Project Life Essentials: My Must Haves

These are my Project Life Essentials. They are all products that I use week-in and week-out. They sit on my table when I'm making my pages, and today I'm going to share them with you. I only recommend products that I use consistently and really love. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment at the bottom!

The Basics:

• Becky Higgins Page Protectors -- these divided page protectors make it easy to break up your week into little snippets and document all the fun everyday moments. I mainly use the Design F pages, but the Design A, and Variety Packs are also popular.

• Project Life Core Kits (currently unavailable: expected mid-august-september) -- these kits have enough cards to get you through an entire year. I tend to use them sparingly throughout my book, but they are great to have on hand for quick pages and jotting down lists or notes. I have both Clementine and Cobalt; but I'm also liking the look of the new Cherry kit as well. 

• Project Life Grid Cards (currently unavailable) -- I use these all the time; both for Project Life and for various notes and lists I write for myself. I even use these cards to sketch out my Project Life layout for the week, the grid lines help to keep everything even. 

***Don't worry if these are unavailable; its super easy to use your own stash to make all the cards you 

need. 

The Tools

• Fiskars Softgrip 8-Inch Scissors - I've tried lots of scissors, and these are the ones I always come back to, especially for Project Life. They are a great size, not too big & not too small. I use them every day, and they clean very easily for a brand-new feel every time. 

• Corner Rounder -- This EK Success punch is the one I use. It's small and fits on my desk. It works every time and never gives me any problems. 

• Silhouette Cameo -- I use my Silhouette all the time, It's great for cutting out titles, and making lots of journaling cards. This starter kit from Amazon is a great deal: Silhouette Cameo Starter Kit Bundle Cutter. There are lots of different retailers who sell the Silhouette Cameo; I bought mine off Amazon because of the reasonable price and the super fast shipping. Here's a list of all the free Silhouette cuts that I've created, please feel free to download and use any of them. 

• Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher -- This is by far my favorite little tool. It's a strong mini stapler that has a good reach. Its great for attaching ticket stubs or any other memorabilia, and for adding a little bit of texture/dimension.

• Zig Millennium Markers -- These are my main journaling pens. They are a pure black color. I use all the sizes but I'm most partial to the .005 for fine writing, the .03 for regular journaling, and the .08 for a bolder look. 

• India Ink Pen -- If I had to use just one pen for the rest of my life; this would be it. It has a great feel, and it writes super smooth. The color is a bit of a faded black, which I really like. Sometimes the Zig markers are just too harsh of a black, and this India Ink pen has just the right amount of fade to blend into pages and pockets that are a bit more muted. 

Paper & Embellishments

• 6x6 Paper Pads -- I love working with the smaller size paper for Project Life, the prints are all shrunk down and look better in the smaller pockets. A few of my favorites: Studio Calico: Classic Calico (probably the best neutral 6x6 pad out there), Crate Paper: Storyteller (love the muted tones & map pages), Studio Calico: Hey Day (love all the various & well coordinating colors). 

• Clear Stamps -- Stamps are definitely the most economical embellishments, I use several of the same sets each week. I keep them right on my desk with a couple of ink pads and integrate them into almost all of my PL pockets. Here are a few of my most used sets:

 Studio Calico: Stepping Stone Alphabet 

Studio Calico: Hey Y'All

Lawn Fawn: Sophie's Sentiments

• Hero Arts Shadow Inks -- I love the saturation of these, they ink a bit blotchy at first, but then spread out as they dry to a really pretty color. I use wet cement the most, followed by soft pool & butter bar. I just recently ordered soft pink & the new neon colors. 

• Prima Inks -- I have these chalk inks in lots of colors. Its a great way to expand your ink colors without breaking the bank. They're also small and don't take up too much room on the desk/in the ikea cart. Starter color recommendations: Ladybug (a real red), Moss Lawn, Teal Damask, Attic Dust, & Old Road.

   

• Washi Tape -- I have lots of washi. I use washi on pretty much every pocket. You get a ton of it on a roll, it can act as ribbon, patterned paper, sticker, access. Two Peas had a great tutorial on using washi in Project Life, I was lucky enough to guest design for the challenge. Washi suppliers: Freckled Fawn, Love My Tapes, & Two Peas has a good selection. 

These are my most loved Project Life products; the essentials that I need each week and can't go without. I'll keep this list updated to include any new products that make their way into this list. If you have any questions at all, feel free to leave them in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer them!

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#30 Lists Registration is Open!

I'm excited to announce that 30 Days of Lists registration is open!!

30 Days of Lists is a month-long project with daily list prompts, awesome inspiration, and a great community. I've been gearing up and I'm excited to start making lists and sharing them with everyone. 

The first 100 people who register are entered into a drawing for a Freckled Fawn embellishment kit -- and everyone who registers in the first two weeks will get a chance at some great Kerri Smith books.

Last night I finished up my listing journal -- a 3 ring book where I'll keep my lists (unless I put them in project life), I like using binding rings for any book that I'm going to continually add content to.


The book measures 4.5'x6'. It's made from a Basically Bare 'Oh So Mini'. Originally a 6'x'6 mini album, I trimmed the side down for a more traditional rectangular book.

The top layer is acrylic, covering a sheet of patterned paper that I ran through my Silhouette cameo. Then a hard chipboard sheet and one more cardboard sheet underneath.


