Project Life for Beginners: Getting Started

Now if you're a seasoned Project Lifer this post will be a bit redundant, but I have just converted to Project Life and a few of you have been asking me about it and so I thought that I would share some of my ideas.

There are four basics that you need for a Project Life album:

• Project Life ring binder - I have my eye on this one 
• A Project Life Core Kit (cards) - I am lusting after this one 
• Special pocket page protectors - I got these ones 
• A pen

And that is all...
So that is why many people are preferring it over 12 by 12 layouts - less 'stash' and therefore less expense.
If you just used these basics you could create a layout like this one:-

 However, the top layout was jazzed up by thickers, washi tape, stickers and stamps. This is where the cross over to scrapping is handy as you will have all sorts of exciting supplies to use. 

I am loving it at the moment because:

• It is quick and easy.
• You can do it little and often.
• It is not as daunting as a big 12 by 12 layout with a blank page
• I take far too many pictures of The Baby and I can feature more of the everyday moments of our lives.
• It can be as simple or as complicated as you like.
• I can use all of my supplies up.
• The journalling cards are the sweetest thing ever.
• You can use the little souvenirs you keep - like napkins, business cards and receipts.

Below is the first layout I completed for Project Life. Lots of other Project Lifers seem to struggle with the title page, but I managed it first time. I am a bit unhappy with the lining up of the photo. 

I jazzed it up with polka dot thickers by American Crafts (check out ebay or TK Maxx for bargains).

 

And sequins, which you can get from most craft shops and also sewing or fabric shops. I remember when we were younger we used to buy our sequins in a shop that sold glittery dance outfits and feather boas. It was like every little girls dream.

The 'problems' I have encountered so far:

• printing of photos. From what I have read this is every Project Lifers nightmare and a lot 'give in' and print from home for ease. Our ink is quite pricey but I have been printing some of my phone pictures off on it and the cartridge seems to be lasting quite a while. I really want the Canon Selphy as you can print wireless from your phone straight to the printer. I also succumb to the photo booth in Boots which charges 40p a print - however they do mini prints so it works out to 10p each. My friend uses Tesco and informs me it is 35p a print. I also do big orders on snapfish and photobox and try to keep an eye out for offers. It depends how you are approaching it - the traditional way is a weekly approach but I am going with a monthly approach and am being fluid on the dates etc as I feel this doesn't matter as much as getting the memories recorded.
• It could get quite samey and seem restricting at times. I think because I have the variety pack of page protectors I can change up the layout and photo sizes to keep it interesting. You also, in theory, need to plan your layouts before you order your pictures so that the pictures are the right way up and co-ordinate with the pockets.
• Making the front and back match up. Some journalling cards are smaller than others and some have rounded corners whilst some are square and so you can get ugly random corners poking out. I plan to get a corner rounder punch to combat this.
• It could get a bit monotonous and 'square.' I tried a sequin pocket to combat this and it was a bit of a nightmare as they kept escaping into other pockets. 

I love Finding Nana's blog - it has loads of good ideas and advice for approaching Project Life.
My Project Life pinterest board has loads of drool worthy layouts and my free printables board is useful for printing off some freebies - the 'celebrate the everyday' card is a free printable that I printed at home onto white card.

So, what do you think? 

Could 2014 be the year for you to start Project Lifing it?

Or do you keep your memories in other ways?

Stars in the Sunshine with Martha Stewart punch...

This layout sums up my mood on this sunny Thursday.

I am happy because:

• I only have ten weeks to go till I have my baby (hopefully!)
• The sun is shining 
• We went to the ice-cream farm for a cone after work
• We just purchased a cot for the nursery
• I only have eight weeks left of work including a bank holiday and a weeks half term holiday
• The end of coursework marking and moderation is almost here (phew!)
• The Great Gatsby film is almost out in England and I am loving the sneaks online!
• I have stocked up on some new stash recently having sold some of my older craft stuff 

How are you feeling today?

Eden in bloom...

When I was ill a few weeks back I spent a lot of time with my laptop in bed catching up with scrapping videos on Two Peas in a Bucket and one of the mood to scrap videos by Lizzy particularly inspired me as I liked the composition, the misting and the border effect on her finished layout.

On our recent pre-baby trip to Cornwall we were lucky enough to visit the Eden Project and I particularly loved all the colourful flowers and so we both posed for a picture in front of the blooms which co-ordinated best with our outfits! What a scrapper hey?

I liked the idea of getting messy with paint and stencils and so used a doilie as a mask

 and 

smooshed yellow paint on.

I was hesitant about using purple, yellow and red together but I love it.

I used the rule of three with Amy Tan embellishments to add interest to the page.

I liked the idea of creating washi tape flags to embellish the photo.

Hopefully it doesn't look like too much of a scraplift - I just really loved the original layout and it worked really well with the bits and pieces that I picked out from my stash.
Thanks Lizzy and Two Peas for the inspiration.

Hello bump...layout!

