You had me at hello.

This month I’ve been trying out the Maggie Holmes Project Life kit. It’s no secret that I love the Crate Paper collections, especially the Maggie Holmes lines, but I’d never tried her Becky Higgins Project Life kit before. I decided to order the ‘Sampler’ kit from Hey Little Magpie, such great value at £3.75 and give it a try. Well, no surprises really I guess, I loved it. Everything came together so easily, I just teamed the insert cards with some 12×12″ patterned paper from Maggie’s Styleboard collection ‘Picket Fence’, which I trimmed to fit the 4×6″ pockets, rounded the corners with the Becky Higgins Project Life Corner Rounder and I was away. Two weeks done and looking totally gorgeous!

For week 38 I used a blue and pink palette of cards from the Maggie Holmes Project Life kit and combined them with items from the Studio Calico Essentials line; red hearts and cork hearts, blue and pink letter stickers and a blue flag clip. Plus light blue arrow paper clips and a cream ‘today’ sentiment clip, both by Freckled Fawn, a label from the Maggie Holmes Styleboard ephemera pack and Studio Calico ‘Buckaroo’ gold chipboard letters.

For week 39 I went for yellow toned cards from the kit. I’m not usually a yellow kind of girl, but I have to say that I absolutely love the way this weeks spread looks, maybe its due to it being autumn! Again I used ‘Picket Fence’ paper and paired it with ‘Instafriends’ paper from Maggie’s first collection which I had in my stash for the 4×6″ inserts . I used a variety of colours from the Studio Calico Essentials letter stickers and hearts packs. Plus a butterfly and typewriter from Crate Paper Notes & Things, a cork arrow, another sentiment clip by Freckled Fawn, cork stickers by Shimelle for American Crafts, an enamel heart from MME ‘Just Sayin’ collection and thickers by Pebbles.

Something else I tried this month was the new Project Life App on my iPhone. Now, I’m a traditional scrapbooker, I like to get my hands on the physical product. However, I do like to make photo strips and collages for my Project Life spreads, as you can see. I never use a full size photo in the 4×6″ slots. I usually make these photo strips in Photoshop Elements after I’ve uploaded my photos (from my phone) to my laptop. However, the new Project Life App by Becky Higgins has a template feature and lo and behold my ‘go to’ template is on the app; a 4×6″ template with 6 2×2″ spaces for photos. Well this has been such a time saver, I can now make my photo collages anywhere; in my car while waiting for my boys on the school run, in the bath (yes, I have done this), literally anywhere. I’m now not confined to work on my project life spreads only when I get time at my desk, I can make my photo collages on my phone and when I upload my iPhone photos to my laptop they’re ready to print straight away. Genius.

And finally, I thought I’d have a play with the new Open Book collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper. I made a layout about the story of my husband and I, and how we’ve been together since the day we first met back in 1998. The inspiration behind the layout was sparked by the ‘you had me at hello’ clear sticker from Me & My Big Ideas ‘True Love’ pack which you can see I’ve used on the photo. We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary last month and the photo I used was taken that day.

From Maggie Holmes new Open Book collection I used ‘Dearest’ paper, gold newspaper print vellum, accent stickers, ephemera pack and vellum shapes. I also used a wood veneer title word and an asterisk from the gold ‘Buckaroo’ thickers, both from Studio Calico’s ‘Brighton Pier’ collection. A gold doily by Freckled Fawn, an exclusive flair from the Hey Little Magpie shop, white American Crafts cardstock and a luggage tag.

Thanks for looking, see you in a months time!