June 14, 2013

Altered Project Life journaling cards...

Whenever I'm finished working on my Gossamer Blue projects for the month I like to see what I can do to use up more of the kit contents.  This month I decided to alter some Project Life cards that I've collected from various companies.  I keep my cards sorted by company in old, wooden boxes and I use Large Manila Tags and clothespins as dividers.  
So here I have some papers that I love that are leftover from the June Gossamer Blue kits + some journaling cards.  I collect Project Life journaling cards from companies like Elle's Studio, Ali Edwards for Technique Tuesday, Evalicious, Studio Calico and Banana Fish Studio.
So why do I want to alter the journaling cards anyway?  Sometimes it's just for the fun of it, sometimes it's to get a specific look that I want and many times there are cards that I love but they just never seem to make it into my Project Life pages.  Maybe the color is not working for me or maybe they just need to have a little bit more of my style added to them.  

Take the cards below.  Love them just the way they are but I decided to make them a bit more "Mishie". A simple circle punch of patterned paper....
And a strip of floral patterned paper.  That's all it took to give the cards a homespun look with colors and patterns that I love. 
Same here with a few more....
Simple strips of patterned paper add just enough of my style to the journaling cards. 
I altered about 30 cards using just patterned paper....okay and one doily.....but all the rest was simple patterned paper scraps.  I adhered the paper with a tiny but of adhesive then ran all the cards through my sewing machine.  I just kept feeding the cards through continuously without snipping the threads.  I ended up with one giant chain of journaling cards. 
I snipped all the threads at the end and was left with a huge pile of personalized, altered journaling cards.  
Here's the lineup.  When you see them all displayed you can see that all of these journaling cards are still mixy matchy in style but they just have a certain vibe to them that speaks my style.  
Another batch.  I've made journaling cards like this before but what I learned for this time is that I kept the cards very simple.  I didn't add any stamping or embellishments.  This way I can add photos, journaling and all that other good stuff when it's time to assemble a specific week of Project Life. 
Another little batch.  Very clean and simple.  
Here's a few of my faves up close.  
And a few more.  If you'll notice, I kept this whole batch of today's journaling cards similar in color tone.  You can do the squint trick.......squint your eyes and kind of blur the photo....all of the cards looks very similar in vibrancy.  This makes all of the cards work very well together when it comes time to work on a weekly spread.  
It was so nice to make a big dent in some of my journaling card stash.  I've given myself a limited amount of space to store my Project Life journaling cards so I have a "use it or lose it" motto.  If the box gets too full, some of the cards have to go. I know that many of these cards will be used up now because they are more suitable to my Project Life style.  Come back soon as my next Project Life spread uses 8 of these cards for one week.  

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I love your altered cards - I really need to do more with them. You make it look so simple. I also like your storage system with the Manila tags. Do you use a typewriter to place the name on them?

Shan said...

I love that you showed us the process and your storage, I've been struggling on how to store my PL cards from both Becky and Studio Calico. Now I need to go junkin' and find boxes that work!

christy said...

Thank you for this! What wonderful inspiration. And it involves playing with paper! What we love!

Debbie said...

Nice to see your work in progress, and how you store all of your goodies, as this can be a bit of a challenge!! Thanks for the inspiration once again!!!

Debbie said...

Nice to see your work in progress, and how you store all of your goodies, as this can be a bit of a challenge!! Thanks for the inspiration once again!!!

Cook Scrap Craft said...

Very cool! I love your storage system and the stitching on the cards.

~ Jo ~ said...

This is a really cool idea and I like how you altered the cards to suite your style. Great tip!

Hugs,
Jo

candyk said...

great idea and looks like a fun process to create.
Found an old Royal manual typewriter for $12!
Want to copy your idea of typing on stuff.
You're an INSPIRATION--thanks

Unknown said...

This is another reason why you have one of my favorite blogs, you remind us that we can personalize our style with other products. Your blog posts keep me motivated and inspired to always be creative.
Thank you for the time and effort you give us in your blog posts. I just think you are awesome. Diana F.

Me, My Stamps and I said...

love these journaling pages!!!
and how you used them in your pages!!!!
tfs:)

Unknown said...

Love your squint your eyes comment... you are a quilter!! I know it!!

Related Posts with Thumbnails