Studio Calico reveals their September kits tomorrow, so I have been busy creating project life spreads for my gallery. I realized last year that I can't keep up with weekly spreads. It's not that I don't have enough pictures - I take way too many of everything we do! It's that I don't have enough time. So I have changed it a bit this year as the year progressed. Now instead of documenting each week, I am just documenting events in pocket pages. I like this method much better as I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything important because I was behind. I prefer the pocket approach to layouts as I can include so many more photos and jouraling.
For this month, I wanted to document a trip to St. George to see my parents. My dad has cancer and he is old and I know my time with him is limited. I love him so much. So I printed out all the photos that represented the stories I wanted to tell and it was enough for three full spreads and some inserts!!! In the past, I probably would have made a mini album, but I prefer this method to that as well - pockets are just so easy! So I will stick with my PL for events approach and see how that takes me through the rest of the year.
Full reveal of the SC kits and gallery is tomorrow - 9:00 am for subscribers and 9:00 pm for everyone else (these are pst times). We have chats at 8:00 am and 8:00 pm which are always fun! I will be doing another blog post tomorrow with my full spreads and some of the techniques I did with the kits, but for now, let me show you some sneak images to see if you like the kits as much as I do!
These first few sneaks are ONLY the PL kit. The colors took me a little out of my comfort zone, but ended up being perfect for this trip - coral reds, olive greens, navy, and light blue and pink. I also added some digital items which I will show you.
I did some shading and coloring on this spread with my Neocolors. These are the colors that best match the kit. Click on each image for a link to the shop. Or use these links: Moss Green, Vermillion, Salmon, Gold, Light Cobalt Blue, Payne's Grey (more of a navy), Lime Green, and Naples Yellow.
I made my next spread using all three of the PL kits: Poet Society PL kit, Yeats add-on kit and Oliver add-on kit (my favorite of the three because of all the color!). I focused on the red/corals and kraft/golds in the kits for this one.
This camera is a digital stamp that I printed out and used for my journaling. I'll show more details of how I did that on my post tomorrow.
For this bottom picture, I used a digital stamp and made it into a photo frame. One of the great benefits of SC products is their digital items can enhance all of your spreads with just a little work while you are editing and printing your photos. I love adding words to my photos from the digital stamps as well.
My last spread was mostly for photos of my kids jumping in the pool. We had a contest to see who could come up with the most creative jump/skit for different subjects - super hero, ballet dancer, cheer leader, etc... It was so funny so I printed out about 36 smaller photos to insert in baseball card holders between this spread. I like to document every little detail! I pulled out all the colorful parts of the three PL kits for this spread.
In the Oliver add-on kit, there is a set of Heidi Swapp shapes that are made to be misted. I used my Neocolors to color them and just used a water brush to spread the color. Here is a close up image of how they looked after coloring - I love this set!
I used pretty much every color in the shop for these except black and brown. I love my Neocolors, so I have quite a collection. But the colors I listed above match the PL kit best.
I made some project life cards from the digital files for journaling. I find it so much easier to type the journaling right on the cards before I print them so I save a step. Here are two I made from digital files (both printables and digital stamps).
Come back tomorrow and I will show you the full spreads as well as some of the techniques I used on them. Have fun shopping tomorrow and join us for the chats! suzy
Ooh, do I get to be the first comment? I love your Project Life work, Suzy. It is very inspiring. Each of your cards is a mini-layout. Love that! You tell such great stories. I pulled out my reading glasses to read your snippet with "Grandma and the veggie smoothie." Hysterical. The her photo tells it all, though, the words are priceless. Looking forward to the full spreads.
Posted by: Julie | August 26, 2014 at 03:56 PM
So sorry about your father.
Posted by: Domenico | August 27, 2014 at 10:31 AM