Project Life 2012

| cristina

This year I am doing Project Life, a concept started by Becky Higgins. It started out as a paper album, but there is a digital version too. You can use it for whatever you wish, but the common use is to document the everyday life. It consists of a binder with plastic page protectors with inserts of different size, in which you can slip a photo or a journaling card. For the past year or so, I’ve seen several examples of Project Life (one name for all: Ali Edwards) but I wasn’t in love. Then one of my favorite digi designers, Lili of Designs by Lili, was chosen to design one of the two new kits, and I started paying closer attention to the PL world. I soon realized that making a physical album had one great advantage over a digital P365: you can include memorabilia. So I decided to jump on the PL wagon this year. I bought a bunch of goodies: the Clementine kit and binder (designed by Lili), the big variety pack of plastic page protectors, a pack of G design, a pack of 6″x12″ protectors, a pack of big envelopes, and a pack of blank journaling cards. I plan to treat it pretty much as I did my digital P365 album – a day to day storytelling. When I first got my binder and the big protector pages, I was a bit a lot  scared at the size of the thing – I am so NOT used to 12″x12″! But then I decided that instead of being afraid to fill this album, I will treat it as the opportunity to stretch my creativity and try something new. Having the small inserts instead of a big 12×12 canvas is also going to help me a lot. There is so much inspiration out there (thank you, Pinterest!), and I am excited to embark on this journey!

I have done my title page. Since I do my weeks Monday through Sunday, and this year started on a Sunday, I decided to use my Jan. 1st picture as part of the title page. Other than that, I used cards from the Clementine kit, paper tape, and some letters cut out with the Silhouette. Very simple.

Project Life 2012 - Title page, Font: American Typewriter

Taking a picture of the spread was not an easy task – the reflections from the plastic were so annoying! I can see this as being a major nuisance throughout the year.

Oh, by the way, have you ever wondered what happens if you print on the wrong side of photo paper? This!

PL

This is what happens when you’re too lazy to check which side your photo tray wants up. 😉 I was scared when I pulled the top picture out of the printer, but then I realized what had happened and had a good laugh! 🙂

So far I have not done any planning ahead for the project, but I am eager to start. I am waiting to gather the first few days of pictures to plan my weekly spread. Since I bought a variety of protector designs, it will take a bit more planning to figure it out, but I think it’ll be fun to do. In the meantime, I have played a bit with my mists and the blank journaling cards:

PL journaling cards

I have also printed out some goodies that are coming out this Friday in the January BYOC at The Lilypad, so if you’re considering Project Life/P365/P52 this year – be it digi or hybrid – keep an eye out for the new releases!

I will come back and share my progress with my album as soon as I have something! 🙂

December Daily 2011 – Days 24-25

| cristina

My 2011 December Daily album is almost finished! Here are pages 24 and 25:

DD 2011 - 24

Credits:
Falala papers by Rachel Young Designs
Font: American Typewriter

I love this picture of DH and me in front of the Chrismtas tree!

DD 2011 - 25

Credits:
Downtown Christmas papers by The Tattered Pear
Font: CK Ali’s hand

I was clearly bored with the project by this point (I found it really hard to stay motivated once Christmas had passed), so instead of wasting time on journaling and selecting photos, I made a collage with all my favorites of the day. Works for me! I decided to end the album with the 25th, since this year my album has been focused on Christmas, and also because DH and I were out of town the week of the 26th.

Yesterday I finally tackled the task that was scaring me the most: the binding of my album. I bought a Cinch a few weeks ago but hadn’t used it in a project yet, and I was terrified of botching my pretty December Daily album!! Of course, everything went well. 🙂 This is what my album looks now:

DD 2011

All the pages are done, and I’ve started working on the cover. It will be wire bound. It’s less than an inch thick at this point, so it’s a lot more manageable than last year’s album. 🙂 I will try to work on my cover later today, so I should be able to share the finished album soon.

Happy 2012!

| cristina

This month’s featured kit by Sahlin Studio is New Year’s Eve, a collab with Valorie Wibbens. Check out Krista’s blog for a discount and a chance to win a gift card! Here’s a Happy New Year card I made with it and the coordinating add on:

Happy New Year 2012 card

I added Stickles on the glitter alpha, it’s so sparkly! 🙂

2011 in review

| cristina

As a new year begins, it’s time to review how the old year fared. I have to say, 2011 has been a very good year for me, on all aspects. Scrap-wise, here are some numbers for 2011:

  • 81 hybrid projects completed (including 52 cards for my Project 52 cards)
  • 2 December Daily albums completed (well, still missing the cover and binding of one, but it still counts 😉 )
  • 137 digital layouts completed (including 51 for my mom’s spring visit album – only 9 more pages to be scrapped for that!)
  • 1 calendar (12 months+cover) for 2012 completed, and one page done for the 2013 calendar
  • A half-done P365: Weeks 1-11, 17 and 52 are completed; Weeks 13-16, 18, 23-32 are partially done (they have photos and journaling); the rest are undone.
Not too bad, I’d say. I am sorry for not keeping up with the P365; I am hoping to finish it up a bit, because it would be just a waste to let it lie like this, but realistically I will not have time to do it. I am embarking in a new project this year, Project Life, so it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up with printing photos for my album. I sure hope so! 🙂
The topic of the journaling challenge this month at The Lilypad is very inspiring – scrap 11 highlights of 2011. Here’s what I came up with:

Top 11 for '11,

Credits:
Messy Machine Grids by Emily Merritt
Fonts: Century Gothic and Pea Pumpkin Peters

A very good year indeed! Nothing major, but many good little things.

