of my birthday. (If you want one, get it soon. Amy's first limited edition bag sold out quickly.)

Stuff used on this page:

   * Project Life core kit – Coral Edition (digital version; on sale through 11-17)

   * Pocket page template - Template A (physical equivalent - Design A)

Happy new week! Aren't Mondays wonderful? A new week, a new start, and, for us, beautiful fall weather! All of us can rejoice that the 2000-pound satellite, which was careening toward earth today, disintegrated when it entered the atmosphere. I really hate when things like that fall on my head.

Next post: Details about and close-ups from the right side of Week 43.  

Edited to add: Please join me in praying for the victims of the recent super typhoon in the Philippines. 9.5 million people are affected. I just heard on the news that it's nighttime in that area. Many people there have no food, no homes, no services (like phones), . . .. Beyond sad . . ..

Project Life 2013 – Week 36 | Left Side

Here is the left side of my two-page spread for Week 36:

For Week 36 I used the digital version of the Project Life Cut & Paste Mini Kit.

Top row – left spot:

fonts: Typical Writer, KG Call Me Maybe, Sesame, KG Fall for You

My week card phobia has returned. I did and redid this card several times. Guess what? I just revised it again. I like how I cropped a photo of Peter and Blake into a circle and put it on the center of this title card. That’s all I like. Who uses four different fonts in one space? Obviously I do. Get behind me, week card!

                           

Top row – right spot:

fonts: Alex Brush, KG Fall for You; collage template by Tracy Larsen

I like this card a lot better. The card had “YEAH!” and that ribbon thing across the top. I added the other words on the top, and the photos and the journaling on the bottom. This kit by Amy Tangerine has lots of unique cards. Try it; you’ll like it! 

While you're here, please take a moment to admire the cuteness of Mister Bucky (the black cat). He fell asleep with his arm around his Cat in the Hat! He was so cute I didn't want to wake him up to look at my brand new book that had just arrived from Amazon.

Side note: A Beautiful Mess by Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman is fabulous! It's subtitled "95 inspiring ideas for photographing your friends, your world, and yourself." Buy it; you'll like it!

Middle row – first spot:

Middle row – second spot:

font: Coming Home

Now that my grandson Peter is “getting” books, I’m looking for ones that he specifically would like. Although he seems to love all books (yay!), I know he likes books that are interactive. What could be more interactive than having a shark bite your finger? (I might be a strange grandmother.)

Use a QR reader to access this cute video of the shark biting Peter’s finger while he reads the book, or click here.

Middle row – third spot:

Middle row – fourth spot:

Bottom row – left spot:

font: Typical Writer

Here’s another card from Cut & Paste I really like. The writing might be hard to read, so here is what it says: “currently obsessed with.” I added “who am I?” (This is explained in the first spot on the second row.)

Bottom row – right spot:

fonts: Alex Brush, KG Fall for You; collage template by Tracy Larsen

Next post: Details about and close-ups from the right side of Week 36. Thanks for visiting! 

Project Life 2013 – Week 36

Here is my two-page spread for Week 36 of my Project Life album:

For Week 36 I used the digital version of the Cut & Paste Mini Kit:

True confessions: This week I hit a wall, y’all [Southern expression]. I didn’t think I’d EVER get these two pages done.

When I sat down to do Week 36, I was happy! I had less than 100 photos (for a change). And I had three new Project Life kits (Cut & Paste, Flea Market, and Neapolitan) to choose from.

I played with the photos, getting them down to a usable number and editing them. I used collage templates for three sets of photos.

Next I needed to open some PL templates to put the photos on. I did a crazy thing – instead of opening two copies of Template A, as I always do, I opened an A and a Template K. (Am I adventurous or what?) K has spaces for six 4x4 photos (think Instagram). But the photos didn’t jump into place on the templates. I moved them and moved them, and moved right on to something else – kit selection.

Any of the three Project Life mini kits listed above would have worked with my photos, because I don’t match kit colors with photo colors. (The result is really colorful pages. I like that!) I went with Cut & Paste by Amy Tangerine, because she designed this really cool bag. I know that has nothing to do with anything, but it helped me make my choice.

