2019 Project Life: December Stories

I have to be honest with all of you. Every year I have intention of finishing my Christmas documenting in January, and every year when January rolls around, it's the absolute LAST thing I want to do. Once Christmas is over and all of the decorations are put away, I'm done. I don't want to think about the holidays for another ten to eleven months at least.

So it takes a lot of discipline and will power to make myself work on December projects in January...or July...or whenever I manage to get them done. Which is why so many of my December pages go unfinished year after year. But I'm trying.

Another confession: I am 100% product-driven when it comes to creativity. If I don't have product that I find inspiring, it's not going to happen. Or I will struggle until it's so not fun that I quit. So if I'm working on something out of season AND I don't have inspiring product to work with, I'm just setting myself up for failure.

That's why I knew I had to give myself something good to play with if I wanted to get any of my December Project Life pages done. The Hello Holiday collection from Push Print Studio was at the top of my list. 

Since it's a digital collection, I went through my extensive holiday stash to find things that would coordinate with it. I found a ton of things that worked, including some super old stickers from Cosmo Cricket. I LOVE that I was able to use some old stash!

Once I had the cards printed and the embellishments chosen, these three pages came together really quickly. I kept them super simple, which is the key to getting them done. And I'm still very happy with the way that they look. Simple doesn't have to be boring. 

These three pages aren't chronological in my album. I have all of my December photos printed and put into my album, so I just went through and picked out a few pages I was excited to work on...another trick for getting things done.  

Of course, I chose pictures that I knew would work with the cards from this collection, like the "cheers" card above and the "falala" card on the first page. That also makes the whole process a bit easier. 

If you want to see my process in more detail, you can view the video below. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

2019 Project Life for Push Print Studio

I'm back again with another page in my 2019 Project Life album. This one goes all the way back to February! 😳

This page has sat there, undone for months. It didn't really have a big story to go with it, and no matter how I tried, I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Enter Push Print Studio.

While I was working on my last layout for the PPS Creative Team, I was drawn to the gorgeous deep burgundy color in some of the cards from The Lovely Pear collaboration. And then it just clicked!

Once I figured out that I wanted to use these cards with this spread, it came together so easily! I grabbed some other favorites from the Push Print Studio shop, as well as a few random bits from my stash, and voila, the page was done!

You can watch the entire process in the video below.

Thanks for watching, and happy crafting!

2019 Project Life: June for Push Print Studio

When Caytlyn of Push Print Studio reached out to me and asked if I'd consider being on her very first design team, I was absolutely thrilled. I've been a fan of Push Print Studio since I first saw her designs in use, several years back. She recently took a short hiatus, but now the shop is back and updated with a new look and new collections, and I'm so honored to be a part of it.

For my first project as a member of the design team, I had the chance to play with the brand new collaborative collection with The Lovely Pear. It's absolutely gorgeous and full of so many fun details. I printed out a few of my favorites and found the perfect spread in my 2019 Project Life album to document.

I grabbed a few embellishments from my stash: a couple sheets of chipboard stickers from Studio Calico and A Beautiful mess, some enamel dots from Prima, a bit of washi, and some printable labels from Illustrated Faith. 

I was amazed at how well everything coordinated with the colors in this collection. It all came together so easily.

I started with the cards, then chose a few bits of chipboard to add here and there. I tried to spread around the beautiful colors in this kit to make the whole spread feel balanced.

I used the labels to add some handwritten journaling to a few of the pictures and cards, and typed up some longer journaling to add as well.

I used gold staples to add a bit of sparkle to some of the cards. It was the perfect finishing touch to all of these rich colors.

I had a little extra story to include in the middle of this spread, so I used one of the two-pocket page protectors from Citrus Twist Kits. It fits perfectly in the Studio Calico album I'm using this year.

It also gave me an opportunity to use a couple more cards from this collection! I love the way the whole spread turned out. You can see all of the details in the video below.

Happy Crafting!