Archive for the ‘style & design’ Category

aspiring designer charlotte

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

Say hello to Charlotte. She is a 13-year-old Project Lifer with plans to use the new Honey Edition that is coming soon. Charlotte recently emailed us and this is too precious not to share (with her permission, of course).

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I’m Charlotte. I’m 13 years old and I’m from a small town in England called Rotherham. I know this is completely out of the blue and you’ll probably say no. But if I don’t ask I’ll never know. I’d really like to design a core/mini kit.

I wanted to contribute to such a wonderful idea to help all the scrapbookers in the entire world, to document their life to pass through generations to come. If you gave me this opportunity, I would call the kit ‘Tea Party’ it would be filled with cupcakes and tea and other English things. As you have some great kits but none of them really have an English theme.

Also I don’t think any of the designers are English. So I would love to show the English culture through one of your fabulous core/mini kits. Please take my e-mail under consideration and I would love to hear from you in the future about designing a core/mini kit together.

Thank you for coming up with this amazing idea and I would love to be a part of it.

Yours Faithfully
Charlotte

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As if that wasn’t adorable enough … Charlotte even shared with us her initial sketches for the kit she wants to design. Seriously – how cute is she, right??

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creative team inspiration: january 2013 edition

Monday, January 21st, 2013

This is the first official Project Life Creative Team inspiration post from our brand-new 2013 team.

As usual with the monthly offering of inspiration, I will share just one glimpse from each of their respective Project Life albums. And then – whenever and wherever you want to see more – just click on the person’s name and it will take you to their blog where they each share more details, more information, more pages, more examples of how they’re using Project Life as a memory-keeping system. If someone’s style “speaks” to you, you’ll want to check out the additional pictures and explanations on her blog.

We completely adore how each person’s style is so unique – in photography, with their journaling, and how they bring it all together in their albums. As you see how others are doing Project Life, our hope is that you will feel an increased desire to document life, and that you’ll be more in tune with what your own personal style is. No matter how you slice it, it’s all good. It’s your story. This post is loaded with eye candy. We don’t mean to overwhelm you. We simply want you to be inspired in your own memory-keeping efforts.

Please remember that while many of the Creative Team members use various products to embellish, keep in mind that you really can create an entire scrapbook with the 3 core Project Life components and nothing else. Album + Project Life Core Kit + Big Pack of Photo Pocket Pages. That’s it. I love and celebrate all sorts of memory-keeping styles, but I personally strive to promote simplicity, especially to those of you who are like me and need to keep it simple or it won’t get done.

And now … enjoy the inspiration.

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Amanda Caves

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Amy Tan

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Ashley Bennett

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Catherine Davis

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Donna Gibson (digital)

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Dunia Acauan (digital)

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Elise Blaha Cripe

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Haley Ney (digital)

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Heather Johnson (digital)

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Jennifer Hignite (digital)

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Joy Pribish

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Kristina Proffitt

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Leena Loh

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Lorimay Barba

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Maggie Holmes (she is gathering photos + journaling cards from the Baby Edition for Her core kit for her baby girl’s scrapbook)

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Nisa Fiin

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Petra Corcoran

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Rebecca Cooper

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Rhonda Mason

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Shelly Jacquet

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Shirley Polk

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Stephanie Baxter

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Teresa Victor (digital)

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Tracy Larsen

3 tid-bits for tuesday

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

one | behind the scenes on designing a project life edition

One of my absolute favorite aspects of my work is all the back & forth with each designer, brainstorming and tweaking along the way … always resulting in something we both feel really good about. You’ll love the sneak peek inside how Elise’s mind worked while designing this already-wildly-popular-before-it-even-comes-out edition of Project Life. Elise Blaha Cripe is the designer behind the Seafoam Edition, which will be available in about a month – along with the new Olive Edition, designed by Heather Bailey. Elise just posted a behind-the-scenes look at how she came up with her design scheme and color palette.

