Project Life 2014 W43-45

Getting closer to the end of 2014.

Week 43

Family Album: A trip to the farm and preschool pictures completed this week's spread.

I added an insert for our Fall Social. We had a costume Halloween party complete with trick or treating. Check out my cute astronaut!

Supplies:

• WRMK Memo

Week 44

Family Album: For Halloween week, we attended multiple events hence the astronaut costume.

Supplies:

• WRMK Bewitched

Week 45

Family Album: A trip to the playground and a new farm/playground visit. Some great pictures this week.

Supplies:

• PL Jade

Sunday Haul #2

Another big week of acquisitions. Another Amazon package. The page protectors are to be used for my OLW album. The paper stack was on super sale and I couldn't resist.

I hit up the One Spot at Target this week and scored a ton of Valentine's supplies. We are going to have a Valentine's exchange again this year, and of course I will be making ours. These supplies should get me started.

A quick trip to Michael's this week. I needed a  8.5 x 11 album for my OLW stuff, but wasn't willing to spend $20+ for one on Amazon. Thanks goodness Michael's carries some and for only $10. Plus I had a 50% coupon. $5 ain't too shabby. Of course, I had to grab some dollar stamps and clearances washi tape while I was there.

Lastly, I have my large Stampin' Up order. I took advantage of SAB and ordered enough to get hostess dollars and three SAB items.

• All Abloom DSP (weekly deal)
• Brights Collection Cardstock 12x12
• Best Day Ever DSP (SAB)
• Perfect Plum CS
• Subtles Collection Cardstock

• Flower Medallion Punch
• Calypso Coral Pompom Trim
• Dimensionals
• Simply Wonderful Stamp Set (SAB)
• Snuggles and Smooches Stamp Set

• Melon Mambo Blendibilities (SAB)
• Regals, Brights, Subtles, and Neutrals Candy Dots
• Hello Life Stamp Set
• Butterflies Thinlits
• Bitty Banners Framelits
• Bitty Banners Stamp Set
• Petal Potpurri Stamp Set

Project Life 2014 W40-42

Trying to post the rest of my 2014 PL spreads... Just a few weeks left.

Week 40

Family Album: Lots of playground pictures. Notice that Arthur is still wearing shorts in October. I love how the warm weathers sticks around until late fall. I went very simple and unadorned this week as the pictures were so busy. Clean and simple.

My monthly wrap posts were stuck in this week's spread. I really have enjoyed doing these highlighting my monthly goals, books read, and photo a day. However, I will be going monthly for 2015. These specific spreads will disappear, but I hope to keep the content in my monthly spreads.

Supplies:

• PL Honey
• PL Sunshine
• Lots of random embellishments

Week 41

Family Album: Pumpkin patch week! I got so many great pictures there that I had to include them all. My absolute favorite is the pic bottom right of the left hand page. I did not pose him like that at all, he just sat there and put a hand on the pumpkin. So cute! I made sure to add some pumpkin/orange themed journaling cards.

Supplies:

• PL Honey

Week 42

Family Album: Another spread filled with pictures and few embellishments.

I also included the special four pages I compiled for Arthur's birthday party pictures. Lots of great fun. Plus, I added his 12 month photos into the album.

Supplies:

• PL Turquoise

New Craft Space Tour

We moved houses right before Thanksgiving, but I haven't been there to enjoy it. I came home January 6th and my first priority was to organize my new craft space. This space is actually a hallway between the kitchen and dining room. It is full of kitchen cabinets and drawers. I didn't need the extra storage for kitchen stuff, so we decided this would be the perfect spot for my craft room. After some initial planning, I spent a ton of time (and a fair amount of money) at The Container Store. Putting my supplies just in the cabinets was not going to work. I bought a variety of silver mesh containers for my various products. You'll see those containers throughout the pictures.

The first two pictures are general overview pictures. The first one is is from the dining room, the second one is from the kitchen side.  This is how my space looks when I'm not working on a project. The remaining pictures detail each cabinet, drawer, and work area.

I reserved the left section of my countertop for Project Life. Specifically I left enough room to have the album I'm working on open. This helps me remember what spread I am working on. I still have some real estate to work on stuff. Plus, I can always close the album. Arthur's album and the baby core kit are currently sitting there. Guess what I'm on...

