Also, a little housekeeping- I've contacted the winner of last week's Coral Couture stack giveaway! Congrats to Pam who'll be receiving both the cardstock and patterned paper stacks. Stay tuned next week when I'll give away a set of stacks for another collection!
Last week I put DCWV's Coral Couture stack in the spotlight by using it on a layout, and today I'm going to take it for a spin in my Project Life album! For the most part I used the Coral Couture mat stack since its 4.5" x 6.5" size makes it a perfect candidate for cutting down to fit the pockets of Project Life page protectors.
I also enlisted a little help from this sheet of journaling and decorative cards from the big 12"x12" stack. The cards are a bit bigger than the standard 3"x4" Project Life journaling pocket, but I was able to trim them down to fit.
Here's a look at the pages as they are in the album. My insert (if you can call a menu and a quickly scribbled note thrown into an office supply page protector an insert) is shown in the first two pictures, and the third one shows just the page protectors without the added items.
Can I stop right here and wax poetic about Project Life for a few moments? Something that I ran across today on Lisa Andrews' blog really struck a chord with me, and I wanted to share it here.
I know that Project Life has its haters- those who say that photos of what we ate for lunch and 39 million photos of the cats being cute aren't worth scrapping. In general I'm not affected by what others say and just do my own thing, since in the end I do all of this for me, anyway. I do think it's sad, though, that there seems to be a camp that's bent on judging whether or not a photo is worth scrapping- a memory is worth keeping- based on some arbitrary criteria that exists only in their own minds. I'm not saying that Project Life is for everyone- no scrapping project is for everyone! But, really, can't we leave each to their own? If doing Project Life makes you happy, do it! If it repels you, then don't do it! But don't hate on those who enjoy it, please.
As for me, I do it and it makes me happy. I'm not wishing away today, waiting for better photos and better memories to come along. Because, really, no memories are better than the ones right here, right now. I make lots of traditional pages that I love, and I'll never stop doing that, but for me Project Life has become the album that matters. The one that counts.
Okay, enough being so serious...let's get back to the pretty paper, shall we? :)
Here's the left-hand side of Week 7- some work photos, some home photos, and, of course, grocery shopping photos. I don't know what I'd put in this album sometimes if it weren't for all the food photos floating around in my Lightroom catalog!
Here's the back side of the insert (it just happens that when the insert is opened against this page, the back side is what shows- go figure!) with a note that Darren wrote and left on my chair while I was at the gym. We're always coming and going from the house at different times. He runs back and forth managing experiments in the lab at the university. I run to the gym. We both run errands, so we're constantly texting or leaving notes to let the other one know where we are.
There's a photo of my lunch from one day at work here- we worked a lot of extra hours and the president of the company bought us lunch to thank us. I took one of the 4"x3" grid journaling cards from Project Life and edged it with a bit of the Coral Couture paper to add some color. Nestled right next to that you'll see a photo of my adorbz nieceling, Sophie. Dad took some photos of her on Valentine's Day, and I asked him to email them to me so I could include one here.
I finally pulled out the arrow stickers from the Project Life kit and used them here since I split the journaling card (also from the Coral Couture stack) between two photos. It's the first time in 3 years of doing this that I've used them!
Oh, and that photo on the far right? It's the construction site for our new Chipotle. Yes, Huntsville is finally getting one!
Lots of photos from grocery shopping adventures, including a trip to the olive bar at Earth Fare. Here I printed up three 2"x3" photos and mounted them on a larger 4"x6" piece of paper, along with a journaling card from Elle's Studio and a butterfly punched from the Coral Couture paper.
Moving on to the right side...
And another shot of the insert with a menu from a restaurant that we ate at on Saturday.
I cut this cute li'l February title from one of KI Memories' latest cut files in the Silhouette store. Love it! And you may have noticed that I'm skipping around weeks again in my album. Since I'm showcasing different kits and papers each week, I often have to hold some weeks out until a certain date before showing them, thus the skipping around. In reality I have three weeks of unscrapped photos, though they're all printed up, trimmed, and in a big page protector with that week's "stuff" waiting to be scrapped. I loved reading Monica McNeill's post today where she said she considered herself caught up if her photos were printed and ready to go. I'm right there with her. :)
As if lunch shots weren't enough, here's a breakfast shot, too! I've been on a smoked salmon/cheese/fruit kick for breakfast lately!
We don't drink a lot in our house (okay, I don't drink at all), but every once in a while I'll pick out a "fancy" beer for Darren (and it'll take him about two weeks to finish a 6 pack). Can I admit that I chose this one simply for the awesome typography on the packaging? Darren said it tasted pretty good, too. :)
The last photo in the layout is actually from Friday evening. I was on my way in to a crop at church when I noticed that one of the trees out in front of the building was blooming! For someone like me who's a serious winterphobe, it was such a welcome sight!
It's looking like this week's photos are going to be all cherry blossoms...and a Murphy bed. But that's a story for another week and another post. :)