Project Life 2016 | May 23 - June 5

Greetings my crafty friends! Today I am sharing a layout I created for the Hip Kit Club Design Team call, using their gorgeous August Project Life kit that can be found here. I love the bright watercolor look to all the cards this month, perfect for the late spring/early summer photos I was working with!

Here is the overall spread...

And a close-up of the left page...

I picked out my favorite paper for the title card and kept the date simple to allow the pattern to shine thru. I absolutely adore the Pink Paislee mirror pieces that were included in the kit, but wasn't sure I would use all the words they provided. Then I realized I could spell "May" and "June" which was perfect for this week that overlapped into both months!

I love the journal cards from this kit... all the watercolor and colorful text make me swoon!! Some cards I kept pretty simple this week, just a bit of ink splatter and stitching.

Here is a close-up of the full right side page...

This card turned out to be a favorite...

Because I loved that rainbow title card so much, I wanted to somehow replicate it for the right side page. I created a sentiment with the mirror alpha and then decided to cluster some enamel dots and acrylic pieces around it to create bands of color similar to the watercolor card. The enamel dots were included in the Hip Kit. The acrylic stars all came from my stash. Most are from Color Cast Designs. The outline stars are adorable, right!?!? They were part of their July release.

Finally, a few more cards from the right side page. Nothing elaborate, just a little detail added to each... stitched washi stickers, mirrors, ink splatter and enamel dots.

Below, I added a few of the Pink Paislee painted wood veneer (LOVE them!!) along the bottom of a full 4x6 photo and stitched for some extra interest.

And.. that's it! Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2016 | August 8-14

Hello all! Today I'm sharing a layout using the July Project Life kit from Hip Kit Club. I just LOVE the colors in this kit... so bright and summery! And lots of crisp white backgrounds, so they really POP!

Here's the overall layout...

And a close-up of the full left page...

I was so inspired by the colors in this kit that I wanted to replicate them on my title card. I hand-stitched the "hello" on this card in changing colors from pink to orange to yellow, to emulate the watercolor tones in the kit.

I added a black ink splatter to most of the cards this week, along with clusters of the Amy Tangerine hearts and a few Project Life chipboard pieces that were provided in the kit. I had some ink-smearing issues on this layout, so forgive the imperfect smudges here and there! :)

The 4x6 card above was an exclusive journal card from the the kit. I just added a bit of ink splatter and some Hip Kit vellum washi strips. Pretty simple, but I love the colors!

I had recently picked up some watercolor washi from Michaels and a couple of them were just perfect for this layout! The pinky-orange "Hello Sunshine" above is from that set. I layered the photo and washi on some basic white cardstock that I applied an ink background to, which helps to balance the other water color and lime green accents throughout the layout.

I traced the outline of the "summer" and "story" words in the pink filler card, to replicate the font of the chipboard piece in the bottom card. It helps the words pop a bit more.

Here is the full right side page...

Pokemon Go has been a big thing around here, so I had to document that with the card below. The 3x4 "Explore the World" card from the kit was kinda perfect, but the size wasn't... so I just mounted it to a larger 4x6, along with some ink splatter and a strip of the exclusive vellum washi for a pop of color.

We hosted a 1st birthday party for my cousin on Saturday of this week so the rest of the layout side is photos from that event.

Again, more of that Michaels washi on the card above. And how cute is my little cousin, Ashlyn!?!

The wood veneer disc on the card above is from Color Cast Designs.

This layout also includes an insert of "photo booth" pics from the party. I made a handful of Mickey and Minnie props for the party and oh, what fun we all had with them! We ended up with so many great pictures, I wanted to include them ALL, so I trimmed down a Design V page protector to hold lots of extra 3x4 photos.

The insert also includes a fun little confetti pocket. I cut word strips from one of the journal cards in the kit, added some white and gold confetti (from the Target dollar bins around Christmas time), another wood veneer from Color Cast Designs, and a few acrylic Mickey heads (not sure where those originally came from). I sealed the pocket closed with my Fuse tool. I also stitched a paper tab along the edge.

And finally, here is how the insert looks in the album...

That's about it for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life 2016 | July 18-24

Hi all! Today I'm sharing a Project Life spread that includes a 6x12 layout as well as a fun canvas pocket for memorabilia! For this layout I used the "Kaleidoscope" August kits from Citrus Twist Kits. The color palette in this kit was perfect to document this week that included a few outdoor summer events.

