Open - my One Little Word for 2015. Its only a small four letter word but in every other way its been huge so far.  As I have mentioned before, this is the second year that I am following Ali Edwards online course and I am loving that while the January exercises have been similar, the results have turned out so very differently.

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