September Gossamer Blue...Project Life Week 30

I'm moving right along in sharing my Project Life weeks and for week's spread I used items from the September Gossamer Blue Life Pages Kit only.  There are still kits left in the Gossamer Blue store so there's still time to pick up a kit whether you are a subscriber or not.  Take a look at the kit contents below....it's jam packed full of journaling cards, embellishments, alphabets, stickers tags, tiny paper clips and many exclusives like our own Traci Reed designs + the exclusive Elle's Studio stamp set (with concepts by me).  :)  All of the cards are double sided for vertical or horizontal orientation.  

Let's get right to my Week 30 pages.  This is my weekly planner sketch which includes no inserts for this week. I have a few ticket stubs saved but those will easily fit into my 2 page layout. 

This is a good time to address the issue of subscribing to just the Life Pages Kit.  Is it enough?  Do you need other kits?  After completing about 4-5 weekly Project Life spreads which included inserts, I would say that you would probably have enough journaling cards to cover most of those weeks...that is if you add in lots of photos like I do.  There are 25 (3 x 4) cards and 7 (4 x 6) cards included in this month's Life Pages Kit.  You'll see with my future Project Life weeks how I added to this kit with other GB kits.  So my answer.....if you only want to get the Life Pages Kit, it will mostly likely get you through the entire month.  

Here's my 2 page spread, I kept it pretty simple this month as we were about to head out for a week long vacation.  

 Here is the left page of my Week 30.  I used a photo in all but one slot.

 This is the right page of my Week 30.  Here I used photos in every slot.

 This is my main, dated 4 x 6 insert.  I used an exclusive GB Life Pages 3 x 4 card in the horizontal format for the top layer along with some stickers, hand cut letters and chipboard accents.

 I was particularly excited about this label stamp from the Life Pages kit this month.  I requested that it be designed to fit onto an address label stamp and Elle did a fantastic job of making it fit perfectly.  The stamp easily works with my Grid Paper Labels and Notebook Paper Labels in the my shop too.  I found that you can run a sheet of my paper labels through a typewriter and get 2-3 lines of typed journaling.  You can see that I used 2 lines below.  There is just the right amount of space for an office type date stamp too.

 Here I used a Life Pages 3 x 4 card and a manila tag, both from the Life Pages Kit.  The word stickers are also from the kit.  A little bit of stitching finishes off the tag.  This journaling card is placed adjacent to a 3 x 4 photo and fits into a 4 x 6 slot.  You can totally use the 3 x 4 cards in a 4 x 6 slot.  I typically will adhere both the photo and the card to a thin piece of white cardstock.

 Some more 3 x 4 inserts with mini Instagram photos.  On the left, I used the A Beautiful Mess app for the chevron pattern and word on the photo.  On the right you can see more stamps from the Life Pages stamp set. I just love the colors in this month's Life Pages Kit.

 If you do decide to purchase other kits, Traci and Lori did a fantastic job in coordinating the colors to match up with the other kit items.  That's what I love about using more than one on my Life Pages...it all coordinates but I am still able to achieve that mixy matchy look I love so much.

Please note the right card....Jordan made a boo-boo in her text message to me and I laughed for a week straight!!

 On the left, I got a hair cut.  It's rare to see my hair that straight so I have to snap photos.  I rarely straighten it like that ever because my hair is too curly.  On the right I had a little fun with a mini sack from the Life Pages Kit.  I trimmed the sack down and stitched it onto a journaling card.  Inside I tucked in movie ticket stubs and a small photo of the movie we saw.  I used a tiny paper clip to hold the items together.  Thank you Lori for including those paper clips for me this month, I love them!

Note: The Conjuring was quite scary....based on true events so it was bone chilling.

 On the right, below, I snapped a photo of Josey's new dresser.  We found this 1920's stainless steel beauty at a vintage sale and got a really good deal on it.  Now I need to find some other stainless steel accents for her room.  On the right, I stamped a journaling card noting how we left for our Colorado trip 10 hours early.  It was a great lead in to Week 31 which captures our vacation.

