project life: update

i started project life on my 29th birthday and i thought the half year mark would be a good time to share some thoughts on this new (to me!) style of scrapbooking. i talked a little about it back in this post but basically, project life is a scrapbooking method developed by becky higgins. it's meant to encourage the documentation of everyday life and to simplify scrapbooking. the best part is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.




getting started
i started off with a three ring binder by we r memory keepers, a big variety pack of page protectors and the amber core kit which i had won from a giveaway hosted by paislee press. my plan was to keep it simple and stick to the kit...

where it all went wrong...
by the time i hit the six month mark, i just wasn't feeling it. i wanted project life to be a big journal but it was becoming a lot of work and more of a "i have to do it" than a "i want to do it". i missed my old journal. then i saw this blog post by document life workshop on why she "failed" at project life 2012 and suddenly, everything became crystal clear.

the amber core kit is great but there were a few problems for me. i like softer colors, blues, neutrals and simple designs so the amber kit just didn't feel quite right. there also weren't any horizontal 3x4 cards or vertical 4x6 cards so when i need these (or was looking for my fave colors), i tried to make my own or print freebies. this led to stress and a jumbled hodge podge look to my album which led to more stress.

there are so many great project lifers out there. it's easy to get distracted by what they create and think, "ohhh i should totally do that too!" some people can design layouts for every 4x6 and 3x4 pocket and it looks incredible. but that's just not for me. this is meant to be my journal where i save photos, hoard bits and pieces, doodle and write about "dear diary" moments. it takes me AGES create one 12x12 layout and trying to make a layout for 16 little boxes a week will destroy me and make me forget about my doodles and "dear diaries".

how i'll make it right again
for christmas, my sister got me the seafoam core kit. she didn't know that i had decided to stop with project life but that's okay because this kit changed my mind in an instant. it's everything i've wanted in project life and more. i love the colors (really, these are my favorite colors) and the design feels so right. all the cards are reversible so that they can be use vertically or horizontally, as a journaling card or a filler card. woohoo!!

 front and backs of the cards. pretty! lighting. not so pretty!

the matching vertical version is on the reverse side

i still would recommend project life to anyone whose looking for a way to document their life. it's a simple concept that can be adapted to whatever you want and need it to be.

i'm determined to use up the rest of my amber kit on the remainder of this year. why waste a good kit? then in june when i turn 30, i'll bust out the seafoam and start fresh. go project life!

new supplies

last weekend, i went to michaels looking for some replacement blades for my cricut (was there a national shortage of cricut blades?? it took months to find a store that had them in stock) and i came out with a bunch of new crafty things to play with and i thought i'd share my finds.

i stepped into an aisle and found myself looking at a wall of washi tape. holy guacamole! michaels' brand, recollections, makes washi tape in a huge variety of styles and for really great prices. this is going to be dangerous.

 i find it hard to resist anything travel themed.

crocheted flowers. not something i usually use in my scrapbooks but these were in the clearance section and i love the colors. i suppose i could make them myself but i feel like crocheting with thread would make me go blind(er).

i love new supplies and how they inspire me to try something new. woo!

paper presentation

a few weeks ago, we took a trip to new york for a wedding. i managed to find a few spare moments to check out paper presentation in the flatiron district. they have a ton of cool stuff though i didn't take any photos of the interior because their staff have a bit of a reputation and i was kind of intimidated going in. it's a large store with a fantastic selection of gifts, card/invitation making supplies, art supplies and scrapbooking goodies.

once i found the scrapbooking section i was terrible... i lost all self control and went on a shopping spree. they had so many of the brands that i've been eyeing lately and i couldn't help myself even though their prices were a little on the high side.

love these dear lizzy fabric papers by american crafts.

amy tangerine papers by american crafts. look at all those bright and juicy colors!

i don't have a plan for this one but i couldn't resist this sashiko-like paper by pebbles.

papers by kaiser craft, hello summer by echo park, dear lizzy neapolitan and i do both by american crafts. i'm totally giving into the trendy chevrons.

amy tan(gerine) did a recent post about hoarding pretty papers. i'm definitely guilty of that. i save papers because they're too pretty to use and then years go by until they're no longer in style or my tastes have changed. such a waste! so my goal is to use these all up this summer and enjoy seeing them in my layouts rather than in my box of papers.

i heart boston

an americorps VISTA friend is leaving boston for grad school in new york. it's always so sad to say farewell to a friend but i'm thankful that she'll still be on the east coast and just a bus ride away. as a good luck gift, i made her a little canvas to remind her of her years in boston. i used my cricut to cut the shape of massachusetts from a map showing her neighborhood. a little red heart marks boston and the edges i painted yellow which is her favorite color. the edges were a little rough so i'll have to experiment some more on future projects.

good luck and visit us soon ash!

colored doilies

i recently got a japanese scrapbooking book (that sounds odd) that showed how to tint paper doilies using dyes. i can't read the description because i can't read japanese so i went to blick and had a little brainstorming discussion with one of their associates. here's what i came up with!

supplies: old ink pads that you no longer use, shallow containers (these round take out containers work great!), water, white paper doilies and paper towels (lots of them).

pour a bit of water into the container. about half an inch of water should be enough.

