Project 12: August

I'm excited to be on the ball with Project 12 this month! August was a lot of fun and even though I love summer, I'm also looking forward to fall. To help me keep track of the month, I kept a list in my phone to help me remember everything I wanted to add as it happened. A few small things got cut, but all the good stuff was included. I also knew from the get-go what paper I wanted to use. It's all Crate Paper's "Pier" line with a few Project Life cards from the "Kraft" kit mixed in.

Here's the left hand page. It talks about the state fair, my first (and delicious I might add) zucchini bread, and a last minute trip to the horse track.

 

I really like using a photo as the title space. These plastic letters from Crate are really fun so I knew it'd have a cool effect on the page. I've also been using my roller date stamps more. It's good for a subtle way to note the date and I'm not gonna lie, it just plain looks cool.

Here's the right hand page. It features putt-putt, a baseball game, and a weekend at the lake. I tried to use a combination of detailed openings and some plain photos that had just a little embellishment.

 

 

I also included a 6x12 insert to add a few more stories this month. The front of the insert talks about my Dad collecting smurf happy meal toys for my sister and I. (It's a classic "Dad" move.) The back of the insert features my parents' trip to Denver to see my sister. I realize it wasn't my trip, but my Mom and sister took too good of pictures for me not to use them. Plus, I did get presents from the trip so that should count for something.

 

Like I said, there were too many good photos so the back insert also got an extra flap. Next month I'm taking a trip out there so there will definitely be another insert for October.

Project 12: July

I love summertime. I'm working on a Sn@p! album for the whole summer so I used my Project 12 spread to hit on the highlights. That includes Fourth of July at the lake, a short trip north, the Train concert with friends, the cottage getting an update, and the family's visit to the lake. I also tried something different with what supplies I used. Normally I'll use just one specific line, but this time I focused on what colors I wanted to use. So I went "shopping" through my stash and found reds, blues, whites, and pieces of kraft that I liked. Pieces from My Minds Eye (a couple different lines), Lillibee, and Project Life cards were used. 

 

 

Here's the left hand page. For our trip north, I printed four photos on one 4x6 so I could show one picture from each place we visited.



 

And of course the right hand page.

 

I used my typical letter stickers and sewing machine for this layout, but I also branched out and used my cameo to cut the Michigan shape and my typewriter to include a conversation via text message between my sister and I. I'm happy with how both turned out will definitely need to use them again.

 

 

Project 12: June

I'm back on track with Project 12! Other projects not so much, but one thing at a time. I'm making a special 6x8 book for all the summer festivities so I used this June spread as a way to highlight the basics. The other book will have more detail and journaling. This month had game night, garden surprises, and two weekends at the lake. The paper used is Echo Park's "A Perfect Summer" line. A lot of the sticker embellishments are theirs too, plus my usual October Afternoon letters. (Might have to get more soon, my "e's" are getting low in certain colors.

 

Here's the left hand page and some detail close ups. It talks about game night and around the house stuff.

 

Here's the right hand page. Left portion of it is a weekend at the lake with my parents and the right portion is when my friend and her family visited the lake. These are just a few of my favorite pictures. The 6x8 book will have a lot more photos.

 

For the two bottom slots, I did 4x6 collage photos so each one shows three 2x4 photos. That way I could show more pictures. Keeping it simple and focusing on the pictures.

 

Project 12: May

My week of no computer has come to an end. It's fixed and back so now I can post my May Project 12 layouts. I had them done in time for the Gossamer Blue contest, but couldn't get them posted. It was the first time I didn't have it up by the due date, but I had it finished so I figured that's what matters.

 

I've noticed there's definitely a trend going thru my Project 12 pages... outside pictures. Lots and lots of pictures of my yard. This month I was able to throw in some pictures from a night out with friends and lake pictures. The papers are a combination of Echo Park's "Photo Freedom volume 1" and their new "Here and Now" line.

 

 

Here's a close up of the left page. It's all about starting my garden and working/playing around the front yard.

 

 

The right page talks about summer starting and opening the lake cottage. I like that this month gave me more opportunity for writing. An upside of using premade 3x4 cards.

Project 12: April

It seems like each month, the due date for Project 12 keeps coming sooner and sooner. I finally managed to get April finished (except for an insert I have planned about my birthday). It's funny this month how many pictures ended up having to do with my yard. It's the first spring in my house so I guess it makes sense.

 

The left hand side is basically all about my yard. The title spot is from a crazy storm we had with wind, rain, hail, and then a rainbow across my backyard. Then my dad and I made a trip to Home Depot to get supplies for some outside projects. The highlight of the yard topics though is my new riding mower, Maybelle. I may have screeched the first time Dad gave me a driving lesson on it, but now it's a lot of fun. The paper I used is October Afternoon's "Sidewalks" collection.

October Afternoon stickers for the title and journaling spot.

 

A mixture of Jillibean Soup and October Afternoon stickers.

 

The right hand page is all about a weekend scrapbooking retreat I went to. It was held at the same place where our lake cottage is so that's why I used the outdoors-y paper. The paper is October Afternoon's "Campfire" line. I still have my insert to do, but I have a good plan for it so hopefully won't take too long to put together. It's going to use another October Afternoon line.

