Project Life

When I returned from Chicago in early April, I had nine months of Project Life pages to complete. Tuesday I finished them all!!! It took six weeks, which isn’t bad considering all the other things that were on the calendar. Now my goal is to be like Becky, and get the pages done as soon as the month ends. Even with a lot of upcoming travel this summer, I think I can do that. 

Today was the perfect spring day, warm temperatures and sunny. I took a long walk to the Ellwanger Gardens, and then through Highland Park. Today was the last day of the Lilac Festival, and it was very crowded. I’m so glad we have easy access to the park when it’s not under siege! Although there are a lot of lilacs in bloom, it’s not yet at peak.

So sharing a layout from last December seems kind of odd, but in the interest of chronology, that’s what I’m doing. You’ll get a heavy dose of Project Life pages in the next few weeks.

The title card was made with a variety of die cuts from Papertrey Ink, Savvy, and a couple old punches. I used an Ali Edward photo template to collage four photos of the Christmas decorations. I created the journaling card with some washi tape and a cute little house clip that came in a kit (not sure which one.)

I’ve saved Christmas cards that I thought I might be able to use in my scrapbooks for several years, but I think this is the first time I’ve actually used one. The little Christmas tree made the perfect filler card.

We celebrate Christmas twice, once in Rochester on Christmas Day with Matt & Betsy and all of Tracy’s family, and then again in Wilmette with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

The top card was created with a Silhouette file, and an old sticker from Michaels. Once again Cathy Zielski’s Tiny Template came in handy for some journaling.

The big event in Wilmette is not Christmas, but Caleb’s birthday which comes very quickly after our Christmas with them. There wasn’t a party, but he had a wonderful day! Adam found a grocery store that created a Thomas Train cake for him; just what he ordered! 

You might remember a craft exchange among bloggers several years ago. Alexa sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies, including these metal letters that spelled out Caleb’s name. She probably wondered if she was ever going to see them put to use! The balloons were die cut from a Simon Says set of balloon dies.

The adorable “three” clip is another of the goodies sent by Alexa. I cut a small slit in the Simple Stories journaling card to hold it.

Now that I’m caught up with Project Life, I’m on to the next BIG undertaking: purging! I’ve gotten a good start on my studio. Despite the fact that I got rid of at least half of what I owned last year, it’s clear there is still way too much stuff here for one person to use. I think it was Ali Edwards who said it’s so much easier to make decisions when you have fewer things to consider. I’ve eliminated almost all my patterned 12X12 paper, I kept just one container with papers I thought I’d use for Project Life or card making. Embellishments have been cut in half as well, and today I packed up 3/4 of the button collection I’d accumulated to take to the paper crafting charity shop. They’ll be happy to see me. 

The rest of the house is in pretty good shape from last year’s purging, but our basement and attic haven’t been touched! We will have been in this house 30 years come September and I’m guessing we’ll be into the fall before this project is completed.