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two | 2 fonts dear to me, available for you

Many years ago … LONG before Project Life … I was known more for my creative lettering. Creating Keepsakes even developed some font CDs with all my handwritten lettering styles (most of you probably know this). For one of those font CDs I suggested that we add a couple bonus fonts to the collection. I asked 2 of my brothers to put pen to paper and hand over their handwriting so that we could turn them into fonts. This wasn’t random. They both have phenomenal handwriting.

Jonathan was an architect and engineer before he passed away just a couple months ago – and his handwriting is an indication of that profession. From the time I was a little girl, I had huge admiration for his perfect handwriting. All of us who knew Jonathan’s handwriting revered it as a form of art. My brother Steven also has pretty amazing handwriting for a guy. It’s just as particular as the way he carefully spreads his peanut butter to the very edge of the bread.

Both of these fonts are available to anyone who’s interested. CK Sketch (by Jonathan) and CK Simple (by Steven) are just $1.99 each and 100% of the proceeds will go to Jonathan’s family through the end of January. So tell your friends to go snag these awesomely special + way affordable fonts. Many, many thanks to my friends at Creating Keepsakes for offering to do this.

PS – You’ll see links to both of these fonts on my blog sidebar, toward the top.

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three | launch party for project dig deep

There’s a new eBook that is launching this week, brought to you by Big Picture Classes – and the focus is on discovering and sharing deeper stories within your Project Life system. It’s called Project Dig Deep. I have a little introduction in the front but I wasn’t the one pulling off this project off. Hat’s off to the editors and contributors who drummed up an incredibly inspiring collection of Project Life pages.

Right now there is a launch party going on at Big Picture Classes, through Friday Nov. 30. Go inside the Project Life Community to find out more, participate in daily chats, get free daily downloads, exclusive coupons, and even awesome daily prize giveaways … including (you guessed it) a Project Life Core Kit.

 

free holiday templates!

Friday, November 16th, 2012

We ran a design contest. Many of you entered. The rest of you voted. Majority votes won. And now we have 10 brand-new holiday card templates for EVERYONE to use! They’re cool. They’re FREE. They’re now available! Head over to the ever-so-popular FREE STUFF page and grab what you want.

10 designs to choose from with 3 sizes available for each design. Drop in your photo, upload to your favorite printer (if you want a recommendation, I love Persnickety Prints for amazing quality and customer service), and you are DONE with your holiday greetings, my friend!

Congratulations to the following who created the winning designs! They’ve each won a cash prize. In the case of this contest and this offering of templates, EVERYone wins.  : )

  • Kimberly Church (Florida)
  • Jessica Bleggi (Utah)
  • Smitha Katti (Minnesota)
  • Kristina Proffitt (Tennessee)
  • Geralyn Sy (Canada)
  • Tiffany Webster (Arizona)
  • Leisa Matheson (Canada)
  • Jeri Stunkard (Colorado)

VOTE for your favorite holiday card 2012

Friday, November 9th, 2012

Last Wednesday I announced a design contest and within just a week we had oodles of submissions! Thank you very, very much to all who took a shot and submitted your proposed holiday card design. It has been so fun to see all the talent and various styles.

And now – the fun part for YOU! We have narrowed the selection down to 25 finalists and we invite you to VOTE on your favorite(s)! This is how it works, and what you need to know:

1. Log in to your facebook page. Be sure to like Becky Higgins LLC so that you can vote.

2. Look in PHOTOS, for the photo album called Holiday Card Finalists 2012.

3. Simply like the design(s) you would want to send to your family + friends. You can like one, or if it’s too hard to choose – you can like several.

4. Only likes will be counted – not comments.

5. Voting closes Monday (Nov. 12) night @ midnight PST.

6. Encourage your family + friends to vote too. (They will need to like my page in order to cast their vote)

7. The Top 10 most-liked designs will be made available as free downloads on my site next Friday (Nov. 16) and then you can all rock & roll on your greetings! All of the finalists that don’t make the Top 10 will not be made available on my website – so be sure to vote!

 

2013 Creative Team

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

I have such mixed emotions with this announcement because, as you know, we loooooove our 2012 Creative Team. Love, love, love. This past year we have been utterly INSPIRED by their Project Life sharing and GRATEFUL for their willingness to show the world their pages so that we could all feel enlightened by their excellent life documenting, story-telling, use of product, and of course – love for Project Life. They’re not done yet. We still have a couple months worth of sharing from our remarkable 2012 Creative Team.

