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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Project Life - Catching Up! (December)

 

And here I am with the December Spread. Since I was very much behind on Project Life throughout the 3 months or so prior, I thought it might be fun to make an effort to do something every day for December.

Since I love Advent anyway and there is actually a lot to record around this time of year it seemed the perfect month to do it! Hence the December Daily.

On this spread I seemed to have a pretty good balance of pictures and journaling - wish that would always work out that well. The only thing that is maybe different, is the journaling behind the doily. It folds open when you pull out the card to reveal all the journaling.

 

As you can see I finally used up the rest of the journaling cards I made way back when. I wrote about them here.

 

 

 

Love it when the kiddos contribute drawings or their stories!

 

 

 

A cutout filler card I cut with the Silhouette.

 

 

 

 

On this next spread I have actually a lot of journaling going on, but it’s mostly hidden behind the photos. All of them pull out and either have a card type layout that folds open or have  a long piece of paper taped to the back to reveal the journaling, which is then folded up accordion style.

 

 

At the bottom left I sewed a vellum pocket on the card with some silver thread. The folded up paper that tucks  inside  the vellum pocket, lists the gifts each of us got for Christmas!

 

 

As you can see, I’m still missing the journaling to summarize Christmas Day events. I have written a fair bit about it already in other places of the album, but I wanted this as a quick summary.

 

 

And I’m also still missing some journaling here, as well as a photograph.

 

 

 

And this is pretty much December, once I caught up on the two missing items and journaling the New Year’s Eve photos.

Why am I showing you unfinished spreads? Because one of my next posts will be about catching up with Project Life. From mildly behind to totally, overwhelmingly behind!

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Printing on Vellum / Sewn Vellum Shapes

So, last night I was working on my Project Life album and I really wanted a couple of vellum shapes to coordinate and finish things off.

I’ve seen the sewn ones around lately and think they are really cute, even though a little on the expensive side, so I thought - why not make them myself?

Since I wanted to have different colors and patterns, I used Inkjet Vellum (I used the Strathmore Translucent Vellum.)

 

 

 

There are two ways you can go about this. With or without a craft cutter!

I did it with my craft cutter, so I will show you that, but know that you can just as easily print out a variety of colors and patterns on your inkjet vellum paper and then either cut by hand or use craft punches to cut your shapes!

 

My first step was to create a print and cut file in my Silhouette studio.

 

I used some digital papers as patterns, used a few fill colors to try different things. The labels on the right are by Evalicious.

Then I printed it on the vellum, put it on the cutting mat and proceeded to cut it in the Silhouette Craft Cutter.

 

 

Nothing too complicated going on here! And that’s just the thing. Customized vellum shapes and embellishments are SO easy to make!

Anyway, here are all the shapes after I peeled them off the cutting mat.

 

 

And now it was just a matter of stitching a few of them together on the sewing machine. Depending on the size, that can be a little fiddly, but I found that securing the shapes together with a Micro Glue Dot, really made that a lot easier.

 

 

Just run a straight stitch over it, cut off the ends, and voila, you are done!

 

 

It didn’t take long at all and I love that I could customize patterns and colors! This was just a test run, and as you can see, some colors and patterns worked better than others, but I think I might take some time this weekend and branch out a bit into different shapes, colors and stitches! It really didn’t take very long to do!

 

And don’t forget, you don’t need a craft cutter to do this - just use your printer for the colors and patterns, then use crafts punches for the shapes! Or you can stamp on regular vellum with, for example StazOn inkpad ( it has to be an inkpad for every surface, so it doesn’t smudge) and cut shapes either by hand or punch them out. Works just as well!

 

 

The above is stamped with the blazing red StazOn Ink Pad. Very vibrant!

 

 

 

 

 

And for all of us who love to know how much they save by doing it ourselves, here’s the break down:

The pack of Strathmore Translucent Vellum was $10, so at 20 sheets, that is 50 cents per sheet.

It’s hard to guestimate how much the ink would cost for me to print a sheet of paper, but going by prices for having a sheet printed commercially, let’s put it at 25 cents.

Depending on size, you can probably get 20 plus sewn vellum embellishments out of one sheet of vellum. I suspect a lot more, but let’s stay on the conservative end.

So, 20 sewn embellishments and about an hour of your time =  $0.75

8 sewn vellum embellishments currently being sold in scrapbooking stores, run around $3-$4. So let’s split the difference and say $3.50 for 8. If you bought 20,  that would be $17.50!

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Project Life - Catching Up! (October)

I haven’t shared any of my Project Life months in quite some time. Mostly because I was everywhere from moderately behind in some months, to totally behind in others. I am still catching up a little bit here and there with journaling as you will see, but for the most part I’m caught up.

