* * Finding perfect Project Life Products * *

Hello all

It's Laura here and today I want to share with you my process of collecting my weekly stash for my Project Life pages and to highlight some of the products at Sarah's Cards that are just perfect for Project Life.   (Confused by Project Life? - Its a year long scrapbooking project designed by Becky Higgins, check it out here)

 I am a very busy working (full time) Mum to a one year old.  My scraptime is very precious but I always prioritise my project life album as I love the record of our daily lives that it is building up.  But that doesn't stop me shopping for stash... I thought I would share with you my top tips for Project Life stash shopping. 

Firstly 12x12 papers... I look out for a few things, firstly bold repeating patterns that can be cut into large pieces to be used for background elements.  This month I love the Midway range by October Afternoon, check out those gorgeous stars! 

This is also my first step when constructing my weekly project life pages, I create a few background pieces that I can build upon.

The other great 12x12 papers to look out for are ones that have pre-designed journalling cards printed onto the sheet.  My Little Shoebox have a sheet in all of their latest releases! All can be found here. 

These papers are great for quickly cutting up into ready made journalling cards, and they fit perfectly into 3x4 pockets, helping to make your designs really quick and easy!

 And lastly, 12x12 papers that can be cut up and used as embellishments.  These two sheets from Midway by October Afternoon caught my eye this month!

So... my my stash shopping mirrors my project life process quite well.  I start to build up a little collection of 6x4 background pieces, some 3x4 journalling pieces and then some paper embellishments that I have cut from larger 12x12 papers.

Once I have this basic stash collection sorted I like to add a few more bits into my stash.  Each week I try to limit my project life collection into a tiny mirco amount of stash.  Otherwise I just waste too much time searching for the "perfect thing" and I need my scrapping to be quick.  So once I have gathered my paper pieces I check my stash for a few more elements. 

I normally grab a couple of small letter alphabets, this week its a pink MLS and the gorgeous Amy Tan letters.  Plus some label stickers and diecuts, matched with a couple of rolls of washi tape. 

Right... once I have my stash collection sorted, I can start shopping.  I have already sorted my photos for this week, a handful of 4x4 instagrams, some 6x4s and a couple of bits of paper tokens that I collected from the week.  Lets scrap....

 I start by deciding where all my background pieces will go and then I start "assigning" some of my cut out elements to each of those pieces, as you can see some of my pockets are completely filled with photographs too.  This was a bit of a quiet week for us so in the weeks lacking in "big events" or lots of photos I include lots of journalling and use the quiet weeks as an opportunity to tell some of our more everyday stories.

So once I have got a rough idea of where everything is going I start to add my embellishments, stickers and of course some lettering. 

 I work on each little pocket at a time and my aim is to keep everything as simple as possible (whilst trying to keep it looking cute of course! This pocket shows quite a dull photo... me at work one morning but the journalling documents one of my overwhelming feelings from this week and that was BUSY.  I am so busy at work, its crazy and overwhelming right now and that needed to be included in my week.

 So I keep going until every pocket is filled.  Sorry for the badly lit photos, these evenings drawing in have really caught up with me.  This week I have highlighted the difficulties we faced with no childcare, nap times, achievements my daughter has made and some family time.

I need to add a couple of tiny elements to this but for now my week is done.  I hope I have inspired you to look at some different stash for your project life pages this week.