Happy Project Life Saturday y’all!
I’m thrilled to have you here for another week of the series Project Life for Beginners. If this is your first time here with us, you’ll want to check out this page to catch up on past posts. Let’s dig right in!
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I feel like I need to start this week saying this: I am loving the simplicity of Project Life. I’ve gotten more accomplished in my memory keeping in the few weeks since I’ve started with Project Life than I have in years. And I totally mean that — years. With that being said, I switched things up a smidge this week. It was time for me to add some embellishments to my layouts.
Before I go any further, I want to make sure that I reiterate something: you don’t have to add embellishments. Project Life is designed to be a system that uses your pictures, a core edition (Jade, in my case), and pocket pages to create your albums. That’s it. Adding any extra bling or fluff is completely optional.
This week I’m just dipping my toes in the embellishment pond. I’m only talking about using letters and numbers and I didn’t even use them on every layout. Easy and not-so-scary, right?
I’ve used many alphabet stickers in the past and let me tell you, Thickers are the way to go. I’ve never met a Thicker that I haven’t liked. They serve their purpose and they serve it well.
first layout
This week, in addition to using the Jade edition, I also added a journaling prompt card from Pebbles. I loved that I didn’t have to write paragraphs about her party; the prompt card did the work for me!
The majority of my layouts that I completed this week are of my daughter’s birthday party and I wanted to have colors that coordinated with her party better than some included in the Jade edition, so you’ll see that I’ve added in a few extra pieces of card stock cut to size.
second layout
With Reagan’s Cupcake Party having a color scheme of red, pink, and turquoise, I added an extra touch of pink with a small addition of some Dear Lizzy patterned card stock and painted a chipboard number three and coordinating hearts with red paint to add a pop of color.
I had a favorite picture from her party and I wanted to make it stand out as best I could. I decided to blow it up to 8×12, change the color to black and white, and trim it down to size.
The gold glittered Thickers really pop on the black and white photo. But you know what? The picture would still stand out and be amazing without the phrase “Make a Wish.” I wanted to add the embellishment but you don’t have to!
third layout
I really broke the rules on this layout by using embellishments *plus* going outside the lines! What it really boiled down to is that I really loved the glittered numbers and they scream Reagan’s personality. Could I have just written the date with my trusty Sharpie pen on the card? Absolutely. Did the Thickers add a little more punch? Sure did.
One thing that I’m really struggling with and that I really trying to get over is that not every layout will fill out an even number of pages. Reagan’s party used up two pocket pages, front and back, which left the right side of the last layout empty. Thankfully, I had the perfect set of pictures to fill it in: Valentine’s Day.
A little love in the corner on a page dedicated to love seemed fitting.
fourth layout
See? Nothing extra on this side and I love it. Simple is great!
Helpful Hint: If you don’t have enough words to fill up a journaling card, embellishments like alphabet stickers are a great addition to fill space. Super easy and super awesome.
So there you have my Project Life layouts for the week! How did you do with your homework for the week? Did you get three layouts finished?
Homework for this week: Complete two more layouts. If you’re up for a challenge, try embellishing at least once with some letters or numbers!
If you liked this Project Life post, you may like these ones too:
Project Life for Beginners: Using Inserts
I was provided product from American Crafts, but all opinions and ideas are 100% my own. I just love the Project Life products that much!
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Beautiful! I love the make a wish page! The gold thickers certainly stood out on the large b&w photo!
Beautiful layouts! How do you feel about cutting a picture to fit more than one pocket as you’ve done with one of your daughter’s bday pictures? I struggle with that, I don’t mind cutting a picture but have a difficult time cutting if I have to cut a person if you know what I mean….lol. I mean it looks great, I just struggle with it personally!
Love it. One of my favorite things about PL is how easy it is to go back and dress it up. Reagan and I share the same birthday 🙂
I love your pages. Do you place the thickers directly on top of the photos or do you place them on the page protectors? I’m not sure what to do.
I place the Thickers directly on the picture so that the letters are still there in case I want to rearrange things later. 🙂 Hope this helps!
thank you, that definitely makes sense to do it that way