Trying out Project Life

After having so much fun making this holiday album using pocket page scrapbooking, I thought I'd have a go at documenting our daily lives through Project Life.  

I wasn't sure how much of my crafting time I wanted to commit to this project, and reading other girls' blogs I noticed a trend that most people who document weekly spreads tend to fall behind at some time or other, and then get frustrated and disappointed that they can't keep up.  So I promised myself that there was no pressure & no rules.  If I miss documenting some time so be it.  

In keeping with the 'no pressure' promise I decided to start off with monthly recording.  Just one month at a time, and however many pages I ended up with was a-ok - no rules right?!  So here's my first ever real PL reveal.

I used the Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic collection.  Some 12x12" papers and the 6x6" paper pad, some chipboard and die cuts and a few other bits and pieces.  Yes that is a real lace doily under the "little moments" die cut.  I had that in my stash thanks to a scrappy garage sale by the lovely Cathy Cafun.

I recorded our month in one double and one single page, and I'm really happy with that (no rules remember!).  

During this time we had Easter and Brent's 16th birthday.  I took a screenshot of and then printed a Facebook post Kayci left for her brother.  She had posted a photo of him from when he was playing U7 rugby with the sweetest birthday message for him.

I also recorded the erosion to our beaches we had been suffering over the summer cyclone season…and also the fact that our Cavaliers Rosie and Daisy really didn't mind - the exposed coffee rock makes for the perfect beach lookout!

And that's the month recorded.  So, after my first PL what did I think?  Adored it.  In fact I probably like PL just as much as traditional scrapbooking.  So glad I tried it out!  Have you tried your hand at Project Life yet?  Do you try to keep up with weekly spreads or are you happy to miss some if life gets too busy?

5 Reasons to Document your Holidays using Pocket Page Scrapbooking

This year, like a growing number of scrapbookers, I have jumped on the Project Life / Pocket Page Scrapbooking bandwagon, and I have to tell you, I just LOVE it!

My first play with Pocket Pages was to record our family holiday to the Whitsundays.  This system is perfect to record your holidays, and if you're not ready to become a true 'Project Lifer' just yet, documenting a holiday is a great way to get a taste for how PP Scrapbooking works.

So here we go… 5 reasons to document your family holiday using Pocket Page Scrapbooking.


1.  You can get a bunch of photos scrapped!  Traditional scrapbooking is fantastic for recording those special photos, but when you're a single photo per layout kind of girl like I am, you can imagine how many layouts it would take me to record a holiday!  With Pocket Pages it can be as simple as printing your photos in the standard sizes (eg 6x4"), and slipping them in the pockets (along with some journalling cards of course).  You can see on the page below that I have fit 7 photos on a double page, one of them being a big 6x8" photo.

2.  You choose how you record each page.  For my holiday album I have chosen to use a double page for each day of our 10 day holiday, but how you record your own holiday is entirely your choice.  For example you might choose to do a double page on each destination you stay at; or on a special outing like a theme park; or if it's a holiday to see family that you don't often see, devote a page to a particular family member.

3.  Pocket Page Scrapbooking makes holiday journalling So Easy!  Lets face it, most traditional layouts may have some journalling, but not nearly as much detail as what you want to record when you're on holiday.  I find it easy to allocate one or two pockets per spread to devote to journalling.  In this 6x4" post-card-styled journalling pocket below, I had a fair amount I wanted to record, so in Word on my computer I created a 6x4" document.  I reduced the font size so I could fit more journalling in.  Once typed, I printed it on my printer using the 6x4 photo tray.  A small amount of embellishment and that's a good memory documented.

I got a close up shot of this journalling for you because it's a memory that I'm so glad I recorded while it was still fresh - every time I read it I'm taken back to that moment when I'm about to jump into the ocean, absolutely petrified!

4.  Those Holiday Landscapes & Panoramas  I don't know about you, but the time I'm most likely to take a bunch of photos of landscapes and panoramas is when I'm on a holiday.  That's one of the reasons to go on a holiday right... to see new and beautiful places?

Pocket pages come in an almost endless variety of pocket sizes these days.  (I used a multi-pack by W R Memory Keepers in this album.  You can see some of the many choices here.)  A lot of these pages lend themselves to panoramas. 

