Project Life® 2014 | Week Eighteen

How do you gather your stories? 

I was thinking about this question yesterday as I put this spread together. As you've seen before, when I'm working on past weeks I  usually have the photos and a handful of sticky notes in place. Some weeks more, some weeks less. As I worked through remembering and gathering the stories for week 18 it made me think about how lucky we are that we have access to so many different ways to collect our stories. 

Generally I rely mainly on the photos to act as story starters to jog my memories. This week though, I actually felt like I was missing some stories - nothing big or huge or profound, just some more specific details.  

To round-up more stories I went back through my calendar +  Instagram to see what I could find. My calendar (on my computer) was helpful but it was Instagram that was most helpful. Just like my blog is a great holding place for longer stories, Instagram is such a great place to hold my shorter stories - especially those in-the-moment sentiments/memories/conversations that fit so well into my Project Life® album. 

From going back on Instagram I saw that it was 86 degrees on May 1st. I saw that Simon and I were watching Pirates Of The Caribbean ( which I totally didn't remember just from looking at the photo).  

Today I'm sharing Project Life® 2014 | Week Eighteen (April 28th - May) which uses the Poet Society Project Life® kit from Studio Calico. You can check out all the new kits for September over at Studio Calico here: Scrapbook Kit | Project Life® Kit | Card Kit.

Here's a look at Week 18: 

I'm still a fan of using Project Life® to show a week-at-a-glance. 

Simple captures. Relationships between people and places are one of my favorite things to document. 

Sometimes you get a card with a sentiment that doesn't really fit any stories you've got to tell right now. 

Cover them up!

On my title card (from this printable set) I added a big punched circle (using another 4x6 journal card included in the main kit). Next to it I added a second punched circle (1.5 inches) that includes the "let your light shine" sentiment from one of the cards and finished off the gathering with the gold rub on. 

I took one of the 4x6 cards and cut it in half to create this day of the week card. I messed up thinking that Sunday was the last "S" on the bottom - not seeing that the week started with Sunday. I know some people think of their weeks that way but in my mind a week begins on Monday. I just crossed it out, moved that to the top (which still doesn't really make sense in the time span) and kept going.  

This kit this month includes some wood veneer phrases. I wanted to use them because I like the texture mix, but the words didn't fit with my story. Instead I just turned them over and used the back side. I trimmed each one a little bit to fit into the pocket (it was still pretty tight). On top of each I added one of the stars and some sentiments about the photo of the wisteria. 

For the "the best ever" journal card I used the box from this set:  Poet Society Project Life Stamp Kit + "the best ever" and "here's the story" from this set: Poet Society Project Life Add-On 2 Stamps

Can't tell you how happy I was to get back to making stuff. 

Circle + a star + a staple. Can't get much more perfect than that little trifecta of goodness. The circle is from one of the printables this month available  here

The "Anna says" note is the kind of stuff I want in Project Life®. Those awesome little stories of things said and observations recorded. I could do a whole layout about that one little comment she made, but really this is the perfect place for that kind of story. 

Next to the "Anna says" card is one that combines two different journal cards (stitched together) that I ran through  my printer to get the "86" on top (the 8 and the 6 are from this digital alphabet):

I wasn't sure this was really going to work - partly because of the thickness of the two cards together. My goal was to get the  "86" (for 86 degrees on May 1) onto the card. In Photoshop I added the 8 and the 6 together on a 3 inch x 4 inch canvas (300 dpi). I re-colored the image the yellowish color and placed it where I wanted it to be on the card (closer to the top). Then I ran a test print onto a plain piece of paper to see where it was going to come out. Next I adhered the 2 cards right on top of that same location on the 8.5x11 sheet and ran the whole thing through the printer to get this result:

It did come out of the printer a little dirty because it was thick but not enough for me to junk it. 

FUN. 

After that I added the date using a good-old date stamp and a few words about how awesome it was to have it this hot on May 1. 

I totally love the "I am still learning" gold letterpress card. It was too perfect to do anything to it and it's something I totally embrace in my life. 

IDEAS AND INSPIRATION

  1. Think about the way you collect stories. What works best for you? Is it an app? Sticky notes? Calendar? Carrying your journal cards in your car/purse/etc and writing directly on them when the inspiration strikes? I'd love to read about it in the comments.
  2. Try running a pre-printed card through your own printer. It's a great way to get typed journaling onto a journal card or add a digital stamp to personalize the card. 
  3. If you've got cards with sentiments that don't align with the story you want to tell, use punches to cover up that area and create your own sentiments with letter stickers, stamps or handwriting. 

SUPPLIES

Click on the images below to link to the products used in this project. 

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36 thoughts

  1. PolkaDotCreative says…
    08/30/2014

    Hi Ali. I've been following your for years and years. I am so grateful that you have gone back to describing and showing us how you created your Project Life spreads. I am a Project Lifer and blogger. I appreciate the time it takes to photograph the work and create a blog post with explanations on how. Thank you for your time, inspiration and education.

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  2. midge35 says…
    09/03/2014

    I use the Collect App., Instagram and Facebook to help me record the bits and pieces of our lives. It makes putting the words with my photos so easy, I just grab my Iphone, my pics and scrapping goodies and I'm ready. In fact I was recently bemoaning the fact that I didn't know about PL when my daughter was first born (2010) I was still plugging away at 12x12 layouts (which I still do occasionally). I was looking through baby pics from her first year and wondering just why in the heck I took that picture in the first place, when it hit me, my dear sweet friend set up a page on FB for us to post about my daughters progress (she was diagnosed with CF at birth) and it was like an answered prayer! Literally!! There were all the details, pictures and little stories about her first almost two years and I had completely forgotten about it since I had begun posting only on my own page. I was so grateful for my friend and for technology! Thank you Ali for encouraging us to tell the story because I love the story my little family is writing.

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