project life 2012 | week 41 + looking forward to 2013

Monday, December 31, 2012

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I'm up on the Lily Bee blog today with Week 41 of my Project Life album, and I thought that now (being the end of 2012 and all) would be a great time to take a look back at Project Life in 2012 and recap my philosophy (which sounds all deep and everything, but really it isn't :) ) on it as well as look ahead to some of the things I want to do moving forward with this project in 2013.

But first, here's a closer look at the left and right hand sides of Week 41.

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I've really, really enjoyed Project Life in 2012 and am looking forward to continuing my album in 2013. In fact, I will be continuing 2013 in the same album as 2012 for the first part of the year. 2012 took up two and a half American Crafts 12x12 D-Ring binders (I use Amy Tan's camera print album), and I didn't want that half of a binder to go unused. Instead of starting a new album in 2013 (and having to worry about the split week this week), I decided to just let the project flow straight into the next year without changing albums- which also eliminates the pesky cover and end page problems (I still haven't done those for either of my albums).

If you're fairly new to the blog (and thank you for reading- so happy to have you here!), here's a quick recap of my Project Life philosophy:
  • I take the project week by week. For me, Project Life is not a photo a day. I did that in 2009 and tried it for the first half of 2011, and it just wasn't for me. Instead, I work on a weekly basis. Sometimes I do take a photo every day. Sometimes I have a measly two photos during the week and then take a ton on the weekend. Since I work full time (and sometimes long hours) in a facility where I can't normally have a camera, this format works best for me and captures the most of my life. Definitely sticking with this in 2013.
  • I'm not concerned if I get "behind" at all. I actually like to purposely be behind at least several weeks on my album for a couple of reasons. First, I print very few photos at home and prefer to send them out for processing at Snapfish. Being able to order several weeks' worth of Project Life photos at a time makes processing more cost effective. Second, as I do with most of my traditional scrapping, I like to let the products that I want to use inspire the photos that I work with. If I have several weeks of Project Life photos waiting to be scrapped, I'm free to flip through them and see which week's photos work best with the papers I want to work with at the time. Yes, this means that I do skip around weeks quite a bit, but as long as I'm making at least one Project Life spread a week on average, I'm good. Some weeks I make 5 and some I do 0- it's just the ebb and flow of life and time for scrapbooking, and I don't stress about it- what I'm looking for is an average of one a week. I'll also sometimes go back and pick up a missed week in 2011 instead of doing a 2012 page (again, a supplies thing), which is why I'm just posting Week 41 (there are actually a couple of earlier 2012 weeks still to scrap, and I've done some of the weeks after this one, as well) now, even though I have scrapped and posted a Project Life layout every Monday for the entire year.
  • I use regular scrapbooking supplies instead of a Project Life kit. I tried using a kit in 2011 and got so bored with it that I quit the project halfway through the year (you can read about it here). In 2012 I switched to using whatever products I wanted to pull from my stash instead, and it's definitely helped keep me from getting bored. I'll continue doing this in 2013, using items from my stash as well as from Citrus Twist's Project Life kits.
All of those items are carrying forward to 2013, and there are some additional things I'm wanting to tweak or try as well.
  • Printing on journaling cards. I have atrocious handwriting. I know it. And the more I write in a session, the worse it gets. I want to try printing out my journaling on cards (there are tutorials showing the process at both Paislee Press and Listgirl) and keep the handwriting to smaller bits of the album- perhaps on a label or two each week. My thinking that is as long as some of my handwriting is there, then it doesn't matter if everything is handwritten. This is one of those things that I'm going to give a trial run and see how it goes- I may completely drop it if it becomes a huge hassle and go right back to writing everything by hand.
  • Add digital brushes to photos. I've kind of fallen in love with digital brushes in the past year, and after discovering the amazing Brush Pilot app (seriously the best tool I've found for organizing and browsing brushes) a few weeks ago, I think I finally have the last part of my workflow (I'm very big on having a process for everything) in place to be able to do this. Look for a tutorial video on this from me later in the year.
  • More fun editing tools with iPhone photos. In 2012 I treated my iPhone photos the same way as my DSLR photos, but the amazing variety of apps available (Diptic, Bokehful, Instagram, and Phonto are current faves) makes me want to play with these photos just a bit more. This is something I won't do with every photo on my Project Life pages, but I'd love to have a few each week that I've played with (making collages in Diptic, for example) when I have a few spare minutes...you know, instead of playing Angry Birds while waiting at the doctor's office. :)
I'm so excited to dive into 2013- bring it on, because I'm ready to scrap!