Happy 2012!

| cristina

Happy new year! I’ll have a ‘2011 in review’ post up later (I’m working on a LO), so for now let me just share the latest kit by Jenn Barrette (out today, and 20% off). It is adorable!!

As you might notice from the new kit preview, there has been a site redesign at the Sweet Shoppe – go check it out. I quite like it! 🙂
I was out of town this week (I followed DH on a business trip) so I couldn’t go hybrid with this kit, but I certainly could scrap, and scrap I did! 🙂

Snow Bunny

Credits:
Snow Bunny by Jenn Barrette
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

This kit is so much fun!

More December Daily

| cristina

I can finally share two missing pages of my December Daily, since the kit they’re made with has been released today! Days 9 and 23.

DD 2011 - 9

Credits:
Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens, available at Oscraps and The Lilypad
Playing card from Pocket Stuffers by Valorie Wibbens

The snowflakes are something I’d cut for last year’s album and covered with Stickles.

DD 2011 - 23

Credits:
Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens, available at Oscraps and The Lilypad
December tag from December Stories by Designs by Lili

This page is a big favorite of mine! I just love that photo and the colors. 🙂

I still have to finish up my days 24 and 25, plus figure out the binding (NOT looking forward to that – I’m afraid to botch up my pretty pages! 😉 ) and the cover. The album is quite thick already so I’m not sure whether I will be able to bind it with the Cinch or not (I have 1 1/4″ coils). I hope to have more to share in the next few days!

Baby It’s Cold

| cristina

Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens have created a gorgeous new kit out today, Baby It’s Cold:

It’s available at Oscraps and at The Lilypad, and it’s 20% off this weekend. I love the colors of this kit! AND, there is a great free with purchase offer: if you buy the kit, you will get this quickpage+template set for free

Here’s what I made with it:

The Weather is Delightful

Credits:
Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens, available at Oscraps and The Lilypad
Font: My Own Topher

I only wish I had more snow pictures this year, but alas, the one depicted was the one and only snow we have seen so far this year.

I also made a page for my 2013 calendar (trying to plan ahead for once 😉 ):

December 2013 calendar topper

Credits:
Background paper from Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens
A Month to Be Merry by Lauren Grier

I was loving this picture we took on Christmas day but didn’t feel like scrapping it with a normal page, so I decided to get started on the calendar. 🙂

Project 52 Cards – Year 1 Completed!

| cristina

When I began this project in January of this year, I wasn’t quite sure I would bring it to completion, but it has been surprisingly easy to do it, in fact. For the whole of 2011, I have made and given a card to DH every single week. The toughest part was convincing him to pose for the pictures! 🙂 Here are the final 2 weeks.

P52 Cards - Week 51

You can see the Week 51 card here.

P52 Cards - Week 52

You can see the Week 52 card here (if you dare). (Incidentally, this photo depicts how tough it is to get DH to cooperate for pictures – on this occasion, I couldn’t get him to move to a better lighting position, so that’s all I got. I think it is quite fitting that I got a bad photo for the botched card. 😉 )

I am planning to continue this project in 2012 as well. I know DH looks forward to my weekly cards now, even though he doesn’t let it on. 🙂 My New Year’s card is ready to go! 😉

Sewing 101

| cristina

I’ve already mentioned that I bought a sewing machine on Black Friday because I’ve always loved the look of sewing on paper projects, and wanted to be able to do the same. I bought the cheapest machine I could find ($50 at Walmart) and it is just perfect for my needs. In the process, I made a very pleasant discovery: my husband is in fact quite good at operating a sewing machine! And thanks goodness for that (more later)… Here’s an example of what he did for my December Daily album:

DD 2011 - 16b

So pretty! Well, anyway, going back to the sewing machine. I haven’t quite learned how to use it yet. But I really wanted to try sewing on DH’s Christmas card (and I certainly couldn’t have him do it!) so I gave it a try. Oh my goodness, I think I am a complete and utter failure at sewing! Here’s the proof:

Christmas sew card

Credits:
Icolology:Christmas by Plum Dumpling Designs

Yikes is right! For the first line of stitching, I forgot to put down the presser foot, so the stitching was all wobbly. But for the other two attempts, I have no excuse – I had everything in place correctly, but I still wasn’t able to sew straight. I had no idea it was so hard to sew straight! I have some learning to do in the upcoming year, that’s for sure! 😉

Last Adventures With Our Elf

| cristina

I haven’t posted Elf pictures in quite a while! He’s been busy coming up with new ways to be naughty, but what can I say? We love him, no matter what! 🙂

Day 22

The morning after the day we did our holiday baking, we caught him making snow angels in the flour!

Day 23

Luckily, he had a nice bath the following day. 🙂

Day 24

This morning we woke up to find a picture of Jingle Ginger on all our iPads, iPhone and laptops!

Day 25

JG has all his Christmas shopping planned out – candy, candy and more candy! 😉

Day 26

Phew, this one was a pain to make, but oh so funny! I made a mock up Facebook page for Jingle Ginger, with posts from Santa, Rudolph and Frosty. Then I put it up on DH’s computer. 😉

Day 27

2 days to Christmas!

Day 28

I didn’t think I’d be able to pull this one off, but I did! 😉

Day 28

Jingle Ginger turned us both into Rudolphs! 🙂 I had tried it the day before, but DH was already awake so I couldn’t do it (thus, the lame “2 days to Christmas” backup plan). But this time I succeeded! Too bad I put too few paint on DH’s nose, but I still count it as a success!

Day 29

I am so sad that Jingle Ginger is going back to the North Pole until next year! We’ll miss him!