My 2014 Life Album

This year I can't call my album, my Project Life album, as it's a mix of Project Life, Project Real Life, One Little Word and traditional scrapbooking. I've chosen the Honey edition of Project Life to start with. 

Title Page

I chose this Honey album - there are two that coordinate with the
Honey edition Project Life cards

In the past I've done very little journaling in my
Project Life albums so this year I'm hoping to
change it

Rather than using a separate album for One Little Word as I
have done for the last 4 years, this year it's part of my
2014Life  album

Journaling on this and the next page goes along with One Little Word

This page and the next are part of the Project Real Life class I took
2-3 years ago

It's just my husband, our pets and me at home so I don't
have as many photos as younger families do

A page in progress - I use post-it notes
to remind myself what I need for a space or
what I want to put there

The beginning of another Project Real Life page

In progress

I'm trying to be very flexible in my 2014 Life album this year.  So far there's not as much focus on photos as there is on my journaling.  There's more about what I'm thinking and feeling.  A lot about my intentions and what I would like to accomplish this year.  I'm trying to use what I'm putting in my album to drive those intentions and accomplishments. (I hope that makes sense)
I purchased the Midnight edition of Project Life today and will be mixing some of those cards in with the Honey set.  I also have Close To My Heart's Picture My Life Balloon Ride set that I'll be using - I'm still figuring out how I want to use that set.  
And thanks to my Big Picture Classes' friend, Melissa, I'm trying to have more FUN with my album - and my life!
What changes have you made in your scrapbooking, crafting or art this year?

Picture My Life Balloon Ride Scrapbooking Program from Close To My Heart

I'm very excited about Close To My Heart's new Picture My Life Scrapbooking Program and wanted to share the first kit I've gotten.  I've been doing Project Life style scrapbooking for 5 years now and was looking for something a little different and found it with this set.

*Disclaimer: I am a Close To My Heart Independent Consultant

Whether you are a traditional scrapbooker or a pocket page scrapbooker the Picture My Life Balloon Ride set will definitely add a beautiful vintage-y look to your pages/layouts.

The highly anticipated package arrives!

3 x 4 card pack

4 x 6 card pack

Two sided Title page

Other side of two-sided Title Page

Fronts and backs of 4 x6 cards
Three cards of each design

More 4 x 6 cards

More 4 x 6 cards

More 4 x 6 cards

3 x 4 cards
Three each of 26 designs

More 3 x 4 cards

More 3 x 4 cards

More 3 x 4 cards

Balloon Ride paper pack
Not a part of the Picture My Life set-
a great way to make your own cards or to add
traditional layouts to your album along with the pocket page scrapbooking

Balloon Ride Complements
Not a par tof the Picture My Life -
cardstock embellishments to add dimension to your cards
or traditional layouts

More Balloon Ride Complements
cardstock embellisments

 For more information, please check out my business website at:
http://craftycreativity.ctmh.com/
Have you tried pocket page scrapbooking (Project Life)?

2014 Project Life

 Finally decided to stick with Becky Higgins' Project Life products for my 2014 Project Life Album.  

I chose the Honey Album and Core Kit that you see here.  

I had thought about going smaller and use a Simple Stories 6 x 8 but decided to stay with the Becky Higgins line.  This will be my fourth or fifth year now doing Project Life.
Do you do Project Life, Project 365 or similar scrapbooking project?  What are doing in 2014?

Fall Bucket List and Cricut Artbooking Cartridge>"?

Last weekend I started a couple of projects and I'm in the process of finishing them this weekend.  One of them is my Fall Bucket List.  This project gave me the opportunity to start playing with my new Cricut Artbooking cartridge.  I haven't even started playing with the 3 stamp sets or 2 sheets of chipboard shapes that came with the Cricut Artbooking Collection!

One of the items in the cartridge I was really excited about were the variety of overlays available on the cartridges.

I hadn't even thought of how much use I would get from the same overlay shape by changing the color of the cardstock or the position of the overlap.  The white and yellow overlay are the same overlay.

Plus you can change the size of the overlay.  This overlay is part of the Christmas mini-book.

