Project Life 2014 W33-34

Week 33

This week we celebrated Arthur's 10 month birthday.  So exciting, but man is it hard to get a nonblurry photo of him... Other than that, we had a fairly quiet week around here.  My favorite pic of the week is of Arthur playing with Auntie Cece.  She was trying to teach him pat-a-cake.

I dug into my PL card stash and pulled out my partial Rain kit.  I haven't used this kit in awhile.  I went with a blue and green color scheme with the journaling cards.  I love the simple designs of these cards. I then went back in and added some tags and stickers to the pictures.  Clean and simple, just how I like it.

Supplies:

• PL Rain
• #selfie stamp from Take Ten Kits
• Random stickers from stash
• Heidi Swapp stamp (hello)

Week 34

Some cute Arthur centered pictures from this week.  I especially love the ones from brunch on Sunday (green shirt).  He was being so good and cute and a little bit ornery all at the same time.  I love these shots from Angi and Liese. Great pics!  But my favorite pic of the week is of Arthur doing his best downward dog. My little yoga baby.

I dug into my stash yet again this week and pulled out my partial Turquoise kit. I repeated the circle motif to give some conscious design to the spread.  And there are lots of blues and greens in there. My last addition was the sticker triangles to the word card.  They had add that finishing touch.

Supplies:

• PL Turquoise
• SU Everyday Adventure Accessory Pack
• Studio Calico alphas
• Random stickers and tags

Project Life 2014 W32

Week 32

This week was full of our regular activities and then a weekend of birthday parties.  Lots of cute pictures to include this week of Arthur playing with other friends. I also had to include a few photos of the birthday boys.

I choose a cool blue and green color palette to play off of the background colors of the park.  I added a few embellishments here and there, but tried to keep the look clean and simple. The pictures are so colorful, I didn't want to add too many distractions.

Supplies:

• PL Rain
• Basic Gray Enamel Dots
• Studio Calico Alphas
• Recollections Happy Birthday stickers
• Stamp from Take Ten Kits
• Random stickers

New Discoveries #6: 30 Days of Lists

Have you heard about 30 Days Of Lists?  Created by Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon and Raspberry, 30 Days of a Lists is a semi-annual journalling challenge.  In March and September, they provide you with one topic a day.  You then run off and create a list.  I've known about this for at least a year, but always found the idea scary.  How do I have time to create beautiful embellished lists everyday for a month?  I thought it couldn't be done.  But then this year as August rolled around and registration opened, I realized that I didn't have to make my lists complicated.  I didn't have to do a separate album or embellish everything.  I could add the lists to my regular PL album.  I could even prep the cards ahead of time.  That way, all I need to do for the day is write my list.  I figure that if I have time, I will embellish.  But if no, no big deal.  Here are my prepped cards using already owned PL cards (most from WRMK), some numeral stickers, and a journaling pen.

If you want to join me on this great challenge, head on over to 30 Days of Lists and register!

August PL Swaps (Part 3)

I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired.  Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually).  You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme.  Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host.  She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.

This month, I joined eleven swaps.  I'll be showing four of the swaps today:

Embossed Stamp -- I started with a large background polka dot stamp in Baked Brown Sugar.  I then added stamped and heat embossed the coffee cup and coffee bean using Early Espresso powder.  I liked that it didn't come out at as a completely clean image.  The smudges add character.  I stamped the "Coffee Run!" in Midnight Muse.  Finally I added a gold sequin and gold flitter tape to jazz up the card a bit.

Birds -- For the bird theme, I knew I wanted to use my birdcage stamps, but had to play with them for awhile for inspiration.  I settled on stamping lighting in Crumb Cake onto the pink gingham paper.  That allowed me to layer on the quote (Primrose Petal) and bird (Early Espresso).  As a finishing touch, I added some baker's twine in pink.  I really love this card!

Stripes -- The stripe theme shouted washi tape to me.  So I grabbed some fun different patterns and different colors and started layering. This set took forever to finish, but I like the fun stripes.  I completed the card with a "This Week" stamp and some enamel dots.

Washi, stamp, and sequins -- My final swap of the month challenged me to use washi tape, a stamp, and sequins.  That's a lot of stuff for one card, but i think I nailed it.  I started with some cute lightly patterned blue paper, but realized that I didn't have enough to make the set.  I search through the stack and found this striped paper that had a similar blue color.  I stamped the Birthday Cake in Midnight Muse and made a sentiment banner in Blackberry Bliss using the A Word for You Stamp Set (retired).  For the washi tape element, I layered a few different tapes underneath the sentiment for a cute peek-a-boo effect.  Finally I adhered a few large fold sequins to complete the look.  Really loving this set!

