Thursday, March 24, 2016

Hip Kit Club DT | Project Life March 2016

Hello everyone!!

It's time to show you a Project life spread made with the gorgeous gorgeous March 2016 Hip Kit Club Kits!! I used the March 2016 Project life Kit, the March 2016 Embellishment Kit and the Main March 2016 scrapbooking kit.

I was just talking to Tracie Claiborne as she interviewed me for her Live Inspired podcast and I told her that Project Life spreads were less fun to look at than traditional scrapbooking  pages. Well, you know what? I kind of would like to take that back. Tracie asked why I thought it was so.... I don't really know. Maybe it's because the spread is way busier than a traditional scrapbook page? You know, when I look at this PL spread I just made, I'm thinking that it's pretty. I like the colors, I like the photos, I like the embellishing. I like the stories.... So I'm asking YOU. Why do you think that it's more fun to look at scrapbooking pages than looking at Project Life spreads? Please leave a comment if you have an idea. I'd really (like, for real!) like to hear what you guys think (especially because there are TONS of Project Life spreads on my blog!! Ha!)

And that being said. Here's my spread:



Left page consists of 4 6x4 pictures, 4 3x4 card, 2 stories, 2 main titles and 2 3x4 cards full of journaling.


The first story is that my friend from Canada stopped at our house for a night on her way to Florida. She was accompanied by her husband and their 4 children. lol 4 children always make me smile, since 2 are more than I can handle myself. lol


We didn't take that many photos, but I think I could still capture the essence of their stop over. This is a selfie of my friend and me. I added a wood veneer, a label with a nice saying, another custom made banner made with a piece of patterned paper and my typewriter, a cute dec ut of a bird that I adhered with foam adhesive on the tail and head, but with a glue dot where the feet are, and finally some cute enamel dots. I really love the feel of all that pink.


The second picture I captured is one of my oldest daughter holding my friend's baby. Arielle was in heaven! She the care taker. She always wants to help the smallest and be in charge of someone. Eli wasn't so pleased it looks like but we managed to keep her on Arielle for about 5 minutes with the help of the stuffed bunny. Big Brother was watching over little sister closely.

That picture is pretty busy so I didn't want to add to many things. I went with a vellum sticker saying Happy little moments and I adhered it on the pillow, making sure that the lines on the sticker were in line with the ones of the pillow. It almost looks like the writing was on the pillow and not on the photo. I topped it with probably my favorite piece in the whole kits: the screen printed wood veneer signed Pinkfresh Studio.


The biggest part of the story to me was that they were 6 !!! coming over to sleep. lol Where do you put 6 more people in your house?? Well, we made it work. Arielle gave them her whole bunk bed (double bed at the bottom and single bed on the upper level), that makes 3 persons, and baby slept in the adult double bed with her  parents. Arielle came downstairs and slept with HER parents (which means me and my husband) and Maya stayed in her bed. There you have it: 6 guests, no problem!! :)

So anyway, back to my album, I wanted to emphasize the 6 so I made a title card for that using a 4x6 card that I cut down to a 3x4 card and I stitched along the lines of the chevron to create a kind of arrow guiding the eye to the group picture. I used BIG puffy green alphas and one more screen printed wood veneer.

The lined card on the left was perfect to add journaling.


The little die cut bird here with enamel dots is a repetition of the die cut bird at the top of the page.


Here, another story, another title card: when my friends left, we drove to Myrtle beach for the weekend. I used again rather large alphas because it's a title card, but I made them different than the ones on the other card. It's another story after all. They are still coordinating in color. The silver foam arrow leads the eye to the story going along with this title. Another lined card perfect for journaling.


Here I added a simple embellishment cluster to the photo. Notice how I stopped m cluster on the horizon line?  Following lines in a photo is a great way of making a good design.

The right page is all about our weekend at Myrtle Beach.




This picture was perfect on it's own. But in the white space I could easily add that puffy sticker. It just adds more interest to the picture that would have been a little more "plain" and without interest, or without visual weight had I not add it.


