Northwest Stamper

Tag: #PLxSU

  • Scrapbooking Sunday: Using Project Life Cards on a Traditional Scrapbook Layout

    Scrapbooking Sunday: Using Project Life Cards on a Traditional Scrapbook Layout

    I was honored to be asked to create some projects for the Stampin’ Up official blog.  They were focusing on Project Life and so they asked me to put together some layouts using the Happiness Is card collection and accessory pack.  I created a pocket page 2-page layout using the cards and share that idea on this blog post.  But I also used my project life cards to show how easy it is to use them for your traditional layouts as well.  This is what I came up with:

    Happiness is traditional scrapbook layout copy

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    This layout is special to me because it is for my Aunt Sarah who was one of my best friends growing up and that adult in your life that you can always turn to when you are struggling, or hurt, or confused, or just need someone to talk to who is an adult but isn’t your parents.  Sadly, about 10 years ago she finished her struggle with Brain Cancer and so now I have scrapbook pages and pictures to help me remember and cherish her amazing life.

    happiness is traditional scrapbook layout close up

    Now, on to more of the fun stuff!  How about some insight into how I put this layout together!

    Tips for making this layout:

    • I love getting the Project Life by Stampin’ Up card kits and I ALWAYS get their matching Accessory Packs!  It makes it so so so easy to start creating because I have flair from the Accessory pack which I know will coordinate perfectly so I can just dump it out on my table, grab a card, and go!
    • Use your cards to create photo backgrounds and layering elements on your traditional layouts.  I used the following:
      – a card for a photo mat of the picture of Sarah and myself
      – a card for the title of the layout “such a lovely life”
      – a card for the strip of pattern that runs across the page… check it out:

      project life card as designer paper for scrapbook layoutT      ake one of your cards and trim a 1/2″ – 1″ strip off one side, then glue that strip along one edge of your base paper.  Use a ruler or other straight edge to form a level line across your paper and then adhere the OTHER piece of your card to the opposite edge to make it look like you have one long piece of patterned paper on your layout!
    • Combine and layer your accent pieces for a cute collage effect.  The “love” arrows, actually came from the fact that I thought they were a single dimensional element at first because in the kit the sticker flags (like shaped post-it notes) were all stacked together.  It was only when I looked closely did I discover it was a WHOLE BUNCH of elements!

      happiness is sticker flags
    • Don’t hesitate to spruce up the cards from your kits either.  I used my Kinda Eclectic stamp set to add a sunburst to my title!

      creating a sunburst on a project life card
    • You can also spruce up your wooden elements too!  I used a sponge dauber and my Hello Honey ink to create a yellow heart for my layout.  I’ve shown it here on an uncolored wooden banner.

      coloring wooden elements with sponge daubers

     

    and just a reminder, that if you like this kit (or some of the other retiring kits) you can get them for 50% off through June 2nd before they are discontinued. Smile  Just saying… and ALWAYS get that accessory kit when you get the card kit!  You won’t be sorry!

    So snag them while you can in the online store!

     

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    Project Supplies Used:

  • Sharing Thanksgiving Memories with the Happiness Is Project Life Kit

    Yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day and while I normally like to celebrate by actually trying to catch up on some scrapbooking pages, this year I opted for some family time as my husband and I had both returned from business trips on Friday.  The kids had been with Grandma and so it was our turn to hang out and have fun with them. Smile

    But I did have the honor of getting to create a couple layouts using the Happiness Is kit for Stampin’ Up’s National Scrapbooking Day blog post and they were posted for you to see this weekend!  I’ll admit I got a little school girl excited when I saw my name in print on their blog.  Though, I discovered that the photos they shared were TINY!  So, since one of the coolest things about Project Life is how easy it is to add a little pizzazz to your quick and easy pages, I thought I’d share some up close photos of the details of my layout with you today.