So I played with the color of the overlay and the base cardstock until I found a combination I liked.

Then I added some print paper and cut it the size of the overlay.  Base cardstock is 12 x 12 inches and the print paper and overlay is 11 x 11 inches

To increase the sense of depth I added a variety of color blocks cut from cardstock to some of the overlay openings leaving some open to see the print paper.  I can't wait to use these overlays and adding photos to them!

Here is the finished Fall Bucket List after embellishing it.  

A close-up of the left page.

And the right page.

Close-ups of various sections of the two pages so you can read parts of the list.

I used a variety of items to embellish the pages which gave me an opportunity to use up items in my stash some of which I've had for years.  A lot of items  were leftovers from sets.  Always good to use some things up.

I typed the list of items on vellum and then cut them out.

There are no photos but I'll use this 2 page layout in my Project Life album to introduce the "fall" section of the year.

Fall is my favorite time of year.  I love all the colors so creating this was a lot of fun!  This is my second seasonal bucket list.  I don't expect to do everything on the list but it comes in really handy when my husband and I look at each other at the end of a long workweek and say "what do you want to do this weekend?"  Summer and fall always seem to go so fast and it's a great way to make sure you do all your favorite or some "new" favorites before the season ends!

Do you create "Bucket Lists"?  If so, what kind?

For more information on the Cricut Artbooking Collection please click on the Close To My Heart icon to the right of this post.

Keeping things organized

I struggle with this every week!  This is about as good as my tables get when I'm actively working on projects.  If you look at the top photo of the previous post you'll see what it looked like after I finished the Organizing FUNdamentals class at Big Picture Classes in the spring.
Since then I've completed a Pinterest project - the yellow stand that my adhesives and corner rounders are sitting on.  Not sure yet if this is how I'm going to use these piece long term - getting a feel for how to use it best.  I love the extra yellow accent color it brings to my room.
I've also added the long divided piece I found at an antique store for all my ProjectLlife cards, washi tape, date stamps, etc.  All it needed was some cleaning up as it was already black on the outside and grey on the inside.  My walls are grey, furniture is white or black and storage containers and baskets are yellow.  I feel so happy when I walk into this room!
The yellow plastic bin on the right in the photo is where I keep my photos and memorabilia ready to go into my Project Life album which is laid out.  This is working pretty well for me.  I'm not current with my album (rarely am) because I'm out enjoying summer life and doing the things on my Summer Bucket List.  This happens every year and I'll get caught up in the fall and winter.
What are your tips for staying organized andkeeping projects moving along?
Watch for my next post...I'll be sharing some exciting news!

Project Life Week 1

Week 1 left side

Week 1 right side

2013 Week 1 Project Life and Project Real Life

Project Real Life started last October and about 2-3 weeks into

the class it felt like it was something I should do at the

beginning of the year rather than the end.  

I didn't have the time to really put into the class anyway so

that worked out well.

So here I am starting Project Life 2013 with 

Project Real Life. 

Another great reason for doing this now is I don't have to have a third year of snow and bird pictures filling the first 2 months of my Project Life album!

 Project Real Life is a Big Picture Class (BPC) by Becky Higgins.

The first week's theme is Begin with the End in Mind.

What I have in mind for 2013 is to complete things.

Finish books, fill empty picture frames, do all the little things

on my "to do" list for the house, finish projects, finish classes, and more.

I originally was going to have "Complete" as my One Little Word OLW) for 2013 but 

it felt too limiting.  With further reflection and research into various words

I chose "Seek".  More on that in other posts.

Nothing fancy here.  More journaling than I usually do which is a good thing.

I did some stamping on the date card.  Added two fortunes to the date card from fortune cookies we had on New Year's Eve.

I numbered the journaling cards so that the reader could follow the story.

I added a journaling card with my OLW word and definitions.

The quote card and theme of the week cards from Project Real Life 

are in the layout as well.  

I'm using bits and pieces from 2 different year's Project Life supplies along with an extra album I ended up with. 

I'll eventually add my goals sheets from Project Real Life in between Week 1's pages.  For now I'm using them as I work on Week 2's materials.  

Did you set any goals or intentions for 2013?  What are they?