PL Week 6

I mentioned before one of my goals this year was to get back into scrapping, which includes my Project Life pages. Over the years my approach has changed. I still design my pages digitally, and I suspect at some point I may opt to have the pages printed in a book, but at the moment I print them and slip them into an 8.5x11 page protector. Often I'll turn off some of the embellishment layers before printing so I can add those elements using traditional methods so I end up with a hybrid layout. I like adding the little embellishments which uses some of my stash, and not spending the time trimming and lining up photos or slipping them into pockets. And, let's face it, there are very few options for the latter since I stick with 8.5x11.

The area where my approach has changed is how I record. I don't get caught up in documenting every week. Some weeks are busy and I actually remember to take lots of images; some days I forget to take photos and sometimes when I take photos the images are just total crap. So I focus on capturing what makes sense. I don't have a week 2 for 2018 and I probably won't have a week 7...and I'm okay with that.

JUMPING IN WITH BOTH...HANDS

Welcome 2018. The last months of 2017 sure went quickly and despite good intentions, and there are always good intentions, I never made it back to the blog. Even now, in the new year, I'm a bit late, after all, it is already February.

Last month I spent most of my time parked in front of the computer participating in MOC6 (month of challenges) at the Lilypad. I'd been planning to jump back into scrapping this year and apparently the Cosmos decided to give me a nudge via email. The goal, complete all 31 challenges. The reward, a $20 credit to the digital store. A new challenge was posted every day. Some focussed on storytelling, some on techniques and others on creativity. The challenge ends tonight so if you're stumbling onto this blog you're probably too late to participate in this year's MOC, unless you're a super fast scrapper. I'm not, but I did manage to complete all the challenges. I had a blast, learned some new things and made a small dent into the backlog of photos I'd been collecting. If you are a digital or hybrid scrapper what I can recommend is for you to check out the site and forum. The group is super friendly!

Here are 2 of the pages I completed last month. In the past, I frequently digitally mapped out the design of my layouts and then did a traditional scrap.  These layouts would certainly be easy to recreate with paper & embellishments but I think I'm going to leave them as is. Perhaps they'll end up in a printed album. We'll see.

Project Life Week 36

I'm a dedicated 81/2 x 11 scrapper when it comes to PL. And to ease the process I've become a hybrid scrapper. All the layouts are designed on the computer, the main pages are printed with the journal blocks and the photos printed separately then pasted onto the layout. I could print the entire page out but the old time scrapper in me prefers actual photos on the page. Sometimes I add embellishments, more often than not my focus is on just getting the layouts completed and into our albums.

For this layout I used digital files from the Honey Edition. 

Project Life Catch Up

As usual, our summer months have been crazy busy which has left little time for actual scrapping. I've spent the past week and a half attempting to catch up on our PL spreads. I've made pretty good progress. The website OhLife has been a real help. Every night I receive a prompt to record the events and stories of the day. I'll admit I'm not always the best at staying on top of the daily prompts when life gets crazy but always record at least once a week. So the fact that I've at least 12 weeks worth of documenting to do really doesn't give me much stress. As Martha would say...that's a good thing. 

Week 32 & 33

We had a lot going on during these 2 weeks but I didn't have many photos. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to my PL documenting. Pictures don't always have to be perfect, in fact I find myself using my phone camera more often than not these days, and if I can combine a couple of weeks so much the better.  

Week 31

Caught the quarterly sale at Designer Digitals and picked up a number of Cathy Zielske templates. Love her clean and simple style and with a little know-how, the ability to customize items to fit my layouts. 

Snap back to reality….

…all those holiday goodies didn’t come with a get out of jail free pass and yes, your jeans are really that tight. 

…the mega millions did not land in your lap despite dishing out $10 for lottery tickets. You must return to work, you’re not retired, not rich and too proud to mooch off anyone. Well not really too proud, if anyone is offering.

 …it takes a minimum of 30 minutes to drive to the train station and that’s when the stars align and the traffic fairies bestow favor; the 2 week stretch of “10 minutes from home to train” is officially over. Please refer to point #1 if you’re thinking of running for the train.

…the automatic garage door opener is not going magically heal itself no matter how many times you hit the reset button or punch in the double secret code. It’s time to call the repairman.

…the gas fireplace is not going to magically heal itself no matter how many times you click on the remote starter.  It’s time to call the repairman.

…the bedroom closet is not going to magically straighten itself. EVER!

… you live in the Midwest. It’s January. 2 weeks from now you’ll consider 28 degrees balmy.  Stop whining.

It’s always a bit of a challenge for me to snap back from the holidays; to focus, get motivated and move back into a normal pace;  “normal” being a slightly less frantic pace than the Holiday pace I started on Black Friday.  It’s all a frenzied go, go, go up until the evening of the 24^th. A frenzied pace all of my own doing as my family is so happy to point out. So true and all the more reason I find it hard to start the New Year with a bang because when the action stops late evening on the 24^th I’m ready to just lounge, eat, sleep and check out. Even my work week is a breeze; little traffic, no lines, no phone calls; I get things done in a Zen state of calm. Sometimes I think it’d be nice to remain in that Zen state but in the long run it wouldn’t work for me. I like the hustle and need the pressure. I’m very much like Calvin on the comic I have hanging in my office.

Hobbs: Do you have an idea for your project yet?

Calvin: No, I’m waiting for inspiration. You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.

Hobbs: What mood is that?

Calvin: Last-minute panic.  

And last minute panic is the state I'll soon be entering because there is lots of scrapping to be done. We're a bit behind. Okay more than just a bit. And no matter what your thoughts are on being behind in scrapping my philosophy is pages are meant to be shared and viewed ... and not 3 years after the photos were taken. Now I just have to put that in action. Ha! So I will leave you with a recent layout of my niece who is totally adorable.

Lots of border punches on this layout. Santa is from the Jolly Holiday cartridge and I finally managed to score some Martha Stewart dollies. Paper is K&Company Let it Snow, which I picked up as an impulse and almost returned. The operative word being "almost". I'm so glad I didn't because the papers worked so well with the photos. So I continue to add to my ever growing and already huge stash of Christmas papers.  And while often times less is more, that doesn't hold true for scrapping supplies when more is...well, fabulous.