Project Life 2014 | week 21

9 September 201510 September 2015

My 2014 Project Life album is slowly but surely coming together and I’m so glad I decided to persevere with this project. There is truly a sense of accomplishment getting to see everything being documented.

Week of: 19 to 24 May, 2014

What happened this week: We got donuts, celebrated a birthday and spent time outside.

Left Side

Techniques used: Nothing mind-blowing this week, just the usual stamping on photos and the weekly journaling card. I still love using the white space on photos to add tiny details.

Right side

Thoughts: Mostly focused on photos this week. I also included a note from Olya which I got in the mail. Going simple with the embellishments with just some stickers, wood veneer and stamping.

I can’t wait to share more spreads with you guys as I add the finishing details to the upcoming weeks.

Stay tuned!

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life pages on the One Little Bird blog

18 August 201518 August 2015

I’ve been working on catching up with my 2014 Project Life album. And I love how being part of the One Little Bird blog team has fueled me to keep going with this project.

This month, I created a spread from week 45 in 2014 using five One Little Bird collections.

I daresay it’s one of my favorite spreads to date! You can see the full details on the One Little Bird blog.

Pocket scrapbooking title pages for One Little Bird| Amelia Writes

And in case you missed it, I tackled the challenging-to-me task of creating title pages for my Project Life albums in June.

Pocket scrapbooking for One Little Bird| Amelia Writes

And in June, I shared how to unite spreads and embrace imperfection from weeks 33 and 34.

I’m so excited to see how these Project Life pages keep coming together, even when I least expect it.

How are you making progress in your Project Life albums so far? Tell me about it in the comments!

Project Life 2014 | week 20

12 August 201513 August 2015

First of all, thank you for all your support and sweet comments on the newly relaunched site. I’m so happy to have you guys here and I’m excited to share and write more in the coming months!

Now presenting my first post on this space – here’s week 20 of Project Life in 2014.

Week of: May 12 to 18, 2015

What happened this week: We celebrated a birthday, and went to USS – twice!

Left side

Ameliawrites-PL2014-week20-5

Right side

Techniques used: I included more memorabilia this week. And I love how Project Life gives me a place for all this stuff.

I went to my go-to technique of stamping on photos, and came up with the idea to create tabs for my photos by using a stamp set from Kellie Stamps.

Thoughts: Only journaling left to make this week totally complete, but I’m glad I got to incorporate One Little Bird journaling cards (Dwell and Hopscotch) with some of my physical paper stash.

Ameliawrites-PL2014-week20-4

So glad I’m making progress on this – I’d like to think at least slow and steady is better than nothing!

Go ahead and leave me a comment if you have any thoughts or questions on memory keeping or my Project Life process.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life | Collecting memorabilia

13 May 2015

Admittedly, I am quite a pack rat and I love collecting memorabilia, whether it’s while traveling overseas or going on adventures even in my own city.

Collecting memorabilia is definitely one of my favorite parts about going anywhere.

I used to just end up with piles of paper with no where to put them. But now, I love that Project Life gives me a place for all the paper I collect (and a legit reason to keep collecting too, because they’re part of the memories!).

So naturally, I’m always looking out for different things I can include in my albums.

Right now, I’ve amassed quite a few favorites that I love to collect and include.

10 types of memorabilia to include in Project Life:

1. Postcards
2. Movie/concert tickets
3. Ticket stubs from trains/planes/buses
4. Coasters
5. Name cards/business cards
6. Maps
7. Brochures
8. Receipts
9. Price tags
10. Handwritten notes/cards

Most of the memorabilia I collect is free or pretty easy to come by. When I go on vacation, I sometimes end up paying a small amount to purchase a postcard or some sort of souvenir.

Sometimes I end up with tons of paper (yay!). Other times, uhm, not so much.

Next time you visit a place, look out for memorabilia you can take along with you, and save a piece of that experience in your scrapbook.

Do you like collecting memorabilia? What are your favorite types to collect? Share with me in the comments!

Project Life 2014 | week 19

9 April 2015

Week of: 5 May to 11 May, 2014

What happened this week: Not much happened during the week, but we celebrated Mother’s Day and had a steak dinner over the weekend. That was definitely a good way to end the week.

Left-hand side

Used some MAMBI cards, stamps from Kelly Purkey and my friend Kellie (can you spot something from her upcoming April release?), and included a sticker from Shimelle’s first line.

Right-hand side

More MAMBI cards and stickers. Plus enamel dots and gold chipboard from Studio Calico.

Techniques used: Super simple this week – stamping, tiny attach everything and stickers! And I love it when I get to include memorabilia too, like that name card from a café we visited.

Thoughts: This is one of those spreads where the yellow and red color scheme didn’t really feel like my “style”, since I picked up those colors from the photos. Maybe I was just having a hard time with the color tone of the photos in general. But I worked with what I had and made the most of it by adding all my favorites (like gold and stamping on photos).

This spread is one of those weeks that I don’t super love but that’s okay because I’m embracing it anyway. Who knows, this spread just might grow on me in the end.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Guest post for Life Documented Manila

1 April 2015

Helloooo, April!

I never thought I would be so excited about a new month, but April is here and I’m looking forward to what this month has in store.

Earlier in March, I got to meet Pinky and Yam (who are 2/3 of the team behind Life Documented Manila) during their visit to Singapore. It’s always exciting getting to meet Instagram friends in real life! We talked about scrapbooking over red velvet waffles, then went shopping for art supplies. So much fun.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of being on the Life Documented Manila blog, where I shared about my experience with pocket scrapbooking. You can read all the details here!