It’s hard to believe, but we are coming up on a new year soon, which means we are looking for an all-new Project Life Creative Team! Are you interested? Could YOU be on our new Creative Team?

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{ how we are building the new Creative Team }

A few Project Lifers have caught our attention lately (via social media and online galleries mostly) and we absolutely want to consider them for our Creative Team, so we are reaching out to those individuals. They may be interested, they may not. The majority of the 2013 Creative Team will come from submissions. YOU are invited to submit YOUR Project Life pages.

If being on a Creative Team is not of interest to you, but you know of someone else who really inspires you with their Project Life pages … please encourage them to check out this opportunity! Or you can even drop us a note and send us a link to someone who you think we would want to know about.

And by the way, we don’t care if you’re kind of a “known name” in scrapbooking circles or online communities – or not. You could be Jane Doe out of nowhere, that we’ve never heard of, and your chances are equal. Everyone has a fair chance as long as you meet the requirements as listed below.

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{ what it means to be on the Project Life Creative Team }

Creative Team members are asked to do what they normally do with Project Life, true to their own personal style, and they submit 2-3 layouts or projects each month (which they’re likely already be doing for themselves or their family anyway) so that we can share their awesomeness. Once in a while there is a “special assignment” but really, we don’t ask much … and it’s really just FUN and easy. Expectations will be more clearly defined with the final Creative Team when they are chosen.

Oh – and we hook you up with loads of Project Life goodies all year long while you sit on the Creative Team.  ; )

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{ what are we looking for? }

We would love for our Project Life Creative Team to represent a variety of life scenarios. We know most scrapbookers/Project Lifers happen to be in their 20s to 40s with kids so naturally we’ll see lots of submissions from people in this boat. But we want to see teenagers, grandparents, young adults, married or not married, kids or no kids, world traveler or stay-at-home-mom, living in the city or in the middle of nowhere, or on the other side of the world. Heck – is it possible we’ll finally get a GUY on our Creative Team!?

We also want to represent different Project Life formats, meaning – some digital Project Lifers, and even those who do Project Life in the photo book format on Shutterfly. The majority of our team will naturally be made up of those using physical Project Life product.

Here’s what will get you noticed … no matter what your life circumstances, your nationality, or where you live. We are looking for:

1. Fantastic photography. You could be a fascinating person with a super interesting life, but if your pictures aren’t great, it’s not really the perfect fit for our Creative Team. We are looking for pictures that are clear, crisp, interesting, good lighting, excellent quality. You don’t have to be a professional photographer, but you need to have some skill behind the lens. And I know many of you do.

2. Great story-telling. I don’t mean you have to be a stellar writer. The little Journaling Cards are only so big, right? No – I am talking about the story-telling that happens with the way you document your life, primarily through your photographs. So not only do we want fantastic photography, but we would love to be inspired by how you photograph, what you take pictures of, and how well you illustrate experiences in your life through your lens. This doesn’t mean that your life itself needs to be perceived as anything but what it is. You could be a world traveler or a stay-at-home-mom and that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you capture our attention through how you document life.

3. Use of product. Naturally, we are looking for folks who make Project Life products look good. We celebrate the fact that there are so many styles out there and that lots of people love to embellish and get creative, and we hope to represent at least a little bit of variety. But MOST of our Creative Team will be comprised of folks who use Project Life products for how they are designed. In other words, we are looking for SIMPLICITY. Folks looking for more creative use of products in terms of embellishing and artistic touches will find loads of inspiration from other places, such as the Studio Calico Design Team. That’s their niche.

But our Creative Team is different. We want to inspire people with simplicity – because that’s the whole nature of Project Life. Slip photos and cards into pockets and you’re done. Sticking with the Project Life Core Kit and our Photo Pocket Pages is all you need to get onto our Creative Team, as it will really be your photography and story-telling that will capture our attention the most. Please don’t feel like if you do a little embellishing here & there, your chances will be slim. That’s not the case. Like I said, we want to show a VARIETY of styles.