In this spread I have included a 6x12" in portrait orientation (on the left), a 3x12" in landscape orientation (on the right).  I have also printed a 6x8" in portrait orientation, and cut it into two 6x4"s to fit those pockets.

Another 12x3" panorama showed off our visit to Whitehaven Beach.

And yet another 12x3"enjoying the setting sun on Long Island.

And last but not least…

5.  Portability  I have left this point until last because I haven't utilised it in this album, but it's still a very important reason why PP Scrapbooking is perfect for documenting your holiday.

Part of PP Scrapbooking's charm is it's portability.  It really takes no room at all to pack a small zip lock bag with a journalling pen and a handful of 6x4" and 3x4" journalling cards, such as the ones in these kits put out by Becky Higgins.  What this means is that while you're still actually on holidays, record your daily memories direct onto the journalling cards and that's your journalling done!  All you need to do when you get home is print your photos and slip everything into the pockets.

A couple of close ups to finish off my holiday album.  In case you're wondering, for this album I used this Collection Pack - Serenade by Basic Grey - and created my own journalling cards using patterned paper and card stock.  

If you don't want to start from scratch with journalling and filler cards, most papercraft companies offer journalling papers these days, whether it's Becky Higgins' Project Life cards (link above) or 12x12" papers that can but cut down, like this one from Echo Park.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of our Whitsunday's holiday album, and that you might consider using Pocket Page Scrapbooking to document your next family holiday.

If you have any questions or would like to try Pocket Page Scrapbooking but don't know where to start, leave me a comment or send me an email (link in sidebar) and I'll be happy to walk you though.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers!

Hi there blog readers.  I'm here today with another layout that was published in Scrapbooking Memories recently, All the Pretty Things.  

This layout is a celebration of having a teenage daughter and some of the girly things you can do together, like wearing cute little dresses and killer heels!

I pulled out all stops with the pretty pink florals.  The Crate Paper floral border paper is just beautiful and so rich in colour.  I haven't used much patterned paper in this layout, but pieced little pieces of die cuts, tags, and ephemera in lots of layers.

It was really nice to use some vintage lace flowers that my Grandma handed down to me recently when she was having a crafty clean out.

The title for this layout has three different mixy matchy alpha stickers and Thickers.  

And I keep going back to these sweet and delicate birdies and birdcages made by Scrapmatts.  This cage is embossed with white embossing powder, and the little birdy has been left as bare chipboard.

This miniature banner is from the sticker sheet of Crate Paper's Random Collection.   It's ready to go with different patterned papers for each pennant, all pre-cut to the same size.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers!  There is a mix of store bought, hand cut and resin flowers here.  I just kept adding flowers until it turned into a little bouquet of sorts, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

Do you have a favourite type of flower?  Store bought.....hand crafted.....two dimensional so your layout can stay nice and flat?

Hope you've enjoyed this update!  I've had a surprise full time job for a few weeks now and will probably be working for another three weeks yet, so there's not been much time for crafty endeavours.  Can't wait to be back playing with pretty papers and glue!

Scrapbooking Memories Challenge

A little while ago I contributed to a challenge from Scrapbooking Memories magazine to create a layout and a card using their free paper and scrapabet.

I just loved the fun colours in the papers, and the hearts, banners, flowers and tags are just the kind of elements I love to work with.

Most of the layout features the free patterned paper and elements, the only additional items being the white cardstock base, some corrugated cardboard, one patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, some lace and twine, buttons and doilies.

I also used a mask from The Crafters Workshop, and wanted quite a subtle effect for the background, so mixed up a strong batch of tea and used a small spray bottle to mist it.  Love budget ideas!

The  paper and scrapabet were designed by Studio Flergs who are a digital scrapbooking studio.  You can find Studio Flergs over here, and remember that even if, like me, you're not a digital scrapper, you can print digital elements onto paper or cardstock and cut them out to use in a traditional layout.

The Studio Flergs lined patterned paper had a pretty whitewash effect around the edges which I wanted to carry through onto my card.  Once the paper was cut down to size though the whitewash effect was only on two of my four sides.

I found some acrylic paint in a matching colour in my stash, and dry brushed the edges (using just a little over the two sides that already had the whitewashed effect, just to blend them all together).

I layered two hearts and used some brackets as part of my sentiment, just for something a bit different.  Do you like to use words for your card sentiments or do you sometimes add in shapes or punctuation to mix things up a bit?

Thanks for stopping by today!