    Happiness is Project Life 2 page layout ver 3

    Bear with me, I’m still trying to figure out the best way to photograph my layouts.  But the thing I love about Project Life is how easy it can be to put together layouts.  I grab a card kit & the matching accessory kit (seriously, this is the BEST THING EVER!) and lay them out on my table and just go.

    Happiness is accessory pack

    1. Pick a few photos you love
    2. Print them out wherever is most convenient for you
    3. Slide them into pocket pages (look! almost done!)
    4. Pick a Project Life card kit & matching Accessory pack

      image
    5. Grab some matching cards and write what is happening in the pictures – add embellishments if desired
    6. Put in your album and you are done!

    Here are a few of my favorite things about this layout:

    • Layer 3×4 cards onto 4×6 cards with Washi Tape (it’s included in your accessory pack!) for a quick title card.  I just had to add the year numbers (also in the accessory pack) and write in the dates!Happiness is project life embellished layout title card close up
    • Don’t feel like every card has to have writing on it! Sometimes just a couple embellishments or even just the way it is printed is perfect.
    • Bust out your “fancy” techniques like layering vellum over a 3×4 card and heat embossing the sentiment (in this case the “love” from the So You stamp set)Happiness is project life embellished layout right close up
    • Don’t forget you can stamp on your photos too!  It was hard to photograph, but I stamped the sun image on the bottom photo with the Metallic Gold ink and it was the perfect touch!Happiness is project life stamping on photos
    • The Happiness Is kit also comes with these little wood accents that are laser etched with images and words.

    Happiness is accessory pack wood embellishments

    A fun little bonus for your layout… especially with that adorable face, am I right?
    Happiness is accessory pack wood embellishment close up

    • I also liked taking multiple stamps and putting them on my clear block at the same time – like these hearts (also from the So You stamp set).   They are two separate stamps but I wanted to use them together. Position on your card, press onto the block, and then ink and stamp!
       So You stamps with Project Life on a journaling card So You stamps with Project Life

    So this layout had a lot of little touches and accents, but it took me way less time than a traditional scrapbook layout and still has all the personal & handmade touches.

    If you have photos on your computer, in your phone, printed out and sitting in those photo envelopes from the printer – why not give this a try?  Get those photos out where everyone can enjoy them and you don’t need a craft room of supplies to do it!  It’s fun, it’s easy, and your family will love it!

    Get a Great Deal with 50% off Retiring Project Life Kits

    Through June 2nd (or while supplies last) many of Stampin’ Up’s Project Life kits and accessory packs are on sale for 50% off as the patterns are being discontinued!  You have great sets for kits, baby, and everyday Including this cute Happiness Is card kit and accessory pack that I used.

    image

    So snag them while you can in the online store!


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    Project Supplies Used:
    Easy shopping anytime! Click the images below to see the item in the online store.

  • Using Project Life Cards…for CARDS! Red & Gray Love Card

    Happy Monday! Today I thought I would share a super fast and simple card that I created using the Everyday Adventure Accessory pack from Project Life by Stampin’ Up!  As we were working on our projects for the convention display boards, we were sent a set of Project Life cards and accessories and invited to create some projects using the supplies in a “non-traditional” way.

     

    I saw the heart die-cut card from the accessory pack and thought it would be a fun core element to a card.  So I grabbed my Pictogram Punches stamp set and was excited to discover that the I <3 You stamp was an exact fit!

    Tips for making this card:

    • Cut a some glimmer paper 1/8” larger than your base paper (so in this case, the grey striped card was 3”x4”, so I cut my Real Red glimmer paper to 3-1/8” x 4-1/8”).  This gives you a very fine border around your main image and just a hit of sparkle to light it up.  It is a great way to add the sparkle without overwhelming the card with lots of bling!
    • Take a strip of scrap paper and turn it into a fun stripe for the background of your card.  In this case, I took a wide piece of Smoky Slate cardstock and glued it diagonally across the card front.  Then I flipped over my card and trimmed along the edges of the card base to cut off the extra paper that was hanging over the edge of the card.
    • Love those matching punches & stamp sets!!  The new Itty Bitty Accent Punch pack is a set of 3 punches for only $16.95 for all of them.  The heart and star are new sizes and all perfectly match with the Pictogram Punches stamp set.  The shapes are used in the sentiments for the set and so you can easily add a pop of color or glimmer to your project and no fussy cutting required!