I'd like to share this cut with everyone, so here is a link to download the 'lists september 2012' silhouette cut. It measures 4.5x6 inches, but you can manipulate it to the size you need -- and you can also easily eliminate the letters and run this cut for each page in your album! 
Please feel free to share this cut as you'd like, please link back to my blog:)
Can't wait to start sharing my lists with everyone. I'll be posting on instagram/twitter every day. Check out my landing page and sign up today!

http://30daysoflists.com/listers/rukristin/

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Project Life: Getting it Done - Step by Step

Getting it Done -- Step by Step 

I recently shared my new method of making Project Life work for me with a single page a week & smaller page sizes. Today I'm going to share my Project Life process from start to finish. This process hasn't changed much over the last six months -- just tweaked here and there to fit my needs for the week. 

The Process

Step One: Organization 

My first step is to make a list. I'm a writer and list-maker at heart and I always feel so much better when everything is written out in front of me. I divide my list into two separate parts: Photos & Events. Under the Photos header I make a list of all the photos I've taken (or might want to use) for the week, and under Events I write down stuff that happened that I definitely want to include. 

To keep track of things that happen during the week, I use the Momento app for the iPhone. I have my facebook and instagram feeds imported into the app, and if I need to supplement, I'll scroll through some text message conversations with Jeff and see if I missed anything. 

Step Two: Choosing/Editing Photos

Once I've picked the photos that I'm going to use I open up photoshop and resize my photos to fit onto 4x6 canvases (a few months back I wrote a tutorial with pre-made photoshop canvases that you can download for free). This way I can get them printed quickly at the Walgreens around the block. I use Walgreens because of the 1-hour printing, its cheap (my PL doesn't need professional photos), and its right around the block -- so I can usually get my prints super fast. 

I generally re-size my photos to to 2x2 or 3x3-ish -- small enough to fit in the PL pockets, with enough room to see the card its mounted on and some embellishing around the photo. I'll go a little bit bigger if I really love the photo and want it to have a prominent place on the page. 

Step Three: Sketching it Out

Once I have my pictures in hand I cut them apart and spread them out on my desk along with my notes from earlier. I then sketch out a basic grid in the shape of the page protector and fill in the boxes with topics/notes/events etc. This makes it easier to go one-by-one when creating each of the pockets. 

I start placing photos, journaling cards, embellishments, scraps of paper, etc on top of the page protector trying to figure out what is going to look good (sorry this picture is so blurry -- it looked much better when I took it). I keep moving things around until I like the way they look, and then I take a picture with my phone (so I can refer back) and clear off the page protector.  

Step Four: Finishing it up

As you can see, my finished page is definitely different from the photo above. I really wanted to use that journaling card that I made, but the colors were not coordinating at all, so I slipped it into the red chevron bag as a hidden journaling card.  

I tend to stick with neutral colored backgrounds (white, kraft, grey, etc) and then pick one or two bolder colors to tie the entire page together. This week's colors -- red and blue -- were chosen because of the Fourth of July. Sometimes a color in a photo will really pop out at me -- or sometimes I really want to use certain products or paper and I let that be my jumping off point. But I've found that neutral backgrounds and a just a few accent colors will almost always give your page a cohesive look.


***The kraft 'T' journaling card is a silhouette cut-file that I created and is available free of charge to anyone who would like to use it (there is one for each day of the week).***


Thank you so much for stopping by. 

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Free Silhouette Project Life Cut File

Today I'm Sharing a Free Silhouette Cut File for Project Life!


*** Update: I switched the file host to Google Drive, so for anyone who was having issues downloading/weird messages, it should be all fixed now ***

On Thursday I shared Project Life Version 1.5. My new way of making Project Life work for me. I'm making one page a week, cut my page protectors down, and I'm not sweating the imperfect pictures.

One of the pockets has this cute journaling card with the day of the week cut out. Kraft cardstock & the Silhouette cut file.

I'm not usually a Sunday blogger, but I promised to share this Project Life Silhouette cut file, and I wanted to make sure it was available this weekend for anyone who wanted to use it in this week's (or any week's) PL pages.

Download the file here: Project Life Silhouette Cut File

Feel free to share this cut file and alter it to your needs as long as any credit is attributed back to my blog, and please -- personal use only :) 

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Weekly Calendar Template

I need to be a little more organized. Not a lot more, just that one extra step of organization.

I've looked up and down for a good weekly calendar that suits my needs, and I just haven't come up with any that I'm in love with. There were just a couple of specific things that I wanted to keep track of every day and I wasn't finding a good fit.

So I took a couple hours the other day and came up with one completely tailored to my needs.

It has check-boxes at the top for Creative Time and Technical Time so that I can keep track (and keep balanced) my actual crafting time from my blogging and photo editing time.

It also has check-boxes for Breakfast, Lunch, and 8 glasses of water a day -- because I absolutely forget to eat and then I'm just not a happy camper.

I'm not sure if anyone else will have a use for it -- but if someone else can use it too, then awesome!

You should just be able to right-click on the photo and save it to your hard drive. Feel free to pin it to Pinterest to save for a later date or for inspiration on your own custom weekly calendar.

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Project Life | 1.30 - 2.6

Hi everyone! I'm here to share with you my project life spread from the week of 1.30 - 2.6.  I do my weeks Monday through Sunday mostly because Jeff and I tend to do a lot of full weekend projects and I thought it would be better to keep the weekends together on one page.

As I move forward with this project, I'm finding that I'm liking my pages a lot more. They are becoming a lot more 'me'. Which is really what I want project life to be all about. Lots of little pockets for pictures, thoughts, memorabilia -- a true snapshot of that week from my perspective.

Here's my spread for this week:

I used some of the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line throughout the pages. I really like the idea of working with a kit as I go along, I think it gives the spread a much more cohesive feel, an added layer of emotion. Even though these are all separate panels, the use of a color scheme, or a series of patterned papers really brings it all together. 

More details on each page as well as some of the panels after the jump. 

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