Project 12: March

It's the second week of the month, so time to post last month's project 12 layout. Still loving this process and I feel like I'm learning to pay attention to more details. Getting lots and lots of practice at layering and I love it. This month I used Dear Lizzy's "Neapolitan" line. Most of the pages came from the 6x6 pad which worked great having smaller patterns.

 

The left page talks about our springtime snow fall and Indiana's typical crazy weather. (Is it crazy if it's typical?) Also added in a few spaces for one of my new favorite movies.

 

Right hand page is mostly about Easter and St. Patrick's Day. This page also gives you a visual if you've ever wondered what fifteen pounds of jelly beans looks like. Also reason #118 why my dad shouldn't be allowed in Sam's Club alone.

Last month I started playing with adding inserts and sewing pieces together for extra space. This month I did the same thing by sewing an extra 4x6 flap into the middle of the left hand page. I took a lot of pictures around my house of the snow and wanted to include all of them while still having space to journal. Adding the extra space was the perfect solution.

 

 

Dodge felt left out so he decided to sneak in for a peek. I kinda love that he matches my wood floors.

Project 12: February

I was so excited to do February's layout, I may have started working on it before February was even over. There was only one photo that needed to be added in from the last week, so my plan pretty much stayed the same from how I wanted it. The papers for this month are from Crate Paper's Valentine line from last year. I don't normally use a lot of pink, so I took the opportunity to make a very frilly layout and talk about all the things I love right now. That's exactly what the 6x12 panel is on the left. Sometimes in 12x12 layouts I don't leave space to say everything I want to, so I'm trying to do more storytelling throughout my Project 12 layouts. 

 

 

 

Here's a detail of the left hand page. I mixed in lots of October Afternoon mini market stickers (my favorite!) for captions and titles.

 

 

Title card: detail picture of candy hearts with a Crate border sticker and October Afternoon letter stickers from their "Midway" line. Plus stitching, or course.

 

 

I made these little numbers with my Cameo. Wanted to use something other than stickers or just writing them.

 

 

Here's the right hand page. The "love this" frame was made on my Cameo too. It was a very scrappy month so I wanted to highlight that on this page. Two trips to scrap mania with my mom, an afternoon scrapping with friends, plus an employee crop. Not to mention all the new papers coming in from CHA. It's like a paper heaven right now and I love it!

 

 

Two fun family events happened this month too and I was worried I'd either have to cram too much in or have too much empty space so I used a 6X12 insert that holds 4x6 photos. The convenient part about 3 ring binder albums is the hole placement is standard on the page protectors so you can mix and match. I use We R Memory Keepers pages for the 12x12 divided sections, but this 6x12 insert is American Crafts and it still fits in my album. If I ever need to do an 8 1/2X11 page, it'll still fit too. So one side of the insert is for the hockey game we went to and the other side is for when my dad and I went to the PBR event. 

 

We've been going to hockey games for a long time, but I've never really scrapbooked them before so I used this insert to talk about my favorite parts of hockey games. This means three 4x6 sections wasn't going to be quite enough room, so I cut a panel from another divider and stitched it on top of this one for extra space. This gave me five sections to work with for this event without having to add a whole other page.
 

I'm really excited with how it turned out. It gave me the perfect amount of space to include everything I wanted to. Might have to think of more ways to do this in the future.

 

Project 12: Hello 2013

January already feels like forever ago. These days it's mostly all work and fixing up my house, but I try to make sure a little bit of play gets mixed in too. Highlights were a visit from my seester and brother in law, quality time playing cards and scrapbooking, and my first house party.

 

I was really proud of myself when working on the left hand page because I did all of it with scraps leftover from other pages.  I didn't have to cut up a single 12x12 page. It's good to know it was finally worth holding onto the little pieces I never had the heart to throw away. The line used is Crate Paper's "Storyteller". I like the mix of red, blue, and yellow. It's a different change of pace.

This month, I tried switching up the page protector's layout.  I have a multi pack of We R Memory Keeper protectors with different styles so my challenge to myself is to use a different one each month.  The protector for the right side has three 4x6 openings and a 6x12 opening. It took a lot of thought and planning, but it worked towards my advantage. (I highly doubt non-scrapbookers realize how much thought we put into the smallest details. Of course, if they did know they'd think we were crazy.) I used the 6x12 space to make a narrow scrapbook page of our delayed Christmas with my sister and brother in law. The Christmas papers are from Crate Paper too. It's last year's "Peppermint" line.

I already picked out the paper line I want to use for next month's layout. As of now, it's going to be Crate's valentine line from last year. I don't have a sweetie, but I still want to use the "love" theme for February to document all the other things in my life that I have fond feelings of. Hints: my favorite four legged friend, my appreciation for paper, and snowcones. :)

Challenge Accepted

New Year...New Challenge.

Three different times I've tried to do Project Life and take a picture a day. One time I got really close to keeping up with the pictures, but I never kept up with the journaling and scraping. So when I found out about Gossamer Blue's Project 12 from a friend, it sounded like something that was more do-able for me. Instead of a layout a week, you make a layout a month.

Even though a two page layout a month sounds easy, there's still a creative challenge to it. I'm using different styles of pocket pages to complete it instead of the traditional layout. It makes you rethink the process a little bit, but I think it'll be fun. So here's my first layout for the project...

 

For these pages I mostly used Echo Park's Christmas line from last year plus a little bit of Crate Paper and October Afternoon (three of my favorites.) It's going to be fun keeping up with this project. I've even already started planning what photos to use for January.