If you're so inclined, Ali Edwards' Week In The Life 2013 is happening this week.  You can read all about it here.  I opted not to join in this week as I feel I capture my weeks pretty well with my Project Life + I want to catch up on my vacation photos and get my craft room all tidied up for the upcoming Gossamer Blue Daily December kit coming soon.  I love to follow along with everyone's projects though so I'll be watching closely.  

I've also been doing some extensive menu planning this week.  Now that the girls are back in school it makes our schedule a little more crazy.  There are late practices, lots of homework, volleyball games, school board meetings and it all just makes meal times tricky at times.  I've worked out a pretty good plan for all of September and October since our weekly schedule is basically the same every week.  I'll be sharing my new plan soon.  

Also, new kits and other items have been trickling into my online shop.  Thank you so much to those of you who have placed orders.  Thanks for stopping by.  See ya soon.  

Handmade Project Life Journaling Cards...

I thought I'd never get to my computer today. I helped my dad pick 5 huge buckets of green beans this morning, then stemmed them, washed them, cut them and washed Mason jars in my dishwasher. My mom is now on canning duty so I have a break. Whew.

Today I have some handmade Project Life journaling cards to share. Lots, actually. I was inspired by Lisa Truesdell's post at 2Peas where she challenged us to make our own journaling cards. Lisa's involved stamping, which I had originally intended on doing, but I ended up leaving the stamping for later and just concentrated on adding patterned paper, stickers, tags, etc.

Here's my recap, I have lots to share. For this grouping I reached for some pre-made journaling cards. Some were from Project Life kits, some from Banana Fish Studio and some from Elle's Studio.

Especially love the grid paper and ledger designs. For all of my samples, I used a few new papers from my favorite companies but most of the papers came right out of my little scrap basket.
Here I added strips of patterned paper and lots of stitching. These are mixy matchy but I could easily grab a handful of these and they'd look great together.

These four are some favorites. I coordinated them all by stitching on a small strip of diagonal striped paper. Note: I used these four for a recent Project Life weekly spread and I love them! So quick and easy.

Here I reached for Studio Calico sticky pads. Tiny little sticky notes that I adhered, cut in half, or stitched on. Love how these turned out. I'll be able to add stamping or typewriter journaling or perhaps a date stamp so easily.

The quote bubbles will be perfect for noting who said what. I left a lot of the pieces without adhesive underneath. This way I can tuck a photo underneath easily.

Arrows and little squares.

And these fun label stickies. So fun! I do hope that Studio Calico makes more designs of these. *hint hint.

Here's the circle stickies. I used some whole and cut some in half.

Here I used lots of the small sacks from my shop. I find that these are perfect for tucking into the 3 x4 slots or side by side with a smaller photo on the 4 x 6 inserts.

Here's a close up of some tags I added from my shop, plus Washi tape, stickers, punches, etc.

Stickers to the rescue. We all have tons of these label stickers, right?

I cut a lot of them in half so I got double duty.

And just some random journaling cards using scrap paper, pieces of die cut images in my scrap try, tags from my shop, etc. I even found a piece of fabric that was fun to add in.

Lots of items from my shop work perfectly on the journaling cards. Tags and more tags, paper doilies, library cards and more.

These are some of my favorites, with a tag tucked under a strip of paper, cutting a tag in half, and I also used the bar code strip from a piece of Studio Calico paper. I thought it fit right in with the price tag.

I had a blast creating these journaling cards. They make for a great creative warm up exercise or perhaps you don't have time to do a full layout but you just want to piddle around. Try them out, you'll have so much fun. I used some from my first batch and man, what a time saver. I can't wait to make more.

Tip: Use scraps of patterned paper, die cuts, stickers etc.....however make sure the papers are current enough that you'll want to mix them in with your current layouts. If they're not, trash those scraps...or punch circles to create a fun garland for gift wrap, etc. Have fun!

