Project Life Week 37 and 38

Hi everyone!

When I said in my last post that I was up to date, that's not what I meant. I'm not completely up to date. I haven't catch up on 20 weeks in 2 weeks, don't worry, I'm human too. ;) I only meant that even though I'm working backwards to fill up the gap, I'm also working forward and on that forward side, I'm up to date. :) Voilà! That's what I meant. :)

So here are my weeks 37 and 38. They are very special to me. Here's why:

Last week I worked on a very special project I had for a long time: I worked on my very own Project life cards. :) And I used them this week and it was such a special feeling to see my own work in my own album. Here's one of the cards. There's a watercolor look to it. Soft, but still vibrant. I'll point you to the next ones as I go.

That week, we had our first meeting in Arielle's classroom and I was happy that my husband could come along with me. I loved to sit at my daughter's desk and see what she's working on in class. Look at the story she wrote… hilarious!!! :) You'll see that later on. ;)

 Here's another card I made. I was working on a "different" pattern than what we always see and these were not supposed tu be bubbles, but I finally paired them with pool pictures so yeah, they turned out to be great bubbles. :) The label is hand drawn and is part of the card (I didn,t draw it over the printed card - not sure I'm being clear) This bold and beautiful yellow arrow flair is from my friend Caroline Elliam at cuts2luv.  You should check her Etsy shop out! :)

Here's another card of mine. One of my favorite!! I love the bold and sunny colors. The background is watercolor and the lines are hand drawn.

In an 8.5x11 page protector I slipped what I brought back from my daughter's school. She had made us a beautiful drawing!! I added the little note we left her on her desk and a picture of one of her really cute project that was on the wall "first day jitters". :)

To tell the story, I simply added a little card that I attached with a tiny paperclip.

On the other side of the drawing I inserted the news letter I get every week from her teacher. Not sure I'll print them every week, but I find that it's a nice way to keep track of the progress they are making in class.

On the right page I added a picture that my youngest daughter made. She's just starting drawing people and I find them SO cute!!!! This 4x6 card is also from my collection. In the label that was intended for the date, i let my daughter write her name. :) I love this little blue heart!!

There's another card of mine right here, this time with some French on it!!!! That's one thing missing in the French community: PROJECT LIFE CARDS IN FRENCH!!! So I thought if I can make some, it would be fun for my French speaking friends. I just don,t know just yet how I'll distribute them. Still thinking about my options.  So on this yellow one we can read: right now. And right under there I've stamped "routine no.1" from my other friend Tchoubi (Nathalie Grégoire) who just launched her shop this week!! I am so excited for her and I'm very happy that she asked me to be on her design team.

This overlay "les beaux jours" is also from Tchoubi. I simply layered it over one of my cards.

Here's the card.

And here's the overlay. :) So cute!!!!!!

Week 38

Here's another one of my favorite PL spread and I'm using a bunch of my cards. It's such a wonderful feeling!!! Sorry for the blurry spots but I'm working on some secret stuff. ;)

This beautiful 4x6 card is from my friend Heidi Swapp. Have you seen her "dreamy" edition yet?? If not, you've got to see it!!! Fabulous stuff.

This little cutie is from me. ;) I love the yellow drop and the ombre yellow/green blue effect. :)

I wish I could have NOT blurred these cards as the pink orange one is probably my favorite!! Look at this little heart in the tiny speech bubble!! And the colors are so vibrant!!

Another of my cards. I love the texture in the lines. So yummy in real life!! The little dear is from a kit from Studio Calico.

We had such a wonderful day at that ranch where we could feed the animals. Another one of my cards right here. :)  And so ends my week 38.

Hope you enjoyed!! And I hope to see you again soon.

Marie

Project Life update!

Hi everyone!
So I neglected my Project Life fans/followers here for the last months and I want to make it good again! :)

So where am I with the getting back up to date? Here are some numbers.
When I dusted off my album after the move, and I looked where I had left it, I had finished Week no. 18. (beginning of May)
And at that moment we had have Week no. 36.

So What I did is I finished Week 36 and started to work backwards.
I did weeks 35 to 31!! :)
And Now we have week 39 and I'm all caught up! YAY!!!
That is so rewarding!! It is rewarding because so many little things happened over the past 8 weeks that I wanted to record and obviously I would,t be able to make a page for every single little things, but now I can make a page for what I want to emphasize and the rest is safe and sound in less words and less details maybe, in my Project Life Album!! I LOVE THAT!

So anyway, back to my album.

On my last post I told you I would show you my Disney week and I've been asked how I integrate a big "event" like that in my Project Life album.
So here's how:

Here's Week 33

Son one of the things I do to integrate a trip or a bigger event in my Project Life, is that I add pages to my week. If you look closely, here, on the right, the page protector there is not the same as the one from the left page. It is smaller in size. It contains two 4x6 vertical photos, 2 3x4 vertical photos and 2 4x6 horizontal photos. Under that page protector, I have another extra page protector. We'll get there in a minute.

So here's the first page of my trip. Now, how do I choose pictures from a WHOLE LOT of pictures? Do I take the most beautiful ones? Do I take the ones with the stories? Well, a little bit of both. But most importantly, I start by asking myself: "What do I want to tell." And unlike all the other trips we took to Disney, this one was really a gift from my parents, to have us get out of the spirit we were in for so long with the move and everything, and to see us happy again. So what I decided to do is to take all the moments/pictures/stories where we were happy! Well, better said, not ALL the happy moments, but I wanted that all the moments I focus on in here are happy moments. :)

And the moments are in order in my page protector, but let's say, loosely in order. I'm not that perfectionist. Not for that anyway. ;)

And mostly, I kept it simple. As you can see here, a card with a simple text is sometimes more than enough.