Here's a peek at those 6x12 layouts... stay tuned at the end of this post for some more details and a quick tutorial!

But before we get to the details of those, here is the overall layout...

And the full left page...

The Pocket Life kits always include a great variety of journal cards, and I used quite a few on this week's layout. 7 I think!?

The small print of the card on the left was perfect for a photo of my husband who (in his head) is a pro athlete! The little cork piece from Citrus Twist is a leftover from a previous month's kit.

The card above uses another journal card from the Pocket Life kit, layered with a some of the Amy Tangerine stickers from the kit, a bit of ink splatter and an acrylic "here & there" piece from Color Cast Designs.

Here is the right side page, which ended up being an entire collection of family photos from a wedding we attended.

Throughout the layout I've added clusters of the Amy Tangerine and Dear Lizzy puffy stickers along with puffy dots from Fancy Pants and some navy blue stitching.

How perfect is that card "Yes.I.Do." card for a photo of the bride and groom!?! Love it, paired with one of the exclusive cork pieces, some puffy stickers and ink splatter.

Using some of the journal patterned paper in the Pocket Life kit, I created a few small tags with stamped sentiments. Oh, how I LOVE those little stamp sets in each month's kit!!! I keep them all in a box at my desk and can always find a word or quote to accompany my photos.

That about wraps up the left and right side of this layout. But the highlight of this week is most definately these 6"x12" inserts! First, the front of the insert, is a more traditional layout.

I used a piece of Dear Lizzy journal paper as a base for the layout, and added a mixed media background with a plastic packaging technique. I then added an accent strip of paper along the left side margin, and a few colorful bits to back my photo, which I printed at 5"x5".

For the title of this layout I used another great acrylic piece from Color Cast Designs, with a stamped sub-title using the mini stamp set from the Citrus
Kit.

In the top right, I used a piece from the cut-apart sheet provided by Citrus Twist, and stitched it in place...

Now, for the back side of this insert...

I wanted to include the gorgeous invitation from the wedding we attended, along with some additional photos that didn't make it into the layout. To do this, I decided to make a large pocket on the back side of the 6"x12" layout.

Here's a quick tutorial of how I made the pocket...

I actually decided to recycle the canvas bag the Citrus Twist Pocket Life kit came in. These bags are always so cute! I cut the front of the bag off, and then trimmed off the top drawstring portion.

I layered the canvas over a piece of 6"x12" paper and cut it to fit the area I wanted to use for a pocket (in this case, 6"x6") being careful to align the stamped sentiment where I wanted it.

I then folded, ironed and stitched a hem along the top edge of the canvas.

I also stitched a puffy sticker in place before the final step, which was to stitch the remaining 3 sides of the canvas onto the paper.

And that's it. Pretty simple and I LOVE the finished product! (And how gorgeous is that wedding invite!?!)

That's it for today! If you've recycled the Citrus Twist canvas bags in your own projects, please post a link in the comments below... I'd love to see them!

Project Life 2016 | June 13-24

Good morning scrappy peeps! Today I am sharing a layout from mid June, using the May "Beach Glass" Pocket Life kit from Citrus Twist Kits. The colors in this kit are very "me."

Here is the overall layout..

And just the left page...

As I tend to do frequently, I selected my favorite paper for the base of my title card. Because this one was rather busy and colordul, I decided to keep my embellishments simple. I just added puffy alpha and numbers to date the card and stitched a few circles around them.

My favorite detail of this layout is the ticket pocket I made. Between sporting events and concerts, we tend to have a lot of ticket stubs that I like to include in my Project Life albums. Which is great... but I'm always trying to create new ways to hold them. For this layout, I made a pocket out of vellum and oversized paper confetti.

To create the pocket, I simply punched circles from one of the patterned papers in the kit, sandwiched them between 2 pieces of vellum and stitched around the outside. I adhered the pocket to a 3x4 card with glue on 3 sides which creates the "pocket." And that's it! Super simple and I love it!!! And notice how the circles of the confetti mimic the circles in the title card... little things make me happy :)

Another detail from the left page...

Here is the right side page...

And a few details from the right page. First, a simple journal card with the exclusive acrylic piece from the kit...

That's about it for today... thanks for stopping by!