Supplies (click on images for product links):



geek girl | december 30, 2012

Sunday, December 30, 2012

2012 has been such a great geeky year with so many awesome movies, video games, books, and toys being released, not to mention the amazing fan builds and DIY projects that have been rounded up here. Today I'm posting the final Geek Girl for 2012, but this feature will definitely be back in 2013- which is looking to be an even greater geeky year, if such a thing is possible!

 

From the top left:

  • Roqoo Depot took the opportunity of an actual petition to the White House to build a Death Star to inject a bit of post-election political humor into fandom. 
  • The latest edition of Star Wars Insider magazine includes a short story by Timothy Zahn entitled Heist. That man is everywhere these days!
  • This real, live, working TARDIS PC is officially licensed by the BBC and is available in a variety of configurations.
  • Bit Rebels shows how to build your own iPhone dock out of Legos!
  • Home interior company Graham Brown has released the Spellbound collection of wallpapers for those geeks who want to do a bit more "grown up" decorating.
  • Remember those Stargate themed Best-Lock (Lego compatible) sets I posted about a while back? They're finally available at ThinkGeek!
  • This floppy disk coffee table takes me back to my college days in the PC lab...ah, how I do love USB drives now!
  • How amazing are these Legend of Zelda themed wedding rings posted at Fashionably Geek?
  • Sometimes one of the geeky sites in my Google Reader posts something that crosses over to the craftier side of this blog, but rarely does it work the other way. These DIY Super Mario canvases at Write. Click. Scrapbook., though, just begged to be shared here!
MTFBWY!

friday favorites | december 28, 2012

Friday, December 28, 2012

Good evening, peeps! It's the last Friday of 2012, and to commemorate the end of this year and the beginning of the next I've rounded up several sources for free, printable calendars in a variety of sizes and styles. There are also a couple of fun New Year's Eve items in the mix, just in case you're looking for a quick and easy way to make the festivities a bit more special.

Speaking of the new year, several manufacturers have announced this week that they'll be sharing sneak peeks of the upcoming CHA Winter 2013 goods after the 1st, so now might be a good time to bookmark the sneak peek page if you haven't already. I've been adding new sneaks daily as I find them (and as they are sent to me by readers- thank you!), and there's already quite a bit on the page! A few manufacturers circumvented sneaks entirely and have simply posted their entire new lines on their company sites, and in those cases I've linked you straight up to them. Things are just getting started, and with several major players still to weigh in with their releases, you won't want to miss out on anything in the weeks to come!

And, now, on with this week's picks!

 

From the top left:

  • The glitter technique used on this card from the Basic Grey blog was demonstrated on a Christmas project, but it would easily translate to any sort of theme.
  • How sweet is this New Year garland card at Jenni Bowlin Studio?
  • I think that we're going to re-create Elsie Larson's fun "grilled cheese party" here at our casa on New Year's Eve- it looks easy and absolutely yummy!
  • Paper Crave rounded up several free printable 2013 calendars, including the fun whimsical version pictured above.
  • Check out this great step-by-step layout tutorial at I Lowe Scrap.
  • Eat Drink Chic posted a sweet 2013 printable calendar.
  • How About Orange linked up the awesome looking Grand Hotel font- it looks perfect for use in the Silhouette!
  • You can find another roundup of free printable 2013 calendars at More Design Please.
  • Need a little something to make a gifted bottle of bubbly look festive on New Year's Eve? How About Orange has a couple of great printable wine toppers you can download.
TTFN!

sketches for stashbusting (and a tiny citrus twist peek!)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I'm gearing up for my Year of Stashbusting in 2013, and I'm getting so, so excited for it! I talked all about it in this post, and one of the things I mentioned was using sketch challenge sites for inspiration (and also because I work best with some sort of deadline involved :) ). A couple of people commented and asked for recommendations for sketch challenges, so I put together a list of the challenge blogs that I frequent- feel free to add your favorites in the comments if you don't see them here!
There are also a few manufacturers/kit clubs who put out great sketches on a weekly basis, including
Manufacturer sketch challenges are especially great if you're trying to use up supplies from a particular company.

