52 craft projects // project life 2013

I love scrapbooking but finding the time to do it is a real challenge for me. Mainly because all my scrapbooking supplies are hidden in storage boxes so I need ~15 mins to get it all out (and usually about half an hour to clean up my mess). Add the time of having my pictures printed at the next pharmacy(or even order them online and wait for them 2-3 business days) and you need at least a whole afternoon to get a couple spreads done.

Some spreads in my 2013 album have lots of details and movie tickets etc.

Other spreads were put together months later and only some random facts were pulled from my daily planner or my cell phone.

My album consists of everything that happened the past year - happy and sad moments, family trips, parties with friends, lots of knitting and sewing, some random crafts, lots of plant pictures and blank weeks that were filled with studying.

I really love having one picture fill the entire spread.

The last weeks of the year were composed in monthly spreads rather than weekly, because I was running out of time.
Using a core kit really helped speed up the process. For 2014 I plan on making monthly spreads and spreads for special occasions, and probably some spreads that concentrate on my craft adventures.

Do you use project life? Or another form of scrapbooking? I'd love to see how you documented 2013 :)
This is project #51 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

Package Project

I mentioned last year that I participated in the package project. I got Saaleha's package back in January when I just got back to Vancouver. I realized I hadn't shared it's content on here yet so here you go:

Underneath all the pretty wrapping paper there's a variety of cute stuff from South Africa and also lots of handmade goodies!

The rooibos tea is unlike anything you can purchase in Germany - it's delicious! I cherish each cup I drink. Does anyone know whether woolworth's rooibos tea is available in Europe? I'll need to stock up soon! There are also lots of cute, handmade journaling cards (perfect for Project Life!), pens, notebooks, small packages full of handmade scrapbook goodies, magnets, postcards, ...

I also love these mini postcards that look like old polaroids. And the theme is Paris - how could I not adore these?!

I love snail mail - receiving letters and packages always excites me beyond reason. Especially when they're wrapped in pretty paper and the delivery guy mentions that the package has a distinct smell to it :D

Project Life: getting started

The first time I heard about Project Life was last summer on a blog. I thought it was a great idea but moving to Canada and getting through the first year of college didn't leave much time(/money) for paper projects. When I saw PL pop up everywhere across the blogsphere in January I was intrigued to give it a try. But I decided to wait until my birthday in April because it meant that I'd be home soon with lots of supplies at hand.

How I'll tackle this project: I'll try my best to finish the spreads on sundays so I can post them either sunday evening or monday. As we all know, life is unpredictable and I don't see myself working on this project consistently until April next year. But I'll make an effort to document as much as possible in this album.



For the title page I used a photo I took on my 21st birthday. I used Photoshop Elements to divide it into six 6x4 inch pictures and had them printed at a drug store. Since photos are printed in a 10x15cm format rather than 4x6 inch the pockets are slightly too big. Oh well, it's only a couple of mm :)



I stapled a business card of the restaurant we had dinner at for my birthday to the picture and added the date in the bottom right corner.



Supplies I use: I got a American Crafts 12x12 D-ring binder from Michael's in Vancouver. It doesn't look as fancy as the official Project Life binders but it was much cheaper and it will do the job. I bought a Big Pack of Design A photo pocket pages. I'll have all my photos printed at a local drug store (DM) since I don't have a photo printer at home.



This is my current workspace. Some of the supplies I'll use every week are my advanced tape glider, a corner puncher, black ink, lots of washi tape, a cutting mat and a craft knife as well as lots of pens. I'm currently in love with American Crafts slick writers, Zig writers and Sakura micron pens. Also I'll use all kinds of scrapbook papers I've accumulated over the past years, the Journaling Cards and lots of stamps and craft punches.

Are you doing Project Life? Do you have any tips on staying on track with a project like this?
I'm so excited for this project!