2014 Project Life Week 3...focus on Elle's Studio from the February Gossamer Blue kit

Today you're in for lots of inspiration from Gossamer Blue and Elle's Studio.  The Gossamer Blue February kits are full of Elle's Studio products so the Design Team is joining in on a fun blog hop.  You'll find the complete list of participants at the end of my post.  Thanks for stopping by today! 

Today I'm sharing my Project Life 2014 Week 3 layout.  It was easy to fill my inserts with Elle's Studio products this week.  Elle has some amazing, exclusive products and they work beautifully with the pocket style scrapbooking.  

This is my left page...I'm loving the neutral color palette for this week + the fun pops of the buttery yellow from Elle's Studio products.

At this time of year I'm so ready to be working with fresh, new products.  I love the holidays but come January, I need a little break from red and green.  Elle's products are a perfect match with the Gossamer Blue kits.  Even though you'll see a lot of pinks and Valentine's items this month, I was able to use soft colors that worked well with my photos that are just everyday photos.

One of my favorite Elle's Studio products from the kits was this whitewash, wood 12 x 12 that I trimmed down for my inserts.  I also used a notched flag die cut and then notched another tag to create some accents for my main, dated insert. 

The wood veneers are always a fun accent.  I paired this one with some letter stickers to spell out our sweet kitty's name.

Here I used a die cut paired with Gossamer Blue's February stamps + a Notebook Paper Label with typed journaling. The rub on is from one of this month's kits, I love using them directly on photos.

Elle's 3 x 4 journaling cards are a favorite for my Project Life pages.  I added typed journaling, Elle's Studio stamps and some stickers.

I've been taking more foodie photos and they're so much fun to add to my weekly Project Life spreads. I used the Phonto app for the journaling.  I love adding embellishments like this Elle's Studio wood veneer piece to some blank areas of the photos.

I did the same thing here but added an Elle's Studio stamp and some enamel heart stickers.  Just the right accents.

A fun twist on a week in review card.  I used Gossamer Blue kit items like the flair, enamel pieces and journaling cards.

Here's a sweet pairing of two Elle's Studio journaling cards.  They worked perfectly for some card making Instagrams & the wood veneer envelope couldn't have been better suited here.

On the chalkboard Gossamer Blue journaling card I added an Elle's Studio die cut that I typed my journaling on.  I topped off this card with a wood veneer piece, Washi tape and enamel dots. 

Some favorites this week were these two pockets I created using Elle's Studio pieces.  On the left I stitched a frame onto a piece of the wood patterned paper.  I printed some text messages at a small size then tucked them into the newly created pocket.  On the right I cut a 4 x 6 journaling card in half then stitched on a piece of patterned paper to create a band where I could slip in 2 small photos.  So fun to mix things up like this.

I hoped you enjoy taking a look at this week's Project Life.  Thanks for stopping by.  

Here is the awesome blog hop list.  Lots and lots of inspiration today....settle in for some good blogging time.

Adrienne Alvis
Anabelle O'Malley
Becki Adams 
Cindy Liebel
Elle Price
Emily Spahn
Evgenia Petzer
Heather Leopard
Jenny Evans 
Jessica Lohof
Jill Cornell
Jina Jean
Juliana Michaels 
Kasia Przybyt
Katie Ehmann
Kim Moreno
Magda Mizera
Michelle Wooderson...you are here
Michiko Kato
Naomi Atkins
Nicole Harper
Patricia Roebuck
Stephanie Bryan
Valerie Bishop
WaiSam Ho
Yuki Shimada 

Be sure to stop by the Elle's Studio blog and the Gossamer Blue blog for some great prizes.  To enter for the drawings, leave a comment on both blogs sharing what inspired you along the blog hop.

Valentine's Cards using Gossamer Blue February Kits...

Today is the release day for the Gossamer Blue February products.  It looks like many of the kits are now sold out so I hope you snagged a few fun items.  I'll be sharing my Project Life/Life Pages throughout the month using the new kits.  I've also been having fun making Valentine Cards with the various kits.  There's sooo many pretty papers and embellishments for card makers.  

I'm sharing a few of the Valentine cards I've made so far.  The four cards below use the Elle's Studio stamp set from the February Bits & Pieces Kit. I love the scripty font and little heart label stamp that I used for my date stamp. 

For each of my cards, I used either a diecut from the various kits or a Spellbinder's circle die which also embosses.  It's been a while since I've used those so it was fun to dig into my stash. 

 Each stamp has the date stamp using Elle's Studio label stamp and also a chipboard embellishment of some sort.

