Friday, July 15, 2011

Project Life | June 18th to July 1st

Another two week update this time. I'm still loving Project Life. Just the act of sitting down and picking out and printing photos makes me smile from the memories. I printed these 24 photos out on Friday night and had them laid out on my desk. I put them into the page protectors on Sunday and started my journaling and designing. I usually wait at least overnight after I print out my photos to put my photos into the page protectors. Why? Just to make sure they completely dry I guess. I have a paranoia of the photos getting stuck to the page protectors, even though this has never happened, LOL.

Week of June 18th to June 24th



We had dinner with Cassi, Dan, and Madison at Five Guys.  Todd did his Red Dress Run with the Hash House Harriers.  On the left, I cut up the Five Guys menu and put it into the 3x4 slot.  Next to that, I used a Becky Higgins Project Life 3x4 grid journaling card.  The two journaling tags on the right side for Todd's Red Dress Run are Elle's Studio Everyday Striped Journaling Tags.  I used them digitally and typed my journaling right on top of it in Photoshop, then printed them out.  Actually, I should say I copied Todd's journaling from his blog!


The bottom of the Becky Higgins gridded journaling card is adorned by a strip I cut off from the Five Guys menu.


This week was the first time I sewed page protectors to make my own sizes.  This one was to hold a 3x4 fabric badge that Todd got from participating in the Red Dress Run.  It was too thick/big to fit into a regular 3x4 vertical slot, plus I didn't have any to spare.


The other side is a 4x3 photo of our creme brulee dessert at Donovan's.  I took a business card from Donovan's and cut out their logo and stapled it to my photo.


I had some extra protectors this week because Todd and I took two days off to celebrate Summer Solstice and our anniversary, so I had a lot more photos than usual.  This is a We R Memory Keepers 12x12 6up 4x6 Photo Sleeve.  I absolutely love these and use these when I have more photos/stories to tell.  This page was about June 21, when we took the day off for Summer Solstice and to celebrate our anniversary early. 


I used one of Ali Edwards' Story Overlays 6x4 Journalers Value Pack for the 4x6 journaling block here.  I layered it onto a 4x6 canvas in Photoshop and colored it blue.  Then I printed it onto an American Crafts 4x6 white textured cardstock.  I bought the 4x6 cardstock because I had been printing these 4x6 journalers two at a time onto 8.5x11 cardstock, and felt like it was a waste of paper.  This way I print it onto the size it's supposed to be, 4x6, and there's no waste.  


Day two of our little anniversary staycation.  We stayed at Hotel Indigo the night before.  Had breakfast at Homie's.  Lunch and wine tasting at Bernardo Winery.  The bottom right is a 4x6 post card I bought at the Bernardo Winery.


I brought a notepad home from our room at the Indigo Hotel and cut out their logo and stapled it to my photo of our view from the hotel and our room.


I took a menu from Homie's Cinnamon Rolls and cut out their logo and website address and stapled that onto the photo of Todd enjoying breakfast at Homie's.


Used another (different) journaler from Ali Edwards' Story Overlays 6x4 Journalers Value Pack.  This time I colored it brown.


Inserted a 8.5x11 page protector for a flyer for the hotel we stayed at.


The other side is a flyer from the Bernardo Winery.


I tried something new and printed out journaling straight onto some Project Life journaling cards with designs on them (the two on the right side).  I just estimated the spacing on a 3.75 x 2.75 canvas in Photoshop, typed up the journaling, and printed it out onto the journaling cards.  I think it turned out pretty well!


Here I created a 3.75 x 2.75 canvas in Photoshop and used one of the sentiments from Ali Edwards' You Mini Line Stacks Brushes and Stamps. I colored it yellow and printed it out onto a Becky Higgins Project Life 3x4 grid journaling card. The left side is a wine tasting card from Bernardo Winery.



Week of June 25th to July 1st

This was the week of our actual anniversary, June 25th.  We went to dinner at Roy's in La Jolla. 


In the bottom left, I made a 4x6 collage of 4 photos from our dinner.


