Project Life 2013. {+ Free printable Journal cards}

Project Life...

A few weeks ago I didn't know what that meant.
I heard about it, I saw it on pinterest and read about it on some of my favorite blogs.
It looked interesting yet difficult, time-consuming, fiddly...

Until I tried it...

I am hooked...

I was behind in two years worth of photographs that I just had not gotten around to scrap booking. I am a traditional 12x12 scrapper. I have albums. I love looking through them and so does my family. It feels good to capture our memories, our life and document each year, every special moment so that they are not lost in the pages of time.
But let's face it, that thing called Life often get's in the way of documenting all we want to. So I slowly fell behind, doing the occasional page or mini album...

When I read up about Project Life, I knew that the big album size was not for me. The whole package cost an absolute fortune. (R990 or $110 or £70) Plus I knew if I went big I would once again "not keep up". I have come to realize I do much better with smaller projects, mini albums etc.I also didn't want something that was going to be bulky, heavy and take up a lot of storage space as I already have my albums taking up a large amount of space.

But I wanted to do Project Life...

So I went to our local scrap booking shop and found Simple Memories and OhSnap plastic sleeves that come in different sized pockets. Perfect! I then had 150 photo's developed. I first sat down at the PC, opened up PSE and set about cropping, editing and fitting sometimes 2 or 4 on a 10x15 size. So technically I managed to get over 400 photos printed. Bargain.
I started and within 4 days I had done 2011 and 2012!

I was amazed. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process-something new, something exciting, and of course wonderful to go back over the past two years and document things I had forgotten about!

I started on 2013 on Sunday and so far, so good! It's easy to keep up with this method, enjoyable and not at all time consuming! Me thinks cheaper too!

This is a good idea when you have more photo's you want to include, but don't necessarily want them to have their own front page spot. So you just stagger them underneath each other. They are also put back-to-back. So when you lift the photo and look on the back, there is another one. So you would stick another photo upside down in order to achieve this affect. I had 5 photos in this stack. (the bottom photo is stuck to the paper.)

Book-type flaps that open up to reveal more photos and journaling.

Some flaps to hold more photo's underneath.

Besides the plastic sleeves and pockets, I also make these "files" to hold more photo's and to add interest.

Lot's of flaps with more photo's




So that brings me to 2013. I wanted to be organized so that when I came to do each week, It wasn't a huge process trying to find everything first. I searched on pinterest and found this organizer that a lady had made.
It looked pretty easy to make your own using various sized box's. So I put this together. It's not meant to be a work or art and I didn't do it to look pretty. I wanted it to be presentable and functional. Besides it's only me seeing it on a daily basis.

I simply used masking tape and pieces of cut of cardboard from cereal box's to make the dividers.

 

I labeled the dividers for easy reference and put my Journal cards into the relevant compartments. (I know it's not the neatest project, ignore that!) I can't tell you how much easier it makes the process. Everything I need is within arms reach.

It's quite fun too making my own Journal cards using card stock and stickers.

Today I have free printable journal cards for you. I designed these myself. They are only for personal use. Feel free to print and use in your PL pages! Click on the image to download.

Caravan Revamp Reveal

Hello friends!
Well finally I can share our humble little caravan revamp. It is actually not as nice as I know it could look, seeing as though I took the after pics while we were on holiday, so there is a lot of stuff out and not as "made up" as I would like. But it does give an idea of what we did to it.

It was quite a big job but totally doable. Hubby and I worked on it together and only took a few days to complete.

In this first picture you can see a top cupboard we removed. The top cupboard was always in the way. We couldn't do much on the counter top as we would bump heads on the cupboard. Also it made the caravan seem smaller and claustrophobic.  Removing it turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated as the cupboard was screwed in from the fridge cupboard which wasn't possible to take out! He ended up sawing the screw heads off! In the meantime we put two spray painted metal rods on the side to hide the ugly wood with the sawed off screw heads until we figure out what to do with with it to cover it up but not add anything bulky.

In the photo below, you can see what it looks like with the cupboard gone-so much more roomier and open!

Check out the ugly rusted fridge! We have had our caravan for a good 7 or so years now, so it's had it's fair of wear and tear. And in desperate need of some TLC. Hubby sprayed the Fridge with rust-proof Green paint after sanding off all the rust spots.He also attached a cute little latch for the fridge door, and even put some pretty vinyl strips on the wood parts!

