Friday, September 28, 2012

On Week 38 of Project Life


Welcome to Week 38 of Project Life.

Each week I will be posting the previous week's layout and giving a brief description of how my page came together and what products I used.

This week I wanted the overall look of the layout to be beige, grey, pink and green and the embellishments to be wood veneers, gold label tape, washi, and a little bit of glitter. I'm really happy with how it turned out this week. I think it might be one of my favourite spreads so far this year.


Left side.


Right side.


This title card has so many of my favourite things. Dear Lizzy Neapolitan chevron paper, gold label tape, and pink. I love those wood veneer frames from Crate Paper. I've had a hard time thinking of ways to use them since I didn't want to use them all on one layout because then they would be gone. I love how this looks.

And those pink Dear Lizzy foam Thickers from the Neapolitan line that came out less than a year ago? Yah, I got those from Home Sense with 4 other packs of awesome Thickers for $10.00! I have a bit of a Thickers addiction.


It was my youngest niece's first birthday on Sunday. That photo is so Ruby Sky. Just pure happiness that girl is. I used Studio Calico paper, American Crafts glitter tape, Studio Calico wood veneers and Hello Forever labels.

The smaller photos used paper from Crate Paper's Pretty Party line, washi tape, Studio Calico stamp and a MME rhinestone.


I used the stamp and paper clip that came in Studio Calico's September kits. Studio Calico paper and wood veneers were used as well as more washi and MME rhinestones.

I love using a lot of product, but try each week to pick a few elements that I want to appear over and over to give the overall look of the spread a cohesive appearance.

On the big 4x6 photo, I just wrapped a Martha Stewart for Avery label sticker around the photo. I love the way labels look at the edge of paper or photos so much more than if they are placed in the middle. They look lost in the middle somehow.


For this photo, I used the iPhone app PicFrame, and imported three different photos to make this collage. It is really easy to use and awesome for when I have a bunch of photos I want to use.

The stamps are Studio Calico from the Maggie Holmes Pieces of Me class (generously given to me by my sister) and the Pop off the Page class.  Paper is Studio Calico and the white arrows are the exclusive mistable ones from their September kit. Loved those things!


I decided to make a small dent in my Thicker collection this week and use them instead of  label tape for titles like I usually do for Project Life. Ali Edwards does this a lot and I love the way it looks.

Paper is Studio Calico, Crate Paper and Dear Lizzy. I used my Dymo label maker and gold tape for the latte title. I love my Dymo label maker for Project Life and use it every week.

I used a Studio Calico stamp for "oh happy day", then cut it out and matted it.

The photo of the pumpkin spiced latte is not actually mine. It's one I took from google images and added a bokeh effect to in PicFx (fave iPhone photo app ever). One day last week I headed to Starbucks for a few hours to decompress and relax while Derek stayed home with the baby. I really needed that break and was excited to have my first PSL of the season. I intended to take a picture for PL and once home, realized I hadn't. So I just made up a photo. It's totally okay to get creative when you don't have photos of something you did during the week. You can take pictures from google images, or recreate the photo days or even weeks later. I won't tell if you won't. :)


I made the "on the menu" journal card with a Becky Higgins Project Life grid card, Studio Calico stamp, label tape and some washi. Something I refer back to ever.single.week is Lisa's Truesdell's tutorial/challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket on stamping for Project Life where she made a number of journalling cards. The journalling cards she makes are amazing and I have been making my own versions of them for weeks now. I plan on making a whole bunch ahead of time for next year so I can just grab some whenever I need them.

Paper and embellishments are more the same as already listed.


I use Avery shipping labels almost every week too. And on every traditional layout too. Paper on this is all Crate Paper Pretty Party (try saying that three times fast). Letter stickers are from Studio Calico's September kit also. I loved using bits of the kit on Project Life. This was my first month as a subber and I am determined to use as much of each kit and any add-ons I get as possible.

Also, Studio Calico's wood veneer starts are my favourite. I have about 2.5 packages of them and another in my cart at Two Peas because I am afraid they won't be available anymore and I want to use them forever.


The Dear Lizzy Neapolitan date stamp roller makes an appearance every week in Project Life as well as pretty much every traditional layout. It is amazing and I have my eye on her new ones as well as Studio Calico's. I don't need more, I just want them.

Paper is Studio Calico and Crate Paper and more Thickers were used. Those are two of my favourite Thickers- Lax in blue glitter (from 2010) and Memo in cork which are new, but I can't seem to find them at Two Peas.

Well, that is Week 38. I hope you enjoyed the very long run down (I talk a lot). If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to email me at meaghen.calder@gmail.com

What have you done lately on Project Life? Please link any new blog post(s) you have done for Project Life in the comment section. I am always looking for new inspiration and would love to see what you have done!


Thursday, September 27, 2012

on what's happening around here.

Ali Edwards had a blog post today about creating either a blog post or layout using the prompt "Around Here". I thought it would make a great first post on the blog as a way to introduce to myself to the internet. I chose to use most of the prompts that Elise Blaha Cripe used on her version of this post today. so without further ado....

drinking: hot tea.

watching: new girl, parks and recreation, the office, big bang family, and modern family.

laughing: see above. they are all so, so funny.

eating: 100 calorie packs of chocolate covered pretzels

willing: the baby to sleep as well tonight as he did last night (11 hours woot!)

waiting: for my october Studio Calico to ship next week. so excited about this month's kit and add-ons.

opening: my mind to being more creative in every aspect of my life.

sleeping: not as much as I would like (see willing above)

remembering: giving birth to my baby boy seven months ago today

wearing: maternity jeans (see eating above)

brainstorming: blog, project life, december daily, healthy meals, baby activities

considering: starting up that running habit again.

making: traditional layouts again after almost a week of catching up on 3 weeks of project life.

feeling: excited about things to come.

reading: the creative habit by twyla tharp

loving: my life. so very much.

listening: the head and the heart and mumford and sons

enjoying: my son's time as a baby. it is so short and i treasure this time.

thankful: for a healthy, happy son (Andy) and a loving baby daddy (Derek).

tomorrow: week 38 of project life