That picture top right, sometimes I print my pictures just a little smaller than a 4x6. I then make sure I'll be able to leave a small white frame around it and I mount it onto a card or patterned paper. The text is another vellum sticker. Notice how I used 2 "*"? Not the same size/material, but the same color. Again, repetition is good.


Absolutely loved this journaling card. I wrote my journaling and thought that it was pretty plain so I added a simple stitch. My tip for stitching more on your pages: find a permanent place for you sewing machine and leave it OUT. Always!


Small die cuts and puffy sequins to repeat the colors of the spread.


I wanted to use another vellum sticker but the background of the picture was way to dark. We would have lost the words. So I mounted it on a piece of paper. I "hid" the line where the paper ends with a die cut heart. Remember to use those lines to anchor embellishments.


Another way to add a little bit of dimension is to place a label (or word sticker) on top of letters with dimension, here corck letters (!!!).

PS: I'm sorry for the snake photo. I know it's not pleasing to the eye. Even to mine!!

So there you go. I hope you enjoyed watching my pages and reading on my thinking.

If you liked this post, make sure you subscribe to my blog (at the top of the left column) and continue to follow me. You can also follow me on Instagram under the user name "mpcapistran".

Talk to you again soon!!

Marie

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually like PL spreads much more. I never understood traditional scrapbooking: a lot of work for relatively few memories. To me the balance embellishments / memories is just much better with PL. Just my few cents...

Marie-Pierre Capistran said...

I love your insight. It's true that the PL album is FILLED with memories! But personally I can write so much more on a 12x12 layout. It gives me the space to go down to the bottom of the story and into small details if I want to. In my PL the stories are more "we did this, we were there, this happened". To me it's superficial. But it covers way more than my traditional scrapbooks cover. For now anyway. :) thanks for commenting! Love to know what others think.

Julierose said...

I love both types--but I think for people (not in your circle of family and/or friends) PL is so detailed and personal that they kind of just skim over those pages that are full of one's own memories. Whereas, one single page usually is on just one subject even if the journaling covers a lot of things....just saying...

I read every little bit on PL pages as I love making mine and am truly fascinated as to how everybody puts them together and what they choose to write about... I am
new to your site and love your pages...going to go and listen to your podcast right now...hugs, Julierose

Melissa said...

First, lovely layout.
I do both types of scrapbooking, and I know exactly what you meant. PL is great for documenting everyday events, and the big stuff too. But I think it's not as pleasing to the eye because there's nowhere to FOCUS. A traditional layoit has a focal point. And often, "blank" space for your eye to rest. PL just makes your eye jump around the page and search for a focal point, often not really finding one.

That said, a prefer the Project Life format more. It's just, as you said, its often just not as pleasing to the eye.

Gab said...

Great pages! I love how you used the cork exclamation marks!! So clever.
I like both types of pages, but for different reasons. I love looking at all the details in a pL spread
But I love looking at a traditional page for the one story

Marie-Pierre Capistran said...

Interesting. It's true that looking at one's memories is kind of boring if we don't know the person and if we don't read it with the intention of getting new ideas for ourselves. Good point.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I hope I don't annoy you on the podcast. It's intense. ;) because I'm passionate. :)

Marie-Pierre Capistran said...

Ah! Yes! No focus and especially no place for the eye to rest. It's so true that the PL pages that I find pleasing to the eye are almost empty or have a lot of white in the photos. My pictures all always full of colors and represent the real life. It's hard to calm the pictures by adding products... Thanks for you insight. :)

Marie-Pierre Capistran said...

Thanks Gab! Good that you can find something you love to look at in both kind of pages. Thankfully I do like to look at my own PL pages. In the end, it's the only thing that counts. :)

Marie-Michèle Livernoche said...

Très intéressant de lire les points de vue des autres. Je pense pas mal comme Melissa. Une page traditionnelle est souvent plus plaisante à l'oeil au premier regard. Tandis que les pages de PL sont plutôt intéressantes si on prend le temps de noter chaque détail, de lire le texte. C'est souvent plus chargé. Par contre, j'aime tellement le recueil de souvenirs incroyable que donne le PL! Tes pages sont magnifiques et très inspirantes!!