The pic below are just some photos of the little touches inside. We covered a lot of the walls inside with some pretty floral sticky vinyl type "wall paper". Peel and stick kind of thing.(local hard ware shop). We took off the outdated mirror and I put up my own little decoupaged one.

In this pic you can see my new curtains I made. Simple drops, nothing fancy, but so pretty, light and airy. And just on wire so that it's quick and easy to take off and wash.

In this pic you can see the pattern on the wall paper and curtains nicely. (and my blankets in actions!)

And lastly,just another close up shot of the wall paper.

I hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear any ideas you have for the side of the cupboard with the ugly screw heads exposed! Was thinking country-kitchen plate rack but we don't do any food prep in the actually caravan. I do it all on my tables in our tent part, so that would be a waste.

2013...A new year.

Hello!
No, I haven't shaved off  all my hair, grown my arm-pit hair and gone to live in the jungle.
I am still around! I know it's been long since I updated my blog...
November and December 2012 were very busy months, being exam time at school, then school broke up for 6 weeks vacation from the 7 December and went back on the 16th Jan. I don't normally get much "me" time during this time, which is fine. The kids are only little once and I try and devote my energy and time to them and making their vacation memories special.

I had a very busy two weeks prior to our annual camping holiday. Baking rusks and biscuits, shopping and packing and pre-packaging meals for camping. As well as doing our caravan renovations and decorating!
{caravan revamp coming up in another post}
We went away to the Cederberg for 10 days. (this was our second year there) I will share pics from that holiday in another post too!

Some of the frozen meals I made to take with.

Of course no summer holiday is complete without ice-cream. I make my own with and experiment with different combinations. Below was cherry and rum.

November saw a lot of crochet projects on the go.
A stool cover

 

The start of a new blanket (lap blanket for the caravan)

The completion of a another lap blanket.

A few posts (to remind myself too) I still want to share with you are:
* Cederberg Holiday
* Caravan revamp
* Pixie the Baby mouse
* Making your own salt scrub
* Homemade Ice-Cream recipe
* Project life 2011 and 2012
* Babylonstoren Wine Farm
* Moyo
* Project life 2013 freebies

It is my hope for 2013 to continue my blog, at my own pace, in my own way. It is my goal to make it colorful, interesting, fun, beautiful and creative.

I must say that the thought to close my blog did pop into my head from time to time during my "break". I hadn't been getting many commentating visitors and it can be very discouraging to blog and not get any feedback. However, the main purpose of my blog is to record the little things I enjoy and to have a sort of record of everything I like in one place. But if you do pop by please leave a comment to say hi and that you were here! Never underestimate the value of your comment, no matter how small or short! It means a lot to me! :)

So lot's in store and lot's to share in the upcoming weeks.

I wanted to start Project Life this year but I felt bad that I had not scrap booked 2011 and 2012, a few 12x12 pages here and there and a few mini albums, but not the entire year. So...I completed both years in 4 days! I know! Crazy but so easy! It literally took me a few hours. I went and had 150 photos developed. I made my own 10x15cm photos on the computer -fitting 2 or 4 on a photo size and so cut down what would of been double, if not triple the amount of photo's!
I also didn't do the full size PL. I must admit I don't fancy the big sizes of those albums. So I used simples stories and OhSnap album page protectors for my PL albums.

LOVE the outcome and so compact and fun to make! (will share soon)

With that in mind I am continuing PL 2013 with that size.
I will be designing and sharing FREE PL Journal cards, so be sure to check back from time to time!

Well that is it for now!
Would love to hear from you and what you have been up to!

Our Story: A Journal

I adore making Journals. There is something therapeutic in the process for me. I imagine the kind of journal I would use, what photographs, memento's , journaling I would put into a journal and then I begin with a theme and a color palette and it's all go from there.

I love to imagine the joy and good usage a customer would get from such a unique hand-crafted with thought and joy book! I really take pride in my work and I always try and make something that comes from "me"-something original and from what I am feeling at the moment. I hope that my work reflects who I am and the things I love.

I have a new little ring-bound journal in my Etsy shop. It is entitled "Our Story" and has a Paris travel theme throughout. I imagine it's for a couple who have spent a romantic mini break in the City of Love and she wants to capture every second of walking down those cobbled streets, gazing out over the River Siene, through the transulent light of dusk...standing under the Eifell tower and looking up through the huge curved structure and being transfixed in awe at it's sheer size and architectual beauty.

Sigh...now I want to go back to Paris...

.