So I wanted to take pics of my growing bump during my pregnancy, but we haven't proved that good at it. The lack of sunshine has hindered post-work photo shoots and so I have just about got a pic a month. This was a hastily snapped pic at 12 weeks - taken on my phone.

You may have noticed that I am totally in love with my Amy Tan 'hello' stamp and it is featuring on a lot of my recent layouts. It just makes titles fun! In fact I think all of my 'baby' pages so far use it -perhaps it can be a 'thing'. Y'know like Shimelle uses kraft for all of her travel pages - I use 'hello' for all my baby pages.

It's funny that I thought that was bump. Now I am 25 weeks and am having to get an even bigger pair of maternity jeans I know what a real bump is. Photos and layouts to follow eventually... My year 11's enquired the other day whether I would balance my cereal bowl on my bump like Phoebe from Friends! They just ask the most random questions. In fact they were getting so distracted in lessons suggesting baby names so I flippantly suggested that write them on a postcard and send them to me - so at the end of the lesson my desk was bombarded with little yellow post-its with an array of baby names from the cute - Ava - to the ridiculous - Mario! No offence if your kid is called Mario. It just makes me think of Nintendo!

I think the 'IT'S HERE' arrow post-it works perfectly with it.

I tried two new techniques:

• the cluster of bling. This was created using lots of glossy accents and sequins to emphasise the mannequin. 
• The border created by circle punches cut in half. I think its an easy, but effective technique.

The supplies I used are mainly American Crafts - I love the floral and peach together accented with the turquoise. In fact I think its a very 'spring' coloured layout - all I need now is the sunshine and blue skies to go with it!

In other news its Easter holidays - yay! We are off to Cornwall on Sunday night for a pre-baby mini break. I haven't been to Cornwall since a family holiday when I was about ten so any recommendations for places to eat, good tea rooms (love cake!) or places to eat would be very welcome. I think 'Once Upon a Time' will have outgrown me by now!

Memory Mondays: Summer days in London town!

As snow flurries (not enough to close school!) try to make an appearence I long for long summer days.
Full of possibility.
Full of light.
Still, sometimes, full of rain showers.
So the memories and layouts I share this morning are about a week we spent in London during the Olympics.
The above and below layout is of this bike stimulator they had on South Bank during the games. You had to cycle to power a traffic light-o-metre and then the Olympic rings in the middle of the Thames would turn into a water feature.
The problem was that it was mostly kids going on it.
And they can't pedle that fast.
One boy got bored and just abandoned his bike mid-cycle.
So my husband, encouraged by crowds of exasperated mothers, hopped on and really gave it some welly.
It took some puff and he abandoned his coat halfway through as the light seemed stuck on amber.
Then the old ladies in the crowd were chanting, "Come on Wiggins!" At him!
Finally a small fountain appeared as the light turned green.
My layout is entitled 'Come on Higgins!'

The second layout is taken on the same day on the giant chair ride at South Bank.
It was a great view of London from the top.
My sister, who loves a bargain, was most delighted to find a 50 pence piece left behind on the seat for her.
Classic Mara!

Did any of you get involved in the action along South Bank?

10 Things I love about this epic double page...

All the way back in June this sketch by Shimelle caught my eye and I decided that although I sometimes find double layouts a bit intimidating and laborious I had some photos that I have been keen to scrap and so I decided to give it a go.
So the ten things I love about it:
1) The use of strips from this great cupcake 12 by 12 and how easy it was to also cut cute little embellishments with it.

2) The title - it is a favourite quotation of my sister's and I from the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It went so well with these picutres of my husband making his own cupcake in WhoDelicious in Santa Barbara and had to use a 'frostinator' to put the icing on the top.

3) The step-by-step process made by my dymo label maker. It helps to bring the layout together and to tell the story of the visit.

4) That cheesy grin in the first picture. The funniest part is that he usually hates cupcakes and suddenly he turned into a little boy just cos he could decorate it himself.

5) The use of the rule of three with the stamp to guide the eye.
6) The pinkness and girly look of the layout - it matched the vibe of the cupcakerie and the girly topic of cupcakes but then 7) the blue tiny polka dots add a more masculine touch.
8) The border stamp of mini hearts to pull it all together. So cute!

9) The banana frog mini cupcake stamp to create little clusters to guide the eye along the layout.

10) The fact that the lady behind the counter asked him to join her behind the pink curtain - possibly the funniest statement for a cheesy American lady to say to a sarcastic cupcake hating Belgian. My sister and I still laugh about it and it was last summer now!

I also love how different it is to Shimelle's khaki travel layout and that it why I love to use sketches as a starting point and to put my individual stamp on it.

Romance in Budapest!

Just popping in to share two layouts created with leftover scraps from a bigger project (I promise I still do scrapbook 12 by 12 and have two really great wedding layouts to share soon and a double trouble two pages using a Shimelle sketch - so many layouts still to blog!)
I didn't think too much about it just layered it on and used up some scraps - I thought that the negatives from the Martha Stewart butterfly punch made a nice embellishment. The title comes from a song my sisters and I loved off the Dawson's Creek soundtrack. Any other Dawson's geeks out there? It makes me cringe to watch it now, but I had a real thing for Pacey back in the day...must be all those daddy issues!