I also love Scrapbook Generation sketches and am finding them easily adaptable to my style, so I'll probably be purchasing their digital downloads each month, as well. 

And, because I'm a) very excited about these and b) physically incapable of posting without including an image of some sort, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of something that will be coming to the Citrus Twist Kits blog in January- Project Life sketches!


I ran the idea for little sketches for the 3x4 and 4x6 pockets of a Project Life page protector past Trina and she loved it, so these will be a new part of the weekly Project Life posts there starting in the new year! Trina has already come up with several (one shown above), and I'll be contributing, as well! Hopefully these will help with including a larger variety of photo sizes and arrangements on Project Life layouts for those who like that sort of thing.

So excited for what's to come in 2013! 

layout | first cherry blossom

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

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It nearly killed me not to share the layout I made for Simple Scrapper's Everyday Storyteller eBook back in May here on the blog- I just loved it so much after I it came together! I'm totally justifying now, but since it's been more than 6 months since the book was published and since there's also a whole article that I wrote (along with step-by-step photos of the process) that I'm not posting here, there's no harm in sharing the page itself, right?

I'm so hoping that you agree with all of that, because, well...here it is!

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Now that I look at this page again, it reminds me of why I'm so excited for 2013's stashbusting adventure. When I made this page there were no rules, no set supplies, no particular parameters on the assignment. I just picked a set of papers that I'd been wanting to work with (this particular page uses Crate Paper's Paper Heart collection, and I think I bought an extra half dozen sheets of that woodgrain...), chose a photo, and did exactly as I pleased with it. I'm really looking forward to doing so much more of that next year!

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Another thing this page reminds me of? That there are only three more months until it's cherry blossom season here again!

putting christmas scraps to work {lily bee}

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Good morning, and a very merry Christmas day to everyone! We've got a day of family fun planned here, so I'm just going to quickly drop off a couple of seasonal projects that have been posted to the Lily Bee blog in the last couple of weeks.

After scrapping several Christmas layouts, I found myself with lots of scraps left over from the Lily Bee Christmas Cheer collection. Instead of filing them away or just tossing them, I put them to work on a few projects, starting with this pair of Christmas ornaments. You can find instructions for making both here on the Lily Bee blog- the onion ornaments are especially quick and easy to make!

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My second project (and my favorite of the two- I've fallen in love with making tags lately!) is a set of Christmas tags, also made using Lily Bee Christmas Cheer scraps and a few small embellishments such as a gold doily and a few wood veneer snowflakes.

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I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season. In the words of Tiny Tim, "And God bless us, everyone!"


Supplies (click on images for product links):



project life 2012 | week 46 {pretty little studio}

Monday, December 24, 2012

I admit that I might have let this particular week in my Project Life album get away from me. There was so much going on during this week that I opted to do inserts (yes, two) instead of using smaller photos or even the more sane option of just one insert. But oh, no, I had to go and include two, and by the end of scrapping this week I was so ready to be done with it!

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We always have one week in November that looks a lot more like Christmas than fall thanks to both the botanical gardens' Galaxy of Lights and the tree lighting at Bridge Street, both of which happen before Thanksgiving. With such a Christmas-y vibe to the pictures, I decided to use Christmas themed supplies for this spread (I did the same thing with this week in 2011, too) and since Pretty Little Studio's Christmas At Home collection was already on my desk while I worked on other projects, I decided to run with it.

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This was definitely one busy week- the Galaxy of Lights, working on the floor, working in the yard, the world's most insane trip to IKEA ever (I had to drive to Ohio and back for work in the same day and decided to stop off at IKEA to pick up a kitchen island since it was on the way), the tree lighting at Bridge Street, and Darren's birthday. Phew!

I picked a photo representing each of these for my main pages...

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And then got crazy with the inserts to go into detail on each. Note to self: next time just print smaller photos and do one page!

There was flooring work...

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...and a closer look at the Galaxy of Lights...

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...and more Bridge Street...

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...and more of D's birthday.

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I learned that while I do enjoy making my normal Project Life pages, I really don't enjoy making this many inserts each week. I've only done it once before (for my birthday week), and I'd forgotten how much extra time the inserts add!


Supplies (click on images for product links):



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