Project Life Volume 2 Cover Page

I have had this page done for a few months now, but forgot to share.  This is the cover of Volume 2 of our 2012 Project Life.  It's almost full.  Planning to start Volume 3 with Week 44. :)

I don't have a cover yet for Volume 1.   I plan to wait until the end of the year and use my favorite images from the year for the cover.

Project Life Week 42 ( Studio Calico October Kit)

I purchased my first ever Studio Calico kit at the end of last month.  Their roller rink kit was gorgeous. This was my first time using it, and I just might be hooked.

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Project Life Organization

I had finally had it up to "there" with my workspace, so I dug in yesterday and cleaned it all up.  I would like to note that currently my workspace is a foldable table in the corner of our great room. Because that is the corner where the Christmas tree goes each year, I plan to move my workspace to the computer/toy room here in the next month or so. I don't know that my storage will change a whole lot (with the exception of using a cube bookcase once I made the move), so I thought I would share what I've got organized as of right now.  I would like to note that most of these items I scrounged from around the house, and only a few containers were actually purchased with project life storage in mind.

I have these containers on a wooden tv tray right beside my worktable.  The wire basket contains my washi tape collection as well as a few other ribbons, tapes, and trims.  The small white basket contains my stamping collection.  I am not a stamper, can't you tell. Although I did buy a bucket full from Target a few weeks ago, and I've got to find  way to incorporate those into my storage in the hopes that I will get my $10 worth. :)  The orange basket contains all my alphas and thickers as well as most of my sticker and label sheets. 

This basket I had originally bought a few weeks ago to hold magazines.  Now it holds larger sized labels, alphas, and stickers.  The acrylic organizers with my veneers and brads were purchased from the Target dollar spot a few months ago with project life storage in mind. I wish I'd have gotten at least 4 more of these organizers.

The white metal bucket holds all of my paper pads as well as my smash pads and my project life coordinating cardstock journal cards.

These two are drawers pulled out of their holders. Ideally, I will put them back in their holders once I make the move to the computer/toy room. The left side drawer holds my 4x6 cards divided into four categories: journaling cards, solid cards, patterned cards, and vertical cards.  Behind those cards are all of my adhensives. The right side drawer holds all of my tools: my punches, my corner rounders, my tiny attacher, and my scissors.

This item was bought for project life. In the beginning, it was one of the only three storage containers I had.  I use it to store certain categories of 3x4 cards (filler cards, solid cards, horizontal cards), smaller stickers, bags, and brads that are still on their cards.

This little drawer used to be filled with makeup.  Since I've had the boys, I've stopped buying so much makeup, so I incorporated this for storage of small embellishments, die cuts, chipboard shapes, and then one drawer is devoted to paper scraps.  The container on top is a whole lotta squares that I purchased from JoAnn's when I first started project life. I rarely use the squares, though.

This small basket contains two categories of journal cards: those that are too small to fill up the slots themselves, and regular vertically oriented journal cards.

This basket contains mostly tags, with a few odd things thrown in there.

I got this container on clearance at Target a few months ago. It holds pens, envelopes, and miscellaneous items in the back.  Oh, and my ruler.

This container I purchased at the Target dollar spot, and it holds all of my 3x4 patterned cards.

Project Life : Week 41

I am officially caught up! :happy dance: 

Here's my Week 41 using mostly Basic Grey clippings papers.  Last weekend, one of my childhood friends and I went to Atlanta to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at The Tabernacle. It was a fun trip and a fabulous show!  These images were all printed using my new Canon Pixma ix6520 printer on Red River Paper.   I used both semi-gloss paper and metallic paper for the pictures. Both concert pictures were printed on metallic paper as well as the image of the boys at the hockey game.

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I used a template from Catherine at Design Editor for this image, and I loved how it turned out.  The background paper is from Valorie Wibbens Today collection.

Project Life : Week 40

This week's color scheme was inspired by a Christmas card template I recently purchased online. I loved the green tones (green is my favorite color), so I built off of that.  I also used some crazy cute journal cards that I purchased from Tin at LifeLovePaper.  They're the cutest fall cards I've seen yet!