4. Layout photography. The actual photos of your Project Life layouts need to be excellent. Good lighting, very clean & clear, no flash, no distracting background. You see, we don’t require our Creative Team to part with their pages so that we can scan or photograph them. Instead we ask that they photograph the layouts and projects themselves – and that’s why it’s imperative that your layout photos are awesome. If you want to see how our current Creative Team photographs their layouts, check them out by clicking around on their various blogs.

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{ how to submit }

Email submissions to creativeteam@beckyhiggins.com and include the following with your email:

- name

- location (city, state, country)

- links to all things YOU (website, blog, shop, gallery, pinterest, facebook, twitter, instagram, whatever)

- Project Life format (physical product or digital or Shutterfly photo book)

- a little about you (single, married, kids, no kids, empty nester, teenager … whatever) – short + sweet, please.

- 3 to 5 images of layouts you have completed (remember – see #4 above as this will have a big impact on your first impression with us)

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The deadline for submissions in Monday, November 19.

Specifically, our cut-off will be at midnight Pacific time that day. If you are chosen to be on our Creative Team, you will be personally contacted by me before December 1. The 2013 Creative Team will be announced mid-December.

If you have any questions at all about submitting to be on our Creative Team, you can email kari@beckyhiggins.com. (Kari manages our Creative Team. She’s pretty amazing and so much fun!) If your question is GENERAL and something that perhaps others would likely want to know as well, simply leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer questions here (publicly) also.

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We can’t wait to see your layouts!

 

design contest!

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

Our exciting week continues – and I want to thank everyone for your comments, support, enthusiasm, and there have even been a few concerns. I consider all of the feedback to be valuable. Before I dig into today’s fun stuff, just a quick blanket statement: With the 2 new partnerships announced, please keep in mind that David and I don’t take decisions like this lightly. We have worked way too hard the past few years.

Our decisions were made based on a lot of factors. One of the major factors is the constant customer requests for more Project Life and more options – and more availability. Another factor is that David and I can only do so much. We have a small but amazing team. In order for us to bring more Project Life to the world, it’s not a matter of just hiring more people. Trust me. Going that route and trying to do more by building up our own team exponentially could have a potentially detrimental affect on our health and family.

All that said, we are completely thrilled with these 2 new partnerships because they will help us meet customer demands. This is the key point I want to make: The simplicity of Project Life as a system remains in tact. I still stand by the theory that all you need to complete a scrapbook is a binder + big pack of photo pocket pages + a Project Life Core Kit (plus your photos and a pen). That’s not changing. But for those who want more options to build upon that (which we have discovered happens to be many of you) … we are so happy to be able to offer more options. That’s what these 2 new partnerships bring – options.

If you fit in that category (as so many do – including myself) that you want to create scrapbooks simply and without all the extra stuff, that program remains – and will continue to remain – as it is. You don’t have to pay an ounce of attention to anything else we’re doing. Just keep on keeping on. This is the beautiful thing about scrapbooking. To each her own. Something for everyone.  : )

Now on to TODAY’S exciting stuff …

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We have a little tradition of providing FREE holiday digital templates each year. You love it. We love it. Everyone wins. The really fun part is that we have opened this up to YOU. Have some design skills? We would LOVE you to submit a holiday card template design! The top 10 winning designs will each receive $100 cash! Need a clue as to what we have done in the past? Check out THIS blog post from a couple years ago and that will give you an idea.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty that you would need to know, I want to let you in on a little secret: You are now aware that 2013 will bring about more Project Life, which means more designs and more editions … which means I want to discover more designers that could potentially work with me on Project Life! So if you are interested in getting “noticed” to possibly be considered for a Project Life design gig, I highly recommend you submit to this Holiday Card Design Contest. How fun is that!?

