Giveaway | Project Life Lessons

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be giving away a seat to the our upcoming Big Picture class, Project Life Lessons. I'm thrilled to be a teacher along with Elise Blaha Cripe and Megan Anderson, both of whom are phenomenal at Project Life.

Our goal is to help you decide what will work for you and find ways to make that happen.

The class is three weeks long, starting September 5. The beauty of Big Picture Classes is that even if life is busy and you can't keep up, you have Forever Access, one of my favorite things ever! It's awesome if you can join in the message boards and gallery, etc while the class is live, but if you can't the class will be there for you when you do have time.

Also, when you purchase the class, you will have immediate access to our Pre-Classroom, which is packed! I've taken a lot of classes and this is probably the most I've seen in a Pre-Class. So exciting. It lets you get started watching our welcome videos, start working on your own process checklist, and check out our workspaces for organizational ideas just to name a few. 

Here's more information:

Project Life Lessons, Expert photo tips, journaling solutions, and organizing ideas for Project Life scrapbookers workshop taught by Elise Blaha Cripe, Annette Haring, and Megan Anderson

Starts 9/5/2013
Cost $45

Class Description

Set yourself up for memory-keeping success in Project Life Lessons! Three experts have teamed up to share tons of insider secrets for making the most of any Project Life project. Packed with videos, downloads, handouts, and beautiful layout examples, Project Life Lessons includes three times the content you'd find in a typical 3-week workshop.

Three experienced Project Lifers to the rescue! Elise Blaha Cripe, Annette Haring (that's me!), and Megan Anderson and will share their tried-and-true tips in the areas of photo management, storytelling, organization, assembly, and more. Whether your approach involves weekly spreads, monthly highlights, or something more custom, you can establish an effective working process that will help you make your albums a better reflection of who you really are and what matters most to you.

Read rest of description here and you can check out the promo video below.

Giveaway information:

To be entered in the giveaway, just leave a comment here and be sure to check out the Bonus Giveaways below.

Giveaway will go through Monday Sept 2nd. Comments will close at 9 pm central US time. Winner will be announced Tuesday.

Be sure to check back Tuesday to see if you have won or leave an email so I can contact you if you win.

BONUS GIVEAWAYS!

In addition to your chance to win here, go check out two awesome memory keepers, Nicole Reaves and Tracy Larsen. Nicole is on the Design Team for Studio Calico and rocks their Project Life kit each month. Tracy Larsen is on the Project Life Creative Team for Becky Higgins. Both are just amazing and are wonderful examples of how they have found a system that works for them. Go check them out and while you are enjoying their Project Life pages, be sure to enter the giveaway on their blogs as well. You can find them here:

Nicole Reaves 

Tracy Larsen

Also be sure to check out Elise's blog--her giveaway for two seats ends Sunday!

Elise Blaha Cripe

For more information about Project Life, which is a simplified system for memory keeping created by Becky Higgins, click here.

Would love to have you be a part of the class. Click here if you want to get started now (if you do win, BPC will credit the class back to you if you have already registered.)

Comments are now closed. Thank you to all who entered!

Summer Happiness MiniBook | Part 1

I know this post is a little late. I keep thinking, "maybe I should just wait and post the whole thing together...I'm only doing it one more month, right?" Sound familiar? Truth is, life and work have been busy and I need to let go of some of my perfectionism and just post it. Right?

So here we go.

My third project for Elle's Studio in July was a "Summer Happiness" minibook inspired by that cute Summer Happiness stamp and Gretchen Ruben's Happiness Project just to simply document what is making me happy this summer. To see more about the project you can check out the Elle's Studio site: click here.

I love the idea of a Happiness Project and was so inspired by Gretchen's post about "How will you make your own summer?" I'm currently doing a Summer Manifesto inspired by Ali Edwards, so initially I questioned whether I should even do this little mini book. As I've been working on it, I realized it's based more on observations than intentions. Sort of like a gratitude journal versus a goal setting album. Both can be excellent projects and worthwhile (at least for me.)

Okay, so for my mini album: the cover is a piece of thin birch plywood from a local hobby shop. I left mine raw and I love the color and feel of it. I've had this for over a year and am happy to finally put it to use. I had been saving it for a beach mini album, which didn't happen last year.

The idea for the wood came from Nicole Reaves and her beautiful December Daily. Also check out this beautiful seashore minibook from Martha Stewart. I simply cut the plywood down to 4x6 and then embossed the summer and 2013 from Elle's stamps with white Zing. I added that cute glitter star from Studio Calico on the front too and just love how it turned out.

By the way, I absolutely love the summer stamp set from the Saltwater collection. So useful even when it's not summer. This stamp below was my inspiration for the book. I initially thought of going neon, but the lighter pink felt more like I wanted it to. Am also currently slightly obsessed with the chipboard stars from Pink Paislee. Here I stitched a plain transparency and the light polka dot vellum paper together to create the pocket with the stars, a few sequins and a bit of small gold confetti. I embossed the summer happiness stamp using Zing embossing powder on the transparency.

