As I had so many other photos, there wasn't much space for journaling, so I decided to make my own "This week" 3x4 journaling card where I was able to capture all the little stories that had been on my mind or part of my life that week.

I also used some stamps on the 4x6 photos which I really like the look of.  Finally, I added some wooden embellishments which I think came from either an Ali Edwards story kit or a Studio Calico kit - I can't remember which.  

I still continue to love this project so much. I love how it gives me the opportunity to be creative, how it challenges me to seek out the stories of life from the everyday moments and routines and how, over time, it all comes together to tell the bigger story that is my life.

It's been a while since I shared any of my project life pages, my last one being week six, so I thought I would pick this back up and share them with you.


I love how this page came together and I really love the darker colors with the black and white. This week was a hard week and I feel like the page captures that without being too "heavy".

A highlight of the week was my homemade bran muffins - these may not sound delicious but they were. Breakfast is not normally my most favorite meal of the day but having these in the morning definitely made breakfast for enjoyable.

I had to do some traveling for work. Using Ali Edwards Drive story kit was a fun way to document this somewhat standard work activity for me. And when you are in the car for almost eight hours, what better way to pass the time than listening to your favorite podcast.  It really does help the time to pass.

So far so good with keeping up to date with Project Life this year. Each week I am focusing on taking more photos, telling more stories and trying new techniques and I still enjoy it as much as when I started.

This week I documented some things that are keeping me happy - bubble baths and reading to be precise. I love how this project lets you capture the little things in the moment. I included a combination of handwritten, typewriter and computer printed journaling this week.

I used some stamps to do repeat stamping to create the "Yes I can" 3x4 card and I included a few different chipboard pieces for embellishment.

My two most favorite pockets from this weeks spread has to be the two below.  The "Yep I take photos of myself" card is from an Ali Edwards Story Kit and when I came across it I knew I needed to do a fun photo collage to go with it.

• Ali Edwards Story Kits
• Ali Edwards Stamp Kit 
• Stazon ink in black
• Illustrated Faith Washi Tape
• Tim Holtz Phrase Stickers
• Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer

On January 23rd my Gran celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Up until about six months ago she was as healthy as can be but sadly she took a turn for the worse and hasn't been able to fully recover.  After spending a few months in hospital and assisted living, she is back at her home with a full time carer.

The original plan was for the whole family to make our way to my Gran's favorite spot and surprise her with a few days of us all being together, enjoying the beach and each others company.  The hotel was booked, the airline tickets were on hold with the travel agent and we were set to go but life can be cruel. With my gran only being able to manage having people around for a few minutes at a time, we had to change plans.

While we weren't able to be with my Gran on her special day, I still wanted to document it in my project life album so i went through all our family photos and went to work putting these two pages together. I decided to include the speech I would have given had we all been there as well as some fun facts about my gran and her life so far.  I also thought it would be fun to capture one thing from each person in my family, capturing a special attribute or quality that we celebrate about my gran.    

• Ali Edwards Story Kits (Roots and Now & Then)
• Ali Edwards Stamp Kit 
• Stazon ink in black
• Tim Holtz Phrase Stickers
• Studio Calico Bronze cardboard hearts
• Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer

• Ali Edwards Story Kits
• Ali Edwards Stamp Kit 
• Stazon ink in black
• White Uni Posca pen
• Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer

Today I am sharing my Project Life spread for week four of 2017.

The one thing that I have been intentional about so far this year is getting in a good mix of pictures and stories. I am challenging myself to take a photo every day and before I go to bed at night I ask myself what story from that day I would want to share with someone.  I then write down that short story using keywords or a phrase and that way when it comes time to pull my spread together I have some story options ready.

I'm sticking with my title card from Pink Paislee and most of the items in this spread are from Ali Edwards Story kits.

For the first 3x4 card I used some of Ali Edwards stamps as jumping off points, capturing four little stories from this week.  The third 3x4 card I made using the Elle's Studio Jordan Alpha stamps to stamp out the word Netball.  The writing next to that just captures how I felt about myself and the game after training that night. The last card is a photo of me relaxing with an at home mud mask one evening.
 

• Ali Edwards Tough Story Kit
• Ali Edwards Go Story Kit
• Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tim Holtz Small Talk and Chit Chat Stickers
• Elle's Studio Alpa Stamp
• Black Slick Writer Pen
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer

For the top right hand card I used one of Ali Edwards stamps as a jumping off point - What I know to be true - and captured four things from the week that fit the thought. They included how important it is for me to be with people and not try to do life alone, how a little time spent preparing at the end of the week makes a huge difference to the week ahead, the importance of listening to inspiring and uplifting messages and finally a reminder of how when strangers come together to fight for a cause, to stand up for injustice, to raise their voices that it creates a community and allows people to be heard.

