Project Life: 2014 Week 6

Hello, hello!  I'm here with another completed Project Life spread to share today!  I like to mix up the colors from week to week, so for Week 6, I decided to play around with a black, white and pink color combo.  I had seen a few layouts done using these colors, and I absolutely loved the look of them.  Here is what I came up with:

For the left hand side of my spread, I used the design F that I had used in my previous Week 5 layout.  Since I usually do a title card in the upper left 4x6 slot of my layouts, and that slot doesn't exist in design F, I had to be a little flexible and move my title card over to the upper right 4x6 slot.  I know... the horror.

I have been loving the printable labels Studio Calico offered for free back in April, and have used them on pretty much every layout I've made since I downloaded them.  They are just the perfect embellishment for layering, or adding extra emphasis to a title or a bit of journaling.

For this layout, the one new thing I made sure to try out was making my own alphas using my Silhouette Cameo.  After seeing this tutorial over on The Pocket Source, I knew this would be a technique I would use on the regular.  After paying around $5 for each set of thickers at the craft store (with never enough of the letters you actually need!), this was just a complete game changer for me.

First I made a set using the exact font and directions found in the tutorial video (used for my Week 6 title above).  Then I played around and made myself a pink set using the font A Love of Thunder (Feb title below).  I am just so excited about this new way to make custom alpha in whatever font, size and color I want!!

I also had to be a little flexible with my pizza title on the above left card.  I originally planned the title to say 'naan pizza', since that it what we made for dinner that night (so good!!).  Unfortunately, after already sticking on the letters for 'naan', I realized I wasn't going to have enough space.  So I improvised, channeled my inner 90s child, and just used the abbreviation 'za.  People still say that, right?!

I was able to include some memories that didn't have a picture to go along with them on a large label attached to a 3x4 card.  I have tried to be deliberate about including the memories you can't really 'see' in pictures, because those are still worth remembering as well.  I'm just so thankful I have my Project Life planner to record all those memories in, otherwise I would have completely forgotten about the time Melissa surprised my on my lunch break at work!

We had a crazy beautiful ice storm back in February, and I just love this picture I snapped of a tree I saw on my way into work.  After picking out this pink striped 3x4 card that came in a Studio Calico kit to be my journal card for the "ice tree", I realized the background was a little too busy for my alphas to stand out on.  The card was also drawing a lot of attention to itself, since no other card really had that much color going on.  So I simply stuck on a strip of white cardstock to back my title, and problem solved!  I still got to see those fun pink stripes, but it was less 'in yo face', and you could actually read my title.

I kept these cards pretty simply, with minor embellishment.  I love the nice and clean feeling of these cards, especially on the left.  I thought the "these moments captured" sentiment was perfect for my picture of pictures!  I then hand lettered "home alone, time to craft" on the 'Love This' card, and stuck a heart embellishment over the O.

The last two 3x4 cards are dedicated to the 4x6 bubble card I made using my silhouette (still so proud of myself for that one!).  And then I completely geeked out when Studio Calico liked my picture on Instagram of my DIY version of their wood veneer card... cos I'm super cool like that.

Usually when I do a Project Life spread, I use one design A pocket page, and one other random 12x2 page.  For this spread, I rebelled against my own rule, and went with a pocket page from the Just Add Color kit for my right hand side, even thought I used Design F for my left side *gasp* #rulebreaker.

I also have to apologize for having to blur out one of my cards on this spread.  I included a map to our new apartment as a full 4x4 card, so for privacy reasons I decided to keep that slot to myself.  There's really not much to see in that spot anyways, and you'll still get a glimpse of the title in a picture a little further down.  Other than that, you're really not missing much.

I mainly used cards from the Midnight Edition core kit for this entire layout, since they are all mainly black and white, which went perfectly with my overall color scheme.  However, there is a bit of yellow mixed in on those cards.  I really wanted to use the above "remember this" card for the card above, unfortunately, there was a big stripe of yellow polka dots going up the left side of the card.  I fixed this by covering some white cardstock with hot pink washi tape, and cutting the washi/cardstock combo down to perfectly cover up any yellow.  Problem solved!

Melissa surprised me after one of her Saturday classes with cupcakes... since I'm a cupcake fiend and she is just to good to me!  I embellished this card with a bunch of 'sweet' elements to keep a mini theme.  I really love the packing tag freebie printable from Hello Forever, and this was the first time I was able to use one in a layout.  I just love the overall softness and sweetness of this card.

For the next three cards, I had to figure out how to fill up the 4x4 slots.  As I already, mentioned, I trimmed down a map to our new apartment to fit into the last slot.  For the first two slots, I simply picked out some 4x6 cards I like from the Midnight Edition, and trimmed off the edges so make a 4x4 card.  Easy peasy!

For the 'Hello There' card, I added a few of my pink DIY alphas into the title slot to coordinate with the next card (below).  I thought about adding a little more to this card, but in the end decided I liked the simplicity and just left it.  After all, I am about 20 weeks behind and currently in the business of getting things done!

This card I had the most difficulty with.  There is always that one card that does not seem to cooperate, and you can't land on a design to save your life.  For a while I played with the idea of having a bunch of those pink flowers in the background under the picture, but I could never get it to look right.  So I settled with making a little layered cluster of simple embellishments and called it good.

This card, however, is actually my favorite of the layout.  And not just because Melissa looks super cool in her new sunglasses!  This card just seemed to put itself together, and every embellishment I tried just seemed to work perfectly.  The sliver of a grey tag at the bottom of the card was actually a last minute add after the rest of the card was completed.  After cutting up the tag for another card, I didn't want to waste a perfectly good embellishment, so I just stuck it on the bottom of this magic card and loved the tiny bit of extra it added!

And finally, the most exciting event of the week was when we put a hold on our brand new apartment (that we have now been living in for 3.5 months... time freaking flies!).  You can also see a tiny peak at the title of the map card above this one.  I simply used my pink DIY alphas to spell out @HOME, and embellished with a sticker arrow pointing at our new address.  We were so excited to be moving into this place, and I'm so happy we love it here as much as we thought we would!

And voila, week 6 is in the books!  Have you scrapped any memories recently?  Ever run into a "problem card" or an area of a layout that just won't work no matter what you try?  What about playing favorites, do you find there's usually one card you just love to bits where everything seemed to perfectly fall into place?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and feel free to add a link to share your favorite cards with the rest of us!