For the "17 years" I used some American Crafts Remarks Thickers Foam Stickers in "Daiquiri".  The label stamp is from Fancy Pants.  The "hello" stamp is from the "Just My Type" clear stamps set from Lawn Fawn.  Green ink is Jenni Bowlin Dye Ink pad in "Seed Packet".


Printed another sentiment from Ali Edwards' You Mini Line Stacks Brushes and Stamps (digital) onto a Becky Higgins Project Life 3x4 grid journaling card.  This time I used a red and pink gradient overlay in Photoshop, so that the color changes from the top left to the bottom right.  I really like how this looks! 


I custom-sewed another page protector because I had one photo with some journaling and no spaces left in my page protector.  Photo and journaling was about my craft studio organization.


I have a bunch of American Crafts 8x8 page protectors that I use to house the prints of my digital scrapbook pages, so I took one of them and put cardstock and my photo in.  Then I just sewed it with a straight stitch, with backstitching on the top and bottom. 


Here it is, all sewn.  I just cut off the right side and saved it to sew another pocket later.   (The one that housed Todd's Red Dress Run badge.)


I used another American Crafts 8x8 page protector and sewed a custom-sized protector to house the anniversary cards we gave each other.  This card I gave Todd was hand-made with ribbons.  :)


The right side has a photo from the Soup Club Exchange #3, plus a soup label that I made for Todd to put on all his soups.  Todd had used a Project Life journaling card as a gift tag for my anniversary gift, so I included that. 


I cut Todd's gift wrap to 4x6 and stuck that into the pocket, along with the gift tag from my gift to him.

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the inspiration! Love how you made the page protectors to fir your needs. It is something that I struggle with all the time. WHat kind of thread did you use? Anything special? Have a great weekend!

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  2. Hi Robin - I just use Coats & Clark Dual Duty All Purpose thread. I do use a separate needle for sewing on non-fabric items like paper and plastic.

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  3. Hey there! I love checking out your blog. How on earth do you feed your printer those little journaling cards? My printer would chew them up? Do you recommend using a smaller printer like a photo printer for smaller projects?

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  4. I had no idea I could just buy 4x6 cardstock, although I don't like the texture on cardstock for some reason - it displeases me LOL. I wonder if I can find some 4x6 untextured cardstock? I've been using Epson Matte Photo Paper (because I have it) but it's 8.5" x 11" so I have some waste. I know they make 4x6 matte photo paper but it's spendy to go that way and this cardstock seems way more reasonably priced. Plus I don't need photo paper, necessarily, just to print journaling cards.

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  5. Hi Rachael - I actually use a Canon Pixma MP620 printer for printing everything. It's rather large because it's a printer/copier/scanner. The key to being able to print on all sizes of papers is the printer must have a rear tray with an adjustable paper guide. When I print photos, or on cardstock, or print sizes that are NOT the regular 8.5x11 paper, I always specify in the print set-up to print from the rear tray. My rear tray feeds the papers straight through so the paper doesn't have to curl up in the machine to print. It also has an adjustable paper guide so I just adjust the guide so my little papers fit perfectly into the guide. I've never had problems printing this way.

    Peppermint - I dislike the texture on cardstock too. After printing the journaling on the texture side of the cardstock and not super-loving it, I tried printing on the reverse side and it does look much better, although it's not completely texture-free. It's a lot LESS texture.

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  6. Thanks so much for the 3x4 card printing tip! I tried it now and it worked out great. I'm just starting my Project Life album (working on it today actually) so I've been trying to figure out how to keep the process simple without ended up with a ton of waste. I didn't realize AC sold 4x6 cardstock but I may see if I can find some now.

    Another option if you don't like the texture of the AC cardstock would be to just buy some cheap non-textured 12x12 cardstock and trim it to 4x6. I don't know if it'd be a more cost-effective or easier option but it might be worth a shot.

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  7. Lynnette - yes, I do have some non-textured 12x12 white cardstock that I can cut into 6 4x6 pieces. I will give that a try next time! Peppermint and I both also thought that blank 4x6 index cards would work as well, and it's economical!

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  8. again, such wonderful inspiration!

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