     

    I have 1 spot left in my Project Life Night class tonight!
    If you’d like to come play more with Project Life with me, I’m running a class tonight and have 1 kit left so RSVP now and it is yours!  We’ll be making 2-3 cards, a 2 page scrapbook page, AND a giftable or two!  If you can’t make it in person but would like your kit to-go, I can do that too.  I’ll include a PDF of pictures of the projects and instructions along with a full set of Project Life cards for you to keep. Smile
    In person – 7/28 at Panera in Redmond from 7-9pm
    To – go – just email me at jennifer@nwstamper.com and I’ll get everything set up for you.

    Card Supplies Used:

     

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  • Project Life by Stampin’ Up & the Everyday Adventure kits

    Project Life by Stampin’ Up & the Everyday Adventure kits

    project-life-by-stampin-up-kit.jpg

    This blog post is a looong time coming!  I actually recorded a video about the basics of Project Life, an intro into the differences between Project Life by Stampin’ Up (#plxsu), and about putting together your own project life layout.

    Then the video sat on my computer unedited for a long time.  Oops!  🙂 So, today I thought I would get it off of my computer and share them with you.

    About Project Life and How Project Life by Stampin’ Up is Different

    When Project Life by Stampin’ Up came out, I had customers, downline, and demonstrator friends who had all heard of Project Life or pocket page scrapbooking but didn’t really understand what it was all about.  So I found myself sharing all about it because I had become a fan not too long before it was announced Stampin’ Up was partnering with Becky Higgins to create exclusive Project Life card kits and accessories.  I thought it might be useful to share with others as well, so I did a little video about it as well sharing what PL is all about and how Stampin’ Up card kits are different than what you have gotten before.  (if you are reading this in email the video below won’t show up, so click here to view the blog post w/ videos)

    In a nutshell:

    • The Stampin’ Up cards (by Becky Higgins) have square corners instead of round
    • You get 1 card of each design instead of a bajillion multiples
    • The core kits give you 4×6, 3×4, AND 4×4 cards
    • The accessory packs are a combination of specialty cards, embellishments, stickers, and washi tape!

    Putting Together a Project Life Scrapbook Page

    The thing I really like about Project Life and all the pocket page albums, is that it makes scrapbooking really fast.  So, I like the idea that I’ll actually get some of my pictures off of the computer and into an album where I will ACTUALLY LOOK at them.  Plus maybe even have notes about the events. 🙂 I have way too many photos printed waiting to be scrapped and even more sitting on my computer.  My goal is to get the photos in albums and then I can take my time to make bigger, fancier layouts of the special moments and photos.

    See, I don’t know about you, but I tend to take a ton of pictures at any given event or time and then when I look at them, I have like 20 photos I want to keep and enjoy.  Unfortunately, that gets really hard to put in a scrapbook page nicely unless you have the time to edit them all to be much smaller pictures.  I figure this way I can print and save them and enjoy them.

    Here is the first layout I created using the Everyday Adventure Project Life card kit and accessory pack:

    I walk through actually putting it together in the following video:

    Wanna See ALL the Everyday Adventure Cards?

    The one problem I have with many of the Project Life kits, no matter who the manufacturer is that it is hard to tell what you are going to get in the card kits.  You see a few samples and so you can get the general color scheme, but you take a leap of faith you will like the different designs.  So I thought I would take a picture and share ALL of the designs for the Everyday Adventure Project Life Card Kit so you could see for yourself. 🙂   Just click any picture to see the zoomed in image of the cards.