And I have a lot to share!

So here we go with October - the month that starts the “busy season” for us and that doesn’t really quite let up until January!

For some reason I had real trouble capturing these photos well. I tried several cameras and several locations and none worked very well. So, some of the photos are pretty grainy and fuzzy - sorry about that!

 

In this first spread I used a smaller middle insert, so you see some of the next spread peaking through the sides.

 

 

On this page I have much more journaling than photos, which is great for a change. Since the kid’s birthday is coming up, there’ll be plenty of photos with a whole lot less journaling!

 

 

 

Flipping over the smaller middle insert. The next insert is just three (well, six, if you are counting back and front) 6x4 slots. That signals the start of the main event that month - the twin’s birthday!

 

 

 

And here we are! The birthday!

 

 

Flipping the 6x12 insert over. I love using different sized photo pockets! It adds so much interest when you’re flipping through the folder! It does however not show what it is so easily on a photograph, so you may not be getting the full benefit here!

 

 

For the most part I printed or typed brief comments/journaling for each photo on a 6x12 label sheet, which I then cut down to one-liner strips and adhered it to the photos. I really like that look and it’s fast becoming a favorite way of journaling. It’s a little more work intensive, but since I do many of them at the same time and have the cutting of the strips down with the paper cutter, it’s getting much more efficient!

 

Another thing I did on this spread was to go online and get little pictures of all the gifts the kids got for their birthday. I printed them all out and adhered them onto the one card. My kids LOVE remembering what they got when and this is a fun little visual for them!

 

 

 

Here are the layouts for the cakes. I ended up just doing a few random “in progress” shots for each cake on the top, and then 3 photos of the finished cake at the bottom.

 

 

Here’s the other side, with the same, but this time for Anna’s cake.

 

 

I only had one insert with those square pockets and it seemed the perfect one to use for the party pictures. There were a lot of them and there’s really not all that much to say, so I used just the photos with the little strip journaling on the photos again. A quick and easy way to process a lot of photos without having to use a card for each one.

Front

 

Back

 

 

And then we move on to a few of the more regular happenings of the month.

 

 

Just before we get to Halloween! I did both the cutouts with my Silhouette cutter.

 

 

And that was pretty much October in Project Life!

I have to catch you up on several more months, so I’ll be back tomorrow with more!

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Project Life - Workspace Organization

Since I have decided to go with Project Life for another year, I also, finally, rearranged my office/craft room to accommodate that and I can’t believe how much easier it is for me now to stay current, when it’s not nearly as big a to-do to get stuff out and put it away again! In this post I’d like to share some organizational tips with you, that have worked for me over the last year or so!

 

Up until, oh, 2 years ago, I was really only scrapping and art journaling digitally. I was doing many other hands-on crafts, but they lent themselves more to being stashed away in a cupboard until you need the supplies.

Then I started getting into the “get your hands dirty” arts and crafts a bit more again, and then added the non-digital version of Project Life and suddenly it wasn’t just my computer workflow that was important anymore!

Here’s a picture of my desk space before I went non-digital:

 

 

On the other side of this space is a full wall of upper and lower cabinets that houses pretty much all my other arts and crafts supplies. Everything in it’s place and a place for everything. Lovely! But ....

The issue is however, that it means I either have to get up every few minutes to get something else, and then spend quite some time putting everything away again. Or get everything at the beginning and clutter up the work space. 

What happened was that I let things accumulate, both on the “doing my cards front” as well as on the other end when it came to clearing it up. Since my crafting desk is also my computer desk, this can turn out very disorganized.

So, after purging my way through the craft room and de-stashing a bit while I was at it, I also implemented quite a few changes that now put the things for Project Life, scrapping and Art Journaling/Mixed Media within easy reach!

And what a change it has made!

 

For example, I have a fair amount of stamps and they are all organized. I talk about them in this post.

As great as that system is, it wasn’t working out so well for me when it came to Project Life. I’m all about the work flow and if it ends up being disrupted, then my productivity and inspiration somewhat go out of the window!

 

 

One of the first things I did, was take out the frequently used PL stamps and keep them in a little drawer, together with my most frequently used stamp pads. SO much easier! I can always go and get more or different stamps or stamp pads if I so desire, but I don’t have to go through a whole drawer full of stuff every time I want to stamp a date on a PL card! Now I can just take the little drawer out and have everything right there!