Project Life 2014 W30-31

Week 30

This week was full of great photos and even an insert to include all the photos.  And I had to switch from Design A to Design D? to get the vertical photographs into the spread.  I used WRMK Official card set and kept the color scheme to blue and orange.  I love the unobtrusive journaling cards.  I tried to keep it very simple.  As for embellishments, I added a few stamps and stickers.

Supplies:

• WRMK Official
• Amy Tangerine Thickers
• Basic Grey stickers

Week 31

Our pictures this week were all about summer and outside play.  We visited the park multiple times and the new splash pad.  I caught some very cute shots.  The two photos on the floral blanket were taken by a fellow mom. (Thanks!)  To compliment the photos I used the blue and green cards from Kiwi.  I love the pretty bright colors.  I added some coordinating stickers and alphas to help accessorize the photos.  Very cute!

Supplies:

• PL Kiwi
• Recollections random stamps
• RUKristin Currently stamp
• Studio Calico alphabets
• Basic Grey stickers

August PL Swaps (Part 2)

I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired.  Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually).  You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme.  Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host.  She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.

This month, I joined eleven swaps.  I'll be showing three of the swaps today:

Sketch -- For this swap, we were to make cards based off of this sketch:

I pulled out some random circle stamps from my non-SU bucket and went to town.  I added the washi tape underneath the sentiment and a few rhinestones for bling.  Not my most favorite card, but it looks much better in person.

Tropical Flora -- This swap was focused on making a floral card but in tropical flowers.  I pulled some papers that said "tropical" to me and punched them out using my scallop punches and petite petals punch.  I then stamped SU's Five-Way Flower (retired) as a background and adhered the punched shapes.  My last touch was added a gold sequin in the middle of the big flower.  To me, the sequin makes the card.

Days of the Week -- I chose Wednesday for the Days of the Week swap.  No reason really, I just picked Wednesday.  I found some great coordinating paper for the background, but didn't have enough to make seven 4x6 cards.  Instead I split the different and made two slightly different cards.  I added a 3x4 card of white paper with the day stamped in black.  To finish off the card, I adhered some silver glitter tape (much prettier in person) and random asterisk stickers.  Pretty cute overall!

Project Life 2014 W28-29

Week 28

Week 28 was a huge week for photographs.  I had taken over 200 photos and somehow had to narrow those down to ~20.  I had to include a insert to get all the essential photos for the week.  Because of the colorful nature of the photos included, I limited the embellishments.  In fact, I didn't include any for the pictures of the summer social.

Supplies:

• PL Americana
• PL Seasons
• Enamel dots

Week 29

Another huge picture taking week.  Plus, it was Arthur's 9 month birthday.  So I had to include his 9 month photos.  The rest of the photos are typical shots of our weekly events.  I did add more embellishments for this week, but pulled them from my random stash.  I love the little "Happy Birthday" stickers added to our friend's party.  Very cute!  I even finally used a button on a card.

Supplies:

• PL Seasons
• PL Baby Neutral
• Enamel dots
• Random embellishments

August PL Swaps (Part 1)

I joined a Project Life Swap group on Facebook a few months back and have really been inspired.  Basically every month, the admins post swap themes (8-10 usually).  You sign up for how many you want and commit to making usually 10 cards utilizing the theme.  Before the due date, you send your cards to the swap host.  She collects everyone’s cards, sorts them, and sends you back a packet of cards.

This month, I joined eleven swaps.  I'll be showing four of the swaps today:

Love -- For the love theme, I immediately knew that I wanted to use this heart tree stamp (Michael's).  I found a pretty pink polka paper to be a background and start cutting and stamping.  Then came the hard part: coloring all the hearts.  I took a bunch of my Stampin' Up markers and went to town.  The effect is fun and colorful and I love it!  To help round out the card, I added the love stamp from SU Ciao, Baby (retired) and punched it and some pink paper out with SU Petite Curly Label Punch (retired).  Very clean card, but lots of fun.

Butterflies -- I pulled two random stamps (medallion and "Live") from my non-SU bucket and decided they would work well together.  With added punched butterflies, the stamps actually create a cohesive card.  I stamped the medallion in Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, or Primrose Petals.  The "Live" sentiment was stamped in Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, and Raspberry Ripple.  I then pulled coordinating patterned papers from the SU Print Poetry DSP Stack (stacked) and punched out big (Elegant Butterfly) and small (Bitty Butterfly) butterflies.  For the finishing touches, I added some coordinating ribbon (mostly scrap pieces) and a jeweled rhinestone. Love this set!