    Everyday Adventures 4×6 Cards (front side)

    Everyday Adventure 4x6 cards

    Everyday Adventures 4×6 Cards (back side)Everyday-Adventure-4x6-cards-backs.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 4×4 Cards (front side)

    Everyday-Adventure-4x4-cards-front.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 4×4 Cards (back side)

    Everyday-Adventure-4x4-cards-back.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 3×4 Cards (front side) – group 1

    Everyday-Adventure-3x4-cards-set-1-front.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 3×4 Cards (back side) – group 1

    Everyday-Adventure-3x4-cards-set-1-back.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 3×4 Cards (front side) – group 2

    Everyday-Adventure-3x4-cards-set-2-front.jpg

    Everyday Adventures 3×4 Cards (back side) – group 2

    Everyday-Adventure-3x4-cards-set-2-back.jpg

    Everyday Adventures Accessory Pack

    Everyday Adventure Accessory Pack by stampin up

    Whew!  That was a lot of cards!

    If you are interested in picking up your own packs, you can find them here:

    If you have any questions or would like to see more videos on creating with Project Life, let me know!  I’d be happy to share. 🙂

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  • Trying out Project Life By Stampin’ Up – My First Layout

    I know by now it is old news that Becky Higgins (creator of Project Life) has partnered with Stampin’ Up to create exclusive lines of Project Life cards, accessories, and even a corner punch.  I had been just starting to get into Project Life when this announcement came out and I was stoked!  Especially because I would now be able to have cards that coordinated both in patterns and colors with stuff I already had in my stash! So, here is the first layout I put together using my new goodies: Everything in this layout is from the Everyday Adventure kit and accessory pack.  Can I just say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the idea of an accessory kit!  Maybe someone else does it out there, but I haven’t seen it with the Becky Higgins kits and We R Memory Keepers card sets.  Why do I love them?  They give me a little bit of lots of awesome bits to embellish up my cards and I don’t have to think about what I have that would match.  See? image

    Everyday Adventure Accessory Pack

    (Do you notice a theme?  I love kits and don’t like having to think about which things match. Smile  Seriously, I love scrapbooking kits that come with paper, embellishments, and die cuts because I know I have a little bit of everything to put my layouts together!) So anyway, for the most part, I just used the cards from the Everyday Adventure card kit and then I may add on or two little accents to a handful of them.  Like in the close up below, you see that card in the upper right?  It looked exactly like that (minus my journaling of course) and I just added a bit of the blue washi tape along the top as a bit of trim. And then, of course, the green arrow and black letters that spell “maple classroom” are stickers from the accessory pack. Oh and that bit of orange at the bottom of the green card?  That is a little acetate (think window sheet) colored piece from the accessory pack.  The doodling look on that card?  Totally printed on, thank goodness! Smile And as my last trick, I used some of that same blue washi tape again to layer a 3×4 PLxSU card  (I’m just going to use the PLxSU to make it less typing when I’m trying to say Project Life by Stampin’ Up… sound ok?  Ok, cool!)  Anyway, I layered a 3×4 PLxSU card on top of a 4×6” PLxSU card and stuck with Washi Tape for a fun layered look.  And if you can’t read it, the quote says “Everyday is a new Adventure” which I thought was PERFECT for this layout because it was about Nicholas being a in a new class at school.  His new adventure. Stampin’ Up! Supplies Used

    And let me say, I’ve been using these cards for MORE than scrapbooking as well.  I made some cards and other fun non-scrapbooking/non-card projects using them for the display boards for convention… so I can’t share them until July, but I’m SO EXCITED to be able to share them then!

    –>>  Plus, stop by the Stylin Stampin Inkspiration blog for even more great ideas for the PLxSU kits (there are 5 different ones available!)  See all the great ideas here

    I hope this gave you some ideas and you can give it a shot yourself!

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