The next three 3x4 cards are all in relation to Obama leaving the White House.  I have never really followed politics all that much but I really do love these two.  I love how they love each other, how they treat people and how down to earth they seem.  The journaling captures my thoughts and feelings on these two more than on the politics of it all.

• Ali Edwards Story Kits
• Pink Paislee's Pcitures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer
• Tim Holtz Tiny Word Stickers
• Studio Calico Phrase Stickers

Today I am sharing my Project Life spread for week 02 of 2017.  I had a few more stories than normal to tell this week so in addition to a design A page protector I also used a design I page.

The front of my insert holds my title card, a cute transparent filler pocket and a photo to capture the first snow of the year.  Where I live we either get a lot of snow (by UK standards) or none at all.  I love the first snow fall, it makes everything seem so fresh and new.

• Ali Edwards Story Kits
• Pink Paislee's Pcitures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• HP Envy 4523 Printer
• We R American Crafts Clearly Posh Confetti dot gold

Welcome to Project Life 2017 | Week 1 | 1-8 January 2017

Most of the cards used in this weeks spread are from a past Ali Edwards Story Kit - Believe.  I am making it a mission of mine this year to start using up those gorgeous 6x4 acrylic words that come in the Story Kits. If you would like to see what other plans I have for my project life album this year you can take a look at this post.

Loving the use of my typewriter and washi tape in the right hand 3x4 card.  I definitely want to include more type in my album this year.  While I'm talking about my typewriter I have been considering buying myself one of the WRMK typewriters however they are on the pricey side.  I picked up my current typewriter for £10 out of my local paper but as you can see the line spacing doesn't always work properly which creates different spacing between the rows.  The only thing is, I'm not sure that difference in spacing is worth £189 to buy a new typewriter. If you have a WRMK typewriter I would love to know what you think about it.

Supplies used

• Ali Edwards Believe Story Kit
• Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection
• Tracy Larsen White 1 Square
• Tim Holtz Ideology small talk stickers
• HP Envy 4523 Printer

The things that I did in my 2016 album that I will continue to do in 2017 include using the Currently Edition 12x12 album and Becky Higgins design A page protectors (for the most part). I plan to continue completing a week per page with occasional inserts as the year progresses, as well as using Ali Edwards Story Kits within Project Life.  I printed all my photos at home and loved the flexibility that gave me so I will continue doing that, using my HP Envy 4523 and HP's InstaInk program which I love! In 2016 I only subscribed to Ali Edwards Story Kits and I plan to continue with that while using the stash that I already have as and when I need to.

I also decided that i wanted to shake things up a little and so decided that this year I wanted all my photos to be printed with a white border. I just love how they looked in other peoples albums.  I also wanted my title card to be exactly the same each week - I like the consistency that it brings to the album.  I knew that I wanted to use my typewriter more in 2017 and I wanted the base of my album to be white with splashes of colour.  It sounds very fresh which makes my heart so happy.


The above title cards I created by tweaking Pink Paislee's Pictures + Words No 9 digital collection.

Last year I took Ali Edwards Storytelling with Project Life class and plan to spend a few weeks revisiting the class over the rest of January. I believe Ali will be rerunning the class early part of this year so if you are interested keep an eye on her site.

So those are my plans for Project Life 2017, I hope to share my weekly layouts more frequently on my blog and would love to see what you are doing with yours so please say hi and leave me a link to yours so that I can take a look and come say Hi.

I decided to go with a two full page 12 x 12 spread.  I created my design and then went about choosing my photos, adding the right time stamp and a key word or phrase and then stuck it all down.


I made a few mistakes with the photos allocated to this page and ended up finishing my photo paper, which meant that I couldn't reprint the photos. Instead of waiting, I decided to just go with it and added a couple filler cards/ I am really pleased with how it has come together and plan to re-do this project later on in the year again.

Brave is my One Little Word for 2016 which you can read a little more about here. Week Two saw me being extremely brave - going to the dentist which I am terrified of and upon arriving, finding out that my usual dentist had left and I know had a new lady that I had to get used to. Alright for some, but terrifying for me!  Anyway, the one thing that I learn't about myself and my One Little Word is that living a brave life means doing things even though you are scared.


This winter has been very mild. We didn't get our first snow fall until the second week in January and when it did snow, it was only a sprinkling. Nothing major at all.  My brother and his girlfriend sent me this picture of the street outside their house where someone had created these two hearts in the snowfall...I still can't figure out exactly how they did it but it is pretty awesome!