take your ink pad and swirl the surface of it in the water. this is a great way to squeeze one last use out of old ink pads that are drying out.

once you get to a color that you like, place the doily into the water.

make sure it's fully submerged.

let's try it with blue too.

swirl swirl swirl

hm... this doily was a little too big for the container which made it hard to get it all under water. next time i'll use a bigger container since it's best if they lay flat.

after a few minutes, take out your doily to see how it's coming along. this looks about right to me.

place it on a paper towel to dry.

they're ready!

the pink one turned out pretty well and even colored. the blue had darker spots that looked like wrinkles but that might have been because i squished the doily into the container. be sure to lay down lots of paper towels since the dye water will (surprise) stain everything! my bookshelf now has pretty pink marks on it. i think next time i'll try experimenting with watercolor paints.

have fun playing with your new colorful doilies :) happy weekend!

scrapbooking... 2010 complete!

i can't express how satisfying it is to complete a scrapbook.

it takes ages for me to finish one of these and i love putting in the last page and then lugging it over to my bookcase (these babies are heavy).

i'm oddly very shy and secretive about my scrapbooking. it's almost more like a diary or journal than a photo album. a part of me cringes when someone flips though one of my albums ("will they think i'm crazy? will they think it's bad??") and i usually yell out, "don't read the journaling!" but i'm trying to be prouder about who i am and what i love to do so i thought i'd share a couple of pages here just to put myself out there a little and to try and get over my crafting shyness.

inspired by misssmith

i usually don't do the one-photo-per-page thing but this deserved its own page. at the age of 27... i finally got my drivers license.

my scrapbooks were usually filled with photos from gatherings with friends or special events. i'm finding that i take less and less photos each year and i don't take as many when i'm out and about with friends. so for this album, i started making pages that sum up a season with daily life type of photos that normally wouldn't make it into the album or to document events that i have only one photo from.

washi tape detail. yay! shake shack shroom burger. double YAY!

this is terrifying for me so please be nice! especially since in this album, i branched out an tried out several new things. i've been scrapbooking since high school but for the first time, i'm actively looking to learn new techniques and to see what else is out there. and i'm finding so much inspiration! i'm really excited about how much i'm learning.

happy weekend and rabbit, rabbit, rabbit! 

how is it already june??

project life win!

remember when i was hemming and hawing over whether or not i should try out project life? well, apparently, the universe thinks it's a good idea and gave me a push in the right direction. about a month ago, becky higgins and members of the project life creative team hosted a bunch of great project life giveaways. and somehow... i won one of the prizes!? i nearly fell out of my chair when i saw my name on the list of winners. i won a project life amber core kit from the giveaway hosted by paislee press! woo hoo!

that's me at the bottom! :D

i got my amber core kit a couple of weeks ago but never got around to sharing it. let's dive in shall we?

thanks liz!

this little box is so dense. i couldn't believe how much it held.

60 3x4 filler cards

60 blank grid journaling cards

32 bi-fold journaling cards + colored day and number stickers

a few of the 380 decorative journaling cards

this is only a portion of what the core kit comes with. i love the colors in the amber kit and i can't wait to use everything!! the plan is to start on my 29th birthday. hold me to it friends! i'll be sure to share my thoughts on this new way of journaling/scrapbooking once i get started. i hear it's especially great for moms with little ones (or anyone who leads a hectic/busy life) since it's a quick way to record each day's little memories and you end up with a beautiful scrapbook at the end. ohh i hope becky higgins will come out with baby themed kits! how great would this be as a gift to help new moms document their baby's first year?

thanks so much to becky higgins and liz from paislee press for their generosity :)

maybe project life?

have you heard of project life? i've been seeing a lot of it around the blogging world and i'm definitely intrigued. created by becky higgins, project life aims to give you a way to document your daily life and collect all those little random moments that otherwise would be lost. i feel like it's a more organic way to scrapbook (yay! old school!) but still leaves room for creativity.

amy tangerine

hello, it's me k.p.

paislee press

marcy penner

you can buy project life kits to get started but of course you could always gather your own supplies. for me, the emphasis here isn't on fancy products (though there are some very pretty tempting things out there) but on using actual scraps (gasp! using actual scraps to scrapbook??) and the bits and pieces of your daily life. thinking about starting it in june on my 29th birthday... hmmmm.

crepe paper

oh beautiful crepe paper... have i got plans for you :)

diy flower round up

weddings are expensive. all those wedding blogs where people have beautiful, fashionable weddings for $5,000 boggle my mind. i just don't see how it's done unless you're lucky enough to have a professional cake baker aunt, your best friend is a florist, and your parents own a lovely ranch, and you only have 50 guests. argh! since i want our wedding to have a soft, handmade feel to it and we want to at least to try stay within our budget, we've decided on foregoing the traditional floral centerpiece. instead, our centerpieces will feature handmade flowers. i've rounded up a few of my favorite ideas and they definitely don't need to be limited to just weddings :)

fabric flowers via 100 layer cake + photos by jen rau

diy fabric flower boutonnieres by laurie cinotto via once wed

diy tissue paper garden centerpiece by anna bond via once wed

fabric + ribbon centerpiece by shauna younge via nonpareil + photos by emily steffen

crepe-paper flowers via martha stewart weddings

paper flower bouquet via project wedding