photo

Project Life Album

February 27, 2013 by Wendy Cohen 2 Comments

I stumbled across Project Life for the first time on Heather Bailey’s blog a few weeks back and was intrigued. I had never even heard of Project Life until I saw this blog post. It is a scrapbooking system that can be as simple as you would like it or as involved and creative as you make it.

I have never really been into scrapbooking; just not my thing. But, I do have several drawers full of photos, momentos and memories that need to placed into photo books.

What I love about this is that everything is pretty much laid out for you and it is very simple to start and complete a book within a few hours. You can see the entire product line here on the Project Life website. The packaging is amazing and everything is so easy to use.

Project Life Olive Edition

You start out by gathering your photos and laying them out throughout the book. All the pages are laid out with pocket designs which come in a variety of layouts. Then, using the project life cards throughout the book to fill in the gaps, to provide descriptions, stories, etc. Here are the cards…they come in two sizes and many different layouts.

I used glue dots to attach special things inside the pockets like travel tickets, lanyards, etc. I also purchased some simple sticker packs to add some texture, color and sentiments to the pages.

Then, I went through added my special touches with captions and stories throughout the book.

Here are a few sample pages…they were difficult for me to photograph (my skills aren’t that great). Here is the front page of the album..see how the front page sleeves make for a graphic that is connected…so cool.

Another page where I used large pockets to highlight some postcards, my bike number and a few emails that I saved along the way. These different sized pockets are so great for all your treasures.

A few pages…

I would highly recommend using this system…it is quick and easy. And, can be as creative as you like. There are many different Project Life styles that you can find on the Project Life website and are readily available from Amazon. If you go to the Project Life Getting Started page, it is a quick way to understand what you need to get started.

I always love to share any new products I share with you. Hope you enjoyed this one!

p.s. If you are curios…I did the California AIDS bicycle ride in 2001 from San Francisco to Los Angeles to support AIDS research. It was 575 miles of true inspiration and physically hard work!

Filed Under: blog, color, craft, create, photo, Tutorial Tagged With: amazon, becky higgins, craft, memories, momentos, photo book, photographs, photography, project life, scrapbook, scrapbooking

2 Comments

Camera Strap Cover

January 20, 2013 by Wendy Cohen 2 Comments

I have come across these great camera strap covers on Etsy and have put many of them in my shopping basket, but never actually finished the deal. Why?

Because, I can make it myself! And, I finally did.

There are many tutorials out there for these camera strap covers and I looked at many of them. And, even tried one tutorial only to find out that I didn’t like it and tossed the end product in the trash. I ended up going with this tutorial here on LBG Studio that was very detailed and informative. For detailed instructions, please go to the original post by LBG Studio.

First, select your fabric and cut it out. You need a piece for the front of the strap and a piece for the back plus a small piece for the lens pocket. Yes, a lens pocket!!

Line the pocket with a small piece of fusible interfacing. Roll the edge over 1/2″ and then a 1/2″ again and stitch across two lines to make for a nice finish. Pin the pocket down to the right side of the fabric that you want the pocket on.

Stitch the two long strips together lengthwise using a 1/2″ seam allowance and press open the seam then trim to 1/4″. Then, line with a fusible fleece or thicker interface to give it some padding. Cut out the lining to be about 1/2″ less wide than the outside fabric and about 1″ at the ends. Fold over the ends 1/2″ and then a 1/2″ again making two stitch lines on each end similar to the pocket.

Fold the strap lengthwise right sides together and stitch all the way down with a 1/2″ seam. Trim down the seam when you are done to about a 1/4″. Now, turn it inside out! The hardest part by far!

Top stitch 1/8″ from the edge on both sides all the way down. Start and stop at the pocket. Now, press and press and press to get it all nice and pretty.

Now feed the camera strap through the cover…it takes some work to get this done, but be patient. Here’s the finished product.

How great is that lens cap!

Please reference the original tutorial for specific directions and dimensions. She did a fabulous job and she deserves all the credit!

Have a great day!

Filed Under: color, craft, create, Gifts, photo, sewing, Tutorial Tagged With: camera, camera strap, camera strap cover, decorative camera strap cover, photo, photography, picture, project, sewing, sewing project, tutorial

2 Comments

Work In Progress….Kaffe Bordered Diamonds Quilt

December 1, 2012 by Wendy Cohen 7 Comments

I have continued to push forward on this quilt despite the regular level of discomfort for working outside of the box! You will remember that I took a class with Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley a few months ago. The post is here if you are interested. And, you can see some early work on creating the diamonds here.

I finished sewing all 60 of the bordered diamonds a few weeks ago and finally set out to organizing the quilt top. Another mind bender….

The layout of the blocks of the quilt took me a few hours. You see there are alternating rows of dark borders with light diamonds and of light borders with dark diamonds. This has opened up a whole new world for me of color…color is only a certain lightness or darkness as it relates to it’s surroundings. In fact, any color can be light or dark depending upon the surroundings. The rows above represent the light interior diamond and a dark border. Take a look at each for yourself and see the light and dark within each diamond.

When I saw mind bender, I really mean it. I literally laid this thing out and moved things for a few hours. I played with light and dark, adjacencies and eventually stepped away for a few hours before I made my final tweaks. One thing that helped for me was to take a few photos and look at the photos than the actual thing. It gave me a different perspective. Here it is all laid out…not the final version I believe, but close.

Now, came the fun. Sewing all the blocks together. Okay…sewing diamonds together and getting all four corners to match up is NOT the easiest thing to do. You sew in diagonal rows which is hard to keep track of sometimes! I picked up the blocks in the order that they needed to be sewed and labeled them by row so that I knew which order to sew the rows in and then the order I knew sew the rows together.

I ripped out a lot of seams the first few rows until I got the hang of it. If you are sewing with a 1/4″ seam, you need to make sure that when you line up your blocks that they overlap by a 1/4″. See the slight overhang on the right side of the block…it is so little but makes such a big difference.

The one below is more visible since you can see the small corner peaking out….that makes all the different in lining up the corners. For this quilt, I pinned every single block together. It made a big difference I think.