The middle of the countertop holds many of my PL cards and some random accessories. I bought these Sterilite drawers from Target. They are perfect for all my partial PL kits. I even got fancy and labeled them with some post-it notes. On top are my mini kits and a holder for random cards. I also have my Stampin' Up PL sets stacks next to the drawers. You can also see part of the magnetic board that I want to hang on the wall. Obviously I haven't gotten to that yet.

The right hand side of the countertop has a hodge podge of items. I have my Recollections tool caddy (so worth the money!). Next to that is my collection of random bowls. I intend to use those for small embellishments that I want to use. I also have my standing letter holder for notes and such. Behind that I bought four letter trays to hold my current projects. Before I let current projects clutter up my work area. This way I can have my current projects on hand, but not in the way if I'm not actively working on them. On the far right side, I bought a decorative tray from Target (Christmas clearance) to keep things to send, things for classes, or newly acquired products.

And now on to the cabinets and drawers.

The top left cabinet above my open PL album is full of PL accessories and embellishments. The navy bin holds items to scrapbook for the twins.  The pink and blue bins hold embellishments that still need to be sorted out. The cd bin on the right has my PL specific stamps. The bottom cd bins hold small alphas and PL embellishments. I also have two photo cases of tiny embellishments there to sort eventually. The large dvd bin holds large alphas and stickers.

The first drawer is my random office supply drawer. It's a mess I know... but I hardly get in here. And it's a good thing as this drawer is slightly broken.

The next drawer is my overflow office supply drawer. Not that exciting I know.

The bottom left cabinet holds a lot of stuff. I have large office products (pens, notebooks, folders) on the left side. The right top is full of my PL core kits. Those spill over to the right bottom while also including Christmas. All my Christmas paper, stamps, and embellishments are currently in a plastic container. I need to sort through these soon.

Moving to the middle we have a cabinet full of stamps. The green bin holds loose stamps. I need to sort through them but at least they are contained right now. My SU stamp cases are partially contained in an upright dvd bin. I need to pick up another one of those. On the right, I have all my SU ink pads. I don't have a great way to store these right now, but at least they have a cabinet. The small open bin holds my ribbon. While the mini bin holds my washi tape. Not the absolute best storage solution but they will work for right now. At least the washi and ribbon is more visible than it used to be.

The next drawer holds larger tools including masks, small SU notebooks, paper piercing tools, and my paper cutter. This is right below where i usually work so it has easy access.

The next drawer is all about my extra tools. Plus, I have a few small tins containing buttons and flowers.

Directly below I have a cabinet of finished products. Those boxes really need to be sorted, but at least they are together. The right side holds my Big Shot (accessible but out of the way), envelopes, grid paper, baby wipes, and SU business items.

The most far right cabinet is all about paper. My 12x12 is contained in two desktop letter files. I have SU DSP is one and random paper in the other. Five magazine files hold my 8.5 x 11 cardstock. I need to re-color coordinate those soon, but they are basically sorted. I also have a large dvd bin full of 6x6 paper pads and scraps. The orange bin has scraps yet to be sorted and white paper scraps. You'll notice I also have small tag labels on each of my magazine files. Amazingly I had these tags squirreled away and found them in the move.

This drawer holds most of my business supplies. I have business cards, address labels, and plastic sleeves. Randomly I also have my 2014 bucket list I made last summer. I kept this out to show at events.

The last drawer should hold my catalogs. It does, but the drawer also has bookmarks to give away and PL sets to sell. I hope to get these out of here soon. The catalogs are under there I swear.

Finally the bottom right cabinet holds the rest of my supplies. I have a mini bin for my embossing supplies. I have three cd bins for punches, framelits, and embossing folders. The bottom shelf has some random storage (need to decide what to do with these). The right side holds a ton of kid-related craft supplies. Mainly these are things I have bought for our preschool days.

And that is the tour of my new craft area. The dining room table is about five feet away making it perfect for easy access while hosting classes or crops. I need to continue sorting and destashing a bit, but I think it is a workable state. I've already made 9 cards for a swap, another card for a different swap, and finished 5 PL spreads in my new space. It will keep evolving as I use it, but I'm very happy with how everything is turning out.

Project Life 2014 W37-39

Over the next few days, I'm sharing the last of my 2014 PL spreads.

Week 37

Family Album: It was a low-key week so I went with Home and Family themed cards. I got a great picture of the flock of pelicans at Shoreline and some cute Arthur shots.  Simple, but nice spread.