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Submission Guidelines

1. Each design must be submitted in three sizes – 4″x6″, 5″x7″, and 6″x7.5″ (same design, just formatted in 3 sizes).

2. Files must be saved as 300 dpi PNG files.

3. You must leave a blank space where the photo(s) is to be placed. The photo(s) should be prominent in the design.

4. You must name your files in this format: LastFirst_2012ChristmasCard_size.png [ i.e. WhitlockLori_2012ChristmasCard_4x6.png ]

5. All artwork must be original art. You may NOT use any paper or embellishments from digital kits.

6. The orientation can be either horizontal or vertical.

7. You may include the year 2012 somewhere in the design if you’d like. But, keep in mind that if your design is chosen, we’ll retire your design after the 2012 holiday season if it includes the year.

8. As for style, well … that’s up to you. You’re the designer. But, I’ll give you a tip on what will likely stand out to me personally: Clean and uncluttered. Obviously we want to end up with 10 unique designs so that everyone has plenty to choose from so do what suits your style best.

9. The deadline for submissions is November 7 at 12:00 midnight PST; that’s next Wednesday.

10. No more than two design submissions per person.

11. Email submissions to submissions@beckyhiggins.com and be sure to tell us your full name, location (city/state/country), and link us to your blog or website if you have one so that we can get more glimpses of you and your work.

12. If your submission doesn’t meet all the requirements above, it will not be considered.

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Here are a few more things worth noting:

1. Who’s who. I have no rules about who you are and whether or not we know each other. This is open to everyone. So whether you happen to be a personal friend or if you’ve never even heard of me before today, whether you live in the U.S. or the other side of the world … you have equal chances. I just want the coolest cards to share with my readers and my bias is only about the design itself.  : )

2. Tell your friends! Know a great designer who may not be aware of this contest? Encourage him/her to consider entering this contest. Spread the word, because that’s how we’ll get the best designs.

3. Fonts. Please be mindful of copyrights. Your safest bet is to use generic fonts like the Arials, Helveticas, Geogias, etc. Be sure to save your layered files for any slight changes you may be asked to make.

4. Holiday terms. We will ultimately want to represent a variety of phrases in our final designs – Christmas, Holiday, Hanukkah, Merry, Kwanzaa, whatever. Take your pick, using any phrasing that best suits your design, or leave words off altogether if you choose.

5. You get to vote! For the first time ever, we are going to involve YOU – our readers – in deciding the top 10 holiday cards this year! After narrowing down our favorites, we will create an album on facebook for everyone to cast their vote for their favorites and that’s how we’ll come up with the final 10. Stay tuned for more information, which will be around November 9. We’ll keep it simple and easy, and give you a few days to vote.

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I seriously can’t wait to see what you come up with! Good luck!

 

birthday week: tuesday

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

The week-long celebration continues! Today I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy a short video that is less than 5 minutes long … and that has nothing to do with Project Life. Today we’re talking home decor and DIY and I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at our “memory niche” in the kitchen of our home.

A few things to point out that I didn’t really cover in the video:

1. PHOTOS: WHAT’S ROTATING? On a typical day, you’d see everyday family pictures rotating on these TVs in our kitchen. During the holidays we usually have photos of that particular season from past years rotating. And of course for special events, we cater to the occasion. In the video, there were just a few rotating photos of the kids because we just had a combo birthday party for Claire, Crew, and our dog Oreo a few days ago. Just a few weeks ago we had a bunch of silly photos of our friend Allison as we hosted her 30th birthday bash at our house. Last year we hosted a friend’s 40th surprise party and his family dug up all sorts of old photos of him that we displayed. When visitors come to stay with us, we usually try to sneak a few pictures of them in the rotation. We constantly mix it up.

2. WIRES: WHERE DO THEY GO? Well, they plug into the wall. Go figure. We put a power outlet behind the “door” so there were no wires hanging out anywhere. Nice and tidy. The third wire is actually a cable wire – in case David did decide one day to have a game playing in the kitchen. I haven’t caught that vision yet, but I suppose it’s not completely out of the question.

3. JOHN: HOW CAN YOU HIRE HIM? Now obviously I don’t expect most of you to take on a project like this. But … I also know that a few of you will likely be interested in doing something similar in your home. If you happen to live in Arizona and happen to need any woodwork done, John Broderick is the man. He is genius with anything wood and has done a few amazing projects for us. bbfurn@juno.com | 623.566.2232. I’m sharing this with you like I would share a great resource with any friend. Not because John asked me to say anything but because he is just so darn talented.

