enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

AprilPL

As mentioned at the end of 2013, I am no longer completing my Project Life album on a weekly basis. I did that for two years. I enjoyed the process and I love my albums. This year I am taking a much more relaxed approach and playing more with this project. I don't have much of a plan other than to complete at least one (and sometimes many more) spread a month.

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The big win is that I can never be "behind" on this album. I also like that I don't have to worry about having seven horizontal 4×6 photos each week and can group photos by subject instead of date. I love that I will be under no "weekly deadlines" and will be blogging just once a month about my album.

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March ended with 5 4×6 photos, so April starts with 5. These are just random favorites from the month that didn't need too much of an explanation. Next to it a sequence of photos that I love of Ellerie from one morning a few weeks ago. I used stickers, cards and letters from the Studio Calico Camelot kit and Lancelot and Arthur add-ons.

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This pocket page is by We R Memory Keepers and features a 6×8 pocket that I floated a 4×6 journaling card inside. I am obsessed with free space and floating items this year. 

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I am so happy with how this spread turned out.

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I had to back that 4×6 card with something and so I wrote some simple journaling and picked four more favorite photos that tell part of our story from April.

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That HELLO stamp and those cute tags are from the Studio Calico Camelot project life main kit. I love using "hello_______" as a journaling prompt (I think I got the habit from Ali) and the stamp was perfect to set off a lot of different journaling about this month. That checker board scheme (alternating predominantly white journaling cards with photos) is still my favorite.

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And then it's all about coffee.

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I buy and drink a lot of coffee and have been saving the bags on top of our fridge. This month the collection got a little unruly so I decided to chop them down to 4×4 and slip inside a square pocket page from We R Memory Keepers.

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To give them a little context, I printed 12 3×4 photos from my #eliselovesmornings series (these are not all from April). I love to see photos of the same thing taken different ways and I love that this little (but significant) part of our daily routine is not documented.

And that's April! No stress, just simple. Thank you so much for following along. See my title page for this album here and 2014 album progress here.

product sources: Studio Calico Camelot PL kit and add-ons (available tonight at 9pm Pacific time), We R Memory keepers 9 pocket page, We R Memory keepers 6×8+4 pocket page, Design A pocket page, staz-on ink, black sharpie.

all photos were printed at home on my Epson PictureMate Show.

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16 responses to “project life 2014 : april.”

  1. Jessica Rodarte Avatar

    I love that you repeat themes in your layouts- coffee, journaling spots, colors. It’s pleasing to the eye. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Sarah M Avatar
    Sarah M

    As always, I love seeing your layouts! I’ve wondered about including coffee bag packaging myself … do these squares have a coffee scent?

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  3. Ellen Avatar

    Love the coffee page. Since you’re doing the month version now, do you keep notes of happenings throughout the month and then work putting together the layouts at once? Or, do you just kind of wing it? I don’t work on my Project Life every week so I find myself jotting notes down so I don’t forget anything.

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  4. Cathie Avatar

    i love my coffee, too and this is a great idea for documenting this part of my life. thanks for the inspiration.
    I’m also interested in your decision to not complete project life on a weekly basis. I remember you mentioning that change a while ago but had forgotten.
    I was thinking just this morning that I would start PL on a weekly basis. I tried it once but it didn’t work for me. I want something like PL but I’m just not a chronological scrapper and I don’t want to ever feel “behind”. Anyway, I like your approach – it feels balanced. I’m going to think on it and see if something sticks for me.

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  5. Kellie Winnell Avatar

    I absolutely love how your coffee page has turned out it looks amazing Elise. The HELLO page is all sorts of awesome.

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  6. Katie Avatar

    Love the coffee bags idea! (And so fun seeing the Stumptown one in there.) 😉

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  7. Sabine Avatar

    Oh yes, this is what a Project Life page has to look like – all fill with coffee! 😉 Love this layout. And love the shots of your coffee cups.

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  8. Alanna N Avatar

    I absolutely love these spreads. I am so behind it’s not even funny (even though I’m doing it monthly). I’ve decided to skip January for the time being because it was holding my back. We were on holiday from Dec 25 – Jan 6 and I was struggling with starting January when I hadn’t finished December but I just wanted to start. So I’ve left January for now and will do it when I get around to finishing 2012.
    Love the floating aspects and the checkerboard effect – you pull of repetition really well! I think I missed seeing March’s spread because I’m also insanely behind with blog reading, but I’m off to check it out now! 🙂

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  9. Sandra K Avatar

    Love your pages!! Especially the “hello” prompts are just awesome!! 🙂 I do my PL on a monthly basis, too, and just love it!! I don’t feel stressed about taking “enough” pictures each week and it feels like my spreads have more meaning 🙂

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  10. Welcome Home Taylor Avatar

    This may be one of my favorite spreads that you’ve done. I love that you added those coffee bags. So awesome!
    xoxo
    Taylor

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  11. emily Avatar

    Thanks for the inspiration, elise! I was doing spreads weekly until we took a 2-week Christmas vacation, and then I meant to “get caught up”… and the more time went by, the more that seemed overwhelming… and suddenly it’s the end of April and I haven’t printed a single photo since December. Crap. I think I’ll go back and just do April as a month, and see how that feels!

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  12. Jennifer Avatar

    Glad to see that I’m not the only one who likes to keep fun things (like those coffee bags) when they just look too special to throw away! This is a great idea for keeping them, but getting rid of the clutter. 🙂

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  13. dawn Avatar
    dawn

    I love the fun in the HELLO page, will be using this one in mine!! The coffee page is so awesome, I am a tea drinker but only one kind. I have been making time every day for tea and Jesus and put them on my IG. Can’t wait to do one of these like your coffee cups one. The checkerboard look is amazing too!
    You are inspiring the way you make it work for a monthly theme in your album. Not sure I could be that brave and would miss my pictures but seeing yours makes it worth thinking about.
    THANKS for sharing!!

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  14. Carlie Avatar

    Love it! I love how it doesn’t have the “and today we did this, and then we did that” feel, but rather “here is a snapshot of life right now”.

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  15. J3SS1C4 Avatar

    This looks amazing with the theme approach for the month! That series of Ellerie in the We R Memory Keepers page looks so cute! And that coffee page is such a great idea! I almost wish I took that many coffee photos a month, but I only have coffee once or twice a week!

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  16. Za Avatar

    I love what you’ve done on these pages. I love the way you twisted the whole concept into something different and inspiring. I love repetition. What you’ve been doing this year is so cool!

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