Bags + Tags...

Hi there friends. Lots going on today so I will have two posts today....this one featuring bags + tags, plus another one to come shortly after about the Holiday Journal pre-orders.

First up, I've got my final project to show you featuring items from the sold out Happy Halloween kit. If you purchased a kit, this little project will be perfect for adding in a little note tag plus a few Halloween treats.
It features one of the popular Chevron Sacks from my Etsy shop + an Orange Medium Manila Tag. It's topped with a Fall leaf, Elle's Studio snippet, tied buttons and a black paperclip with ribbon. I just love seeing that black and orange together. Add in a yellow tag and you've got yourself a candy corn looking treat sack.
Here's a little journaling pocket using a Black Chevron Sack for Project Life. I love how the journaling cards fit inside all my new sacks. Great discovery. Check out Lisa Truesdell's Project Life post here, where she used a Notebook Paper Sack to hold a journaling card. I must try the photo on top look. Love it Lisa and thank you for the shout out yesterday.
I wanted to share this photo of some tags + bags sitting side by side. All sizes of my tags from the shop, including Small, Medium and Large Parcel Tags fit inside the Chevron, Notebook Paper and Grid Paper Sacks. The medium size tags come in colors + the plain manila. The small tags come in manila + white + red + dark green + gray. The large tags are only in manila at this time but I may add colors to the large size in the future.

I've set a tag beside each bag so you can see the color matches. Not perfect but they definitely coordinate well together. And white, gray or manila goes with any color sack.
Right now, I'm particularly fond of the candy corn look of the orange, yellow and black.....the gray and white look good too. And coming up for the Christmas season, the red and green combos will be just dandy.
I will be adding a limited quantity of the small chevron, grid and notebook paper sacks to the shop shortly. ALL size of sacks will be re-stocked in about a week so look for them in the shop soon. I've had requests for sample ideas using the sacks...I'll be working on that soon too. You guys are such great customers, you keep me hoppin'! Thank you so much to everyone who patronizes my shop + leaves me nice comments here on the blog. I truly appreciate you!

Stay tuned for my second post that will tell you all about pre-ordering the remaining Holiday Journals. I'll snap a few more photos of the kit contents and will let you know how I'll go about doing some blog posts about my thoughts on how to assemble your journal. :)

Etsy Shop Update!

Hi there. I have a big Etsy shop update today. Items are selling quickly! Note: If you want to get the first notifications of my Etsy shop updates, be sure to click on my Facebook Fan Page Link on the left and *LIKE* me. That's the first place I give updates for new items in my Etsy shop. From there, the same update goes to Twitter so you can click on my Twitter link on the left and follow me there too. Lastly, the updates come here on the blog...sometimes. Sometimes I don't. :) Either way, THANK YOU so much to all my wonderful Etsy fans. You guys are the best!

Coming soon: A holiday journal to use for December Daily mini albums, etc. It's going to be cute, cute, cute. I might be offering half of the journals as a pre-order item...and half at a later date. I'm working like a little elf on it and will have updates on release dates soon. :)

In the shop....instant collection of jello molds.
Small paper sacks featuring lined notebook paper, blue grid, gray grid, black chevron, aqua chevron, hot pink chevron, yellow, red and green. These will be regular stock items but some are selling out quickly today. I just ordered a limited amount this first time around.
Also, large lined notebook paper bags. So cute and perfect for packaging cards and gift items.
And polka dot brown paper sacks...oh so cute.
And striped brown paper bags....love the lines and I can see these used to stamp words in between. So cute.

Also new to the shop late.....my Mish Mash Junk Journals.
Fun journal filled with new + vintage papers...perfect for travel album, inspiration journal, teenage autograph book and more.
Comes with 25 pages stitched together with a unique cover that has a secret pocket stash more items + the tag selection show below.
Thanks for stopping by and come back tomorrow for my Mish Mash Monday post!!