 I also used enamel dots from various kits + some gray twine from my stash.

 I'm still loving my gold stitching so I added some of that to a horizontal strip of cardstock on each of the cards.  Oh, and that beautiful patterned paper...it's from February's Main Kit.

Nothing is more fun than getting a handmade greeting card.  I like the happiness to start right at the mailbox when the recipient sees stamping on the envelope.  I used Elle's stamp set for the hearts and arrows + a red Copic marker to color in the arrows.  

So fun and happy, I just love to create Valentine's Day cards.  Hope you enjoy!

Project Life 2013...Week 10

Here's my Week 10 of Project Life 2013.  This week has lots of detail but it came together very quickly.  I used 5-6 Elle's Studio 3 x 4 and 4 x 6 journaling cards + lots of embellishments from my April Gossamer Blue crafting kits.  I had so many little tidbits to work with that I didn't reach for any patterned paper.  

Here's the left side of my weekly spread. 

Here's the right of my weekly layout. 

I really loved the Maggie Holmes alphabets and embellishments.  

Here I topped an Elle's Studio 4 x 6 card with lots of stickers and small embellishments.

More Elle' Studio layered with stickers, stitching and stapling.

Here I used a journaling card from a Studio Calico kit with a few stickers I added Gesso to.

Loved this Evalicious journaling card on the left. On the right I used fun stickers to a typed journaling card.

Here I added stickers to a screen shot of an ebay purchase.  On the right I added a sticker and some watercoloring to my 3 x 4 insert.

Another week in the books.  This was such a fun one to work on.  If you've ever thought about subscribing to a kit club like Gossamer Blue, it's so great for Project Life.  There's a great mix of embellishments and it's fun to challenge yourself to use what's in the kits.  

Okay, I'm getting up the nerve to show you my first art journaling page that I made in my Dylusions journal.  Eeeeek, I'll be back soon.  :)

Friendship Jar cards...using Gossamer Blue kit items

Hello everyone, it' going to be a glorious day.  I slept so well last night, the sun is shining & the snow is melting....it's a chilly 19 degrees this morning but I can feel that Spring will be amongst us soon. And to me that means flowers.  So it's flowers for today's project.  

I compiled this collection of products from the Gossamer Blue March kits.  The colors and patterns here are some of my favorite from the March lineup.  What I really love about Gossamer Blue's kit club is that it offers something for everyone.  It's all about crafting and whatever that encompasses for you.  

Today I'm sharing how I used the kit items with some stamps from my stash.  If you are a stamper I know you have dozens, maybe hundreds of stamps in your crafty arsenal.  The Gossamer Blue kits are perfect to use with your stamps.  It's fun to set up a monthly supply station like I did here and see what you can create.  I selected the supplies you see above and a favorite stamp set of mine, Friendship Jar.  If you are new to my blog, I designed Friendship Jar and and a series of coordinating stamps for Papertrey Ink.  Nichole Heady brought them to life with her wonderful illustrating.  They are stamps that are near and dear to me and it's like reacquainting with an old friend each time I pull them out again.  You can see the entire lineup of Friendship Jar stamps and coordinating dies over at Papertrey Ink here.  

Today I wanted to get a little bit artsy but since I wanted to mass produce the cards I didn't want anything too time consuming.  I stamped my jar and daisy images and then stamped the jars with the polka dot filler pattern.  Then I scribbled some Copic colors in buttery yellows to find just the right colors and then colored my flowers.  I used a grey marker to outline the flowers to make them pop off the page.  

Next I used some of the journaling tags from Elle's Studio that were included in the March Bits & Pieces Kit.  I stamped a sentiment on each tag, trimmed them down and stitched them with my sewing machine. I also created scalloped border strips using the pretty floral paper from the March Add-on Kit #2 + one of the buttery yellow papers.  

Then I decided on a simple card design and went into mass production mode when it came time to assemble my cards. 

I absolutely love the white space and the soft & pretty colors.  Each card is a little different but the basic design is the same.  And except for the base papers, some grid paper, small paperclips and twine, the rest of my embellishments are from Gossamer Blue.  It's such a creative boost to take your kits and challenge yourself to use those items.  No hoarding, the idea is to use up as much of the kits as possible in one month.....knowing there will be new items coming in the next month's kit.  