Happy Wednesday! xx.

Project Life 2014 | week 18

26 March 2015

Week of: April 28 to May 4, 2014

What happened this week: Made some homecooked meals, went running, and spent Labor Day at USS (our favorite!).

Left side

Tip: Use a plain tag as a background to help your sentiment pop!

I love Nutella and couldn’t help snapping a photo upon spotting an entire shelf of Nutella at the grocery store.*insert heart eyes emoji*

Right side

Techniques used: Aside from stamping, stickers, and the occasional wood veneer embellishment, I kept things super simple this week. Easy and done is my motto these days.

Thoughts: I used cards from one kit (Amy Tangerine’s Plus One mini kit, in this case) to help my spread come together very quickly. I love how using one kit can take out all the guess work of having to match and color-coordinate cards. I also love the blue-green hues in this spread!

Who’s still working on spreads from 2014?

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

All the Memories | what I’ve learned from memory keeping

16 March 2015

Interestingly, intentionally documenting through Project Life has given me a new perspective on life and how I see the every day.

And I daresay these are some lessons that don’t just apply to Project Life or memory keeping, but really just to life in general.

5 things I’ve learned from memory keeping and Project Life:

1. Cherish every moment.

Time passes quickly. And Project Life helps me realize that even more, especially when I document in the weekly format and have to regularly work on new spreads. But at least I’m able to document the moments and can look back and see all that I’ve accomplished over time. Now the question of ‘Where did time go?’ is finally answered and no longer a mystery.

2. Document the little, seemingly unimportant things.

I’m still working on this one. But I’m trying to document even all the ‘routine boring’ days because I need to remember that my life will probably look very different in five years, two years, or even one year from now. When the time comes, it will be interesting to see the similarities and differences between then and now.

3. Be present.

Instead of spending time being glued to a gadget, or having my mind occupied with other things when I’m supposed to be making memories, I’ve discovered the importance of being fully present in every moment. There’s a time and place to be connected, but sometimes it’s perfectly acceptable to disconnect and actually soak in and absorb all the moments of life. They may not end up being (well) captured by the camera, but I can always include journaling if necessary and the memories get documented.

4. Embrace imperfection.

My photos won’t be perfect. My spreads won’t be perfect. But life isn’t perfect. So I’m capturing all its imperfections in my albums.

5. Your loved ones appreciate what you do.

I love seeing how their faces light up when they look through the albums and reminisce all the captured memories. And the truth is, even if they don’t, you will – 10 years down the road when the daily routine is just a fuzzy memory, I know I will appreciate all the documentation I did today.

What has memory keeping taught you? I’d love to hear it in the comments!

Missed the other posts in this series? You can catch up on them here:

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All the Memories is a blog series talking about all things memory keeping – from memory keeping ideas to answering your questions. This is the year to get those memories documented!

Project Life 2014 | week 14

4 March 2015

Week of: March 31 – April 6, 2014

What happened this week: Nothing much, really. I actually struggled putting this week together because I was sorely lacking on the photo-front.

Here’s a little secret about this spread: I actually printed the printables wrongly, so they ended up being smaller than a true 3×4. Because I didn’t want to waste perfectly good printables (and ink!), I just added a border of patterned paper/cardstock to the filler cards. I actually like how it pulls the whole spread together and gives it a different look from the usual.

Yay for another one of those mistakes that worked out pretty well after all (:

Left-hand side

I also punched out some elements from the original 3×4 cards to fit my spread, like that “One for the album” circle and scallop shape in the top right corner, as well as the “2014” circle and scallop in the bottom right corner on the right-hand side.

Right-hand side

Techniques used: Not having enough pictures ended up letting me use lots of One Little Bird designs in this spread. Completely serendipitous and I love it.

Thoughts: While I initially struggled to put this week together, I ended up being able to play around with lots of paper which was so much fun to do.

Pressing on with 2014 and so grateful to still be able to document things from almost a year ago.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.

Project Life 2014 | week 17

5 February 2015

Ameliawrites-PL2014-week17

Lo and behold, it’s a Project Life post!

Trust me, I haven’t fallen off the Project Life bandwagon. I’ve just been a little bit slow in putting them together.

I actually have all my photos until September 2014 printed out. Now I just need to sort through photos for the remaining months of 2014 and pick cards for the spreads. Easy, right?

I just need to carve out time to get down to it, womp. And I will soon.

Excuses aside, I finally found time to finish and photograph this spread and I’m glad it’s finally done and in the books. Now moving on to the thirty other spreads I need to do…

Week of: April 21 to 27, 2014

What happened this week: It was a relatively fun/busy week since we got USS passes, went out for dinner, and visited the Tulip Festival.

Because I had quite a few photos from the Tulip Festival, I made an insert to include all the extra photos and memorabilia. This is how the spread looks like with the insert flipped.

For the insert, I trimmed off the last section of a Project Life Design D page protector. I actually like the vertical 4×6 pockets, which don’t happen very often.

Left side (without the insert)

Right side (without the insert)

Other details from the insert:

I pulled some enamel dots, Amy Tangerine Remarks stickers, Dear Lizzy Project Life cards, and Pebbles journaling cards from my stash to help the insert come together and look a little more cohesive.

Techniques used: I used my Instax camera a fair amount this week, so I included all of those polaroid photos.

Thoughts: This week ended up being a nice mix of pastel and bolder colors, which surprisingly worked. And since this week seems like such a long time ago, I’m glad I got all the activities documented.

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Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I’m embarking on this year-long project to document all my memories in 2014. You can see my other Project Life posts here.