Happy Monday

I've been trying to create at least one or two layouts or projects each month from my Project Life Picks.  This month it ended up being a couple of layouts.  Today, I'm sharing the second one that I'd created during February.  I know, I'm a little behind schedule, but in my defense, I was sick for a solid two weeks and had a houseful of guests for one of those weeks. 

As a result, this may be a banner week on the blog as I try to catch you all up on what I've been busy at lately.

If you rather have the quick version, here is the video!

The project below came as a result of the fantastic supplies I picked up at Blue Moon last month.  I will freely admit that I overshopped last month. Yes, I really did.  There was a LOT of great new release product in the shop and I got a little carried away. I ended up with a few more full sheets of Patterned Paper than I really needed.

Not to worry, the sorts of papers I tend to use in my PL are like the background below.  They create great base cards for PL but also work as a nice background for a full page.  (and the grid helps me keep things straight, which I definately need help on!)

We had several days where we got snow in February, which means it was absolutely a banner month.  This was the first of the heavier snows and my son and I were like two little kids running around and whooping and hollering in it.  Soooo much fun.  I wanted to document the great time we had.

I used that great Julie Fei-fan Balzar mask again to add a bit more texture to the base page.

I also use the Dienamic's die to create quite a few of the elements on my page.  I love how versatile this particular group of dies has been.  There is no substitute for great design and this set of designs rocks!  There are no less than 10 die cut pieces on this project.

I also allowing myself to pull some random pieces from my stash as there is something I need.   This time it was the Jenni Bowlin tags, white thickers and some word stickers from Authentique.

If you're looking for the full list of goodies, you can find all the original products from the February picks right here.

I plan to be back tomorrow to share more fun so I hope to see you then.  Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life -- January 2013

Can you believe that January is already behind us?  I'm a little shocked to be honest.  I'd almost be convinced that it hadn't happened at all except for the fact that I've got a Project Life album to prove that it did!

And that is what I'd like to share with you here today.  I'll be sharing the photos of my layouts as well as tidbits about my philosophy along the way.  I'm excited to see how my process will evolve as we move forward.  I think there will be LOTS of changes in store, both to keep things interesting and to make improvements.

This post will be pretty photo heavy so get ready.  Here we go.  I'll share the full spread, then the individucal pages and finally, any detail images will be interspersed.

The first thing I noticed as I got rolling on this project is that there is more happening in my life than I had realized.  I'm actually having a tough time keeping it to only 2 pages per week.  I think that may change as I move forward, but for now, I've got lots to share about.

Tip: Make sure and include the Entertainment that is catching your attention during this particular period.  The truth is, it really captures us and tells something about who we are. This month, Downton Abbey has had a prominent place in my entertainment.

I'm being careful to not add too many thicker items such as the wood veneer or chip pieces, but if I do add them, I'm trying to add them to the same page for consistency.

Tip: Make sure you are including yourself in your album. This won't be as tough if you're single, or married without children, but if you have young ones, it's tempting to just write about/photograph only others.  Don't do it!  You are important to your family and they'll want to see photos of you, see your thoughts and admire your handwriting.  Even if you don't.

Small details are important to me, so using things like word and shape stickers really makes it more unique for me.

And I know you aren't surprised to find that Washi tape is playing a huge roll in my album.  I love this because it adds color and pattern, it's easy and it's FLAT!  Score!

 I'm also finding that my creativity ebbs and flows.  I'm not letting that stress me.  If I feel super creative to do something above and beyond, that is great.  But if I don't, I'm not going to let that keep me from documenting.  My album isn't about the paper and the tape, it's about the memories being captured so I am keeping that the focus.

This week held a bit more creativity and the page below has lots that I love, both in terms of the photography and the design execution.

A kit company had a Project Life kit that I admired, but wasn't able to get on the waiting list in time for.  It had some fun pieces and one that I particularly admired was a wood veneer card with a cutout of an ampersand.  Not to worry, I created my own similar card using my Silhouette.  It's not exactly the same, but the feeling is close enough and I'm happy with the result.

Overstamping anyone?  I did alot of that this month.  When the stamp didn't stamp true the first time, just do it again!  Graphic!

For the shot below of the TV's at Costco, I didn't care for all the white space at the top of the picture once I got it printed out so I used some washi tape to cover it up and added a sticker title on top.

That's it for the month of January.  You can find info about what all I used to create my PL this month here.
If you'd like to see the video we did of the pages above, you can find that here.

Happy creating!  If you have any questions for me, make sure to leave them in the comments and I'll do the best I can to answer.  If you leave your email, I can answer that way, otherwise, I'll include it in the blog.  Thanks for stoping by!