Hey everyone! Tiffany here with two simple projects using the October Hip Kits. For this first one I want to share two 6×8 Project Life spreads. I’ve been working on my 2015 album and I had left off at my friend’s wedding weekend back in June. I decided to share two spreads because I was working on a small scale–6×8 is pretty restricting–and because the event just happened to span three and a half page protectors. I unfortunately didn’t have a process video for the making of these spreads, but in the video down below, I walk you through each individual card that I made with the papers from the main kit and how I embellished them as well.

Since I had to work with the photos I already had tucked into the page protectors, I decided to keep the spreads simple. Though, a way that I tried to incorporate something new and interesting to my album was to attempt a bit of hand-stitching on my title card, which reads “Friends For Life.” I’ve never done hand-stitching like this before on any project and it was definitely a process! But I do enjoy how it ended up looking, just adding that nice stitched touch to my spread.

Since most of the photos that I had were printed larger than my new normal, I do have a few 3×4 photo cards in my spreads. I decided to leave these plain of any embellishments because I honestly found them a challenge to embellish. In this first spread, I have two 4×6 cards on the bottom of each page where I used a larger photo. On the left I have another 3×4, which I decided to line up along the left edge of the card and have a few bits of ephemera from the Dear Lizzy Saturday collection poking out from behind it. I wanted to use a much of those We R Memory Keepers family themed die cuts as possible for these spreads, in order to emphasize friendship also being family. So I added one of those pieces to this first card.

For the second 4×6, I had this huge 4×4 photo of my friends and I that we had taken. I decided to align this one to the right and on the left side of the card I folded over a white doily just to take a bit of the focus away from that large photo. Since I’ve known these friends since high school, I decided to spell out our year with the pink alphas, in homage to a small reunion of sorts. Then over that photo I used one of the Pinkfresh Studios Indigo Hills rubber charms that had the perfect sentiment for the occasion on it.

For this second spread, I basically continued in much of the same way. I left that one 3×4 photo card the way it was and embellished the other cards around it. For the “Feels like home” card, I actually tossed one of the photos that I had originally wanted to include in this spread and replaced it with that die cut from We R Memory Keepers Honey I’m Home collection. I liked how I just took one of the cardstocks and cut it to 3×4 then used one of those die cut pieces with a lovely sentiment on it to create my own filler card. That filler card acts as a transition card of sorts, since it signifies the end of my friend’s wedding event and the going back home. The next and last 4×6 card is of my planners, cause receiving and setting up a new planner deserves to be documented as well. 🙂

For my second project, I want to share a simple traveler’s notebook DIY. I made two traveler’s notebook inserts using papers from the main kit and embellished the covers with a few pieces from the embellishment kit as well. These types of inserts are super easy to make. I decided to just make mine plain. One insert has lined paper and the other has grid paper. You can easily make and print your own paper either on Photoshop or with free online tools like Gridzzly.com. You can even make an insert with different types of pattern paper or simply leave it blank. I decided on one line–that I’m going to gift to my bother–and the other grid, because it’s my personal favorite.

I show you step by step how to make these easy inserts in the video below. You’ll need your chosen papers, embellishments for the covers, some embroidery thread or similar string and a needle to bind everything together. For reference, a typical standard-sized inserts is 4.33in x 8.25in (or 11cm x 21cm). I made mine with 8 sheets of regular printer paper, so that when folded in half, I get 16 pages total. You can add more or less pages. I find that having 16 – 20 pages is the right size for embellishing with photos, stickers and such, as the insert will bulk up the more you add to it. I would say no more than 30 printer paper pages is key. Of course, this all depends on the type of paper you use because thicker cardstock or watercolor paper causes more bulk, so you’ll have fewer pages per insert. But you can make them however you like so  have fun with them!

Products used: Hip Kit Club October 2016 Main Kit, October 2016 Embellishment Kit Add-on + October 2016 Cardstock Kit Add-on