how i’m documenting my study abroad trip

Quote in the top right is from Elise Joy. It’s hard to see, but on the USA cutout, I wrote “Goodbye USA. See you later!” in a silver pen. The button marks where I left from, Missouri.

This winter marks the 4 years since I went to London to study abroad. It was seriously the best experience I had during my college years, and I truly recommend it to anyone who is even flirting with the idea.

During these 4 years, I have done nothing to document this trip. I have all of the photos printed, memorabilia sorted, and old blog posts that were written in real time, but I haven’t put the three together in a physical album for my children’s children me to look at.

I really enjoyed the Project Life system that I did to document 2012. I’m planning on doing it to document 2013 & 2014 too, but I also thought it would be great to document my study abroad trip as well. I took way too many photos during my months abroad, so I knew I needed a way to put a lot of photos on one page.

Cover Page

I had hoarded  bought a lot of vintage looking scrapbook paper for the past 4 years, specifically for this study abroad album. There was no one kit from the Project Life system that just screamed out “This is your study abroad experience paper!!!”. I’m a true believer that paper used for memory keeping must bring some sort of connection to whatever you’re trying to record. So, I decided to cut up all of my vintage looking scrapbook paper to make my own Project Life system. It’s definitely easier to buy the Project Life kits, but it was also fun to incorporate my own paper that I had originally fallen in love with into this album.

Page 1-2. I’ll be journaling my experience at a later time in the two blank looking paper areas.

“You Are Here” stamp is from Elise Joy. I didn’t let the ink dry long enough before putting in inside the album. Lesson learned!

 

The emoji stamps are from A Beautiful Mess

I’m sure there will be more update posts to come in the future, but here are the first three pages in the album.

first project life album completed

I finally finished my first Project Life album! I discovered this form of documenting a couple years ago through Elise Blaha, and decided it would be perfect for capturing my memories post college. Memory keeping for High school and college is very theme based, but post college the everyday is captured just a little more. Mainly because you can only share so many partying studying photos, and this thing called Instagram took off after college.

This system was also very beneficial for me because every inch of space I have in my apartment is important. I used to have so much scrapbooking ‘stuff’ in my old apartments, but moving here I had to really consolidate. This system takes only a handful of things to complete: an album, photo pocket pages, a core kit, pens and most importantly, photos.

Since moving to New York was a natural fresh start, that’s where I decided to start my first Project Life album. I’ll be doing this for 2013 & 2014 as well, so look forward to those coming soon.

project life: july 23-29, 2012

Week of: July 23 – July 29, 2012

What happened: Early in the week, essie sponsored the SELF Summer Rocks party and Nelly Fertado performed. She was amazing! For the weekend, we had a London reunion in Atlantic City. It also happened to be the weekend of the Summer 2012 Olympics, which were hosted in London. Couldn’t imagine a better group of people to watch the start of the London Olympics with!

Project Life July 23-29, 2012

Project Life July 23-29, 2012

Details on the spread: I added a peace sign stamp on the bottom right side for extra embellishment on card.

Overall thoughts: I love documenting my life this way, but since I’m so far behind I’m not sure how I feel about sharing layouts. Since this is 2012, and we’re in 2014 now, it seems a bit outdated. We’ll see how it goes once I’m caught up more!

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.

scrapurday

While perusing through Instagram last week, I saw Kelly Purkey’s photo showing her “Scrapurday”. Think, Scrapbooking + Saturday/Sunday = Scrapurday. I loved it!

For those of you who know me, know that I used to go on scrapbook weekend retreats with my sister, Becky, twice a year. Those weekends were something I always looked forward to, and I know I’ll always cherish that time with her.

I love the idea of dedicating one full day to just scrapbooking. I try to scrapbook after work, but depending on what time I leave work, mixed in with gym time and dinner, I’m usually not ‘ready’ to scrapbook until 9pm, and by then I just want to sleep. It’s a vicious, endless cycle.

