I’ve known since I started this Creative Adventures project last May that one of the adventures I wanted to include this year was 30 Days of Lists.
If you haven’t heard of 30 Days of Lists before, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like it would be. It’s a month long event hosted by the lovely Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon & Raspberry. It costs $8 to participate and then every day during the month of March you receive one list prompt posted on a private blog, covering anything from weekend goals to celebrity crushes. At the end of the 30 days you’ll have a collection of entries capturing a snapshot of your life right now.
Let’s be honest, a project featuring lists that captures a snapshot of my life right now? You know I’m all over that.
Last March I played along with 30 Days of Lists and created this 6×6 mini album for my lists:
Here’s what the design for each page looked like:
You can see my all my completed pages here: #1-5 and here: 6-11.
I LOVED how the pages turned out, but I only ended up making it through about Day 11 and I can tell you right now why: because as much as I loved my pages, they were too complicated. Too many details and decisions needed to be made for each one.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 7 years of scrapbooking it’s this: the more times you have to repeat something, the more simple the design should be or else you aren’t going to finish it. #wordstoliveby
Creative Adventure #6: 30 Days of Lists
So for 30 Days of Lists, the March 2013 edition, I decided to keep things super simple. And since I’ve been enjoying Project Life so much, I decided this year I’d include my lists as 3×4 cards as part of my Project Life album by including them in a series of Project Life Design F page protectors.
I started by designing a mock-up template in Photoshop and then printing it out to check the sizing of the type. I almost always start with a mockup when I know I’m going to be design multiple copies of something since the last thing I want to do is design a bunch of cards and then have to change them all. I designed all of the talk bubbles using the shape tool in Photoshop.
Once I was happy with the overall design, I started playing around with colors and papers. Since I knew I wanted to tie my color scheme into my March Project Life pages, I chose to use a background paper and colors from Libby & Shawna’s Oh Snap! kit which I plan to use for my March Project Life weekly title cards.
Once I had a design I liked, I printed everything on Epson Matte Premium Presentation Paper and then trimmed everything out with my Fiskars paper trimmer:
I also printed a couple of title cards to use in the 4×6 slot in the Design F page protectors. All of the patterned papers for these came from Libby & Shawna’s Oh Snap! kit as well.
Here’s what all the cards looked like once I added them to the page protector. I’m not going to lie, I’m totally in love with the talk bubbles – they’re so fun! I can definitely see using them again as part of my regular Project Life pages.
And here’s what the back of the page looks like right now. Since I’ve only done up through Day 12, the majority of this page is blank.
I purposely went with a textured off-white digital paper for the background of the cards because I wanted them to stand out from the regular bright white 3×4 cards I use for Project Life.
For all of the list titles I used the font Avenir and for the lists themselves I used my own journaling font Darcy Baldwin made for me. I love the way the handwriting font makes it feel so much more personal without me having to actually write everything by hand.
If you don’t already have a custom handwriting font by Darcy, RUN, don’t walk or wait for a sale, and get yourself one because they are awesome.
Here’s a close up of the texture of the cards. I really wanted the colored talk bubbles (which I made using the shape tool in Photoshop) to look like they were actually printed on the textured background paper, so I added a duplicate copy of the paper above the talk bubble layer and changed the blend mode to Color Burn. Because the paper was fairly neutral, it added a nice texture without altering the color too much.
If you’re wondering how I’m planning to incorporate my 30 Days of Lists pages into my Project Life album, the answer is I have a plan, but you’ll have to wait until my next Project Life update to see it in action.
And that’s pretty much it for this list-tastic Creative Adventure! I will be back to share an update of my album once I have it all completed but I have to say so far, I’m so very glad that I took the simple route this time around. This project is definitely a case where less is more.
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ABOUT THIS PROJECT
In honor of my 30th birthday, I’m challenging myself to go on 30 creative adventures before the end of 2013. This is Creative Adventure 6 of 30. You can read all the details behind this project here and find links to all my completed adventures here.
Can I take Levitra if I am taking other remedies at the same time
Vera says
oohhhh love love love what you did! I think I want more lists in my life 🙂
Lynnette says
Thanks Vera! My general rule is you can never have enough lists. 😀
NeverendingJen says
zomg. okay. I love this so much better than my cards. now I need to figure out how to do something similar but different!
Lynnette says
LOL, what did you do for your cards? I’m sure they’re fun!
NeverendingJen says
right now I have like 3 different things going on because I don’t like any of them…washi, just plain text on cards, and some funky shapes…..none of them are resonating with me, which is probably why I don’t have all of them done yet.
Aggie says
Love this Lynnette! Might just do something similar for my lists!
Lynnette says
Thanks Aggie!
Aby says
Love this Lynnette! What a fun idea and I love your talk bubble cards – so cute! ~ Aby
Lynnette says
Thanks Aby!
Ripal says
Like I really need another project! You make things so tempting! I love the look of it! Hummm.. Maybe in April? 😉
Lynnette says
Haha, I think they do it twice a year – in September maybe? So you could always add it to your future project to-do list. 😀
Ripal says
Have you seen this one? http://www.moorea-seal.com/p/52-lists.html#
I’ve created word doc with page break after each prompt.. that’s how far I’ve gone with it so far! 😉
Lynnette says
Yes, I have seen those – only recently though! They kind of intimidate me though, I think because her lists look so long? I don’t know that I’d have that much to say on those topics, haha.
Ripal says
Maybe that’s why mine are still blank! haha
laura t. says
Did you create those cards to purchase? LOVE them. I’m putting together a 30 List album right now … these cards would be perfect to use.
Lynnette says
Indeed, I did! You can find it right here at my store at Sweet Shoppe Designs: http://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/sweetshoppe/product.php?productid=25210&cat=0&page=1
The download includes both customizable Photoshop templates as well as pre-colored printable cards if you’d rather go that route. If you have any questions, let me know!
Renae Jones says
Oh dear. I just stumbled on this and am so taken with the way you’ve presented your lists, that I’ve signed up for September! That also happens to coincide with me starting PJ! I can wait to put it all together.
Lynnette says
Haha, have fun Renae! 30 Days of Lists is a blast!