I started adding cards from Cut & Paste onto the templates with the photos. I moved the cards around, I deleted some and added others. It wasn’t working. Pause to rethink. I always do the journaling before I add the cards, but I didn't this time. That’s probably where I messed up.

From then on I was all over the place. I added, moved, deleted, revised, and a lot of other verbs. It was frustrating. My computer joined in the fun by locking up repeatedly. The whole thing drove me to eat candy corn. Or I might have already been eating candy corn. I’ve never had so much trouble doing a week of Project Life.

Does all of this have a point? Why, yes, it does. In spite of a bit of pain and suffering, I recorded memories from another week in our family’s lives. Just as life is not always smooth and easy, Project Life is not either. But it’s worth it. And even with an off-week, it’s still fun!

If you want lots of ideas for recording your memories, see Becky Higgins’ blog post today for her monthly edition of inspiration from the 2013 Project Life Creative Team. It’s amazing how each of us on the team starts with the same products and end up with such varied pages. As Becky said, “No matter how you choose to record your memories, it’s all good.”

   

Next post: Details about and close-ups from the left side of Week 36.

Want to know more about Project Life, the simple, solutions-based system of documenting your life and memories? Click on the graphic below. And happy scrapping!

Project Life 2013 – Week 12 (right side) Deconstructed

Here’s the right side of my two-page spread for Week Twelve:    

This page was made using the Project Life Core Kit – Amber Edition.

I got a little crazy with the collages here, but they’re a very quick way to get in more photos. The templates I used for these pages came from Designs by Lili, available here and here.

I also had fun with arrows. (I love arrows!) The digital version of Amber comes with four arrows—each is a different color and a different shape. I recolored some of the arrows shown here, while I resized other ones. Thank you, Photoshop!

Top row, left side:

My grandson Peter is helping Blake (his dad, my 2^nd son) with his computer work.

Top row, right side:

My grandson Peter is helping Elisabeth (his mom, my daughter-in-law) with the housework. How cute is this?? What an amazing 18-month-old kid!

Middle row, first spot:

This is an Amber 3x4 journaling card.

Font: my handwriting

Middle row, second spot:

This is an Amber 3x4 filler card.

Middle row, third spot:

This is an Amber 3x4 journaling card.

Font: my handwriting

Middle row, fourth spot:

This is an Amber 3x4 journaling card.

Font: my handwriting

Bottom row, left spot:

I have a collection of photos of Peter sleeping. He does get into some interesting positions. When he’s in his bed, he ALWAYS starts with his head pressed into the upper right corner. When he's in his bed, he ALWAYS sleeps with his yellow dog Spot I gave him months ago and with a, well, it has a blue bear head and a little white mini blanket trimmed with blue for a body. Peter calls it a dog, too.

Bottom row, right side:

These are things I got for my trip to Jacksonville, FL – Curious George for Peter and an Amy Tangerine Signature Bag for me.

Now I’m back from Jacksonville. The use of the bag on the trip was a test run for when Graham and I go to Europe in May. Every time I’ve gone to Europe, I’ve taken the same LL Bean Healthy Back Bag. (The first time I did serious damage to my thumb from having it stuck in the strap across my body for two weeks, but my back was fine.)

The Healthy Back Bag is weird. It’s in the shape of a right-angle triangle. Look at Amy’s bag and draw a diagonal line from a top corner to the opposite bottom corner. Cut off the triangle that’s wider on the top, and what’s left looks much like the Healthy Back Bag. The narrow top sort of fits under your arm, and a strap goes across your body. It did stay attached to me very well while I was traveling and touring, but the problem is the triangular shape. Lots of things like my iPad do not fit in there well.

The LL Bean bag is a best seller, but for me Amy’s bag is better. Way better. It holds everything. It’s sturdy. It’s easy to carry on my arm or my shoulder. And it looks smokin’ hot.

Product links for digital scrappers:

   * Project Life Core Kit – Amber Edition
   * Template Design A
 

Product links for physical scrappers:
   * Project Life Core Kit – Amber Edition

   * really cool Amber Month Dividers

   * Pocket Pages Design A

Amy Tangerine Limited Edition Signature Bag:

   * Go here to see a photos and a video.

   * Go here to order.