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The right side B&W picture of Bowen is a flip pocket. Here's a picture of what it looks like flipped up:

Project Life: Week 39

I've had this week done for a while now, but just now got around to taking pictures to post.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Every now and then I get questions about my project life, my scrapbooking, my photography.  I thought it would be great to address them all in one place, so here goes. If I am forgetting something, please let me know so that I can address that question as well.

1. When did you get started scrapbooking?

I started scrapbooking digitally in January of 2011.  I LOVED it.  I scrapped almost everything, and then at the end of the year had my layouts printed in a Shutterfly book (2 volumes worth).  I loved it, but felt like I was constantly at the computer, and it started to become more of a chore toward the end of the year.   It was early January 2012 that I jumped on the Project Life bandwagon and I've not looked back. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT, and my scrapbook space is currently located in our living room, so I am able to interact with the boys while I am scrapping.

2. What kind of camera do you have?

I currently have a Nikon D7000. I bought it last September to replace my Nikon D50.  I have a Nikon 50mm/1.4G lens that stays on it most of the time, but I also have an 85mm/1.8 and a 35mm/2.0 that I use sometimes.  I have just begun to shoot most images in RAW and process in Lightroom with some tweaking in PS CS5.  I just bought some VSCO Film presets and I love them! 

I also take a lot of pictures using my iPhone 4, though lately I've tried to cut down on that simply because the quality is just not the same.  But I still use it a lot.  Hoping for the iPhone 5 for my birthday!  Hey, a girl can dream!

3. Where do you buy most of your scrapbooking supplies?

Paper Supplies:  ONLINE: Two Peas in a Bucket, My Scraps and More,  Etsy, Freckled Fawn (fab washi tape), Paper Source, and occasionally Scrapbooks.com.  BRICK AND MORTAR: Hobby Lobby, Michael's and Target. Unfortunately we do not have an Archiver's close by. I was fortunate to be able to visit one last weekend and fell in love with it, but it's not somewhere I will ever get to shop on a regular basis.
 
4. Where do you print your pictures?

Mostly at Costco, but I have printed many weeks at Target and Wal-Mart.  And for Week 41, I printed on my new printer at home simply because I didn't want to have to run to town and pick them up. 

5. Do you use a Becky Higgins Core kit?

I have one that I use occasionally.  The quality is fabulous, but I think I made a poor choice in kits because the Cobalt kit translates as too dark for me, so I rarely use it.
 
6. Who inspires you?

Design Editor- Catherine (and she has FAB freebies now and again), Mary Ann Perry, Pink Ronnie, Elise Blaha Cripe, Listgirl-Christine, Ali Edwards, Kelly Purkey, Patricia Roebuck, Liz Tamanaha, Susan Weinroth, Vee, and Amy Tangerine.
 
7. What type of printer do you have?

I recently purchased a Canon Pixma ix6520 from Staples. It was around $100 and works FABULOUS so far. I printed my Week 41 pictures with it yesterday and was more than pleased with the quality. 
 
8. What type of paper do you use?

Red River Paper is far and away superior.  I prefer the River Linen or Premium Matte Plus. I've also used Epson Premium Matte Presentation Paper and even the plain ole cardstock from Walmart. 
 
9. How do you have time to do all this scrapbooking?

I do have two little boys and we try to do something fun each weekend, but we also are homebodies to a certain extent (Wilder particularly), and even more so since both of them are in school.  We are usually home for the majority of the weekend, so that helps.  And yes, my house is a mess. I'd rather scrap than clean any day! :) 

10.  What are some of your favorite brands for scrapbooking supplies?

I love October Afternoon, Basic Grey, Crate Paper, Amy Tangerine's line with American Crafts, and Studio Calico.   Digitally, I love Valorie Wibbens, Sahlin Studio, Emily Merritt, One Little Bird, and Allison Pennington (all found at The Lily Pad.)

Project Life Week 38

Here it is:  short and sweet.  Truth: I didn't have much to scrap about until I got "the call" from the school on Thursday that they thought Bowen had broken his arm.

So here's my  not so glamorous Week 38:

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