Happy Saturday! I hadn't planned to take so long to share my Project Life spreads with you all but here we are...it's April 2nd and I am only just getting around to sharing Week One.  If you haven't yet had a chance to see my title page, you can see it here.


It wasn't until the middle of February that I decided I was going to change up my Project Album plan compared to last years plan. In 2015 I did a double layout for each month with a few additional inserts but this year I am going to try a single page layout each week.  As I hadn't planned to do this from January 1st, I had to be a little creative the first six weeks of the year.

This week was mostly about the photos. About spending time with my dad and on my own. About taking down the Christmas decorations but making the most of the fairy lights which I just couldn't yet put away.


These are my favorite cards from Week One. Smidge sitting in a box......always sitting in a box and one of my bible journaling pages.

 After the introduction page, I decided that I wanted to capture my Make It Happen Plan.  I bought these cards from Studio Calico last year but never got around to using them, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to. It was a fun way to capture all the work that I had done in my PowerSheets and it will provide me with an easy snapshot to come back to month on month.



I'm really looking forward to documenting the year ahead.

I am in love with how these spreads turned out. I love the mixture of photo's and learnings.  I can not express how much of an awesome weekend this was but I do know that as I look back on this spread in years to come, it will bring back wonderful memories and remind me of some of the truths shared that weekend.


Mom and I are booked in for next years event and if you ever get the chance to attend I would totally encourage you to do so.

I am so pleased that I decided to jump in and do project life this year. My album is mostly up to date, although I have most of the months to still share with you all which hopefully I will get up over the coming weeks.

August is the first month where I haven't used a Studio Calico project life kit.  Instead, I divided into my stash and chose 5 items as the basis for this month - Seafoam cards, some very old Basic Grey black rubon's, a Heidi Swapp overlay, a container of mixed chipboard pieces and Journey puffy stickers.  I really like how these pages have all come together.

I also found that I took fewer photos during the month than what I normally do which meant I had to get creative with some filler cards. I am really chuffed with how they turned out.

 Happy hump day!  Halfway through the week and heading towards the weekend. Woohoo!

Today I am sharing my February Project Life album.  I've been working on these pages on and off since the 1st of the month and am pleased with how they have turned out.

Here's a look at February:




Words, words and more words. I have done a lot of journaling this month and really love being able to tell the story.  For me, photos are great but the words behind them make the photos come alive.

On Valentines day my friend sent me some beautiful yellow roses and a card.  I originally put the card in one of the 4x6 sleeves but then decided to cut up the words into strips and add them directly onto the photo of the flowers.  I love how this free'ed up a pocket and added a the story to the picture.

My favorite card from this month is the one with my brother, Paul, and Smidge. Paul came round for dinner one evening and Smidge immediately too advantage of this and perched himself on Paul's shoulders.  He seems to forgets that he is actually a cat and enjoys behaving like everything but a cat.

February has been so full of the most amazing sunsets!  I have really enjoyed them while traveling home from my work adventures.  The sun and chipboard items are both from Ali Edwards story kits - am/pm.



Supplies Used

• Page Protectors | 12 x 12 Design A
• Kits | Studio Calico, Seafoam
• Letter Stickers | Studio Calico Alpha Letter stickers, Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas, Fancy Pants designs letters
• Tools | Large corner punch, Fiskars paper trimmer, Tombow liquid glue, Memento grey flannel and Tuxedo black inks, Typewriter
• Stamps | Ali Edwards Week In The Life 2014
• Embellishments | Prima sugar dot stickers, Simple Stories DIY, Teresa Collins rub ons, unknown others

This officially marks my first lot of monthly Project Life pages. I totally love how it turned out but was really surprised by how long it took - especially as it's supposed to be quicker than traditional scrapbooking.  I should probably fess-up though and admit that it probably took so long because I embellished the pants off of each pocket....lol

I have had so much fun doing this and have learnt a lot along the way.  Two things that I am going to do differently for my February layouts is to do the cards as the month goes along instead of leaving it all for March and I'm going to keep a couple of 3 x 4 cards out to fill in as the month goes along.

Here's a look at January's layouts:



January has been a month of all sorts. No one big event or experience, just lots of little things that have all added together. A New Years day stroll through Bradgate Park, several snow days and a new typewriter to name a few.

One of the things that I knew before I started Project Life was that I want my pages to tell the story of my life. I want to put words with the photos. I want to include only those things that make up those stories, not every single photo I take during the month.