Here I used a glassine envelope and a tag with Summer 2013--card from the Elle's Studio June kit-- to create an intro page. The chevron transparency is from Alison Kreft.

I stitched the glassine envelope on and then glued the small polka dot bag onto the back with another one of the Elle's Studio cards--this one is from Saltwater. Here I used it explain what the book is about and the inspiration from Gretchen Rubin. 

Then I just started adding my items. What I did was create a two page spread (meaning a left side and a right side) with a vellum or transparency or something else in between for the number. Think December Daily meets 30 Lists meets Summer mini book.

Number 1: the beach (these aren't in any particular order, just whatever I decided to use for each one.)

I used a ticket from our trip to Stewart beach. Love including some ephemera like that.

 Number 2: my awesome niece Mckayla

Number 3: my daughter

Number 4: Taking time to enjoy the sweet things in life

Number 5: Road Trips

I stamped right on a transparency using the summer stamp to create this divider.

a closer look at the journaling above and the stamping on the transparency below.

Thanks for looking! For more info, check out my gallery at Elle's Studio!

How will you create or observe your own happiness this summer? Would love to hear!

Also wanted to note: Polaroid photos are from Persnickety Prints. I had them printed on linen paper and I adore the feel of these. Perfect for the look I was going for. The texture makes it tricky to stamp on though. They have lots of paper options and I might try the fine art paper next time. 

For more information about "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin click here. 

Will be back after the August reveal to finish up! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

From Where I Stand | Elle's Studio + Paislee Press Project Life Layout

For my second project for Elle's Studio this month, I decided to create a two page layout to document my summer "from where I stood" in my own Project Life album. I was looking through my photos and realized I had taken quite a few of these over the summer and it was fun to look back and see the mix of fun places like the beach and then everyday places like Target and going to work. It's a fun way to take a different view of yourself and your surroundings. 

I haven't shared any of this album before, but I started it in January of this year using a Studio Calico Handbook and 6x8 divided and some full page protectors. It's just a random mix, and I add to it when I want to. Loved Kelly Purkey's approach this year and decided to do something similar for myself in addition to the big 12x12 family Project Life album and my daughter's. 

The nice thing about having multiple projects is that if you are feeling tired of one then you can work on another. The bad thing is that sometimes you can get too distracted and not finish any! Regardless, I enjoy having these side projects even if I never finish.

So anyways, this layout was created using a really fabulous Paislee Press template + her title card, along with a chalkboard journaling card from Elle's Studio and then stamped the "summer happiness" and "hello there" onto white cardstock in neon pink ink, trimmed them out and just added those for some pop of color. I also added three cute little neon sequins at the bottom of the title card. 

The polaroid photos are from Persnickety Prints, printed on linen paper. Can't even say how much I adore these. Love that I can just journal a bit on them and slip them in. I don't have to crop anything or stress about making sure I get the white border. Super simple and I love the feel of these cards.

Let me know if you have any questions! The stamps are from the Saltwater collection--a must have for sure!! Also check out the rest of the design team's awesome work here.



If you like my Project Life approach I would love to have you join me in class! For more information on Project Life and the class I'm teaching at Big Picture Classes click here.

Elle's Studio August Kit | Project Life Layout

Just a quick post to share the layout I made for August kit from Elle's Studio. It's a great kit--love this month's especially! It was so easy to work with and I loved how the colors came together. The only problem was choosing what to work with! Lots of options for directions you could take your layouts or little additions here and there. I love how you could use these for Project Life, regular layouts or minibooks. Be sure to check this one out quickly! I think it will go fast and it's only available until it's sold out. Boogie over to Elle's Studio to snatch it up! Click here for more info!

Also be sure to check out the Saltwater collection--it's my fave! It's on sale this weekend too for 20% off. Just use the code SALTWATER at checkout!

So for this layout, I wanted to highlight my daughter making progress on learning to swim. I used Project Life divided page protectors from Becky Higgins and focused all of the story on one page. I haven't decided if this is going in our family album or in my daughter's. I loved the work in progress card and then just paired up the teal colored polaroid frame and circle tag to go nicely with the blue water. I added the gold stars because I'm totally into the gold trend and I think she deserves lots of gold stars for all the progress she's making!

If you look again, you'll see here that the bottom left card is actually a flip up card, with more photos and journaling inside it. I love the "photos inside" circle tab and thought is was perfect for this layout. Plus it is oh so fun! (scroll to the bottom of the post for more info)

Title made with Heidi Swapp letters and Studio Calico vellum.

I layered the tags together to make this pocket and added the quote and a few stamps. Love that "this was awesome" stamp. It's part of the Saltwater Collection.

Here is a closer look at the flip up card. For an awesome tutorial from my friend Barbara click here.

For more information on the August kit, check out Elle's Studio! The kit is only $9.99 today and then $11.99 after that. Can't wait to see what you guys make with it!

To check out the Design Team gallery and my layout on the Elle's Studio site, click here.

If you like my Project Life approach I would love to have you join me in class! For more information on Project Life and the class I'm teaching at Big Picture Classes click here.