project life :: nov 10-17, 2013

Another week down! I had to blank out a couple of photos this week as they were related to a school event and thus had a) children in identifiable uniforms and b) other people’s children in them, and I couldn’t blur them in a nice way, so I went with colour-coded blockout. This week was FUN to do – not only do I have a card that I letterpressed myself (that camera/oh happy day one, isn’t is cute?), and the label on the stars photo is also letterpressed, but I also have new woodchips (the little star) and number stamps (the dates) from Freckled Fawn, and I also decided to add in some cute button accents. I also used a title card for journalling, as there wasn’t much journalling to add this week, and my options in the colour scheme for this week were somewhat limited. It was pretty chill week, not a lot happening, but a bit of crafty stuff, so I included some of that – and a photo to celebrate my studio FINALLY being clean and organised!

How cute are those woodchips? I’m loving the simple but tactile embellishments. It seems the trick to this is keeping it simple! I’m also hoping to incorporate more letterpressing going forward – which inspires all kinds of fun ideas!

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ON PENS AND WRITING

I was asked about my pens and writing on photos. I have shared this picture on instagram previously – this is the pen I use:

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It’s a black Uniball eye pen in “fine” – a rollerball ink style pen I picked up from my local office supplies store. I’ve found it fab for Project Life, as being an ink pen, it writes smoothly on photos without leaving an indent like a biro would. I generally leave it for a moment or two (maybe thirty seconds?) to dry before slipping it into the pockets, and haven’t had a problem with smudging – the ink seems to stick nicely once dry. I also use this on my journalling cards, because I think the ink looks a wee bit fancier than plain old biro. Plus the pen is already on the table, and the entire aim of doing PL instead of traditional scrapbooking is KEEP IT SIMPLE. One pen, all the jobs. I stick with black, because black goes with *everything*. I could use a fancy scrapping roller pen, but this one is easy to source, reasonably priced, writes smoothly on both photos and paper and looks fab when written with. All kinds of win.

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This week’s layout was created using the Design A and Design D pocket pages, cards from the Jade Edition core kit, washi tape (MT brand) sourced from a local independent boutique, stamps and woodchip accent from Freckled Fawn, Staz-on ink pad in black, letterpress card and label by me using Studio Calico plates, buttons from my stash, and a Uniball Eye ink rollerball pen. Photos were printed at home on my HP Photosmart 8230 printer, on Kodak gloss paper. The star photo, the two underneath it and the two hidden photos are from my DSLR, the rest from my phone.

I’d love to know – what are your favourite little extras to add to Project Life? And what’s your favourite pen?