Here I stitched with a golden thread.

Ok, so here's the right page, and the different page protector I was telling you about.

I love to add small pictures (square pictures, with Instagram my phone is full of those!) to 4x6 cards and use the rest of the card to journal.

Here's the second spread when you turn the first page.

When I choose my cards, I don't try to match the colors of the cards to the colors of my photos, but I do try to make it harmonious. 

Here's the second page protector I used. This one is even smaller than the first one. I first had it on top of the other one, so that we see it when we open the spread, but finally, because of the format of the pictures I had, it was working better as a second add-on. It's ok. I don't mind it at all. It's good enough!!

These letters are vellum like stickers from a Studio Calico kit. The story: I lost my sunglasses!!! Really, I did. During the fireworks at Epcot on our second day. And I found them at the lost and found office 2 days later! Phew!! A nice picture? Not really, but a happy memory? Sure!!

This is the last part of the week 33. As you can see on the right side, I'm back to my original album format. It all worked out perfectly.

Here I wanted to show you that there is so much going on in a Project Life album with all the photos, the cards. there's so many colors that sometimes just a very small and simple embellishment can be way enough to dress-up a page or a picture or a card. Not everything has to be decorated and embellished.
Often, less is more, right?! :)

And when my pictures are very dark and colorful, I like to use very pale cards, just to balance a little and to let the eye rest somewhere.

When embellishing, think chipboard, rhinestones, staples, photo corners, die cuts, and small stamps. Heidi Swapp has a ton of small very cute stamps that are ideal for Project Life.

And voilà!!
I hope you appreciated the pictures and all my tips and tricks. :)

Talk to you real soon and thanks for being a follower!!

Marie-Pierre

Getting up to date with Project Life

Hi everyone!

Ah, it feels so good to be back scrapbooking again! This long withdrawal (for those who don't know, we just moved and I was without my studio for over a month!!) wasn't funny but I used my time wisely and got working on some scrapbooking related projects for which I was only needing a pen and some paper. :) More to come on that very shortly, I hope.

Ok so what I missed most while "on the go" was my computer and my printer. Had I been able to print pictures, I think I could/would have worked on my Project Life. Although….in our small hotel room, it would have been hard. So anyway, when we got our office back, that's what I started doing: printing pictures and putting them into pockets! My head was spinning with all the memories that were fresh and that I didn't want to lose grip of.

When I got my album back, my first idea was to go and see where I had stop. And I was surprised to see that my last week done was the first week of May. For sure we were only one month in a hotel room, but before the move I had many assignments to do for my design teams (had to finish all the pages for all the design teams and commitments for until the end of August!) So that, plus the never ending showings of the house to potential buyers that were happening weekly during 3 MONTHS!!! And there was my husband who was traveling every week so that I was left alone with the kids and the house needing to be tidy, all the time! ….. I really hadn't had time (or the head) for my Project Life album. But now I am back and I am motivated to fill every single missing week! Oh yes!! :)

So my plan?! Well, I will work backwards from now until May and I'll be careful to stay up to date in the current month. I already filled some weeks. Let me show you weeks 34-35-36. I also did week 33 but since it was a week spent at Disney, I'll keep it for a separate blog post. So here we go:

WEEK 34

Week 34 was the week I came back from Disney with the girls and my parents. The day we were on the road, Patrick was getting all the furniture and boxes at the new house. We still had one night to sleep at the hotel and then we could enter our new home! :) After 21 days as homeless.

For this week I used the new Dreamy kit from Heidi Swapp. I love the soft colors and positive words. It makes my album look very calm.

I mixed it with some Studio Calico Project Life kit's elements, like this specific card at the bottom right.

WEEK 35

I'm very pleased with week 35 which is a good mix between the cards and the pictures and which is, again, very soft and calm. I like that feeling to document an event that is quite exciting and stressful.

 I love the colors. I still love the gold!

I love adding just small labels to add a few details directly on the pictures.

WEEK 36

 I included lots of pictures this week!! Maya got an underwater camera on her birthday in July and now that we have a pool, we could put it to great use! :) And since we had so many fun and funny pictures to chose from, I decided to keep mostly all of them. They don't need much journaling anyway. :)

 This was the first project I did in 1,5 months, remember. I started slow and kept it simple, but still had the urge to play a little bit, hence the use of the rub-on. :)

The Studio Calico monthly Project Life kit was very handy and helpful since everything was right there, in the little box. :)

Voilà for now. As I told you, next time I'll show you my week 33, spent at Disney with my parents. I was so very lucky that they came to help and support me during that time!

Oh and before I leave, one last thing, Tchoubi will be opening her store next week with loads of fun products in FRENCH!! So if you don't want to miss anything, make sure you go over there and subscribe to the newsletter! :) I'm excited about it. I have a scrapbook page over there that I'll be showing you very soon! :)

Big hugs,
Marie

PS: oh and a big thank you to everybody who is still subscribing at my blog and asking for my die cuts. I still have them and I can still pass them on to you if you want! You only have to go here and follow the directions. :)