I also challenged myself to use the Black Color Shine from Heidi Swapp in the March Color Kit.  I love how the tiny sprinkling of ink fills in the white spaces just a bit on my cards.  To get a very controlled area of color, I rip scraps of paper into small pieces and mask off very small areas on my cards.  That way the main image doesn't have blobs of color.  If you want teeny tiny specks, unscrew the spray nozzle from the Color Shine and flick off most of the color onto a scrap piece of paper ( I keep mine in a box to color the overspray)...when there is very little color left then I flick the ink onto my cards.  

For each card, I popped up the sentiment piece with pop dots.  I used a small Elle's Studio tag from the kits underneath + added a small Tim Holtz paper clip for interest.

On each of my cards I also added a tied embellishment to the jars.  I created these using the Mixed Buttons from Fancy Pants and the Chipboard pieces from My Mind's Eye in the March Add-on Kit #2. I absolutely love the stick pins from My Mind's Eye in the March Main Add-on kit.  These are something I probably never would have purchased while shopping online but they were such a fun addition to my cards.  Tiny buttons and enamel dots from other kits were added here and there too.

Oodles of little embellishments and papers that coordinated so well for this batch of cards.  I do hope you give the Gossamer Blue kits a try.

Note:  Most of the the March kits from Gossamer Blue have sold out but quantities will be increasing as Gossamer Blue grows it's number of subscribers.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you make today a GREAT day!  To all my old Papertrey friends, I do hope you stop in to say hello.  :)

Project Life 2013.....Week 4

Today I'm sharing Week 4 of my Project Life 2013.  I'm keeping in mind that I'd like to keep my Project Life to 2 albums this year. This week Josey got her wisdom teeth out so it was quite the big deal at our house.  Instead of creating a separate insert for this week I committed the full right spread of my weekly spread to Josey's wisdom teeth and the left page is for weekly happenings.  

Once again I treated the entire 2 page spread like a traditional scrapbook layout.  I coordinated my papers and embellishments so that the two pages blended together nicely.  This is the left page with the weekly happenings.

 This is the right page, all about Josey getting out her wisdom teeth. I was able to include 8 photos on this side....so much more than I would if I did a traditional layout.  That's what I LOVE about Project Life.  I'm capturing the photos, telling the stories, getting scrappy with it....but it's so much easier using the divided page protectors.  Still a huge fan!

My Calendar Card which replaces the weekly dated card & separate week in review card.  This is a favorite part of my Project Life right now.  I take a little extra time to fancy up this 4 x 6 insert a big.  I always make sure to get the week, the dates that week incurs and a recap of any special events.  My Calendar Card kind of sets the tone for the rest of my inserts. 

On to the 4 x 6 inserts.  I used a large circle tag from Elle's Studio for my title of Twinners and the typewriter journaling.  Monday stamp is from Studio Calico's Project Life kit.

 A special day for the high school kids.  The comedian/song writer Earl Dibbles came to perform at our school for the kids selling the most tickets to a second show that evening. I used another Elle's Studio circle journaling tag + a Medium White Tag.

 Oh poor Josey.  I used 2 Small White Tags with Studio Calico stamps to capture Josey's swelling.

Charlie to the rescue.  He stayed by Josey's side the entire week.  He could sense she was sick and needed some extra protection.  I created a flipper photo to reveal more photos and journaling, see below.

 I needed just a big more space so rather than add an extra insert, I've been creating these flipper photos with Washi tape.  I used a Becky Higgins Project Life grid journaling card with typewriter journaling.

Here I used two 3 x 4 slots to create a mini layout of a typical shopping day.  It's kind of pathetic to admit that grocery shopping and lunch afterwards was like a date for me and my husband.  We need to get out more without the girls. I used a Grid Paper Label for the typewriter journaling and stamped image.

 A typical shot of the living room and a screen shot of the temperature with some stickers added.

Here I used one of my new Grid Paper Arrow Labels for journaling + a vellum pocket tag that I recently had in the shop.  The XL Manila Parcel Tags trim down perfectly to fit into a 3 x 4 slot.

 I used simply index cards to type some more journaling + I slipped a business card into the pocket.  $800 bucks out of pocket expense for 4 wisdom teeth....Josey wasn't the only one hurtin', my checkbook was crying too.

 Here's another little mini layout I created by stretching my typed journaling card over two 3 x 4 cards.  I used the same patterned paper to tie the 2 inserts together.  Stamps are from Evalicious and Kelly Purkey.

So let's hear it Project Lifers.....how are you doing so far in 2013?  I'm caught up all on the weeks but I have some sports inserts to add + a few others.  I still have about 10 inserts to catch up on for 2012.  I need to just do it and get it done with.  I'm thinking simple, divided page protectors will be the way to go.