PIP Day....Project Life In Progress..Week 2

I thought it would be fun to start a new feature on my blog for all you Project Lifers. I'm calling it Pip Day, for Project Life in Progress. I get so inspired by seeing other PL pages whether in progress, a sneak peek or a finished week. So why not share the mid-week progress along with a little chit chat?

I'll be sharing a photo of my PIP each week, like the one below. This is the part I love and look forward to each week with Project Life. The putting it all together. Digging through my stash for little embellishments. Seeing what colors I choose for the week. Stealing a few moments here and there to work on my pages.

The posts are going to be random in nature. I have a few weekly topics in mind but we'll just roll with it and see how it goes. Please feel free to leave comments and let me know how your PIP is going. :)

Products Picks:

For this week I saw my Studio Calico box sitting on my chair, calling my name. Okay, why not? So most of my products this week are from the January County Fair main kit + a few other fun items that I purchased last month from SC. It was fun to have all the choices narrowed down. In particular I'm using the alphabet stickers, patterned paper, lots of October Afternoon Flower Sack pieces, Ormolu die cuts & journaling cards and pieces of the BG Picadilly chipboard stickers. I have some inserts for this week so I'll be using more from this stash on those too.

Challenge:

1.Use mostly items from the Studio Calico box.

2.Use leftovers to create cards for my stash using card sketch from this post.

Chit Chat:

1. I didn't use any 4 x 6 photos this week, just lots of smaller photos. I was just saying to myself how I really liked the 4 x 6 photos with white borders. Go figure.

2. Was thinking, you CAN work on your pages even if you don't have the page protectors. Simply lay out 2 pieces of 12 x 12 cardstock or (2) 12 x 12 page page protectors. Use 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 sections + items from your PL core kit and you're in business. Lay it all out like you would if you had the page protector, snap a photo of the finished layout and tuck it all in a page protector or envelope. When your page protectors come in, slip all the pieces into place.

3. Listened to a podcast that Ali Edwards participated in yesterday. They brought up an interesting discussion in keeping up with PL. Will I keep up this year? Are we committed to this project this year? It definitely takes time and effort whether you use just the basic products or are getting scrappy with your PL. I feel confident that I'll stay up to date this eyar. Stay with it friends, the payoff is worth the effort. :)

Inspiration:

1. Definitely loving Marcy Penner's free page layout printables. Very helpful for laying out multiple photos. You can see mine in the top photo today.

2. Monica McNeil has written some insightful posts about her perspective for Project Life. Good reads indeed.

3. Ali Edwards' weekly PL pages are just so fun to look at. To me it seems that Ali selects each and every embellishment very thoughtfully. I love that her pages are full of eye candy but very simple in nature. Definitely about the photos + the words.

4. So excited to see Nichol Magouirk's first PL creation, her 2012 title page. Nichol gives me my traditional scrapbook layout fix each time I visit her blog. Looking forward to see her take on PL this year.

Your questions answered:

1. How do you take a screen shot of weather and text messages with the iPhone? Hold down the home key and the power button simultaneously.

2. I have a hard time dealing with each space. Do you plan it as a whole or just go with it? Lately I've been using lots of photos in both the 4 x 6 and 3 x 4 slots so I've been using Marcy's printables (see above link) to plan out my pages. I have an Interior Design background so this just seems natural to me to sketch it all out.

3. How much time do you spend on a Project Life layout each week? I spend 10 minutes or so each day jotting down notes in my calendar. Probably 30-45 minutes printing at home and trimming photos. And about 2 hours working on a 2 page spread, not all at one time.

4. Do you sew/attach embellishments directly on the photos or on the page protectors? Right on the photos.

5. How do you sew through chipboard letters? Very slowly, sometimes helping the needle along manually. A sharp needle helps.

And that's it for this week's PIP. Since my weeks go Monday-Sunday I'm thinking I'd like to do a PIP post on Tuesday with a weekly PL update on Thurs/Fri. We'll see how that schedule works.

This week:

Jordan is sick again. That's 4 days in the last two weeks she's missed school. Josey is out today too. Bleck. Also I have some re-stocks of products in my shop here. Some new kits will be added to the shop soon when new product arrives. Also, look for a huge new selection of tags coming soon. Perfect for cards and pages. :)