Project Life - Jen style

So as I posted a while back, I started Project Life (only in June... hard to believe as it feels like I've been doing forever now - in a GOOD way!).  I wanted to start posting my layouts on here with some regularity (notice I don't say weekly as... that is most likely not to happen as I tend to do monthly or biweekly at most!). I thought I'd do some catch up first and start with my first ever PL layout.  I didn't have any PL supplies with the exception of some page protectors, which I actually stole from my friend's PL baby album I was working on as her gift.

Here it is:

This was the week before the end of school and Father's Day weekend.  As I've mentioned, I am doing Project Life as this:

1. Trying to keep each week to 1- 12x12 page protector.  Highlights only.
2. I add these directly into my regular, chronological, family album. No special PL album. (I have a little video on this... need to figure out how to upload and edit!)
3. The events that require/need/whatever a full layout get a full layout and as best fits they go beside, in front of behind the PL week they go with (and usually there is a highlight of same event on the PL page).
4. I'm flexible!!! So sometimes with a long weekend the week gets a page and the long weekend gets it's own PL page too (so that week is 2 - 12x12 page protectors).  Or sometimes I do an insert (not often yet) if I have more to say or if there are sort of two themes to a week or something like that.

Things I'm trying to do to help me "keep up" with my PL but also my scrapbooking in general: (cause I am SUPER busy these days - aren't we all?! - and I just don't have the time I used to to scrapbook anymore)

• download pictures at least once a month from all our sources (my phone, hubbie's phone, Nikon D90 and potentially my new little Nikon One -which I haven't been using... purely just not in habit to grab and need a case so I can put in my purse and leave it there!!)
• have a supply of PL planning pages printed off so I can use. I scribble all over them and then tuck right into my album once I've sent those pictures off to be printed. Then when I can, I already know my plan (and usually as I'm planning I pick my cards too and put right into the page protectors...) and so...
• when I have time, doing the PL pages is really a matter of cutting the pictures as needed and doing journalling and any extra embellishing I feel I need (which I don't have to really do ANY but of course, that's the fun part!!)

Last thing I want to now do... prep a portable PL "station".  Then when my kids are working on school stuff and don't need me I could bring it down and work on my stuff.  Then I'm not gathering a ton of stuff.  I need to really think about it but think it would include:

• journalling pens
• few washi tapes (neutrals, easy to use on most layouts)
• scissors, tape runner, glossy accents
• assortment of embellishments (think just grab my box instead of sorting out extra stuff)
• small alpha stickers

If you have any suggestions, PLEASE, by all means leave me a comment on how to get this started.

I should be back tomorrow with a few more to share until we hit my recent stuff!!

Jen

Noel Mignon - October Sketch

HI all,

A quick post to show you my October sketch challenge layout.  I snuck it in on Friday.  I altered Julie's sketch just a bit as I had 3 photos I wanted to use.  This is using the September kit.

Here is Julie's sketch:

And here is my take on it!

Wee bit busy photos but in person it is much easier to see (and I was rushing a bit and took this at a terrible time of day... oops).  The journalling tells about how when the big group of us does New Year's together we do appies all night (rather than dinner) and the adults play canasta and the kids play video games. Then we gather together close to midnight to watch the Seattle space needle fireworks on tv and have champagne.

Keep scrapping!!

Jen

Week in the Life - FINISHED!!

As I mentioned I got my Week in the Life pictures all prepped for the BC Crop for Kids weekend.  (which was a BLAST BTW and I'll do a post very soon just about that!!!)

Here are all my finished layouts.  I did them in Design A Project Life page protectors with 8x10 inserts to hold the daily write-up.  I used the Collect App for almost all the pictures (3x4 size) except having 1 - 4x6 per day as a "title" card that I put "Week in the Life" and the day on.  You can see the pictures dwindle mid-week, pick up a bit, Saturday we ran errands and were out for dinner so not a lot of pictures (but I wrote out more for that day saying what we did, and then Sunday we did a bunch of fun stuff and I snapped pictures all day long :)

Enjoy!!

Day 1 - Monday, September 9th

Day 2 - Tuesday, September 10th

Day 3 - Wednesday, September 11th

Day 4- Thursday, September 12th

Day 5 - Friday, September 13th

Day 6 - Saturday, September 14th

Day 7 - Sunday, September 15th

Organizing - Why do I enjoy it so much?

Yes, I am one of those weird people who LOVE to organize.  And after 37 years of living, I figured out why.  I just work better in a tidy environment.  When my studio is a mess, I can't function well. I feel less inspired, I get distracted and it plain bugs me.  So, I'm always looking for new ways to organize my scrappy supplies because I am also a "if I can't see it, I don't use it" type scrapbooker.  Can these two ways of being co-exist happily?  I am still working on it but I have found ways that they can.

