january project life

I'm sharing with you today my January Project Life pages. I used the Notes & Things Project Life mini kit as well as some papers from the Open Book 6x6 pad and a few emebellishments from both Notes & Things and Open Book. I hope you have a cup of cofee, tea, or your favourite beverage of choice, because this is going to be a long, photo heavy post. 

I absolutely adore all of the gold foil elements in the mini kit. They are hard to photograph, but the 'this life' on the bottom right 4x6 card, 'lovely day' on the square pink card the lines on the calendar card are all gold foil.

I love using a big photo in our Project Life album. Our son's first day of pre-school was the perfect excuse. I get my photos printed at Costco and a 4x6 costs 17 cents, whereas an 8x8 costs $1.99. In order to cut down on cost, I import the photo into Photo Shop Elements and then crop the top at 4x6 and bottom at 4x6. Now the photo has only cost me 32 cents instead of $1.99. I just cut the bottom 4x6 in half and slide each part into a 3x4 slot.

This is my favourite spread from the entire month. I just love how all the gold and pink go together. 

Once again, it's hard to tell, but all the writing on the bottom two 4x6 cards are all gold foil, the 3x4 card with the ampersand says 'you and me' in gold foil, as do the cards in the top 4x6 slots.

And oh my gosh, that 'one thousand good night kisses' circle could not be more perfect for a crazy mom that takes as many sleeping photos of her child as I do. I scattered some wood veener stars around the card for added effect.

The 'love' tab and 'the little things' square both come in the mini kit. I really love the little bits you get in the kit, especially for someone like me who heavily embellishes their Project Life album. 'Tonight I will fall asleep with you in my heart' is from the Notes and Things journal cards and I have been waiting for the perfect picture to use it with.

Well, the cat (or unicorn) is out of the bag now, and I officially have issues. I definitely had to use the card from my first order from Paper Issues as a design team member as Cassie wrote a little welcome note on the back. I also included a screen shot from the weather app on my phone as we were having a crazy cold week. I really like included stuff like that in our album as it really gives you a more complete look at our life.

I'm trying to use more 4x6 journalling cards in my album this year as I really love them, but I tend to always fill the spots with photos instead. I layered a tag from the Notes & Things sticker sheet with a few elements from the Notes & Things mini kit to fill our this card a bit.

On Saturday, I randomly drove to Montreal and back with my parents (6.5 hour one way) to pick up two Cornish Rex cats for them. My parents named them Mavis and Baxter and they are utterly adorable and completely trouble. :) Our whole family is crazy about them already.

All three of the 3x4 cards in this photo have gold foil on them. I cannot stress enough how much gold is in this mini kit.

This is the last spread of the month and has an insert on the right hand side. It's a Design A page protector that I just cut in half, so it's hard to tell it's an insert here.



I used a bunch of papers from the Open Book 6x6 pad on this page. I love using 6x6 pads in my Project Life as the patterns are the perfect proportion.

I was so exited it use that book paper from the Open Book 6x6 pad for a photo about book club. The gold embossed library card from the Notes & Things 6x12 sticker sheet was also perfect.

Since I do my Project Life monthly, I often have the wrong amount of photos to end  my month on the right side of a two page spread. I fix this, I often add an insert in the middle of the last spread. This is a Design A page that I cut in half and I've photographed both sides here.

Phew! That was a very long winded post. Kudos to you if you made it all the way to the end. There are still lots of Project Life stuff in the Paper Issues shop. Use the code petitenoonie at checkout to save 20% off your entire order!!!

november project life

I did all of our November Project Life spreads using Crate Paper Notes and Things line and Maggie Holmes' Open Book line. I know I've said it many times before, but I just adore these lines. I was a little late to the game trying to order them and every online store I checked only had part of the lines. Then I found Paper Issues and they had almost every item I wanted and the owner offered to order me the items that they didn't have! Amazing. My order shipped crazy fast (the day after I ordered) and I could not be happier with my experience shopping at Paper Issues. Their customer service is out of this world.

I was really excited when I got all the lovely product to fill the remaining pages of our Project Life album with it. I decided to stop our album at the end of November this year and will just document December with my December Documented album.

My youngest nieces first birthday party, seeing Book of Mormon, swim class, and preparing the garden for winter. I love that "e" tag that came in the Open Book die cut pack. Perfect for a photo of sweet Evening Grey.

Celebrating Brandon's birthday with all my friends and Andy playing so sweetly with his dollhouse. That Good Times card is the perfect shade of hot pink.

Visiting Andy's future preschool for the first time, seeing Ryan Adams, poker tournament, crazy snow wall, and finding out I need a root canal/I have an abscessed tooth.

Those gold glitter thickers are some of my favourites, but I'm running low on them so I mix up the upper and lower cases to spell the words I want. I used my trusty Dymo label maker with gold tape on the bottom left pocket.

I used a slick writer on the top right photo, however it's running out of ink so it did not photograph very well. I love that mint green with gold polka dot card that came with the Notes and Things journal card set. I could definitely use a bunch more of those. Also, I just love those gold foil thickers!!

Decorating the house and tree, hockey games, book club, sledding and the very early arrival of my dear friend's baby.

I really love those gold foil phrase stickers, but they are impossible to photograph.That deer head card was perfect filler for photos of decorating for Christmas.

Derek took his nephews to a Sabres game, so he journalled about it for the album. Love when he does that! I really liked that some of the journal cards from Notes & Things have dimension to them. The card on the bottom right has the pink tag layered over the card and then a label layered over that and they're both sewn down. It really adds something extra to the album to not have everything flat. I love a lumpy album!

Hard to believe another year of Project Life is done. To be honest, I still don't know what I'm going to do for 2015. 12x12 again? Monthly again or go back to weekly? Jump on the 9x12 train? Do 1 12x12 album for our family and a 6x8 just for me? I probably should have decided all this before January 1st, but here we are almost a week into the new year and I'm still undecided. Oh well. For now, I'm just going to continue taking photos and keeping memorabilia and it will all work out in the end.

Have you decided what you're going to do for Project Life this year? 

december documented album and cover pages

I can't believe that Christmas is over already. It is hands down my favourite holiday. I spend so much time thinking about it, planning for it, spending money for it, and then it seems like it is over in a flash. Thanks to this amazing project though, I am able to keep Christmas with me for a little bit longer.

I used the November hip kit club kit and embellishment kit for my December Documented album this year. I absolutely loved the colours in the kit. All of my favourites for Christmas. I also used some items from Hip Kit's December Documented kit and some items from my stash. 

For the album, I used a plain chipboard Handbook that I covered in 2 coats of Gesso and 3 coats of white acrylic paint. I then covered it with a layer of Mister Huey's Shine, however it got a little splotchy. 

For the front, I just glued the "December 2014" wood veneer from Elle's Studio. To the spine, I adhered a frame and a wood veneer snowflake that I added silver glitter embossing powder. 

For the cover page, I used a page protector with 12 2x2 spots. I just added little bits and pieces to each pocket. I just love the see through element to most of them. 

And this is what it looks like outside of the album.



Since we actually decorated our tree in November, I added some photos of my favourite ornaments to the back of the page. 

I used a 6x8 photo of one of our trees on the next page and strung the letters spelling 'merry' like a garland across the photo. 

On the back of the photo, I printed this December calendar at 6x8 and just layered that amazing gold glitter tape with some washi at the bottom.



Right now I have up to Day 12 done and am really hoping to have everything done by the end of January before I lose my Christmas steam.

Have you done a December album? If so, please link your album in the comments, I would love to check them out!