Catch up with Project Life® │a giveaway

I have certainly spoken at length about ways to get caught up when you might be behind a bit in your Project Life® albums and I always love learning about the process and methods others use to get caught up and stay caught up with their Project Life® albums.  When I was approached about giving away a spot in the new Catch Up with Project Life: Progress, Process, and Productivity for Pocket-Page Scrapbookers Taught by Annette Haring, Megan Anderson, Trisha Harrison class over at Big Picture I of course said yes. What better way to help motivate each other than by sharing different ways to get caught up.  Here's is what you will learn from these wonderful ladies who are total experts at Project Life®.

About the Class

Get over the guilt of feeling perpetually behind! Catch Up with Project Life will reconnect you to feelings of accomplishment and gratitude—both for the hobby you love and your life in general. Instructors Annette, Megan, and Trish are here to help you tackle common trouble areas, so you can make real progress with your Project Life albums.

After three weeks of inspiration and interaction from your three talented hosts, you'll walk away with:

●       Finished layouts that fill in the missing gaps in your albums

●       Photos printed and organized, ready for use in your projects

●       Photo management ideas to keep you productive long term

●       An organized workspace to help you get more from your creative time

Learn more and register here. Class registration closes November 6th but the folks over at Big Picture have given me a spot to share with one of you! All you have to do to enter by leaving a comment below by Sunday, November 2nd at 5:00pm PST and I will choose one lucky winner.

I will be popping in to class to learn right along side of you and I look forward to seeing you there.

Studio Calico Walden the full reveal

I'm so happy to share with you the projects I made using the Walden Project Life® kits from Studio Calico. Like I mentioned on my sneaks post, the color palette of the main kit was probably one of my favorites all year. Not to mention the super cute embellishments that came with it. Hello days of the week tabs and gold mirrored stars!

Note: just a reminder that all the links I'm sharing will be active right now, 9:00am PST for subscribers and tonight at 9:00pm PST for non subscribers.

Because I loved the days of the week tabs so much I decided to scale down my spread and use them to highlight each day of the week. It was great for this weeks spread because I didn't have a ton of really great photos but I had at least one from each day. I did opt to drop Sunday from this weeks spread because it really wouldn't fit. I'll just add it to the next week and it will be fine.

I just adored the light blue die cut tags and that little hello was just the cutest. Paired with some mirrored stars and my title card was done.

I wanted to do something really big with this group shot from our outdoor movie night so I printed the photo as large as my printer will go and I made it flip up to show more photos from the night. I used the digital file of the Project Life® Holiday addon stamps and print and cut it with my Cameo. It holds the photo closed for me so it will slip inside the protector.

To create the title for the page I just hand wrote the word in pencil right on my page and then with a bottle of Glossy Accents I just lightly traced over my pencil lines a little bit at a time and laid the twine right on top of the glue. It stuck down fairly quickly and I just used the tip of my exacto knife to press it in and hold it down as I moved around each letter. I should have erased some of my pencil lines a bit before I started because some do show but its fine, just me being a bit of a perfectionist.

Here you can see how the large photo flips up to show a collage of additional photos from the night underneath.

Now I shared on the sneaks thread over on the Studio Calico board that I had a funny story about that twine, see it was originally planned to be in another kit a few months back and I had the perfect idea on how to use it as you can see below. But a change was made after I had made this so I had to pull it and do something else. When we got word that the twine would be in another kit and to hang on to it I was super excited to get to make something else with it. It's a super fun material to work with and I hope you all have lots of fun creating with it. My title this month was a lot of fun but man did I love that little jump rope. I did keep it and its in my album right now so all in all it ended up being great, I got to use it twice!

My second spread was made using my two favorite cards from the Firchburg addon and a lot of the digital files this month. This spread was interesting because I had two Design F protectors on this spread instead of one Design F and one Design D like I normally have. I had used two Design F protectors on the previous spread so that's why its wasn't a normal spread. It was definitely a challenge because I didn't have as many photos as I would have liked so I had to improvise to fill the space.

I loved that expletive card and paired it with a photo of my bruschetta, man I would love some of that right now! I also really loved the today card, it totally reminded me of the date stamp card that I loved so much from last month. The Lovely Day card was a larger 6x4 card that I just trimmed down, I love anything with phrases on it so I of course gravitated to that one.

I decided to focus my attention on one night for the right side of the spread. I had some good shots from the night but not a ton so in order to fill the space I enlarged the photo of me and my husband to 6x8 and trimmed it down to four 3x4's to fill up some space. It worked and I like how it changes up the interest on the spread. I really loved the 'in good company' digital stamp from the Project Life® Digital stamp set and used it on a full photo. I also loved the Fill in the Blank printable Marcy made. I deleted the items that didn't work for me and I love how these types of cards can make your journaling a bit more fun and interesting. The yes, heart and always are the digital stamps from the Project Life® Holiday addon and I love them so much. So versatile and not just for holiday.