So from here on out, I want to set a goal to dedicate one full day of scrapbooking – my Scrapurday! For March, I’m penciling in March 22. Bring it on!

project life: july 9-16, 2012

Week of: July 9- July 16, 2012

What happened: It was my birthday week! We were lucky enough to go to a Yankees game, and get in before the general public. We were able to see Monument Park all by ourselves, which was amazing. It was so cool to be in the stadium with no one else other than workers and players. For my birthday, there were about 10 of us who went to Traffic in Hell’s Kitchen for dinner, and then half of us went to 1-2-3 Burger, Shot, Beer around the corner. So fun!

Details on the spread: Nothing out of the ordinary. I’m really liking both Project Life layouts above. I feel they suit most of my photos and the PL cards. I also am loving cutting a photo in 2 (like the NY Yankees photo to the left).

July 9-16

Overall thoughts: Still the same – loving it!

project life: july 2 – july 8, 2012

Week of: July 2 – July 8

What happened: Courtney and Bryttie visited Lucy, Jordan, and I! We went to Central Park on the 4th, a rooftop in Brooklyn to watch the fireworks, rode the Staten Island Ferry with Courtney, finally got a NY lisense (word to the wise: it takes 5 hours and $65 from your life), had lots of fun girl’s nights, and ate entirely way too much!

Details on the spread: Because there was so much that happened this week, the spread expanded to 3 pages! I don’t like to keep my weeks to just 1 page if there is more that could be added. My weeks in real life are definitely never equal to each other, so why should they in my albums too? Project Life is great if you want to expand on a week, or have a short week. I also added some fun buttons to the side. I’m missing the embellishments!

Overall thoughts: Loving this, but want to get more creative with different embellishments and such.

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.

project life: june 25 – july 1, 2012

Week of: June 25 – July 1

What happened: Relatively nothing, besides work. Lucy, Jordan, Meg and I saw Wizard of Oz in Bryant Park.

Details on the spread: The week prior I had cut off 1/3 of the page, which works perfectly for this week! This weeks is only the 2/3 on the right.

Overall thoughts: Still loving it. I need to take closeup photos of the spreads, and find better light. I’ll be on the lookout for that!

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.

project life: june 18-24, 2012

Week of: June 18-24, 2012

What happened: Allie, Julie and I went out and found a bicycle covered in flowers on our way home. I went to Bon Appetit with our Maybelline and essie teams to cook dinner in their client kitchen. I finished painting the apartment! My bed came! And I was able to sleep in my own room on my new bed!

 

project life: june 18-24, 2012

Details on the spread: Pretty consistent. I cut off 1/3 of the page to the right, to make it shorter. You can see next week’s spread in the open 1/3 space. I’m starting to write on photos (thank you, Elise Blaha) and I’m loving it!

Overall thoughts: Still love this project. Making it work on my terms.

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.

project life: june 11-17, 2012

Week of: June 11-17, 2012

What happened: Photo one: Allie and I went to Coney Island for the first time. Ate a Nathan’s hotdog for the first time. Drank Banana Bread Beer for the first time at Peculier Pub (amazing beer and amazing place!). Watched a movie on the roof of an old high school with Roman, Davis, and Whitnie.

Photo two: Lucy and I found our apartment!

Project Life, June 11-17

June 11-17, 2012

Details on the spread: Love this layout. I experimented with cutting 1 large 4×6 photo into two 4×2 photos. I love the look. One of my favorite spreads so far.

Overall thoughts: Love, love!

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.

project life 2012: May 21-27

Week of: May 21-28

What happened: Had brunch at Meade’s (new favorite summer brunch place), watched Top Gun for the first time on top of the Trepid, and went out in the upper east side.

Project life May 21-28, 2012

Details on the spread: At this point, I was still getting used to playing with PL. The 4 big squares made it so that I was scrapbooking like normal, which was okay. It was nice to use my whole piece of artsy paper too (I have a thing for beautiful paper – some may say an obsession! 😉 )

Overall thoughts: Still liking this project. I’m trying to find out how to fit it best into my life.

Want to know more about Project Life? Check it out here.