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{ 3 random testimonials about project life}

If I could describe Project Life in one word it would be SIMPLE. I love the fact that all I have to do is snap a pic, print it out & journal. I will never be one of those people who says “Gosh, I’m so behind on my scrapbooking…” Project Life has allowed me to enjoy the creative aspect of traditional scrapbooking, but with no more stress! -Carolyn Farnsworth

I loved the idea of taking a picture everyday and documenting daily life. I decided to do this as a way to show my husband what the year was like for us while he is deployed. It will be great to have this album as a way for us to look back at what we did while he was away. There is no way I would take on a project like this without the Project Life system. It is so beautiful and makes it so simple. Thank you for such a great product! -Cassandra Wiscarson

I love it!! I love how simple it is. I love how it can be used in a million different ways! I love how my family can get involved… grab a journaling card and add a piece of them! I love how I don’t have to think about making it “look great” because it already does! I love how it makes me think of those little moments to capture… instead of ‘just’ those big events! But most of all… you said it perfectly… it’s my story… my way. I love it!! -Nicole V

 

glorious fall

Sunday, September 16th, 2012

I love Fall. I embrace Fall. And yes – I get into the spirit of Fall much before we see cooler temperatures here in the desert where we live. Claire and I “decked the halls” (really it’s just mostly in the kitchen) with whatever Fall items we had stored away from past years. She’s learning how to create a cluster of decorations using random candle sticks, and we bonded over that. Now … if I can just convince Mother Earth to drop those temperatures a bit, I can bust out the long sleeves and fuzzy socks again.

I know these colors don’t necessarily say “Fall” to most people – but this blanket represents warmth and love and comfort to me and I will definitely find myself using it more and more as it cools down this Fall. My mom just crocheted that blanket for me and I’m pretty sure most of those 29,700 stitches were done sitting beside my brother’s side as she has been with him during his battle with cancer. So – this blanket is that much more special to me.

PS – You can find a couple of my Fall DIY projects (as seen in the pictures) in this post and this post. As for where I found most of the Fall decor items? I’ve accumulated them over so many years, it’s probably safe to say most items were either from Home Goods, Michaels, Hobby Lobby … those kind of places.

introducing : the Olive Edition

Tuesday, August 21st, 2012

It is an honor to introduce you to our other new graphic designer – the one and only Heather Bailey!

Some of you may be brand-new to Heather’s brand, but I have a feeling most of you have used – or at least seen – her charming designs somewhere. Perhaps you have some of her sewing patterns, or maybe you’ve picked up one of her newly-introduced-to-the-shelves-at-Target day planners or notebooks. Heather is no stranger to graphic design. She’s done everything from fabric to housewares. There is a reason so many of us are drawn to her vibrantly gorgeous designs – and we are beyond thrilled she agreed to join the Project Life family of designers. Introducing … the OLIVE EDITION of Project Life!

 

Heather had a chance to play with her own Project Life cards in her first-ever Project Life pages. What do you guys think? I’m thinking the Bailey family just may want to keep going with their Project Life album, because this is pretty amazing.  : ) Oh, and by the way – Heather’s super talented photographer husband Isaac took the following photos. His coloring is much better than mine (above).


Sooooo …. are you kind of freaking out with me? I love how Heather balanced out the girly-girl patterns with geometric goodness. Be sure to check out Heather’s blog today as she is announcing this big news to her readers … and be sure to leave her some love and tell her how much you adore her designs – either here on this post, or over on her blog.  : )

{ coming next } Tune in tomorrow for another edition of our new, weekly “5 Photos that Inspire” post by another Creative Team member. And then … the next big surprise comes on Thursday when share share the Baby Editions of Project Life (speaking of freaking out).

{ arrival time } We anticipate the new Olive Edition – along with yesterday’s featured Seafoam Edition – to become available sometime this November.

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Come on back for continued fun with our

BIG WEEK OF REVEALS.