The kits overall this month are just so amazing. Here are my favorite this month that I'll be sure to be placing in my cart.

1. The Baker Bridge scrapbook addon, the photo tags are amazing as are those leaves!
2. The Garland Road Project Life® addon is so getting saved for my December Daily. I cannot wait to add these items to my album, especially the veneer.
3. The Pine Hill scrapbook addon, I mean the masking tape alone makes this addon a must have.
4. The adorable Thanksgiving Card set from Tina, she rocks the addon cards like nobody and these will be so cute on my Thanksgiving spread.
5. The French Fry stamp set and the Holiday and New Years stamp sets are so cute. Just wait until you see what Julie Campbell did with that fry stamp set, dying over the cuteness!

I sure hope you enjoy the reveal and make sure you check out the Creative Team Gallery too, its really amazing this month as usual.

Five of Friday

Have you seen that list of outrageous pumpkin products online, its basically mocking those that love all things pumpkin and while I would happily purchase some of them, some are just ridiculous. Until some of these are a real thing (hello pumpkin vodka) I thought I would share all things pumpkin and caramel (tossed in for good measure) that I am loving right now. I mean is fall, if you can't do it now when can you!

1. If you haven't trip Project 7 gum yet, you should its really yummy. They came out with this seasonal flavor that I ordered direct from them because I couldn't find it in a store near me. Its really good!
2. This is hands down the best yogurt I have ever had and I feel like I'm making even more trips to Target than normal because that's the only place you can get this flavor. I sure hope they keep this on the shelf at least thru November. I'm Obsessed!
3. I heart Bath and Body Works and they do the seasonal scents exceptionally well and this one doesn't disappoint.
4. Okay so I saw someone post these online so I had to try them. They are yummy but super sweet. One and your done kind of sweet, so thankfully they are small. 
5. Even my husband who never likes anything flavored likes this granola. That must mean its really good and I suppose I need to stock pile it while I still can.

Studio Calico Walden Sneaks

Man, sneak time just totally snuck up on me this month! LOL! I'm a bit under the gun this week with a lot of things going on so I had to really focus my attention to get my projects done so they would be ready in time. Luckily for me the kits were super easy to work with making my job that much easier.

I really loved that the kits had such a great variety of items in them this month and the color palette was just fantastic. I made two spreads this month, this first one is using the Main Kit only. Blue and yellow is always a favorite color combo for me so its no surprise I gravitated toward it again this month. Those days of the week tabs were my favorite thing this month.

I am also pretty partial to these gold mirror stars!  And the cording, there are so many ways to go with this but I chose to use it for a title and my fingers are still stuck together!

My second spread used a lot of the Firchberg addon and a lot of the digital files this month.

This is one of my favorite digital stamps this month, and see more gold mirror stars.

That's all I'm sneaking this month, but if you haven't checked out the rest of the kit sneaks make sure you do. You can see them all here and make sure you check out the really pretty stamp set that was the sneak item this month. Its the perfect alpha for all of your title work.

I'll see you back for revel on the 27th and I'll share the complete projects, I can't wait to share them with you!

#scinspires - the winner

Thank you all so much for the responses to my Studio Calico Inspires Blog Hop contest! I enjoyed reading what everyone loved in The Underground Project Life kit and congratulations to...

I have submitted your name to the folks at Studio Calico and The Underground Project Life kit will be sent to you.

Remember to make sure you have downloaded the print and shared what inspires you using the #scinspires hashtag so that the prizes keep growing for the contest.

Thanks again to all of you that entered!

Five on Friday

1. My Christmas just got made with this little announcement and with Sofia Coppola no less. I'm quite certain some sort of party will be planned around the airing of this special. I'm giddy in anticipation of the air date, just giddy!
2. My friend Shanna Noel just announced another class with Studio Calico. Gratitude Documented it's the perfect way to focus on all that is good in your life as the holiday season approaches. Make sure you take a look at the materials she has designed, they are so, so cool.
3. We are embarking on quite the adventure this Halloween, we have never been this time of year so being there to Trick or Treat will be a big treat (LOL) for all of us. Our costumes are almost ready, well my daughters is. The adult costumes still need to be finished, and they aren't really costumes but they compliment hers so it should still be cute for pictures. I'll be sure to share as soon as they are done. We're pretty excited to see what's in store for us.
4. I have found the perfect shade of red lipstick for anyone who like me has a lot of red in your hair real or manufactured. It's the loveliest brick red shade and I just love it, I plan on wearing it a lot the next few months.
5. I went ahead and purchased Ali Edwards December Daily kit again this year. I really love what I saw in the mock ups and I love having a kit to use. I picked the off white album because I did red last year and that was the only other option. However, I am seriously considering using the new Linen Handbook from Studio Calico. I just love the texture and I think it will be lovely with something gold or silver on the front cover. I'm excited to get both of these items in my hands and to start planning out what I'm going to do with them.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Road Trip Mini Album - completed