First, I am lucky enough to have a small 4th bedroom that I can use as my scrap space.  I took the doors off the closet and put a 4x4 Expedit Ikea cube bookshelf in there and it is right beside my work space.  So... I have a lot of my supplies right in there so I can grab them.  But I was finding, even right there, I was struggling a bit with my paper. Why? Cause all my paper holders were overflowing and stuff was crammed in so tight... it was a pain to look through or get stuff out.  Today, I PURGED.  Here is my lovely new cubes of paper.  Top is cardstock (12x12) and bottom is my patterned paper.

Cardstock is organized by neutrals and then ROYPPBG.  haha. I know, not exactly in sync with nature but I just found it works for me that way :) My apologies to rainbows.

I am donating a HUGE stack of paper and scraps to a lady at Crop for Kids this weekend. She does a volunteer program and was looking for supplies.  She won't know what hit her!!

I also bought the below organizer at Michael's recently.  A friend (Sweet Scrapista) had one when she was here recently and it looks SO handy.  I always take way too much stuff to crops and usually all shoved into pockets and bins, etc making it super hard to find.  So... ta da!!!  LOVE :)

From Left to Right: 

Row 1: Stars and arrows from PP/Heidi Swapp, Kelly Purkey flair (as they larger!), flair, flair (yes I have a problem), cork arrows, um, more cork.Row 2: wood veneer chevrons, wood pieces, wood buttons, wood arrows, wood cameras, wood stars, wood heart (yes, I like wood veneer!)Row 3: Shaped paper clips, sequins, twine, speech bubbles, tabs and labels.Bottom row: mostly larger tags from Elle's Studio and PL kits as well as some larger wood words.

I'll be back again tomorrow to show a few more organizing things I've done recently in my studio.  I especially love my book ring system that I developed to hang on my Clip It Up.  Making finding stuff FAST!!

Keep Scrapping!!

Jen

Week in the Life

I played along with the Week in the Life at Ali Edwards' blog this year. I hadn't done it before but for some reason this year I felt it would be great.  I found the number of pictures I took really decreased as the week went on and then I had a bunch again Saturday and Sunday.  I think doing different things those days helped to renew my interest.

I also tried using the app Collect to do this (fantastic timing on doing the Project Life Lessons class over at Big Picture Classes as it was mentioned during the class).  You add your photos in to a polaroid-style template and can journal right on that.  It's fantastic.  Here's an example:

 I can then save these to my Camera Roll on my iPhone, download to my computer and after cropping in Photoshop, I put two of these at 3x4 onto a 4x6 canvas and then can print.  So like this:

Then I just have to cut down the middle and put into page protectors. OH, and I decided to use my regular Design A Project Life page protectors.  Adding in 1 4x6 cover shot each day and then as many of these 3x4s as I can take.  When it isn't full, I'll add in journaling cards.  Here's one of the cover pictures. (I added in the Week in the Life and the day myself in Photoshop)

I just sent the entire week off to London Drugs to get it printed so I will be back to share how it turned out!!  Each day will be 1 - 12x12 Design A page protector so I'll take shots of each day and put them in.  BUT, you won't get to see for a week as it's all going to Crop for Kids with me this weekend (Sept 27-29).

Keep scrapping!

Jen

Reveal for Memory Workshop - September Kit

I was totally excited to be asked to be the guest designer for the Memory Workshop September kit.  Sandra owns this BC company and does monthly scrapbook kits for a very affordable price with fantastic customer service!! Check her out!!!  No really... go HERE.  So I was thrilled to be asked and didn't even ASK her what was in the kit before I said yes as... well I just knew whatever it was, I would like it.

I am super late getting this reveal posted too!! Not from lack of enthusiasm, but more from a rather busy change in our life recently (I'm sure more will get posted on that later!!).  So, as I hang my head in shame over it's tardiness, here is the reveal:

I was asked to do 2 double page spreads with instructions (which, BTW, is harder than it sounds!  I'd never typed out how I did layouts before and I tend to "eyeball" stuff so there was me obsessing over stuff with a ruler.  haha)  This first is a spread from, ahem, 10 years ago :)  This is my eldest on his first birthday. I made him is own little chocolate cake to get into.  And he did. He really really did get into it.  (with a fair amount of encouragement from the older kids at  the party)

Number 2 double pager is these beautiful pictures my husband took this summer from around here.  We have only lived on Vancouver Island since Dec 2011 so the abundance of flowers here (like EVERYWHERE) is still amazing for us so we take pictures all the time. Like even in a mall parking lot cause there are flowers in the mall parking lot!!

