Out with the Old, In with the New!

Hi Everybody,


Kristin here, wishing you all a Happy New Year! For my first post of the year, I am going to focus a bit on our theme for the month and talk about Project Life. First up, our theme!

When TST girls and I brainstormed recently about our plans for the new year, we came up with some really fun and exciting ideas!! We are sure you'll are going to love them as much as we do! There was some talk about exploring new techniques, and textures, getting back to good ole' scrapbooking and lots of talk about classes and things we want to try...BUT the best news, we plan to share it all here!
One thing we knew for sure when we discussed each topic was that we each needed to organize a bit before we could tackle these awesome feats! I mean after all, we had one heck of a year between the four of us. Some of us got married, some of us bought our first house, got published in a scrappy magazine, got promotions at work, had surgeries:( , celebrated birthdays :) ,went on amazing vacations, found local FUN, visited family, attended craft fairs, opened Etsy stores, went back to school, met online scrappy friends, and met online friends in the flesh! Mostly, we enjoyed our lives and created lots of memories! With that, comes some stories and projects we plan to share and lots of pictures we have taken and gathered up, just waiting for the perfect project for them to be joined with. Okay, okay, I'm getting ahead of myself, back to organizing! One way we are going to do it this year is by selecting a Theme to keep us focused and hopefully to help spark our creative juices! We will announce it here and challenge you to join us each month!

This month’s Theme we thought had to start at the beginning, right? So here we go!

January's Theme is...Out with the OLD, In with the NEW!

Now, hold the phone! That doesn't mean we are not a fan of OLD, in fact many of us are too fond of old (if you know what I mean ). In that old antique that will be a perfect addition to our craft room or make an amazing repurposed project! What we mean by this month's theme is, let's leave the old worries, the old to do lists, the old unfinished projects and stress behind and bring on the New! The new projects, the new ideas, the new to do lists and the new opportunities!

So with that in mind, I ordered the Project Life kit by Becky Higgins, you can scope it out HERE if you haven't seen it already. This stuff is really cool! It makes scrapping easy and I really love that she has thought of everything. Watch this video to get a better idea!


 


What I personally like about it is it takes the pressure off finding your materials and gathering all those embellishments and really puts the focus on the pictures and the memories. I often comtemplate so much with with the design piece and this takes that out of the equation. It allows me to just remember the fun and the moments but most importantly, I get those moments and thoughts into a book I can share for years to come. I definitely will still create scrapbook pages and projects from scratch, I have way too much of an addiction to (hoarding) I mean buying scrappy supplies and designing my own combos, colors and layouts is still way too fun. I think of this program more as a way to KEEP UP, not get behind, not forget to scrap that funny or endearing moment. The beautifully designed cards and the uniquely organized pages, make it fun and easy to do so, that's for sure!


I chose the Clementine set, made up of oranges, blues, pinks, stripes, words, script and much much more. I did buy an album, only because if you can believe it, I have never owned a 12 x 12 album before now! I know, crazy right, that's what I said! It is a beautiful tangerine color that may loose style eventually but for now, it is cheery and matches great! You can use any 12 x12 three ring binder with the system. I also bought two different styles of filler pages. There are lots to choose from, just to keep it interesting. I did not choose more scrappy paper, which is another awesome thing about the system, you can pick and choose what part of the kit you need/want. One more thing and maybe my favorite feature, is the journaling cards come with a sturdy box to keep all your stuff organized, LOVE that!

Here are a few of my pages so far:

Overall all three took me about an hour (and ya they kinda look like it) but hey, I have Christmas in the can for the first time....ever and New Years is close to being done, so Yea! My last note and a few tips: Have some extra paper handy. As you can see, I used some kraft throughout to fill in the holes in case my pictures ended up being  slightly larger or smaller than where I wanted to put them. You may also note I cheated a bit, there is some Washi tape in there, a stamp and some twine just to add a little something something. One complaint, all of the journaling cards are printed portrait but fit landscape in most of the places I wanted to put them....hmmmm.



Well, that's it so far, thanks for stopping by! I hope you find something Old to leave behind and something New to begin 2012 with!

Cheers!

Kristin xx