Its only seven months late but I finally finished my Road Trip Mini Album from the big trip we took this past March. I have no idea why this project took me so long, well that might not be entirely true, I think the pressure of such a large task might have had something to do with it. But either way I'm so happy its done.

This will be photo heave so I apologize in advance, but here we go.... I'll try to call out supplies for the things I remember if you have specific questions, just let me know.

First up is the actual Album, I used an Aqua Studio Calico Handbook for this project, I just loved the color and I've used plenty of handbooks in the past so I knew it would hold all that I needed it to hold. I used a lot of Amy Tangerine's Plus One line throughout, both the physical and the digital versions. The globe sticker here is from that line, the white Alpha was from an old Studio Calico Project Life® kit.

Here is the finished album, it was a perfect fit.

The very first page of the album was done before I even left on the trip. I don't think I've ever shared it here but it was a total labor of love. I created the design in Photoshop Elements and printed it out in a very light grey right on my piece of cardstock and then I hand stitched the whole thing. I used a DMC variegated embroidery floss in color 4040 which was the perfect match for the album cover. As I recall it took me about 4 hours to complete but it was totally worth it.

After that I pretty much worked by location, grouping everything together so that it was easy to move from place to place. I needed a beginning so this was it, a very simple first page and then us heading out. I decided to keep my journaling to a minimum for the project because I was going to type up all of my trip notes and include them in the back. Because of that I decided to make up little 3x4 cards with the basic details of the day and our depart and arrival times if it was a travel day. I love how they look throughout the album and I used the digital day of the week art from Amy Tangerines Plus One collection. The 'And So the Adventure Begins' letterpress card is from Kelly Purkey. The supplies on the left page are all Amy Tangerine Plus One.

>> Yosemite

If you ever want to stay over near Yosemite, The Evergreen Lodge is amazing. This was our second time there and it won't be the last. Its picture perfect and just lovely. And I'm not getting any kick back for saying that!

I added in lots of small size items in the album, I just really like have things be different sizes, so here I just printed two 4x6 photos stuck them back to back and cut a few attachers from the Studio Calico mini attachers die and it was super easy.

I also loved using the small 4x4 We R Memory Keepers page protectors. I used them a few times and most often than not something was just stuck to the outside and left blank and clear surrounding it so you could see thru them.

On this trip we made a real effort to gather National Park Stamps when we passed thru a park, I bought a passport book for myself and a junior version of the passport book for my daughter and we had a great time collecting the stamps. I wasn't sure how I was going to use them but in the end I scanned the stamped images and deleted the background to create a transparent .png image that I could lay on top of my photos and recolor if needed. This is the first of a few you will see throughout the album.

I made my journaling card for the day the same shape as the sticker that was on the front so it wouldn't hang over the edge. I also scanned the little badge I purchased so get the size and then removed that portion from my photo grid so it would have a little place to sit on top of the photo.

I used a Studio Calico 6x8 handbook protector and just cut off the portion I didn't need since my photo grids were 6x6.

>> Las Vegas

I didn't love this stop, we got a super cheap room on Groupon at this hotel and it ended up being in the motor lodge which we knew in advance, I just wasn't expecting it to be quite so seedy. Thankfully it was just one night and it was clean and relatively safe. The girl had a blast in the arcade though, which made up for the not so good parts. Had to LOL at that 'rather forget this' sticker from Amy Tangerine, it was the perfect fit for this section.

We did stop for the Dam Tour....it was cool but the line was super long and it was super hot so it was kind of just okay. I opted to purchased the green screen photo which is the one on the left below. It was 6x8 so it was kind of a no brainer. The chipboard frames are from Crate and I used two back to back to hold some photos, I just stapled two of the attachers from Basic Grey to add it to my rings.

I grabbed as many brochures as was allowed on the trip and tried to add all of them in the album. I love this kind of stuff because it always changes over time and it will be cool to have and look at years from now.

>> The Grand Canyon

So this part was probably the longest section in the album and rightfully so. I used tons of large 6x8 photos and I really love them.

