Today I'm going to share my Project Life Weeks Two and Three + talk a little bit about my how I die cut the titles for the entire month of January. Little tips & tricks to make this an easy process as simple as possible.
Week 2 layout:
My plan is to die cut an entire month's work of titles in one sitting so that I'm not having to do it individually each week. You could go ahead and do an entire year if you wanted to. I am not that organized and I want to have the ability to switch things up at a later date if need be so a month is a good compromise for me.
I started out by choosing the title cards from the BH Clementine Core Kit that I wanted to use for the month. Then I opened up all the KerrI Bradford images I would be die cutting in my Silhouette Software.
Using my handy ruler I measured each title card being sure that I sized my images to fit above the pre-printed strip on the card. I came up with this. With the style of cards I chose, I decided to do 3 of the weeks in one style and 1 week in another. I love mixing and matching. :)
I saved this file on my computer for easy retrievel and so that I don't have to resize these again, the next time I need to cut titles. Plus I can add to it as the year goes and I need other sizes or different images.
Then I duplicated several of the images and cut them all from black cardstock. Then I cut the individual elements from different colors of patterned papers for the title blocks.
Here's what all the die cutting looked like prior to assembly in my album:
Week 2 highlights:
I used a Kerri Bradford photo strip template to create the photo strip in the top right pocket. Also included are ticket stubs from the football game we attended with my brother and sister-in-law and business cards from the restaurants we ate at.
I used my very favorite tea/coffee stain stamp from Studio Calico on the journaling card in the bottom left pocket. I sure wish they would bring this retired stamp back in a new stamp set (hint, hint SC!!!!). I wanted this card that shares the Taco Soup recipe to have that authentique recipe card that has been used and abused and used as a coffee coaster look. This is one of our family's favorite simple weekday recipes so I wanted to include it in our Project Life.
Close up of the title for week 2:
I layered vellum behind the number and added die cut flowers from text paper attached with a pretty brad.
Right side:
I layered jouraling cards in the lower left pocket, combing 2 days worth of journaling here.
*New Ink Pad Storage* (shown in lower right photo)
For Kristin and anyone else who is wondering, Chad got me these ink pad storage units for Christmas. They hang on the wall, freeing up counter space for me. Plus I can see all my ink pads in one glance. I haven't actually got them hung yet. That's on the agenda this weekend!
I purchased them at www.suink.net. I do really like them but I wasn't overly impressed with their customer service. My husband ordered them early in December for a Christmas gift and we didn't get them until January. I can understand they were busy during the holiday and that they wouldn't arrive on time but they didn't return his phone calls after he left a couple of messages and her email back to him was borderline rude. They also didn't come with the hardware attached to hang them to the wall. The hardware is an extra purchase, which was fine but I (wrongly) assumed it would come attached. It didn't. And the instructions are poor. But, my handy "adopted" 22 year old son is a handyman whiz so I'll be getting him to do all that for me! ;)
I also die cut one of the words from Kerri's Life Additions #2 and used it in one of the journaling card pockets. I added a die cut heart (October Afternoon) and a clear heart button (Stampin' Up!). It doesn't bother me at all that you can see the back of this on Week 3. I love the look of including words/backgrounds, etc. in the pockets and being able to see-through them!
Week 3 layout:
I added lots of little embellishments to my spread. All my favorite things:
- Jillibean Soup butterfly punch out die
- Cosmo Cricket & October Afternoon & Narratives phrase stickers
- Wood Letter (stapled to an OA label sticker) from Studo Calico
- Layered journaling cards (OA)
- Small Heart Punch (Stampin' Up)
Close up of Week 3 title, embellished with butterfly, button and phrase sticker.
Close up of layered journaling cards:
For the first time (this year) I had to include a bit of journaling about a bad day Ethan (my youngest) had at school. Even though it's not fun to remember these kinds of things, this just goes to show how including these stories gives a much more accurate look at life.
Close up of Kerri Bradford's Friday Freebie heart border die cut used as a photo overlay. I die cut mine for this photo but I also could have used the digital version directly on my photo and printed it.
PROJECT LIFE 2012 | Basic Supplies:
PROJECT LIFE 2012 | Week Two & Three Supplies:
Additional Supplies:
- Coffee Stain Stamp (Studio Calico)
- layered mailla tag (Amy Tan for Studio Calico)
- Cosmo Cricket Tiny Text Stickers
- Date Stamp (office supply store)
- random October Afternoon label stickers
PROJECT LIFE 2012 | FULL LISTING
I am thinking that Mondays will be my Project Life share day here on the blog (most weeks). I think it will be a fun way to start off each week by sharing the previous week's layout spread and to keep me goal-oriented on sharing weekly!