Supplies:

• PL Family
• Lots of random stickers, embellishments, and stamps

Week 38

Family Album: Lots and lots of fun outdoor baby activities for the week.  I chose Cobalt for the fun bright colors. I need to use that kit more often...

Supplies:

• PL Cobalt

Week 39

Family Album: Lots more baby activities. I find it hilarious that Arthur wore the same shirt multiple times this week. I didn't even realize it until I printed all the pictures. Love those crazy coincidences.

Supplies:

• PL Cobalt

December Daily Pages: Days 22-26

Read my first post here. Days 1-13 here. Days 14-21 here. Two more pretty low-key days. I love the sparkly snowflakes that I added to the stripe card.

Christmas Eve! Of course we had to do two pages to cover all the fun. And I had to add some journaling to finish everything off.

Getting a present from Santa! Arthur wasn't so sure, but loved his present. I kept the right side of the page pretty clean to balance it out.

Christmas morning. Even though the pictures aren't great, I still had to include all three boys opening their presents. The black letters on the bottoms are very subtly sparkly. A very nice effect.

Christmas Day with the family. There's a lot going on with this page, but I love how the filler cards work with the pictures.

December 26th and the last of our Christmas celebrations. We spent the day at the in-laws. Lots of fun and awesome presents for Arthur. I finally found a place for that "joy" card from the Take Ten Christmas kit.

December Daily Pages: Days 14-21

Read my first post here. Days 1-13 here. A simple layout with some pics for Arthur and the twins. I added a bit of journaling about our days to complete the layout. I love the silver glitter tape under the photos.

Favorite panel from the page: Arthur made some friends at the playground. So cute!

Seems like the days leading up to Christmas have been full of quiet activities. This page features pictures from the playground and the library. My little secret is the presents covering an arrow on the "Deck the Halls" card. Sneaky sneaky.

This may just be my favorite picture in the entire album. He climbed into that rocking chair with the book all by himself. I had to include it!

Last page of the week. After three low key days, we ended with the Buffenbarger Christmas. Love the picture of the twins, my dad, and Arthur all in a row!

Sunday Haul #1 -- The Big Holiday One

This is a long one... From Thanksgiving until now, anything I ordered crafty-wise was sent to my house in California. I was in Indiana. This meant a huge pile of packages to open when I got home!  Let's get started and see what I got... Swim trunks for the boy from Steals.com. They were super cheap and I had points to use.

Super cute little bowl from Target (Threshold dipping bowl). I'm starting to collect cute bowls and dishes to keep small embellishments on my craft counter.

Stampin' Up Order #1: From their big sale.

• 2014-2016 In Color Markers
• What's Up Punch
• Sweetheart Punch
• Silver Glimmer Paper
• Sweet Sadie washi tape
• Beach House washi tape

Stampin' Up Order #2: From the Year End Clearance Sale and Occasions Preorder.

• Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim
• Sweet Dreams washi tape
• Stacked with Love washi tape
• Stacked with Love DSP
• Birthday Bash DSP
• This Day Mini PL Card Collection (SAB item)
• Big Day Stamp Set (SAB)
• Balloon Framelits
• Celebrate Today Stamp Set

 Continued:

• Large Rhinestones
• Pretty Print Embossing Folder
• Santa & Co. washi tape
• Seasonal Snapshot PL Card Collection
• Seasonal Snapshot Accessory Pack

New wall decals for Arthur's room. I went with the actual planets this time instead of abstract space design.

Large PL envelopes were a lightning deal on Amazon. Love these for cards and other ephemera.

Through the Year kit and stickers from Steals. Plus seasonal cards. As I'm going monthly for PL, I wanted more seasonal cards to sprinkle throughout.

I took advantage of Freckled Fawn's Black Friday sale to grab a few things. I snatched up the September OHDEERME kit because it was book themed. I also got the Merry Wood Numbers (30 Days of Lists anyone?), Merry Rhinestone Stars, Gold star pouch, and Classic Enamel Drops. Not quite convinced to subscribe to the monthly kit, but I do like their projects.

As my OLW is Home, I wanted to find a couple of home related stamps. I found this cute one from a seller on ebay. I love that I can color each letter different. The seller also had some good washi tape prices, so I grabbed a few rolls.