This is a large glassine envelope that I initially tried to print my journaling directly on but it wasn't having it so I ended up printing it on a piece of vellum and attaching it to the outside using a bit of vellum adhesive and my tiny attacher which I used to adhere the vellum arrows from Studio Calico's Atlantic release. I slipped in some info about our hotel and a few more photos from that first day.

Here's another of the National Park Stamps on the left, for the most part I just wanted to leave all my photos plain and sometimes that's totally okay. The journaling card for this day needed some more space so I made it open like a book and also slipped a photo in behind it.

Man I would have paid money to see that sign in person, oh well. I wanted to call attention to the viewing areas we did stop at so I just printed up some simple vellum flags with the bus stop names and stapled it to one of my photos of the canyon, a quick and easy way to document that part of the tour.

Another brochure, you can't really tell here but I did take care to attached the plastic attachers in a way that allowed the maps to still open for anyone that wanted to see the whole thing.

This was one of my favorite photos of the day, my husband loves it too. He wasn't expecting me to take a picture but he was glad that I snapped it before I had my heart attack.

I wanted to talk a bit about my fears while we were at the Canyon but I didn't want to dwell on it so I decided to make a little vellum tag with a little text to make that point clear. I created the text and printed it out and cut it into two tag shapes and stitched them together, filled it with a random bit of sequins and sewed it all shut. Its one of my favorite things in the album.

I absconded every hotel room key that I could and I think I got them all but the key from Evergreen Lodge, theirs aren't steal-able, they are real keys that would have been missed. But the credit card ones are perfect to take home and use in your albums. Here I placed two back to back stuck to the outside of the protector. I also tried to take photos of our rooms whenever I could, I didn't use them all but its a fun reminder of what room you stayed in.  Oh and the quote on the bottom left photo was carved into the back of the El Tovar Hotel which was steps from where I took this photo.

>> Phoenix

I totally staged that top cactus photo but come on, we don't see them every day. The Yes No is a journaling card from Amy Tangerines Plus One line that I used digitally. I enlarged it to fit over my 5x7 photo.

We were lucky enough to see each of our home town teams play in Phoenix and seeing Spring Cactus League Games is something you should definitely put on your bucket list, it was a lot of fun. Super hot, but fun. The A's played their last season at that field so it was cool to be there for that.

Of course the tickets went in with our parking pass, I wish all sports events had this kind of price for parking. The Yay flair was from an old Studio Calico Project Life® kit and the stars and clips are from the Studio Calico Essentials line.

Made sure to take a screen grab of the results from that game because it was a high scoring game.

A very similar treatment for our day at the Giant's game.

Super Duper flair from a Studio Calico kit I believe.

another brochure

>> Joshua Tree

So this detour on our way to Palm Springs was a last minute decision that I'm so glad we took. We ended up taking the full loop tour thru the park and a kind ranger called out all the good spots we should stop at. It was so amazing! I purposely kept this section super plain because the photos were some of my favorite from the trip and I just loved how they turned out.

When browsing Pinterest for Road Trip ideas and places to stop I saw an image here that I loved it so much. I vowed that if we went to Joshua Tree I was going to find that tree and take my own photo and I found the tree and took my own photo. Its a slightly different angle but I was thrilled we found it. Thanks to my poor husband who had to slow to 5 mph any time we saw a tree right on the roadside until I could figure out if it was the right one or not. Apologies to any cars behind us that also had to slow to 5 mph.

Another sticker stuck to the outside of a small 4x4 protector.

 >> Palm Springs

Oh Ace Hotel, you were so, so cool! I cannot wait to go back one day, maybe even without the kidlet! Another room key cause it was super, super cool. The patch was won by Larry during the Bingo game, its just stapled in in case I ever want to remove it. Our photo by the ACE sign is perfect, I really wish I had the ladies name and address who took it for us, because she deserves my eternal gratitude for such a great shot.

Even the room map was cool. I need to remember to circle or note which one was ours, I forgot to do that.

Hitting up the Bingo Night was a gas, it totally made for the perfect last night.

>> The road home

I added in a few shots we took on our last morning at the Ace (the one of Simone on the bike was from the night before), but it was cute so I just slipped it in here. Our breakfast was super yummy but then it was time to hit the road. I had made Simone this map that outlined each travel days journey so she knew where we were headed and it really help to visually gave her an indication of how far we were going. This was a life saver as far as minimizing the 'are we there yet's' because she could follow along so she always knew how much further we had to go. She really kept a keen eye on the route home, I think she was eager to get back home to her own bed just as much as we were.

The last page is the Infographic I made, you can read the tutorial here. I also slipped in behind it my daily notes that I took on the trip that I typed up just so they were easier to read.

I'm so looking forward to another Road Trip adventure and hope we can put one together for next March too. At least now I know how to document it.