Project Life: "Hello December"

I recently had the pleasure of working with the new "Hello December" Project Life Card Collection and Project Life Accessory Pack from Stampin' Up.  I love that Stampin' Up has teamed up with Becky Higgins to develop and offer fun Project Life kits and supplies.  Stampin' Up is actually one of the very first companies I purchased supplies from.  I bought a ton of their ink pads about five years ago and they are still going strong today!  Talk about quality!!  So needless to say, I was super excited when I got the chance to play around with their new Christmas-themed kit.

With the card collection and accessory pack together, it pretty much contains everything you will need to pull your spreads together.....journaling cards, wood veneer, alpha, cork numbers, sequins, washi tape.  Basically everything except adhesive!!  

Since I don't have any December photos to document yet, I decided to go back and put a few Project Life spreads together of Christmas 2013.  I didn't really add too much Christmas related to my album last year since I put together a December Daily® album.  I kept meaning to go back and add in a few more photos (since it kind of looks like we skipped over Christmas when you flip through our books), but I never got around to it (or I just wasn't in the mood....).  But...since my brain is in complete Christmas mode right now, it was a no brainer to print out those old photos!!

Let's reminisce a little, shall we???

The photos in my spread are really in no particular order.  I wasn't really concerned with being chronological, or really even telling longer stories, since most of those memories are already documented in my December Daily® album.  

Instead, I just included my photos and any memories that came to mind when looking at the pictures. I basically did more a re-cap rather than a "real time" recount.  And I totally think either method works for Project Life.  I find that I do a mix of this in general since I'm not the best at writing everything down (I will be better next year.  I will be better next year.)

The journaling cards that are included in the kit are outstanding!  I love that they have square corners (yay!!) and that the kit offered a good variety of filler cards and unlined cards.  I'm a big fan of filler cards and find that often spend more time searching for them than anything else!!  

I also created a fun little shaker pocket from some of the sequins and wood veneer that were included in the accessory pack!  If you follow along with me, you know that I love "peek-a-boo" elements in my book, and well....you just can't beat a sequin shaker pocket!

These little pockets are so easy to make, but add such a fun visual effect to the pages.

I used my typewriter to add my journaling and then finished a few of the cards with some stitching.  Stitching seems to be the icing on the cake these days.  I just love the details and "homemade" look it adds to my pages.  

I continued with the back of the Design A page protector and put together a second spread of our Christmas.  As you can see, I continued the same theme throughout this spread...lots of photos, filler cards and journaling.  

I've found that sticking to eight 4x6 photos really is a time saver for me!  It keeps me from wasting time trying to figure out how to decorate a card, or find a filler card, or whatever....  I mean, those pockets were made for photos, right??  

Since this is the backside of the previous spread, you can see the effect that the fun little shaker pocket has.  I love that the little pieces float around and move as the pages turn.  

I used the large wood veneer "JOY" piece on the right hand side to create a similar peek-a-book effect.  It slipped right into my pocket and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was meant to be!!  Plus, I think wood elements add such a nice, homey look to pages, scrapbook and Project Life alike!!

And that's a walk down memory lane!  Thanks so much stopping by today and thank you so much to Stampin' Up for letting me play around with their fun goodies!!