Hello Paislee Press fans!  Let me introduce myself.  I’m Melanie Bauer and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to be guesting for Liz this month.  I’ve been a fan of hers for so long and absolutely love her products.  

I’m all about making things as easy as possible when it comes to putting together my weekly Project Life spreads.  I’ve finally figured out that by working with a set number of coordinating products, I can complete a layout quickly and easily.  Definitely something that needs to happen as a mama to three small children!

For this layout, I started by doing a bit of shopping for Paislee Press products by adding everything I liked to my cart.  I then narrowed my selection to products that coordinated with the colors in my photos and that worked well with each other.  I chose to work with only these products with only the addition of a date stamp and a two stickers.

This week from August documents the week before my daughters started school.  I was all about trying to be a fun mama as well as getting weekly tasks taken care of as well.  A definite balancing act!

I love to incorporate memorabilia into each week’s layout and included four pieces into this week’s layout, including two on this half of my spread.  These three journaling cards were the perfect spot to hold these pieces as well as my journaling.

The card on the right holds a ticket stub from an amusement park.  The ticket covers the part of the card that was intended for journaling.  The middle card I further embellished by cutting a piece from a different card and adding to the top.  I love the combined look and how it pulls another color onto the card itself.  The right card was designed with a journaling spot at the top center which I covered with a snipped curl from my daughter’s first hair cut.  The label in the lower right corner was trimmed from a different card and added so that I could note the date and other details.

I used the same approach on the right hand side of my layout to created what I hope is a unified spread.

I find it difficult not to label or embellish every photo.  I like to jot a quick line of what was happening so that I’m able to jog my memory at a later time of what was happening.  Here I created my own banner labels from the background prints of two Paislee Press journaling cards.

I adore this chevron card!  I typically don’t use patterned cards as fillers in my layouts as I usually have a large number of photos that I want to include each week.  This one happened to work well as a both a journaling card and design element as I journaled directly on the chevron design.  I also love how the colors of the card coordinate with the piece of memorabilia I trimmed to use as a card on the right.

More examples of making journaling cards work for me and not the other way around.  Thinking outside of the box and creating my own labels and embellishments makes for a one of a kind end result and perfect opportunities to label my photos.

I’ve had my eye on these circle tags for a while and loved being able to put them to use.  On the three photos in my layout that didn’t necessarily need any additional journaling, they were the perfect embellishment.

Thanks again to Liz for this amazing opportunity – I can’t thank you enough!

Melanie

Products Used | oh dearie journaling cards, dayplanner journaling cards, press cards no. 21, you are my fave journaling cards, round about days circle tags and stamps 

Melanie Bauer

I am a wife to my complete opposite, mama to three children, caretaker of two cats and a turtle and when it’s not in use, carry my iPhone in my back pocket so that it’s always nearby.
Design Motto: There is no right or wrong.  Go with what you think looks great as I’m sure your children (or other intended audience) will ever criticize the way you’ve designed a layout.
Morning person or night owl?  Night owl.  After my children are in bed I’m most productive and tend to stay up a bit too late getting things accomplished.