Fall -- Initially I wasn't super excited about making a fall card, but I thought I would challenge myself.  Turns out, I absolutely love this card!  I stamped a leaf design (Michael's) in Baked Brown Sugar as a background.  I then used my alphabet stamps to stamp "fall" in Mossy Meadow on top.  The pumpkin stamp actually had "Happy Halloween" written underneath it.  I masked out the words to stamp just the pumpkin in Early Espresso.  I then colored in the image with Always Artichoke, Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, and Pumpkin Pie.  The pumpkin was then punched out with the Artisan Label Punch.  I layered the pumpkin onto a circle of random paper scrap, added a strip of washi tape (SU retired), and finally added a brad on the pumpkin.  Overall this card looks amazing and very fall without being cutesy.

Washi tape -- For this theme, I decided to go simple but with some extra fun.  I adhered a few strips of washi tape to the base.  I then stamped a few quote bubbles and a camera from the SU Project Life Point & Click Stamp set in Staz-on black ink. Finally I added a small brad in either yellow, blue, or green to help add a bit of embellishment.

Project Life 2014 W25-27

I'm finally catching back up with my weekly spreads.  While I'm still chugging away, once this year is over I'm going to month sections with however many pages I need instead of weekly spreads.  The pressure might just be getting to me...

Week 25

This week I went with the basic Design A layouts with few embellishments.  The pictures basically speak for themselves.  They didn't need much.  I love the little epoxy stickers that I added to some of the pictures (hearts, houses, arrows).  They look so much cuter in person.  As for the week, I highlighted Arthur's 8 month pictures one day late and trips to the park, pool, and arcade.  Definitely a typical week during the summer.

Supplies:

• PL Kraft
• PL Baby Neutral (stat card)
• Amy Tangerine Thickers
• Epoxy stickers
• Washi tape
• Random other stickers

Week 26

This week was so full of events that I had to add an insert (Design G).  I went with some nautical themed cards for our visit to San Francisco Bay and animal themed cards for our visit to the Oakland Zoo.  Other than the cards, I added some Basic Grey alphas to label some of the pictures.  I kept the embellishments extremely sparse because the pictures were so busy.  Including the insert allowed me to highlight some great pool pics and some around-the-house shots.  The pic with Arthur eating paper features some graphics from the Little Moments App.  I liked how it turned out, but know I don't have time to edit each one of my pictures.

Supplies:

• PL Nautical Theme Pack
• PL Animal Theme Pack
• Glitter alphas
• Basic Grey alphas
• Washi tape

Week 27

For the week of the Fourth of July, I used the Americana Theme Pack, but made sure to pick cards that would coordinate with beach pictures as well.  I love how it turned out.  Thankfully I had enough vertical pictures to fill the Design D page from last week.  I then added some gold sequins throughout the spread to help tie in the firework theme.  Even the sun wood veneer looks a bit like an exploding firework. I like the random nature of the embellishments for this week.

• PL Americana Theme Pack
• Random wood veneers
• Epoxy stickers
• Studio Calico gold sequins

Girl Birthday Cards

It's birthday season around here.  My mom's group is comprised of mostly summer to fall 2013 babies.  That means that they are all turning 1!  Just this month and early next, we have four birthday parties to attend.  Parties mean presents and cards.  I've bought the presents, but I can't just buy the cards.  Nope, I need to make them!  Today, I'm highlighting two of the cards I made.  These two were for the two girls we know, but the first one could easily work for a boy also.

Card #1

Another card featuring PL cards from the Everyday Adventures pack.  I loved this "Happy" card, but didn't see myself using in a PL spread.  But I though it would work perfectly on a greeting card.  I layered it on top of the rainbow stripe card and adhered both to a pumpkin pie layering piece.  It still looked a little plain.  A quick dig through my stash and I found these glittery silver stars.  Because they are 3D, the stickers add that bit of visual interest the card needed.

• Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
• Inks: Primrose Petals (retired)
• Cardstock: Melon Mambo; Pumpkin Pie; PL Everyday Adventures
• Accessories: Random silver stars
• Tools:

Card #2

For the second card, I pulled this gorgeous "wonderful" 4x4 card from the stack.  It screamed little girl.  Because of the unusual size, I cut my card base to be 4.25 x 4.25.  I layered on pieces of another PL card featuring polka dots.  Those pieces were cut using one of my patterned scissors to add more visual interest.  Finally I found this great little Happy Birthday sticker in my stash to complete the card.

• Stamps: Birthday Cake (retired)
• Inks: Island Indigo
• Cardstock: Bermuda Bay; PL Everyday Adventure
• Accessories: Random birthday sticker
• Tools: Patterned scissors