A Photo Collage Layout

Happy Friday Folks!

Do you ever find yourself wanting to use a bunch of photos from one photo shoot on a layout, but can't seem to narrow your photo choices enough?  I had that issue while choosing the photos for this double page layout.  In the end I decided to create a photo collage in Photoshop Elements, and to include two other larger photos to balance the layout.

Each of the smaller images in the collage are 2" by 3", making the entire collage 12" by 6". 

I have used Teresa Collins He Said She Said - He Said collection here.  This line is perfect for a masculine layout, and the pops of red really complimented these photos of my nephew in his Ben 10 shirt.

The left hand page.  You will notice here that the two photos from the very left of the photo collage are actually on the left page, but when you view the layout as a whole this is barely noticeable.

The right page.  The title was a combination of Thickers (did you notice I used upside-down "p's" for my "d's" in "boddo"? - I had already used up all my "d's"!), sticker alphas from the collection's sticker sheet, and "boys" was cut using my Silhouette Cameo.  

Some close ups of some of the layering.  I loved all the little phrases in this line.  And I don't think I can create anything at the moment without including some of those cute enamel dots!

I always make at least one card with leftovers from a layout.  The "He Said" journal tag was cut from the Quotes paper and then run through my printer for the sentiment, and I then added some die cut and fussy cut phrases, and some more enamel dots.

The moustashe was also fussy cut from patterned paper.

I find that fussy cutting patterned paper gives me so many additional elements to use on layouts and cards.   Are you a fussy cutter or do you find it hard to cut into those pretty patterned papers?

Getting Inky with Mixed Media Cards

I had some spare time for a small project recently and grabbed my gesso and some mists and stamps to play with a couple of mixed media cards.

I keep an old novel at my scrap desk and tear pages from it now and again to use as my background paper, and that's where I started with this card.

You can pick out some of the layers here, the book page, textured gesso, stamping with various stamps,  inks and then adding some embellishments, chipboard and rub ons.

The second card was for my nephew who had his 15th birthday coming up.   Being a teenage boy's card, I wanted to create something a little grungy, but without being too dark.  It's still a birthday card after all right?  

I was too impatient to wait for gesso to dry on this project so I simply started with a plain grid patterned paper and went from there.  A few mists, some doodling, and stamping helped to bring the paper to life.

This closeup really picks up the shine from the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Black Magic).  So pretty.

The chipboard is "Chicken Mesh Wire" by Twiddleybitz.  I randomly snipped two pieces out and embossed with silver embossing powder to keep the metallic look, and then adhered it by stapling it with my Tim Holtz tiny attacher.

Even though I'm mostly a 'clean' project kind of girl, it's so much fun to get inky when I can!

It's all about the Cards...

Hi there friends!

Today at Paper Hearts it's all about the cards.  Now who doesn't love getting a hand made card?  I for one just Love getting hand made cards.  And giving them of course!  I love being able to create a card especially for a loved one, to be able to have them in my thoughts as I create, and to think that something I have made might brighten their day.  It seems just that little bit more special.

I've chosen a few of my favourite cards from the last little while to share with you today.

The stamp I have used on the first two cards is from the Gorjuss range.  This range has become available in Australia this year, however this particular stamp came from the UK range (thanks to a present from my lovely sister).

Both cards use Crate Paper's 6x6 Paper Pad from the Pretty Party collection.

This card is a wedding card made for my Uncle.  When we received our invitation to the wedding, it showcased the colour theme for the big day, which was purple and green.  This made it fairly simple to pick some patterned papers and flowers to keep my card in keeping with the theme that the couple had picked out to remember their special day by.

The papers here are from Kaisercraft (the script) and Basic Grey (the plum purple) .  I have also used a crochet doily from Kaisercraft and a chipboard frame from Imaginarium Designs.  The card is then finished with a mix of flowers and buds, and a sentiment printed from my computer in a pretty script font.  

And finally two cards using the "Sisters" Mini Theme from Echo Park Paper Co.  I've really enjoyed playing with shaker cards lately.  This card combines the shaker card technique, along with a patchwork background.  Some pearl sequins serve as my little "shakers".

Loving this collection.  The Sisters Mini Theme includes a sheet of adorable sticker accents full of girly images of bikes and birdies, flowers and banners, making the perfect layout or card for girlfriends (or Sisters of course)!

Have a great week!