Embellishing Project Life cards with Washi Tape

Embellishing the various Becky Higgins Project Life cards has really added to my variety of cards to use for Project Life as well as enjoying the creating itself.  So much extra can be done with washi tape.  These are examples of three 3×4 cards stitched together.

Here are three more embellished 3×4 cards, the one on the left with just snippets cut off from other projects:

And two 4×6 cards, again stitched together:

With some washi tape and many of your cards, bought or homemade, you can embellish and re-create new cards to use in your Project Life albums.

Project Life pages

 

For the last few years I have been keeping up with Project life but not sharing much with personal photos involved.  Unfortunately, this takes many of my pages out of the posting possibility.

This one, mostly about tornadoes going on around us and in Texas, used some photos, some Becky Higgins cards, some digitally-made cards,  some Pinterest images, and some journaling.

This one included a notecard from a friend, pictures of the cat and garden with comments, another Becky Higgins card, and some digitally-made cards.

Project Life is an excellent way to keep a written and visual diary of your days.  The albums make excellent perusing through afterwards, for you and family members and even friends, when the days have mostly blurred into each other – gives you a chance to see what really happened and how you felt and thought about those happenings.

 

More enhanced Project Life cards

There are so many possibilities to enhance your Project Life cards:  with a bit of imagination  and creativity, plus  some washi tape and basic PL cards (this one from Becky Higgins kit “for Him”, you can make what suits your needs and eye.  Or this where two different washi tapes are used on a printable from Pinterest:

Or where I utilized pieces of leftover washi on a plain lined card:

There’s no end to the possibilities.

Enhancing Project Life Cards

It’s amazing what a touch of washi will do.  Enhancing some of the Project Life cards that come in the various kits is something I enjoy, not only doing but also then having the new cards to use.  There are times when the original cards are perfect and other times when a bit more embellishment is needed, at least for my visual tastes.  For example, this card from the Becky Higgins Cobalt set:

becomes this card with a little embellishment.  Yet for me the slight additions of outlining a few words and adding washi tape makes a huge difference in the overall effect:

This can be done by detailing with a pen (so you ‘remember’) and adding burgundy washi tape as above or just some extra birdcage washi tape on the bottom of this Cobalt card as here:

and here is some black background with white circles washi tape on a Cobalt card to accentuate the printed words:

And here to add extra color along the top with washi tape on this Clementine “Live in the moment” card:

I then take the newly embellished cards, scan them and have each to print out as needed.  Creative, yet useful.

Project Life Organization

Each has their own specific organizing technique that works best, and many times it takes a while after starting any project, like Project Life, to figure out what is your best way.   One begins slowly accumulating items, like  card kits from Becky Higgins (www.beckyhiggins.com).  I started with the Clementine set and used only that for a while.  Now I have the standard sets of Clementine, Cobolt, Cherry and the mini For Him) and various 12×12 papers and stencils from the local Hobby Lobby (which now carries some of the Becky Higgins Project Life items).  I found that boxes and a plastic rolling cart from Hobby Lobby worked fine.

Project Life Card Storage

This also shows the many cards I printed out from Pinterest to insert because of the beautiful colors or the intriguing words.  I also made many cards by adding washi tape or doodling onto the journal cards (which I’ll show and discuss at a later time).

Rolling cart with all embellishments

This cart can be rolled around to accommodate use of space and where one happens to be working.    The 2 lower drawers are filled with 12×12 paper and pads of paper, pictures I’ve taken from various batches so I can go back and look for what I want, stencils, stickers, paints/pens/brushes, stamps and stamp pads, etc.   The cart came with each drawer having a lid which is perfect for traveling but for everyday use, I took off the lids for easy and quick access.  Works great for me.

Project Life Beginnings

It was right after I made the previously mentioned Razorback Bear for my teenage grandson in December 2011 that I started investigating and then getting involved with Project life, so the Razorback Bear was a major part of one of the first pages to be included in this system designed to meld picture albums and journaling. 

Project Life page for Christmas 2012

Project Life is a system originated and developed by Becky Higgins that includes whatever components you want to use, but basically an album, divided pocket pages holding various size pictures or cards, the pictures you take, and other cards specially designed to fit into the 3×4 or 4×6 plastic page slots of the pocket pages.  I started with the Clementine set for 2012, and this year got the Cobolt set.  Love them both along with my own pictures and also images I get from Pinterest, another online networking site.    

Title page for 2012 album

This is the title page for my 2012 album using a store-bought album and background paper from Hobby Lobby while the cards are from the Becky Higgins Clementine set, available from Amazon.  The use of pocket pages makes the layouts easy as you can choose from many different layout presentations.  I tend to use Pocket Page D most of the time, but have been using inserts for special days, like for someone’s birthday or anniversary.

I’ve noticed that many people come from a scrapbooking background and so tend to embellish/scrapbook their Project Life inclusions.  And almost everyone does one week in a 2-page spread.  Right from the beginning I realized that, for less stress, I needed to include as many pictures and journaling cards as was needed and wanted, so many weeks spilled way over the 2 pages.  Also I prefer a simpler approach so color and visual enjoyment seem to predominate my layouts with lots of journaling on the backs of cards and pictures.  A lone dandelion in a flower-pot filled with chickweed is as worthy of a picture as well as the many pictures I take of people, the garden and its inhabitants,  like the many turtle visitors. 

And I do not keep track of where I got what embellishment from – this has been for my pleasure – and I am very pleased, with the process and the results.