 

 

I did a similar thing in the next little drawer with all things adhesive! I already have an adhesives and mediums drawer, but it covers everything from Mod Podge, gel mediums, Micro Glue Dots , etc. Again, I really don’t need that for PL. My two most frequently used adhesive mediums are the Perma Tac adhesive glider (the best adhesive roller ever!)  and the Micro Glue Dots. Occasionally I will use the Xyron "X" for intricate borders and such, but that’s about it.

So, now they live in their own mini drawer on my desk. Easily accessible!

 

 

When you see my PL journaling cards, you will see a fair amount of embellishments on them. Over the last year, I have had all my little cut things and embellishments nicely organized, but out of sight. Turns out I’m more of a visual person when it comes to embellishments and I forget what I have, or don’t even get all that inspired unless I see it.

Along came a bargain bin closeout find at Michael’s. I got these little trays for $5 (down from $27 I think) and they are perfect for all the little odds and ends that I put on my cards! Now I have a lovely overview of what I have and have easy access!

 

 

Speaking of embellishments - I have a little confession to make. Yep! I’m ever so slightly obsessed with wood veneer shapes! I LOVE those things! And I have a lot of them.

Some of them are very small, some are fairly large, which makes storing them in a uniform and easily accessible way somewhat difficult.

Can you guess my super sophisticated system that has worked SO well for this last year and a bit?

 

 

Yep, stapled together sandwich bags!! (Note: I only staple them on one side, right under the closure strip!)

I know it’s not the prettiest, but it really works for me. I have all the room I need, I can see all of them and choose whichever I need. It’s easily opened and closed and size really doesn’t matter in this setup! If I get a new set, I add a bag, but simply stapling it to the others!

Incidentally, I organize all my chipboard alphas the same way! This whole mess of bags goes in the box with the other alphabet sheets.

 

 

Next, I used two IKEA drawer organizers for my main supplies. I pretty much make all my cards myself, other than the 3x4 and the 6x4 grid cards. I use those a lot as the base for my journaling cards!

 

 

One houses all the cards, 3x4 and 4 x 6 , as well as wood veneer embellishments and some tag pads, garlands and larger embellishments that don’t fit in my little compartmentalized trays.

I have my pre-made journaling cards to the front, and the blanks further to the back.

 

 

The other one houses my most frequently used tools. I have my punches, stapler, and small scissors in there, which makes for an easy cleanup, just dropping them back into those compartments when I’m done.

 

 

In the back I employ the sandwich bag organizational system again, only this time not stapled together. I have borders in one, misc. scrap paper cut-offs and border strips in another. Simple and inexpensive system, but it keeps it all nicely divided and organized, yet visible.

 

 

I built this little table as an addition to my work space just so the PL workflow would work better. Previously I only had the little cart there.

 

 

The top of the table (to my left)  now serves as my sewing machine station (for stitching cards), while the top of the Art Journaling /Mixed Media cart (to my right)  has the Vintage Type writer on it.

 

{One of these days I hope to replace this one with some grey/black drawers to match the room, but this is what I had at the time!}

I used to have both the sewing machine and the type writer in another place in the craft room and it just became too cumbersome to drag out the machines and then put them back just for a card or two! And even though that places carts in front of the drawers of my desk, both are easily wheeled away, should need to get at the drawers behind, which I don’t nearly as frequently as I do Project Life and Art Journaling/Mixed Media!

Now I just need to swivel one way or another and it’s all right there!

 

 

I also got these photo boxes at Michael’s. One houses all my alphabets and alpha stickers, the other holds all other sticker type of material. Those are still stashed away in the box and I do still have to rummage through it, but I can deal with it for those two things.

 

 

 

The cart houses all my card stock in the top drawer, all my scrapbooking papers in the bottom drawer and the middle drawer has all the misc. things in them, like lesser used punches, refills, printer color etc. Stuff I don’t need on a daily basis but want to have close by!

 

My Silhouette cutter, craft dryer and card reader are housed in the cupboard right next to me, on a little shelf above the computer and are permanently hooked up, so when it’s time to use something, I just need to pull it out and go.

My printer, with all the photo paper and label printing supplies is to my left, also nice and accessible! The PL album I’m currently working on is also stashed right next to it, as is the paper cutter. And of course all of this is happening on my “computer desk” all be it a very large one, so I pretty much have one stop crafting now!

 

 

Anyway, all in all, this latest organization has made such a difference to my work flow when it comes to project life. From getting the photos off the camera, to printing, to journaling, to embellishing, to journaling, to adding them to the album - once I sit down, I have it all within arm’s length, readily accessible. And clean-up is a breeze - not just for Project Life activities, but for all the messy Art projects!

I’m a happy super-organized crafter right now! Yay!

How do you keep your craft space organized?

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