From a seller on one of my FB groups, I grabbed some newer PL sets. I got 1/2 of Playtime and 1/2 of Lovely, plus the Playful pad and some random enamels.

After traveling a few unintended places, my last Paper Pumpkin kit arrived. I decided that the subscription is not a good value for me. But I have to admit that I really like this kit.

Another steals order. I grabbed this boy stamp set and project kit. Trying to get away from all the baby stuff for Arthur's album going forward.

Even though I bought a small planner for 2015, I couldn't pass up this gorgeous one from A Beautiful Mess. Can't wait to crack it open. With October's craft fair, I ran out of business cards. Time for another Vistaprint order. I changed up my design to this cute chevron pattern. I also bought some notebooks for randomness and threw in some new return address labels.

I got a couple of PL swaps back while away: Movie theme, Leftovers (any random cards), and nontraditional Christmas colors.

Finally I received my Take Ten Kit for December. I love the bright fun colors to this month. I can't wait to incorporate some of these into my 2015 album.

One Little Word 2015

After failing at last year's OLW: Explore (let's just not review that), I have thought long and hard about what I wanted to do this year.  And then it hit me:

The perfect word for 2015. Here's why:

• We moved into a new house in November, but I haven't been there to enjoy it yet.
• We moved to East Bay where I don't know anyone or anything.
• We now have a comfortable family of 5, but we don't always feel like home.
• I crave comfort and stability.

This year will be all about creating a home out of the dwelling we live in. They are a few things that I want to focus on:

• Completing home improvement/decor projects
• Cultivating family traditions
• Taking family photos (not just pics of Arthur)
• Documenting family outings
• Creating a family bucket list
• Carving out personalized spaces for each family member

Look for monthly OLW updates in the future!

2015 Project Life Plans

I started Project Life in 2013 with the birth of my youngest son.  It was a lifesaver.  I wanted to have scrapbooks for all three of my kids, but I just didn't have the time to really sit down and create full page spreads from scratch.  I needed some help.  Enter Project Life.  This scrapbooking system gives me the direction to create nice weekly spreads without a huge amount of time or brain power.  I love it!  Over the past year, I have made two spreads (family and baby album) per week filled with pictures, journaling, and embellishments.

As the year progressed, I have started to think about what works and what doesn't.  After taking some time off my spreads, I have come up with my 2015 plan...

What I'm keeping the same:

• Page Protector Size -- I really love 12x12 size.  I toyed with the idea of sizing down to a 6x8 album, but if I can't do it for December Daily I can't do it for the year. I'm staying big.
• Daily Journaling -- I tried to jot down a little bit of something every day.  It helped when it came time to journal for the albums.  I will be continuing this idea, although I am now going to use a planner to remind me to journal every day.
• Page Protector Design -- I used mostly Design A and loved it.  I am not one of those people that can keep to just one design, but I like having A as my default.  I'll be keeping that aspect while occasionally using other designs and smaller inserts.

What I'm changing:

• Format -- I did weekly spreads in 2014.  They worked out well highlighting the quickly changing nature of the baby.  But how many pictures of chickens at Deer Hollow do I need? Some weeks I struggled to get enough pictures to fill the pockets and some weeks I struggled to cut pictures out. This year, I will be doing monthly sections in the album.  No set number of spreads, no set format. I want to include all our fun and not be concerned about limitations.
• Extras -- I added a little monthly wrap page with my TBR piles and photo a day, but it was restricting.  This year I want to add more interesting photos and features.
• Monthly Card Inserts -- Since i am not doing monthly instead of weekly spreads, I want to create monthly cards.  I spied some cute ones from Simple Stories that I might use.  Or I might create my own...

Aspects to work on:

• Organize card inventory and supplies -- My supplies are everywhere.  As part of my new craft space, I want an area dedicated to PL supplies.  Still debating about how to organize my cards: maybe by color, maybe by theme. But I do know that I want them more visible and accessible.  Being in boxes doesn't inspire.
• Day in the Life -- I would like to try this challenge at some point this year.  Maybe seasonally?
• Week in the Life -- Another challenge I really want to try.
• More Stories -- I wrote down what we did each day in 2014, but not many things were written out as stories.  I want to tell more stories in 2015.
• New ideas from Pinterest -- I have an entire board of PL ideas and never use any of them.  I want to challenge myself to start using these great ideas. Maybe a monthly challenge to myself.