GO GREEN

In the week of Saint Patrick's Day the No/Lo spend thread at the Studio Calico forum issued a "Go Green" challenge. I went with a spread for our Project Life album.

The products for the spread plus the insert is almost all from the Studio Calico The Birds and The Bees kit. The black and white quote cards are from this mini kit. I made the week in review card myself, because I couldn't find one online that I liked. I'd love some tips if you have any! 

Week 11 was a week of spring flowers sprouting, sick kids and a birthday party for an older cousin. I've been making an effort this week to take more everyday photos than I usually do. This is the spread without the insert.

On the Friday of week 11 we needed to go into the city to buy new shoes for spring. Nea needed a bunch of t-shirts, hence the silly photo shoot at H&M. Also the camera on my phone stopped working so I got a new phone, an iPhone 7. The camera is SO much better! Especially when the lighting is bad I see a huge difference from my old 5s. I sliced off one column of pockets to make an insert about our trip to the city. 

This week I accidentally colored my hair black again, and it's my best mistake in a long time. I love it! The box said reddish black, but it's all black. I suspect the red will start to show when the color gets washed out. I'll be buying black hair dye next time! My natural hair color is dark brown, slightly darker than what our son has. (With a husband that has blackish brown hair imagine my surprise when I gave birth to this redheaded girl!)

Nea walking out the door to go bikeriding is my favorite photo from this week.

Looking forwards to diving into week 12!

/Magdalena

A DO-OVER

Spring is upon us this weekend! The sun is shining, the spring flowers are poking up their heads everywhere and our winter clothing is coming off. In the last five weeks we've had a lot of sickness in the family. Everyone has been sick - fevers, coughs, swollen glands stomach bugs... You name it. I really the spring weather brings health to us!

I've started in on our Project Life pages of March.  I'm sticking with my plan of using this Alpha card set from Studio Calico as my monthly cards. I love the clean look of them. The other two cards are from the Oh Happy Day card set from Paislee Press. All embellishments are from my freshly organized stash. The entire page documents cousin Tim's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday, sweet boy!

I finished page two and three of March, photographed them but only published page number two. Then I stumbled upon Amy Gretchen's youtube channel. After watching the video about her scrapbooking journey where she talks about how she regrets not adding enough journaling, I realized why I didn't like the pages I'd just made. There were just photos and filler cards and barely any journaling. I took the pages apart and did them over. Page number two originally looked like this:

After rearranging the cards and adding lots more journaling, pages two and three now looks like this:

Most of the products came in the Birds and the Bees kit from Studio Calico. I made my own journaling card by using an old SC digi brush and cutting up one of the filler cards from the kit. The pattern on the card and the heart sticker mimicks the snowfall we had last week. I really hope that was the last breath of winter! 

I reprinted the book photo and used a digi brush from Kellie Stamps to write out a book review. If you're looking for some cozy mystery books to read I recommend Scottish author Peter May. The Week in review card didn't print right so I cut it down and matted it with a patterned paper from the October Afternoon space collection. Remember that one? I think it came out in 2011! The "making things happen" is an actual stamp, everything else is digital.

My next spread will be all in green because of this challenge. And I'll keep including more journaling from now on!

/Magdalena

FEBRUARY LAYOUTS

Yesterday I made a post on the blog talking about how rare it is for me to sit down and make layouts these days. The creative process is so much harder for me. It takes lots of work to come up with a layout design. Pocket pages just kind of falls together since the page protectors limits the design choices. 

Also layouts are just for fun, but Project Life is for documenting life. Because of that I can't wait forever to put my memories on paper because I will forget.I put a lot of preassure on myself with layouts. I tell myself they need to be unique and perfect. If they're just meh they go in the trash. Meh pocket pages still go into my album. They don't bother me at all. 

There is a full lesson dedicated to interviews in my "Joint Effort" class at Big Picture Classes. The lesson also has a free download file that includes the questions for my annual birthday interview with the kids. This layout is for Dante's 9th birthday. All products are from past Studio Calico scrapbook kits.

A few weeks ago I went through my scrapbook stash and also broke up the few kits I still had intact. I sorted everything into meshbags, bowls and boxes. I've noticed a difference since the cleanup in that I use more of my older items. I had a tiny stash compared to most scrappers even before the cleanup, which means my choices in product is slim now. This is really how I want my scrap space to be!

I came across these Sassafras foldies that came in the Glee Club kit in the fall of 2011. I really do super love them, but I hadn't come up with a layout that would do them justice yet. I'm not 100% happy with this one, but I like the old lady theme of the layout!

I still have a few more February stories to tell, so I will probably do a couple more layouts to add to our pocket pages of this month.

/Magdalena

FEBRUARY POCKET PAGES

Another month has gone by and I've put together nine pages of February photos. I've got two layouts mixed in with my pocket pages. If you're a maker of scrapbook layouts, as well as a Project Lifer, do you mix them in with your pocket pages or do you keep a seperate album? I started keeping all my projects together in one album about two years ago. These days I make as many layouts in a year as I would make in a month.

My February kit from Studio Calico, Confidant, was very late so I started in on my monthly pages without it. I picked out this F card to start out the month of February, and I love how it turned out. I've decided to stick with that idea for the rest of the year. You can still find this card set in the SC shop. 

My daughter made these bumblebees from toilet paper rolls. Adorable! I let them set the tone for the entire page. 

I recently went through my scrapbooking stash and took all my old kits apart and sorted them through. I have this big bowl of veneer that I never ever use, although I like what's in it. I decided it was purge or use! 

On the page below I've used Oh Happy Day journal card set from Paislee Press, plus the 4x6 Photo Templates volume 6. The stamps are from Kellie Stamps, but only available in the digital version right now.

 Misha Collins - how I love thee!

I jazzed up some of the cards by cutting strips from the pattern samples of the Confidant kit promo card. The "brave" digi brush is another Pailsee Press product called "High Five". I got the digital elements pack and both journal card kits, 1 and 2. I've used them in the pages below.

So, this was how I spent the Sports Break - a week off school. Next to my son in bed reading a ton books. He had a high fever for four days straight. Not how we planned to spend the week! But I got to read the entire Maja Grå series by Amanda Hellberg -crime novels 
with a supernatural twist. If you can find them in English I highly recommend them!

 A walk around the city of Uppsala and an art exhibition in church. Art by artist and priest Kent Wisti. This guy! <3

I'll be sharing my February layouts on the blog tomorrow. See you then!

/Magdalena