Next I could do "bonus" projects with the leftovers with the request to make sure no papers were left uncut. (that sort of sounds like a Star Trek mission...yes, I'm a geek. If you've read my blog before, you'll know that).  This layout was of my boys and the gaggle of boys from our street who spend the VERY LARGE portion of their summer HERE. At my house.  In my house.  Around my house... well, you get the idea :)  This was them on the trampoline in my backyard with the sprinkler under it.  They were laying down so the sprinkler would hit them full force and they could then SCREAM very loudly about it when it did. It's a boy thing!

My 2nd bonus project was this amazing picture (and really, this doesn't do it justice) of Lake Garibaldi in BC (near Whistler, BC).  My husband and his brother hiked up Black Tusk mountain and this was their view.  It's a glacier fed lake.  Stunning.

Next, I asked Sandra was she interested in me doing some Project Life stuff with the leftovers?  I always do that with my scraps and she said GO FOR IT.  I am a very firm believer you do not need to buy stuff specifically for Project Life.  I swear right here and now, other than some SUPER OLD alpha stickers that every single bit of this was just bits left over from the kit.  I cut all the paper up into 4x6 or 3x4 cards, I used the manufacturer strip for accents (this kit was all Elle's Studio Saltwater and Elle always has AWESOME strips!!).  I made best use of it all and I think it looks great.  I even, sorry insert small pat on back here, was spotlighted over at Elle's Studio for this.  See HERE. 

And here's a 2nd page (does go beside the first in chronological order) I also did with the same scraps!.

And lastly, I took a picture of what I had left from the kit after doing all of this.  I think I can safely say... I KILLED the kit.  Not much left at all.  Those 2 pinwheels will get used on birthday cards though and those banners together on a 3rd!

Thanks again to Sandra for asking me to be guest designer this month!  I look forward to her event next weekend Crop for Kids that she helps organize.

Keep scrapping and I will be back soon with a TON of stuff I got done at the Crop!!  I am in full on prep mode at the moment so nothing new to show (which KILLS me!! I hate prep but... know it means I get a ton done while at the crop so I do it.  UGH.  )

Jen

Taking inspiration...

Evening all.  I have a confession.  My little happy morning routine (almost every morning) is to grab a cup of coffee (or when I'm super lucky my hubbie BRINGS it to me!) and sit in bed and watch YouTube videos about scrapbooking.  I'm not a rise-and-shiner.  I don't wake up ready to face the day and JUMP out of bed ready to take on the world. What I am is a slow-to-wake, need a bit of time to get my brain functioning, person.  I need some caffeine and I don't need someone talking at me.  Well, at least not so I have to talk back at least.  So this little routine for 10-20 minutes sipping my coffee and soaking in some scrappy inspiration works very awesome for me :)

This morning I was watching the Two Peas videos (hurray there is a new one almost every day... special request for a Sunday one too, please...LOL) and today's particular one wasn't my "style" but I am learning to watch them anyways as while I might not want to do an exact scraplift (which I am completely incapable of... but that's another blog post in itself...) I do always pull something from each and every video I watch.

So, I super hope she doesn't mind (or take offense) but I wanted to post todays and what I pulled from it. Here is today's layout from Celine Navarro (see it HERE in the 213 in 2013 video series).

And here is what I pulled from this layout (which is a LOT when I typed it all out):

1. 6 horiztonal photos in a collage taking up approx 1/3 of the page.
2. Could print two sets of these on a 12x12 print and save $$ but also get 2 layouts from it OR a double layout.
3. This would be a very easy convert to a double layout.
4. Mixing the colour and B&W shots looks really cool.  Need to try!
5. Layering PL-style cards.  Would be a very easy layout to get done and/or to use up extra PL cards.  While watching I had an immediate idea to do this top and bottom and layer my title over it.  Must try!
6. BIG title on the Silhouette is super striking.  Like the mix of fonts too.
7. Not a colour scheme I might have tried on my own but love the mix of bold green, yellow, black, white, grey and hints of the teal.  
8. The camera welded onto the title lettering is super cute.  Can't say I would have thought to do that.
9. Mating the entire layout on that red background.  Rather than centering it she's justified it to the left and just see the red top/bottom/right.  NEVER done that but like it. 

Think that's it but likely later something else will fly into my mind when I least expect it :)  If it does, I'll try to come back and add it.

***EDIT: Sept 3, 2013

Ended up having a brain wave with a layout that has been sitting out for a while and used elements from this to finish it.  Can you see what I pulled?

Happy scrapping!

Jen