One of the big things that I want to keep in mind this year is to put aside time to play.  And not just in the sense of creating, reading or cooking but also in the sense of laughing and being in awe of sparkle and glitter each and every day.

The Studio Calico Project Life kit came with a bag of individual chipboard words. I so love this idea and think that they look so great on my layouts. In the " I just want to ..." card below, I used the words within my journaling and to add interest to the page. In the Snow Days card, I used the chipboard with the word "Because" and used it as a jumping point for the journaling card.

Originally, I had only planned on doing a two spread layout for the month. Once the two pages were complete though, I felt like my album didn't look right.  Deciding to do an 8.5 x 11 pocket page as the title page meant that I had an odd page layout if I left it as it was, so I decided an additional page was needed.



I was so excited to use my new (to me) typewriter on this goal card above.  One big lesson that this card taught me is that using a typewriter is a great way to confront your need for perfection.  Yup, if your using an old typewriter (AND your new to using one) expect your lines to be uneven, the sentences to be misaligned and a couple of your words misspelled.  At first I was a little miffed but then I decided it was just part of the process and that I needed to roll with it.

Supplies Used

• Page Protectors | 12 x 12 Design A
• Kits | Studio Calico, Seafoam
• Letter Stickers | Studio Calico Alpha Letter stickers
• Tools | Large corner punch, Fiskars paper trimmer, Tombow liquid glue
• Stamps | Ali Edwards Week In The Life 2014, Studio Calico Far Far Away
• Embellishments | Prima sugar dot stickers, Simple Stories DIY, unknown others

2015 sees the start of my first ever Project Life album.  I am so excited to have started this project but I sort of feel like I need to take a step back and document the story of before Project Life, before moving forward.

You see, I used to be a scrapbooker. I think it was back in 2007/2008 that I first started. At the time I was engaged,living with my fiance and had a couple cute kitties. I loved documenting our life. What we got up to. Who we were together. Who I was as an individual. I filled about four 12 x 12 albums. And then I chose to end things.  Fast forward a few years by which point I had gotten my own place and had started to settle into it and into my new life.  My scrapbooking stash came out but I wasn't in a place emotionally to document.  I felt like I didn't have anything to share. That being single meant my life was not interesting, exciting or important enough to share. So I boxed it all up and put it away.

Last year I signed up to One Little Word 2014. It was probably the first time since putting my stash away that I had begun to be creative with my stash again. I absolutely loved it! Getting messy, documenting my life, my thoughts, my goals and dreams. It was exactly what I needed and I realized that being creative was good for my soul.

As I started to do some prep work for 2015, I realized that my thinking about my life not being worthy enough to document had been tainted.  The life that I am living is who I am right now. It is what makes me who I am and that is worthy of documenting. I hope that I will be blessed enough to one day have a family, and how special will it be for my children and even grandchildren to see the person that I was before they came along. This is why I decided that this year would be the year that I start Project Life.  I have something to say and I want to share it.      

So this is my plan for how I hope to approach Project Life this year.

Album size and page protectors: I plan do to a 12 x 12 album using predominantly Project Life Design A page protectors.  While most pages will be this size and design, I do know that I like to mix things up so am fully expecting to have some random size pages and designs in my album.  Case in point, my 2015 title page is an 8.5 x 11.

Filler cards: I knew that I would not want to stick to only one core kit. I would get bored of it very quickly and then the money I had spent would be left sitting in my craft room.  So I have purchased a few taster kits, made a few of my own 3 x 4 cards (which you can see below) and signed up to Studio Calico's monthly Project Life kits.  I will see how this goes and make adjustments as needed.


Photographs: I plan to print my own photos at home using my Canon printer.  While a few will be in sizes 6x4 and 3x4, I will also probably do a lot of 2x2's and 3x3's. This will be me space on the cards for embellishments and journaling.  Most of my photo's will also be taken using my Iphone. It's just easier to grab and goes everywhere with me. When I have some special events I will grab my Lumix camera and use that instead.

Frequency: As I said earlier in the this post I am currently single. I have therefore decided to do project life monthly rather than weekly. This will mean at least one two-page layout each month although I am fully expecting it to be more like two or three two-page layouts.  Again, as this is my first time, I will have to see how it goes and adjust from there.

Sharing my layouts: As I am using a monthly approach, it makes sense to share my layouts in a monthly post on my blog.  I am sure though that I will be sharing as a I go along on my Instagram account (username = georgiamudfudge) so feel free to follow me and say hi over there.

And there it is. I am sooooo excited about taking on this project and documenting my life.