 Both of these layouts contain pictures taken in Budapest using the self-timer. It's no secret that The Belgian has bouts of camera shyness and hates to ask other people to take our picture - but he can sometimes be persuaded to have some self-timer fun.

 We are off on a mini break to the Lake District for two nights and are very excited as we're not doing a big holiday this summer and he's going back to the motherland in a week and I am off to Barcelona with my sister Tamara. But we didn't want the summer holidays to go by without some 'just us' time and so it'll be really nice.
What are YOUR plans this summer? I know for my American bloggy friends you're back to school already and probably thinking about Halloween as the next 'holiday'...

An Inspector Calls...

So there was rather stressful announcement Monday lunchtime...Ofsted were coming Wednesday and Thursday to inspect our school. Cue panic and hysteria. Ridiculous late nights, lack of sleep due to stress, a mini heart attack everytime someone walked past my door, the most resource heavy and detailed lessons and lesson plans. They came to my Year 8 lesson and I came out with a good, although I usually get outstandings I was happy enough. Our school came out with a 'good' overall, which we were delighted about! Yay! All the hard work paid off. So this explains my absense from blogland. I am turning this post into a tribute to school. Here is my food (or home ec for all you statesiders) A few weeks ago I finally got hold of Libby's pumpkin pie filling and played with pumpkin cupcakes and decided they were my best ever and most moist cakes. Here is the recipe - good old Martha Stewart! The edible glitter didn't look very good on the cream cheese frosting, but would look better on chocolate frosting. I made some with swirly icing all nicely piped on, but forgot to photograph them. Also in half term I came across this pic of my friends and I at St.Georges. We liked to do random photo shoots at lunch time and this pic was taken in the changing rooms. Here is a close-up of the pic:

IRL the gold stamped title stands out and looks great. The backing 'paper' is actually fabric I picked up for a bargain at the Harrogate Scrapping Fair thingie.

Last, but not least, a tribute to our least fav lesson - science!!! However, we both really enjoyed out last visit to the Glasgow Science Museum and I have been keen to scrap these pics since then. I used this sketch from Twisted Sketches as I love circles and it fitted well with our hats and the fun feel of the page. I used bright colours and cute little mosters cut out of cardstock.

I think the paint border brings it all together and gives it a tactile feel.

So the bells gone it's break time...I am thinking one of the choc chip and peanut butter cookies I just whipped up in my sisters kitchen aid and an episode of Gossip Girl Season 3 I just got...

What are you doing with your play time this weekend?

Painting on pages...

So I have been getting messy and having fun with the paints. This layout is a few snaps I took with my new instax mini camera on my birthday. I love this AC hearts paper which is embossed and has sparkles in it too - v.pretty! The cupcake embellie was on my mom's pressie for me. Quite a plain layout for me. I thought it needed a border and added some hot pink paint -I am not convinced by the colour combo, I should have mixed the pink with some white paint to make it a bit more subtle. Next a very different layout for me. A pic of *most* of my family on Christmas day in the snow - yay! I thought the stripes contrasted well with the checks and then stapled a whole variety of ribbons onto the pic. My title is masked and then coloured in to make it stand out - I like the contrast with the red, glittery thickers.

I have a feeling this week is going to d-r-a-g. Last week flew by as it was my birthday and every day there was new surprise or something to look forward to. I am going to see my parents this weekend - I am super excitied as haven't seen them for literally months. Not even the whole six weeks holidays. They are feeling very neglected. Mom has mentioned the possibilty of watching Annie at the theatre is Shrewsbury friday night too - how exciting!

What are your plans for the weekend? Come on lurkers - reveal yourselves....

Welcome to the 60's - woo hoo!

So typical blogger - all the pics are in the wrong order. I have been meaning to blog this all for a while so here goes.... I saw this amazing show on Wednesday night at the Grand Theatre with my old housemates. It was sooooo fab! We loved the movie and loved this even more and were singing along and dancing in the aisles. Easily the best thing I have seen for ages! Secondly a quick layout I made with my sexy new stash (see below!) one that didn't take too much thought I just threw it together. An ode to road tripping in my car Harry that we just part exchanged * sob *

My amazing and very bargaintastic new stash from the QVC shop in Shrewsbury. All this lot only cost me £16!!! So much cool paper and stickers and stamps with the date on....drool...the best thing about going home - jokes!

The mandatory pic of the girls and daddy on Father's Day.

A nice pose shame my sisters have their eyes closed!!

Do you like my new maxi dress? A bargain from TK Maxx I wasn't sure I could get away with it being such a shortie, but now I love it! I even wore it to work today as the classroom has been sweltering!

Now am off out for dinner with the hubster as we just got paid this week! Ha! I am loving life at the mo and looking forward to the fast approaching summer hols...hope you all have exciting plans for this weekend!